Been there, Done that!: It's Friday!!!!!

On our way into Burketown we came across a big wedge tail eagle feasting on some fresh road kill. Yesterday we had one fly in front of us carrying a dead Joey, which it dropped right next to us - I was way to slow with the camera both times but at least today the eagle is in the photo......

A not very clear picture of a wedge tail eagle......

Our first stop for the day was Burketown. Burketown is situated on the Albert River and has a population of under 200 people. It was named in honour of explorer Robert O'Hara Burke (the Burke from "Burke and Wills") who died shortly after making the first successful south - north crossing of Australia in 1860-1.

This is the artesian bore which was drilled in 1897. It goes down 702.3 metres, produces 707,190 litres of water a day, which comes out at 68 degrees C.They were hoping that this would encourage economic growth in the town but the water, because of high mineral content, was not suitable for drinking, domestic use or for irrigation:( This mound has been formed over the decades by a build up of minerals that were left when the water evaporates .......

The draining water has made an unusual environment surrounding the bore, one that was very rich in plant and animal life.....

A flock of spoon bills having a bath......

Never seen one of these signs before so I had to take a photo.....

A cute bird bath at the visitors centre.....

An awesome toilet block we saw.....

We also went to see the Landsborough Tree........
The story behind this tree is that one of the many search parties (this party was the William Landsborough group) was dispatched to find the missing Burke and Wills in a ship called the Firefly; captained by Captain Kirby. The ship run aground during a cyclone near Cape York.
She (the Firefly) carried a cargo of 6 months supplies, 30 horses and a large quantity of beer, wine and spirits.

Long story short, the crew got REALLY drunk for days with all the alcohol on board, while the Captain and Landsborough tried to repair the ship. It was fixed eventually and sailed to Burketown where, when they couldn't find Burke and Wills, buried the supplies under a tree marked with the word DIG......

This is the remains of a failed Boiling Down Plant, from what I can gather is something to do with boiling meat down into fat, and tallow????......

Every town that has a boat ramp, it's a MUST to stop there to ohhh and ahhhh at the water.....

Oohhhhh, ahhhhhh ok I'm done now lol......

Beames Brook..... Beautiful little oasis along a very dry, dusty track.....

Chech out the dust cloud behind this road train, you can't even see his third trailer, and it was quite windy!!!!.....
Our next stop was at the lovely Adels Grove. A man by the name of Albert de Lestang, planted a botanical garden here in 1920, and by 1939 he had planted over 1000 different species of plants!!! It was all destroyed in a fire (some say a deliberately lit one) in the early 1950's :( what a pity, but the place was still beautiful:)

A Massive bamboo plant......

Peaceful and serene.......

A nice deep pool, other people were swimming but it was a bit cold for us (as in Steve and I, the kids wanted to swim but it was getting late and we still wanted to find a campsite by ourselves somewhere.......

Cute little waterfall.....

Just down the road, of a side track we found this great little spot, had it all to ourselves and the river was the same one that flowed through Adels Grove:)