We went to the little town of Forsayth for 2 reasons – firstly to have a look an old mining town, and secondly to provide a base to visit Cobbold Gorge and Copperfield Gorge. We did not know whether we could take our Van to these places as the roads are often reported to be very rough in parts. Forsayth proved an ideal middle point to see both. And Cobbold Gorge is just beautiful.
Kerry’s snippets in fuchsia
Getting there
Undara > Mt Surprise > Georgetown > Forsayth (185km)
We got an early start (just before 8am) and were back on the Savannah Way (Gulf Development Rd) in no time. At Mt Surprise we stopped for fuel as the price was $1.38/L. Kerry was at the wheel and as we turned in we saw that the roof did not look as high as we expected. But by then the rig was well under. I got out to have a look. Oops, the air-conditioning unit was about to come up against a very substantial steel beam. So it was a reversing job for Kerry and this worked quite well. She was very soon out and around the other way to avoid the roofing structure. Close call! We now know that the height of the van including the a/c unit is 3.4 metres)
There appeared to be little else in town and we moved on to Georgetown. So far the road has been excellent, in fact difficult to keep under 100kph as it was so smooth. But then things changed.
Every now and again we would go from an excellent wide and handsome road anyone would be proud of, to a road with only a narrow strip of bitumen in the middle, and the edges of that rutted and well worn. When the trucks and caravans came the other way it was slow down and find the least broken edge to get our tyres safely onto the shoulder. Kerry did it well.
Not great conditions to drive through. And the logic is hard to understand – being an ex road engineer. Why invest in 15kms of excellent road, leave 15kms of awful road and then build another 15kms of excellent road again – and again and again? Beats me.
It is lovely country we are driving through – not the flat outback we had expected. Rolling hills with more distant ranges and mountains. As we got closer to Georgetown, these became more pronounced. Very interesting country.
For some reason, and I have done nothing to create this, when we start The Cruiser a podcast app automatically opens on my iPhone and starts to play through the car’s sound system. This is a recent phenomenon. Inevitably, it’s the ABC’s Conversation series with Richard Fiedler. Sometimes this has been an uninvited intrusion in our battles to reverse Mobi by using the iPhones to yell at each other. Kerry may be providing me, as driver, some simple instructions – “I said steer hard right now – what part of HARD RIGHT do you not understand” – but on my phone, over the top, comes the dulcet tone of Richard introducing today’s special guest. Kerry is not impressed as I struggle to turn Richard off meanwhile missing her directions. Richard Fiedler doesn’t seem to make any difference to Des listening to reversing instructions I have to add…
But that day, one of the auto loading podcasts helped to pass the journey. It was about Australian gypsies. And we have found many really interesting podcasts on this app, that seems to have introduced itself to me quite out of the blue. How do these things come about? The magic of the internet.
At Georgetown we quickly found the Tourist Information Centre where the really nice receptionist told us that the roads should all be fine and there is nothing to worry about.
We had a quick drive around and were very surprised to see the town virtually deserted, even for a Saturday – in fact finding the main street was a problem. The supermarket – and that is stretching the name a fair way – is in the service station. There seems so little there even though it is the local government centre for this vast area. We had planned to spend a day or so here but quickly reassessed that option. We did stock up on milk and some basic groceries and a few veggies, as well as sausages and lamb chops though – quite a good little shop.
We leave the Savannah Way and turned south for Forsayth on a good bitumen road. The termite hills are amazing – absolutely everywhere. We find out on the Cobbold tour that these mounds provide incredible benefits to the local ecology. Two-thirds of the colony is under ground and there are “runners” everywhere. This creates the soil and in the wet times provides a wonderful subsurface reservoir of water.
We know there will be some gravel sections ahead but these will be fine, we have been told. And they are, generally.
There were a few areas with corrugations that slowed us a lot, but overall there was no problem on that day. Some of this is seen in our video – click here.
On the way we stop at a farm dam that looks just so pretty. Took a few pics. There, Kerry phoned Cobbald Gorge, which is a private cattle station with a resort that run tours. Kerry booked a van site for 2 nights and they tell her the road in is fine for towing a van, just “drive to the conditions”.
Driving into Forsayth we are welcomed by 2 or 3 well kept gardens on the roadside. That is nice as there must be bugger all water out here.
Forsayth – the town
This was originally known as Finnigan’s Camp after the prospector who discovered gold nearby in 1871. Within a year the settlement had become Charleston, and it continued to grow despite near desertion when its inhabitants rushed to other new goldfields. The Post Office opened in 1876. The township was a flourishing centre by the mid-1890s, having five hotels, a school and a court of petty sessions.
