3 nights in Mt Isa was good-but more than enough. We took the boat out to Moondarra Lake and had a really good look around. There was lots of bird life and we saw catfish and turtles, but the only barra we saw were huge dead ones washed up on the shore. It was really sad to see.
We also visited the underground hospital and the fossil centre. The underground hospital was built in the second world war after Darwin was bombed-they thought with the mine, they would be the next target so built an emergency hospital underground. It only ever got used for air-raid drills and later on for nurses coming off night shirft to get some sleep in the heat of the day (before air-conditioning). It got closed up and forgotten for 40 years until they were rebuilding the present hospital and is really interesting as it was virtually intact including beds, linen, medicines etc.
At the fossil centre, we went into the lab with a paeliantologist to see how they deal with the heaps of fossils they find out at Lawn Hill and that was good too.
Kennedy Developmental Road
Today we drove to Boulia down Kennedy Developmental Road (part of Min Min Way). It was a single lane sealed road 300ks long with very limited passing opportunities through the Boulia Sire which is about 1/4 the size of Victoria with a total population of about 700. We passed through quite a few stations but only saw one homestead, one aborigiginal settlement and arrived in Boulia which has a population of abot 200. We got overtaken from behind by 1 car, passed by a few more than that and arrived in this tiny town that has a 4 1/2 million dollar aquatic centre!This is probably one of the most remote drives you can do in a regular vehicle, and though it was beautiful for the first half, it is dry and drought affected for the second. We saw more road kill than actual live cattle on the whole trip.
The caravan park here is tiny, but I recognised some dogs travelling with their owners from Bitter Springs in NT. I went over to say hello and it turned out the husband and wife (Julie and Garry) had worked with my sister many years ago at 3UL in Warragul.
This afternoon we went to the local museum and had an amazing tour of the whole thing with the man who has collected most of the stuff including some incredible fossils from nearby. It (the museum) is housed in the only stone (and original) house in town and is just fantastic. It made the whole trip here worthwile just to see it. After we left the museum, we saw 4 brolgas stolling up the main street!
Brolga in the Main Street
Oh, and the MinMin (that the road is also named after) is a unexplained light in the sky that has been seen from time to time.
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