Charters Towers Qld

We left Airlie Beach early and headed north, first to Bowen and then Ayr, where we took our first break. We were back on the Bruce of course, but surprisingly it seems to have survived the road works and is quite an easy drive. One thing that is noticeable almost straight away is that the landscape is changing; we are now in country reminiscent of the outback, huge, wide totally dry river beds, rocky outcrops and fringing mountains. About 30km north of Ayr we took a left turn toward Woodstock, bypassing Townsville and saving ourselves about a 100km and an hour. As we drove along this beautiful valley we slowly started to realise that we had in fact been down here before; last year when we stayed in Townsville and took a big day trip down tho every road. From Woodstock the road opens up and is wide and smooth, giving us a pleasant run through to our destination.

With John Williamson's song of the same name ringing in our iPod, we did indeed make it into Charters Towers, not quite in two hours and not through Townsville, but hey, why spoil a good yarn with facts!

CT, or Gold City, was a major gold mining area of the 1800's and while the town itself isn't as grand as Ballarat or Bendigo, it's certainly impressive in its own right.

Quite a bit of the old town's buildings have been preserved, the best one of which would have to be the Australian Bank of Commerce, which now forms the entry to The World Theatre, a world class theatre out here in the bush. The town scored the name The World as during its heyday, the locals claimed that anything anyone wanted from anywhere in the world was right here, hence The World. We had a poke around, Judy did her bit to keep Millers Australia solvent, and then we made a visit to the Venus Gold Battery, which was operational up until 1972.

Tried to get up to the Towers lookout but the road was blocked from both ends. Shame, I would have liked some panoramic snaps of the town.

Back at the Big4 van park we did the right thing and took a stroll over to the happy hour, where our hosts were handing out pizza slices and nibbles. Funnily enough we met some people who we last saw tripping around the 3 pubs tour at Lightning Ridge a few weeks back.

Australian Bank of Commerce / The World theatre. Charters Towers Qld

Stock Exchange. Charters Towers Qld

Judy snapping away. Charters Towers Qld

Inside the Stock Exchange Arcade, Charters Towers Qld. Look familiar to Sydney siders? It should!

The Venus Gold Battery. Charters Towers Qld

Hologram of the founder of the Venus Gold Battery, Edmund  Plant. Charters Towers Qld

Inside the Venus gold Battery, Charters Towers Qld