By the late 1890s base metal prices were high: a rail link to Einasleigh and the Charleston area was completed in 1910. The Etheridge Railway terminated at a new settlement on the other side of the Delaney River. First known as New Charleston, it was renamed Forsayth after the then railways commissioner. All of the buildings in Charleston, including the police station and the school, were moved across the Delaney River to Forsayth.
The Post Office was renamed Forsayth and further development included a hospital, court house, school, and public hall. However, in 1914 the Chillagoe smelters were shut down and the town’s importance declined as mining activity was scaled back. We are finding this such a common story for outback towns.
In 2004 the Ewamian Aboriginal people surrendered native title over the townships of Einasleigh, Forsayth, Mt Surprise and Georgetown. In return, they received access to their traditional country through three reserves along with land and housing in Georgetown.
Today, Forsayth is a service centre for road transport and regional tourism. It is the terminus of the Savannahlander tourist railway, from Cairns via Kuranda and Einasleigh. It is rated by some as one of the great train journeys of the world and takes 18 hours of travel over two days. The Forsayth railway station is heritage-listed. At the 2011 census, Forsayth had a population of 347.
The Park
We stayed at the Forsayth Tourist Park, which is on the small side. There is a functional amenities block (always clean, not old and dinghy), a laundry, and a camp kitchen in a recreation areas in front of the office. There is TV there – there is only satellite TV in Forsayth. A dump point is near the railway station. All very good at $25 a night.
We have a good and large site but all the grass has burnt off from the heat. We had to reverse Mobi in and today, by mutual consent, we swapped roles – Kerry drove and I gave the directions. It actually worked very well and were quickly in place and levelling Mobi. We didn’t have any problems with the unhitching, although there was a small lurch. I had a few problems reversing as Des wasn’t giving any instructions at all, but once I encouraged him to “you have to tell me which direction you want me to go”, it worked well.
Day 0 – arrival day
We are checking in on a Saturday (28 April) so I asked the receptionist whether everything in the town would be closed in the afternoon and tomorrow, being Sunday. She looked at me quite quizzically.
“There is nothing here except the pub, and the shop inside the pub, and they stay open all the time”.
After we set up we had a snooze because we could, and later walked around the town. But first we see that a couple we had met at Undara had arrived back at their van. They were packing it up and getting ready to move to Georgetown. So we went over to see what they had been doing.
They had spent the day at Cobbold Gorge and were happy with the gorge but said it was all too expensive. The tour was over $90 a head and they thought it was not good enough for that price. Not like Undara. They also said the road in was generally good but pretty rough in parts, and that they were glad they had not brought their van in. But they also said that they had been to Einasleigh and Copperfield Gorge and had paddled their kayaks there. The road was brilliant, they said. We left them to it to pack and get going.
But they had given us food for thought, and we decided to change our plans for Cobbold. Kerry rang and cancelled the van site but instead booked a cabin for 1 night. We would arrive on the Monday, do the tour on the Tuesday morning and then return to Mobi at Forsayth. All up it was an extra $100 on what we had booked and it saved us towing Mobi on that road.
Back walking through the town, we saw a sign on the gate of one house. It said “Group Therapy Here”, and underneath that were picture of wine, champers, shot and beer glasses. Like it.
There is a really interesting park there setting out some aspects of its history. But there is too much to read and we are bordering on prosecco time. So we decided to come back and study this the next day and go find that Goldfields Hotel. Which, as it happens, is just across the road.
We had a couple of drinks and then dinner. We had been talking to the bar/restaurant lady – she is from WA but they have been travelling for 4 years. This is the first time she has taken a long term job – she will be here now “for the season” – until about October. She is well and truly established in the Tourist Park. Really nice person.
Approaching 6.30, the time when the chef will cook, she comes to tell us that the special of the day is curried sausages plus sticky date pudding. All for $20. Well you can’t beat that so my hand is straight up. Kerry goes for another chicken burger. The meal is good, not gourmet by any stretch of the imagination, but wholesome and filling, and mine only $20!
Day 1
Bit of a lazy morning, then we got ready to go to Einasleigh (hard to pronounce that), another old mining town and home to the Copperfield Gorge.
It is a very good road, despite some of the reviews we had read. Excellent bitumen for two-thirds of the journey, and the gravel road in the middle was fine. A few corrugations but nothing serious on the day we were there. Some of this is seen in our video – click here. We also cross over Stockmans Ck with lovely views of the gums.
It is also a really nice drive – again some lovely wooded hills and mountains appearing in the distance. Really enjoyed it.
At Einasleigh we came to a T-intersection just before the railway line, with no signs pointing us to the Gorge. We went straight ahead, and ended up in the middle of nowhere, but eventually found the right road. We could have turned right at the T-intersection and all would have been obvious.
The track to the gorge is only a few hundred meters beyond the pub. In the middle of a paddock is a large sign pointing to the car park, which that day was deserted. We parked The Cruiser and walked through to the gorge.
