Visit to Camooweal

For the 2^nd time on our around Oz trip we stayed at Camooweal Billabongs just 4.5 km outside of town. By pure coincidence we re-visited exactly 1 year and 5 days after our first visit. There are two billabongs on the Georgina River near town – we stayed both times at the second Billabong which was a little further out but much quieter. 
The Camooweal Billabongs ticks all the boxes for a free camp:

Free!! and easily accessible along a gravel/dirt road

Level Sites
Firewood available with a little effort and work with chain-saw
Caravan water tanks able to be replenished with free water (bore) in town using jerry cans
Scenic spot with water views and lots of wild-life
Secure as these are well patronised by the grey nomad set






It is a pure joy to grab a soft chair, a pair of binoculars, and chill out on the edge of the billabong

I have taken many sunrise photos on our trip so I thought I would try something different – this is moonrise over the billabong around 4:00AM – yep you don't have to be crazy but it helps! So many stars!












About Camooweal:
With a population of only a few hundred people (plus another 100 grey nomads out on the Billabongs J) Camooweal is the 'Gateway' between Queensland and the Northern Territory along the Barkley Highway just 13 km inside QLD. It was the hub for many national droving routes in its hey-day. The Drover's Camp Festival in August celebrates and commemorates the 'hard yakka' put in by Queensland's drovers who travelled the Camooweal region to forge the cattle industry. A visit to the Drovers Museum in town is a great way to spend a couple of hours – its manned strictly by volunteers who know all the history and events.

The road from Mount Isa to Camooweal, known to locals as 'Tojo's Highway', was built during World War II with American funds. It has been upgraded and is now a first class bitumen road. The Barkley Highway between Mount Isa and Camooweal is considered the 'longest main street in the world' at 188 kilometres.







 
Camooweal Caves National Park

We thought that seeing we were in the area we should do a day visit into the Camooweal Caves National Park. The Camooweal district is honeycombed with rare sink holes and caves, dating back to the Cambrian Period, about 500 million years ago (some of you may remember this J). This is for experienced cavers only – you can see from the photo of one of the sink - holes that it's not too safe around the edges. The national park is the home of many birds, and there is a little billabong beside the bush camping area. This camping area would be suitable for 4WD and camper trailers/off road caravans but in my opinion the billabongs at Camooweal are far nicer and easier to get to.

This photo shows the site where ancient fertility rituals were carried out under the full moon. Hence all the phallic symbols! J Just joking – seems visitors can help themselves in wanting to make stacks of stones. We have seen this in many places we have visited










To close off this visit report - a couple more photos of life on the billabongs:

Jabaru looking for his breakfast

The grey nomads settling in for the night – you can get an idea of how the vans are spaced along the billabong from this photo.