Normanton Queensland

We were pleasantly surprised with the 164km road from Leichhardt Falls to Normanton today, with 50km of well graded gravel and then sealed for the rest of the way. Unfortunately we encountered another hiccup but this time for Buster.

We had settled in at Flinders River Causeway for the night. 

Mark thought to grease Buster and whilst he was under there he spotted 2 of the drivers side back leaf springs had broken! Definitely not ideal. So we got in contact with ATW to send out some new springs, with Mount Isa being the best option and the Isuzu dealer to install them hopefully sometime next week.

With this on our mind we decided we may as well continue the 46km to Normanton this afternoon rather than tomorrow. I went to get my stitches out at the lovely new hospital. We then did some exploring around town.

William Landsborough, one of the many explorers who went looking for Burke and Wills, discovered and named the Norman River after the W. H. Norman, captain of the Victoria which was searching the coastline for Burke and Wills in 1861.

It then started life as a port for the Gulf of Carpentaria's cattle industry and grew in importance with the discovery of gold at Croydon in 1885. Today it is primarily driven by tourism with the Purple Pub, the Albion Hotel, and a number of interesting historic buildings. 

Of course we had to take a photo of The Big Crocodile - Krys - The Savannah King a model of the largest crocodile ever shot in 1957, 8.36m.

Hot (35°) and tired we ventured over the bridge to the free camp and enjoyed the view over to the boat ramp. … didn’t spot the resident saltie tho.