Leaving Katherine
If you thought all gums tress
were the same, this is a species that we couldn’t help but admire.
It is the Salmon gum, its
name coming from the beautiful colour
of its bark.
This specimen was standing
along the track back to the car park from the Katherine Gorge Helipad.
Its leaves are also different
being much broader than our local varieties.
After a long hot day, we stopped
off to buy some ice for the esky.
The owner of this bottle shop
refused money for the ice. He insisted!!!
So far 1150 k’s have been completed.
It is a tragedy to see all this infrastructure going in without a thought for an
accompanying water pipeline that could be carrying all the wet season runoff to
our drought plagued Southern States.
The flooded pit of the open cut gold
mine at Pine Creek.
Gold was first discovered at
Gandy’s Gulley 2km North from here in 1871.
In 1995 operations at this
Pine Creek gold mine site ceased.
393 million dollars worth of
gold was produced during the life of this mine, which was eventually filled by
diverting the water of Pine Creek. It took 14 months to fill the pit.
One of
shafts around the mine.
On the way
to Batchelor and Litchfield National Park and more construction for the
railroad.
Here the level crossing on
the road has been built, but no other tracks. The clearing for them disappears way
into the distance.
And again
no provision for a water pipeline.
What a missed opportunity.
A break in
the journey at Bachelor, at the Bachelor Resort on Rum Jungle road.
The proprietors have trained
the birds to arrive for evening feeding.
The view from outside the
cabin as the sun sets behind that infinite NT bush.