Townsville - Charters Towers - Lucinda

We were not impressed with Townsville and found that there was very little to look at. So , when you have time to kill the Museum is generally a good option. There was a large exhibit on the sailing ship "The Pandora" which was sent out from England to find The Bounty ......it hit a coral reef and sunk, the wreck was only discovered in the 70's .

A number of the houses around the city were built into the side of the mountains.

Charters Towers was next and we found North Queensland marketing in overdrive, they certainly like blowing their own trumpet and will endeavour to make a tourist attraction from almost nothing. It is a Gold rush town therefore they have a number of very elaborate buildings. 

This arcade was designed by the architect that designed some of Melbournes famous arcades.

Mark did find something that interested him ...... a fully restored Indian Superchief

We took a tour of the Gold Battery which was very interesting the manual labour that was involved in process must have been backbraking certainly no OH&S in those days.

It is also a town where ghosts apparently reside, a couple showed up for us.

We started to head north so Lucinda was our next destination.

Lucinda has a large sugar mill and the longest jetty in Australia  - 6 klms - sugar was sent along the jetty by conveyor to the transport ships until Cyclone Yasi which damaged the jetty and put it out of alignment , the sugar is now transported by truck until the repairs are undertaken.

Lucinda is a very popular fishing location and most of the old blokes in the caravan park have been coming here for years and most have a boat,  apparently the fishing is not very good this year.

Lucinda is the closest access to Hinchinbrook Island.

Wallaman Falls about 75 klms west of Lucinda is Australia's longest sheer drop waterfall....305 metres........quite spectacular.