From Isla Gorge we continued south to
Lake Murphy Conservation Area. Lake Murphy is ephemeral. Nearby
Robinson Creek must flood to fill the lake, which, had obviously
occurred in the not too distant past as there was plenty of water in
the lake. The lake is too shallow for kayaking, but it is easy to
walk around the lake on the shore-line. The primary attraction is
the bird-life, not as abundant as at Lake Nuga Nuga, but sizeable
numbers of water birds are present. The camping area at Lake Murphy
is lovely. Nice open grassy sites with picnic tables and, best of
all, very few other campers. We stayed two nights. I
circumnavigated the lake twice and we also did the short 3 to 4 km
walking trail that follows Robinson Creek. As to birds, we saw many
of the same birds we saw at Lake Nuga Nuga – ducks, apostle birds,
black swans, pelicans, plovers as well as some other wading birds I
cannot identify and three Jabiru.
From Lake Murphy we day-tripped out to
Robinson Gorge in Expedition National Park. First stop here is the
unfortunately named “Cattle Dip” which, in reality, rather than
being a shallow mucky trough, is a narrow gorge through sandstone
with a permanent waterhole. Viewing is from above via a short walk.
Next we walked up to Shepherds Peak which gives a good view of the
surrounding park. Robinson Gorge is visible as a slash through the
plateau and in the distance are other sandstone bluffs. Finally,
Robinson Gorge look-out, which offers a superb vista over the gorge.
A cacophony of bird song drifts up to the look-out from the base of
the gorge. A good access track leads to the bottom of the gorge
where you can wander either up or down stream. We went upstream.
Expect slow walking down here as the grass grows neck high in places
making it hard to see that your next foot step is about to plunge
into a deep hole. Progress tends to be lurching. Upstream, past the
look-out, however, the river is dry and the walking is easy on soft
sand on the gorge floor. Apparently, people do walk downstream to
the Cattle Dip but it would be wise to have a full day, if not two
for that. We had a swim – or rather a dip – in the river before
climbing back up.
After a last night at Lake Murphy, we
drove north to Theodore where we got some weather reports. The
weather on the coast was still sounding mixed so we decided to take
our time driving up to the Townsville area – our next destination –
and visited yet another National Park in the central Queensland
sandstone belt – Blackdown Tableland National Park.
A sign at the start of the access road
warns that the road is not suitable for caravans, but we had no
problem towing our little 13 foot van up to the lovely campground.
The road is mostly tarmac, although narrow and winding, and only the
last 7 to 9 km is gravel, and in good shape.
There are a few short walks you can do
in the Park, handily, two leave from the campground so you don't need
to drive. One leads to a view point where you can see Mimosa Creek
gorge leading southeast into the lower country, the other is an
interpretive loop that passes some interesting rock formations and
Aboriginal stencil art. We also drove to Gudda Gumoo where a two
kilometre trail leads to a view point over another gorge leading out
to the plains and a series of quite stunning waterfalls on south
Mimosa Creek.
One of the best things about Blackdown
Tableland National Park is that there are a bunch of big sandstone
boulders near the which provided good bouldering!
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