I had expected it be like other gorges we had visited – coming at ground level and seeing the gorge towering up on either side. But Copperfield is the opposite – you come in at the top of the gorge and look down.
We walked around and took lots of photos – the aqua colour of the water provided a stark contrast to the black rocks. The Gorge is really a chasm in a wide rock platform of the Delaney River immediately below the road and rail bridges. The river cascades down a shute to the ponded waters of the gorge. Really pretty.
We had brought the drone with us, and having few opportunities to get it flying so far, we were keen to get it going. We were concerned about the wind which had sprung up overnight and was quite strong. But we got it ready and then we had lift off. But after a few minutes I was increasingly worried about the wind – the drone was being pushed all over the place – so I brought it down. Got a few snippets of the gorge – have a look at the video for this post – click here .
After that we gazed at the gorge some more and decided not to have a swim. It was a long way down to the water and it did not actually look that inviting – them milky green colour put Kerry off and I allowed myself to be talked out of it.
Back at The Cruiser, it was too early for lunch at the pub – we had anticipated a longer visit with swimming – so drove back to Forsayth.
Later in the afternoon we walked around town and back to the park to read the history of the town and mining in the area. We had a quick drink in the Goldfields again. Home cooked pizzas for dinner.
Day 2
We left Forsayth at around 10 to go to Cobbold Gorge. We were booked in there for 1 night and then the 3 hour tour of the gorge the next morning.
We had heard that the road was in poor shape in a few of places. But in fact it was generally pretty good. A 3km stretch of bitumen up to the airstrip, and after that it was all dirt. Some corrugations in 3 or 4 places, and some scarred spots but these were for short distances only. We would have been comfortable towing Mobi up there, taking it slow and steady as required. Some of this is seen in our video – click here.
Cobbold Gorge is different to most others as it a young gorge, narrowing to a mere 2 metres in places. It is set amid rugged sandstone formations occupying an area of about 80 square kilometres with spectacular 10m tall cliffs. The narrowness indicates that Cobbold Gorge is the youngest known gorge in Queensland today. Evidence of the geological processes are clearly visible.
The Gorge is on a working cattle station – the Robin Hood Station – supposedly named because it adjoined the Sherwood mining lease. It was originally owned by James Clark, from Cornwall, England, who immigrated to Australia in 1866. The property was farmed for cattle and sheep until the Terry family purchased the property in 1964.
The south-western extremity of Robin Hood Station, the mouth of Cobbold Creek with its permanent clean water, was always a popular watering hole for cattle and the families both visited the spot over the years. But its isolated location on the edge of a 330,000 acre property – the sheer sandstone walls and deep water – formed a natural barrier. It wasn’t until the early 1990s that Simon Terry and two friends made the effort to take a small boat to the mouth of Cobbold Creek. They paddled up the creek and were amazed at what lay before them — the magnificent Cobbold Gorge.
Simon quickly recognised the potential of such a unique geological treasure and together with his wife, Gaye, decided to develop a tourism venture. And so it all began. In 2009, a nature refuge agreement was formalised with the Queensland government to establish a 4,720 hectare, Cobbold Gorge Nature Refuge to protect a number of vulnerable and rare plant species and also forms important wildlife corridors and catchment linkages.
The resort is really lovely, with the best “bush” swimming pool we have seen. A very large near-infinity pool with a smaller infinity pool next to it. All perched over a large farm dam. It is spectacular. There are kayaks on the dam that we can use if we wish.
We swim and relax for a while before having lunch at the restaurant. The cabin we have is quite basic, but comfortable – with a king size bed (what a change from our double I’m Mobi), a small desk thing, a bar fridge and a decent ensuite. It was supposed to have a verandah, but only gravel outside with a table and a couple of chairs… It will do for one night, but expensive at $155.
Later in the afternoon we started off on the Dells Grove walk – a short one to get us going. We crossed over a creek and them crossed back again before coming to a very open section with the track barely visible through long grass as high as our thighs. We both thought “no shade, and perfect snake country” and retreated.
To be honest, with the heat, it was lovely to just sit on the big verandah of the restaurant and read a book for a couple of hours.
That evening we had a drink at the restaurant talking to some other people and enjoying the views over the pool and dam, with the sun setting behind us. Lovely.
One fella asked if we were the ones with the flat tyre on the van. “No, no,” we said mightily relieved. He said that he had been sitting around the pool and saw a van come in. He saw straight away that the van had a flat tyre and waved them down to tell then the good news. They would have been driving on it for a while so were probably up for a wheel and tyre – not easy to get out here.
Kerry spotted a couple of eagles circling around and snapped a few pics with zoom lens on. We had dinner there and were surprised how relatively cheap the food and drink were – given we were really on an outback cattle station 90km from the main road. Only problem for me was that the red wine selection was very limited. The only shiraz was only available in those small bottles you get on an aircraft.
