Charters Towers........cont

Since being here at Charter Towers we have been to the old Venus Battery which is where they used to extract the gold from rock, it was very interesting learning about the process from start to finish. We also learnt that there is 30klm of mining tunnels situated under the town, it was mind boggling to know that all these tunnels exist.

Also when we were in the town Bazza went into a printing shop where an 80yr old man, is still using hot metal and printing machines from the days when Bazz did his apprenticeship which were replaced by computerised machinery 30 yrs ago.

Last night we also went back in a time warp when we rocked up to the Drive Inn Theatre, it was great to pull up beside a speaker and pop it in the window where we were able to listen to 50's & 60's music until the film commenced. Then it was up to the kiosk for our little feast of hamburger, chicko roll & chips, just like we used to over 30yrs ago ! What we would have given to have lay back seats then !!

Today we went out to the Burdekin Weir which was built in 1902 when there was a severe drought in Charters Towers, it is a lovely spot to go only 14klm from the town.

Charters Towers........cont

This morning it was off to the cattle sale yards, to experience the process and the antics of the auctioneer's and some of the buyers. It was very interesting to see how they sold the different lots of cattle, and how they segregated cattle that needed to be sold separately from within the lots, marking them with brightly coloured paint on the rump or shoulders. We would not make good auctioneer's as we were unable to pick up the buyers bids. We also called into the ambulance museum which had a very old Ford Ambulance on display along with the log books from the call outs from over the years and heaps more memorabilia.
This afternoon we both had a doctor's appointment at the local medical centre, good thing it was only antibiotics that we needed as the doctor was ancient, well into his 80's we think. His bed side manner had a lot to be desired, blunt and to the point, when I opened my mouth for him to have a look he snapped that he had not told me to stick out my tongue.

Charters Towers

We enjoyed our time at Hughenden and we even visited their dinosaur museum. The river was dry, but there is an underground river where they get their water supply from about 4oo metres underground. It was much better quality than the artesian water that we have had for the last couple of weeks, a big plus it didn't smell !

Arrived here at Charters Towers by lunch time, after speaking with a few other travellers have decided to extent our stay here, as next weekend when we were due to hit Townsville there are the V8 Super Cars in town, so finding somewhere to stay is near impossible.

We have a lovely spot in the park with a concrete slab and plenty of shade, and not very far from the amenities. Again we have a bush poet in the park, so our happy hour was spent listening to his original poems, and yarns that all the bush poets seem to share. We have the Pajero booked in for a service tomorrow morning, have to have it there by 7.50am, so thought we may have some breakfast in the town. We will have our bikes so can come back here to the park if the service takes longer than they expect.

This afternoon we went for a drive up the Towers Hill to the lookout of the town where there are 30 bunkers that were used in WW ll and numerous gold mine shafts, it is the first time we have been up any height for some weeks, seems strange seeing a hill or two ! While we are here we will go out to the cattle sales on Wednesday. We are also excited about there being an operating Drive-In-Cinema, will have to wait until the weekend for that nostalgic experience, will be going in more comfort in the Pajero than we used to experience in the VW Beatle ! Looking forward also to having a good look around the town and it's lovely Heritage buildings.