Onto Anabranch

We are in Charters Towers and stop off at the Columbia Gold Mine rest area. Toilets, dump point, water and heaps of parking available. I took some pics. 

 

Going into town to the Post Office is like most other towns, trying to find parking area for your truck and camper is always challenging. 

We got some nice fish and chips while we were in town. Now it was time to meet up with our friend Graeme, who is staying at the Anabranch rest area.

Had some trouble finding the right turn off, as Wiki Camps put it is about 10klms before the correct turn off. 

Now we have caught up with our friend Graeme and had some lunch with him, it was time to find our campsite for our stay.

Graeme took us around in his Ute showing us good sites: some needed the grass to be mowed as it is high in some areas. 

Graeme also grabbed his trusty whipper snipper and trimmed some of the grass / weeds at our campsite, which is on the banks of the river.

This is a nice site, trees to provide some shade and plenty of sun for the solar panels. We also erected our Gazebo to make it more comfortable. 

I met one of the old timers who has lived here all of his life. He is currently 84yrs old but told me as a boy he would ride his push bike around this area. He also told me the river is very deep in parts.

He told me of stories at the end of the second world war the army was stationed here and dumped a lot of old machinery in the bottom of this river. 

He went on to say he went out in a boat on the river with a friend in the early days where they hit something and took the outboard right off the boat. 

He told me he jumped into the river to try and retrieve the outboard but instead he felt a big metal object in the river, but could not find the outboard. 

He also mentioned about the very recent floods to this area and how high the water level had risen.

Some people you meet are very interesting. 

The winds started to pickup in this area as coldfronts approaching from the South come in, so it was time to setup the wind generator up as well.

I awoke this am with 4•C on the clock on the table in our camper trailer. 

The North Queensland Register has some very interesting stories about this area.
https://www.northqueenslandregister.com.au/

IN 1993, Larry Dalhunty wrote many a tale about a “haunted” lagoon located at an anabranch between two creeks – Little Sandy and Big Sandy – approximately 14 miles (22km) from Charters Towers.

As every story couldn’t be reproduced, I chose the legend of Deaf Arthur, which echoed the eerie, yet somewhat exaggerated, tone of Dalhunty’s articles.

Other tales about the supposedly haunted lagoon included – a horse that fell into the depths of the lagoon never to rise again; a traveller who camped on the banks and saw a ghostly apparition rise from the water; and, divers who would retrieve valuables, including gold teeth, from a number of Chinese who were given sailors’ burials in the lagoon.

Aboriginals had also told Dalhunty that a “monster” once rose from the lagoon to take an Aboriginal child.

As such, Dalhunty concluded in his final article that the legend of the lagoon probably stemmed from this story, which was more than likely a crocodile attack.

From the visit Charters Towers site link: https://www.visitcharterstowers.com.au/anabranch

Anabranch is home to a beautiful waterhole that is over 3km long and sits adjacent to the Burdekin River. This strip of water is typically dry during the drier months, however once there is consistent rain, it will meet up with the River again and flood with fresh water.

Approximately 15km from Charters Towers, it makes for a great swimming hole and is ideal for most water sports, such as canoeing, paddle-boarding and fishing, and the young ones can enjoy the tree rope as much as the braver older ones!