Day 2
The 3 hour tour is on at 10am, but first I wandered down to the pool area to see if the eagles are anywhere to be seen. I got a mug of tea – which is freely available – and wait. Then lo and behold I see one eagle come circling in over the dam. It circles lower and lower, then went into a dive and plucked a fish out of the water. I had the camera going and I think got a shot of the catch.
I had breakfast at the restaurant – bacon and eggs, toast and baked beans. I rarely do this, generally sticking to my muesli and yoghurt, but every now and again a “real” breakfast is just the ticket.
At 10 we assembled at the office and our guide – Graham – arrived for the head count. 13 of us in all. We boarded a rugged old mini bus, which we later found out was the first one used at the resort. It’s a short drive to a large shed where the bus is parked and we get ready for the walk. There are toilets available there.
We walk to the mouth of the Gorge and on the way our guide points out a “freshie” – freshwater croc – in the distance. But it is a distance, and we can just make it out. Down the ramp we walk over a pontoon to the other side. There we look down river at a couple of pools hoping to see a freshie closer by. But we are out of luck.
We then started the walk to the top of the Gorge. Our guide stops often to talk about a tree or a plant – what it is, how the Aboriginal people used it, or is some cases that first white settlers had to make sure that their stock never ate the plant, or its seeds or berries Once again we learn that so many bush plants are toxic and that the Aboriginal people knew this but also how to live with these plants.
We moved on to where we would walk to the top of the gorge and a couple of people elected to sit out of this section of the tour. For us it was a very easy walk and not one that most people would worry about. Our guide did say that at one point we would pass an Aboriginal scared place and that we should treat it with respect and not take any photos of it. As we passed it we could see why it was so special – a large overhanging rock formation covered a flat platform, all in lovely sandstone colourings, but with the underside of the roof a wonderful naturally sculptured wave type feature. But we have no photos to show you.
At the top we could see down into the Gorge although our guide was rightly very strict about how close we got to the edge. But perhaps more telling was that we could see how extensive the landscape was with large boulders next to large chasms. Our guide told us this extended for many, many kms in most directions – virtually impossible to get through it. A wonderfully dramatic landscape.
We walked down to the water again and got into the boat that would take us up into the Gorge. They have 4 such boats, more like aluminium pontoons. The amazing thing is that each boat has a small electric outboard at each end that are literally whisper silent. It was great to experience almost total silence into the Gorge.
As we go up the gorge gets narrower and narrower. but the shapes and colours of the walls are are really beautiful. This is described as a young gorge and scientist say that over time the walls will gradually cave in and the gorge will widen out. But don’t get concerned, this will take tens of thousands of years to happen.
Getting towards the end of the navigable part of the Gorge it gets very narrow and we have to duck in from time to time. Then we reach the end point – a large rock in the channel and our guide simply swaps ends, starts the other silent motor and takes us back.
We caught glimpses of a couple of freshies on the way back but they quickly scurried off the rock platforms into the water. Back at the pontoon we could not see any either, but did sight 2 from the pathway back up to the bus. They were a long way and pretty well disguised but when you saw then you realised that one was a monster. These will not attack a human but at the size of this one, many of us were not so sure.
After the tour we made our way back to Forsayth and started to prepare for tomorrow morning’s exit. But just as were pouring ourselves our first glass, as the sun was disappearing over the horizon, a fellow camper told us we had a flat tyre. On The Cruiser, the same wheel on which we had the flat tyre back at Bingara. It was also caused by a very sharp stone, embedded in the tread.
The man who had pointed it out to us suggested that we simply put plugs in and blow it up. But we had tried that at Bingara and even 2 plugs together did not fill the hole. But we got out all of our gadgets – the repair kit, the compressor, the gadget for loosening wheel nuts (which is brilliant if you have ever tried to undo a wheel nut put on by a tyre place – runs off the battery). Couldn’t find the tyre pressure gauge I know I bought. We have so much gear, it is almost impossible to find anything in a hurry.
So into battle we went to get the spare tyre off the car: assembling a metal rod to go into a hole and engage with a gear mechanism to lower the spare which is kept up by a chain. I had the sense this time to put a tarp under the spare so we could drag that out. 4WD wheels are heavy. As the light was dimming, we got the spare out, got the jack going, got the punctured wheel off, put the spare on, got it to the right pressure, put the punctured wheel on the chain and raised it to the car body and then packed everything away. It wasn’t so hard after all – now we have been through the process. Although I don’t think I could lift the wheel onto the axle – just too heavy.
The we could get back to the wine. And cook our BBQ.
For photos supporting this post, click here
We have a video covering parts of this post – click here