It's the little outback town with a gutsy big past, spectacular sunsets, rugged outcrops and a population of a few thousand residents who helped the town take out "Queensland's friendliest" award in 2018.
Create a free account to read this article
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Cloncurry, or the 'Curry, as it's known, is shining brightly on Queensland's road tripping radar.
So what do you do in a destination previously known for big copper loads and even bigger bulls? Here are a few ideas.
Earn your outback stripes over a crisp Great Northern ale at Crocodile Dundee's Walkabout Creek Hotel in the neighbouring town of McKinlay. The setting for the famous bar brawl scene from the movie, it's an authentic bush pub and wonderfully kitsch. It's also a good place for a counter lunch and a comfy overnight stay.
Visit the old Mary Kathleen open-cut uranium mine on a North West Tours outing. Once a bustling home to almost a thousand residents, today Mary Kathleen is a spooky ghost town. The four-hour tour departs from Mount Isa and costs $119 per person including morning tea.
Make a beeline for John Flynn Place, a tiny museum that celebrates an era when aviation and radio united the outback, and the Royal Flying Doctors Service provided a welcome health service for its residents.
Here you'll learn how Arthur Affleck, the first flying doctor pilot, hired a single engine timber-and-material plane from Qantas for the first flying doctors flight. Aviation lovers should also keep their eyes peeled for the original Qantas hangar, which welcomed the first Qantas passenger plane 100 years ago. And it is still operational.
Fish, boat, or just chill at Chinaman Creek Dam. Located three kilometres west of Cloncurry, the pretty reservoir is home to sooty grunter, barramundi, red claw and yabbies and to take in sunset views of the township and the Cloncurry River. The dam was built less than 30 years ago.
Got a 4WD? Then take the 23-kilometre Ballara Mining Heritage Trail. Starting from Overlanders Way, about 60km from Cloncurry, it takes you through spinifex landscapes and rocky outcrops millions of years old. It also passes the site of three former mining townships.
The reward at the end of the trail is a dip in Fountain Springs. Movie buffs will recognise this naturally fed waterhole as the location where Sue Charlton, Mick Dundee's love interest, was almost taken by a giant saltie.
Early pioneers Burke & Wills passed through Cloncurry on their ill-fated expedition. Today Burke's prized water bottle can be seen at the Cloncurry Unearthed Museum, while a memorial do the explorers can be seen 43km west of town on the bank of the Corella River.
Rockheads will also love the extensive gem and mineral collection and the fact they can obtain fossickers licences and maps here.
ABOUT CLONCURRY
- Keep Queensland Beautiful named Cloncurry the state's friendliest town in 2018.
- The town is 200 metres above sea level and is surrounded by a series of hills, spectacular rocky outcrops and a rich river flowing by.
- With summer temperatures flogging the 40s and winter days hovering the mid-20s, the town is hot. "The Curry" is an apt nickname.
- In 1867, Earnest Henry discovered copper and set up camp, paving a way for the copper and gold industry that still exists today.
- In the late 1800s, Cloncurry was Queensland's largest "Ghan town", with more than 2000 camels for transport
- On November 3, 1922 Qantas flew its first passenger (Alexander Kennedy) from Longreach to Cloncurry and sparking a fun outback feud over which town can claim the globally recognised brand.
- In 2006, Waanyi woman Alexis Wright was awarded the Miles Franklin prize for her novel Carpentaria. She was born in Cloncurry in 1950 and wrote a fierce epic that honours Indigenous culture and the impacts of colonisation.
- In 2017, a two-year-old Brahman bull, bred 100 kilometres west of Rockhampton, was sold to Cloncurry beef breeders for $325,000, nine times the price of the average sales at the auction.
- Dame Mary Gilmore, who is featured on the ten-dollar note, is buried at Cloncurry cemetery.
