Diwundrin
Well-known Member
- Location
- Nth Coast NSW Australia
[Travelogue] Pics further down for the non readers.
Found another non-tourist friendly place in OZ to show you. It's neither a resort, nor cheap, but then nothing is out there.
A relative is just back from Cape York Peninsula, the big pointy bit at the top of the map. In the middle of it, roughly halfway between the bottom corner of the gulf and the coast is the 'bustling' town of Forsayth, an old goldfields town.
He, 'Bob' and his neighbour, 'John' had a mid-life crisis and went on a 'boys own adventure' to the Top End gold fossicking for a few weeks. They fled a week early after the temperature stayed at 42C for 3 straight days and even the old locals started to remark that it was "getting a bit warm for this time of year."
They took John's old 70's pop top van hitched to his ute with couple of drums of fuel in the back so sitting all day in the van stewing slowly suddenly didn't seem such a great adventure any more. Wooses!
They did get a couple of tiny nuggets though so they're reasonably happy boys.
I copied a couple of pictures from the stick he brought up to show me, a few I should have kept I've missed though, so no pic of the town. Imagine around 20-30 dwellings ranging from tin sheds and converted buses to reasonable looking houses scattered around 8 short streets all serviced by a single storey pub, a P.O./Bank and from memory some kind of general store and of course, a camping ground. (exactly the same as here so I'm not one to pass judgement.
)
They have electronic banking but if you want the internet, that's 40k down the dirt road in the next town. They do have a short stretch of tar through the main street though so not all bad.
It was a lot bigger a century ago, several thousand people, but when the gold got harder to find they drifted off elsewhere and both of the lovely old colonial style hotels burnt down about a year before the termites ate through them enough to allow them to collapse of their own accord.
It didn't become a ghost town though, there were always a few old die-hard fossickers scrabbling enough colour and the odd small nugget to keep them, a small tavern and the PO going, Also some biiiiig cattle stations in the region make the P.O and bank viable.
This link gives a bit of info on it if anyone's interested.
http://sgltd.com.au/eight-geographic-regions/forsayth/
I think he said this pic was taken from the camping ground, hard to tell, it's all pretty much the same around there. The blurb for the camping ground said "Grassed Areas" but Bob said they had a hard look around and didn't see any. Must only apply in the wet season.
Those trees aren't dead, just shut down waiting for the 'big wet', (monsoon)
'Viewsome' innit?
This is the road to the goldfields on a heavy traffic day.
This is John with the gear, there was one of him swinging a pick and he looked just like Yosemite Sam, but it's not on the file. damn.
Here's some cattle. They're not looking too chipper but it's the dry season and look around, there's not much to eat. They'll fatten up when it rains.
Locality shots, this is around 11kms out of town, they had to drive out here to get any mobile phone reception.
That's not the sea in the distance, just more of the same landscape all the way to the Gulf. (or if you miss the Gulf, all the way to W.A., a couple of thousand k. of it. Only the dirt colour changes.)
A what is it for Phil.
...aaaand, an ardyfardy fence post!
Now I ask, what more could you wish for as a travel destination?
Who will be first to book? You'll get a van site under a scraggy gum tree if you're fast.
It doesn't always look that bad, it's not a drought, just normal winter dry season, plenty of grass during the summer. Probably quite pretty then, wetlands and all the goodies that water brings. But the summer temps hover around 45C in the shade so you'd have to be desperate for somewhere new to holiday.
Oh, and those dusty dirt roads are mud tracks 6 months of the year.
It's rough country, temps vary from zero overnight in winter to 50C in a summer heat wave, and only the fit survive in it year round. There are no fat locals out there.
Found another non-tourist friendly place in OZ to show you. It's neither a resort, nor cheap, but then nothing is out there.
A relative is just back from Cape York Peninsula, the big pointy bit at the top of the map. In the middle of it, roughly halfway between the bottom corner of the gulf and the coast is the 'bustling' town of Forsayth, an old goldfields town.
He, 'Bob' and his neighbour, 'John' had a mid-life crisis and went on a 'boys own adventure' to the Top End gold fossicking for a few weeks. They fled a week early after the temperature stayed at 42C for 3 straight days and even the old locals started to remark that it was "getting a bit warm for this time of year."
They took John's old 70's pop top van hitched to his ute with couple of drums of fuel in the back so sitting all day in the van stewing slowly suddenly didn't seem such a great adventure any more. Wooses!
They did get a couple of tiny nuggets though so they're reasonably happy boys.
I copied a couple of pictures from the stick he brought up to show me, a few I should have kept I've missed though, so no pic of the town. Imagine around 20-30 dwellings ranging from tin sheds and converted buses to reasonable looking houses scattered around 8 short streets all serviced by a single storey pub, a P.O./Bank and from memory some kind of general store and of course, a camping ground. (exactly the same as here so I'm not one to pass judgement.
)They have electronic banking but if you want the internet, that's 40k down the dirt road in the next town. They do have a short stretch of tar through the main street though so not all bad.
It was a lot bigger a century ago, several thousand people, but when the gold got harder to find they drifted off elsewhere and both of the lovely old colonial style hotels burnt down about a year before the termites ate through them enough to allow them to collapse of their own accord.
It didn't become a ghost town though, there were always a few old die-hard fossickers scrabbling enough colour and the odd small nugget to keep them, a small tavern and the PO going, Also some biiiiig cattle stations in the region make the P.O and bank viable.
This link gives a bit of info on it if anyone's interested.
http://sgltd.com.au/eight-geographic-regions/forsayth/
I think he said this pic was taken from the camping ground, hard to tell, it's all pretty much the same around there. The blurb for the camping ground said "Grassed Areas" but Bob said they had a hard look around and didn't see any. Must only apply in the wet season.
Those trees aren't dead, just shut down waiting for the 'big wet', (monsoon)
'Viewsome' innit?
This is the road to the goldfields on a heavy traffic day.
This is John with the gear, there was one of him swinging a pick and he looked just like Yosemite Sam, but it's not on the file. damn.
Here's some cattle. They're not looking too chipper but it's the dry season and look around, there's not much to eat. They'll fatten up when it rains.
Locality shots, this is around 11kms out of town, they had to drive out here to get any mobile phone reception.
That's not the sea in the distance, just more of the same landscape all the way to the Gulf. (or if you miss the Gulf, all the way to W.A., a couple of thousand k. of it. Only the dirt colour changes.)
A what is it for Phil.
...aaaand, an ardyfardy fence post!
Now I ask, what more could you wish for as a travel destination?
Who will be first to book? You'll get a van site under a scraggy gum tree if you're fast.
It doesn't always look that bad, it's not a drought, just normal winter dry season, plenty of grass during the summer. Probably quite pretty then, wetlands and all the goodies that water brings. But the summer temps hover around 45C in the shade so you'd have to be desperate for somewhere new to holiday.
Oh, and those dusty dirt roads are mud tracks 6 months of the year.
It's rough country, temps vary from zero overnight in winter to 50C in a summer heat wave, and only the fit survive in it year round. There are no fat locals out there.
layful:
