Ended up leaving for Adels Grove a week later than planned as unfortunately Euan’s mum was very ill and died after we had gone to Mt. Isa. It was hard for Euan as he had just started his new job a couple of months ago and was caught between needing to be in Melbourne and not wanting to be away for too long from this new job.
We eventually left Melbourne for Mt Isa via Brisbane at 7am on Qantas. Nice Quiche and cake for breakfast with some apple juice.
Arrived Brisbane 9.05am and waited until 3.30pm for our flight to Mt.Isa. Eating at airports is not cheap but Hungry Jacks had a special – two chicken subs for $8 and I had some BBQ shapes (they were the old style so had plenty of flavour) that I was given for travelling from a fellow BBQ shape appreciator – yum. So that was lunch. On the flight to Mt Isa had a another quiche like pastry and cake – very nice. Arrived Mt. Isa around 6pm and I collected the bags while Euan went to fetch our vehicle. Took a bit longer as his keys had been locked away and had to find the right person with the keys. Went and did some grocery shopping, fuelled up and headed off for about an hour until we turned off the main road and camped for the night.
In the morning had some breakfast and then headed off to Adels Grove. Near the turn off to Adels Grove we saw a vehicle stopped on the side of the road and asked if they had come from Adels Grove and what the road conditions were like. Was advised that the Gregory river crossing was up to your knees and was very slippery crossing it as it is on a slight angle. He said it was terrifying. So we decided to go the long way around via Gregory. The road from Gregory was churned up a bit from vehicles going through the wet mud from rain they had had just a few days ago. We got through ok as it had dried out in most parts, but the road was closed the next day. This is not good news for Adels Grove as they need the roads open for tourists to get through. There had been a mass exodus a few days prior when it was raining, so Adels had to organise with a nearby mine site for the vehicles to be allowed to go through the site to get out. There were about 20 vehicles in convoy, which only did more damage to that road. So far we have not had anymore rain, but council were being stubborn and had not reopened the road. Heard that there were a lot of caravans, campervans etc waiting at free camp sites until the roads reopen. There have been some people getting through and tour buses get a permit to allow them to come through, so have had about four groups of people from tours come and stay overnight or two, but numbers were way down to what they should be, which means less work available to do.
There was a grader (Wed 1st June) doing the roads which is good news. Lots more campers coming in now. One of the staff here had to dig a trench around her caravan as she was becoming marooned by water it had rained so hard.
Our camp setup – Camper on back of Amarok and our caravan next to it. (The reddish colouring is from Euan’s two week Carpentarian Grass Wren surveys in May.)
This shows the layout of Adels Grove. Most of the staff were camped where the words are ‘No Pegs outside Rocked Area’. At one end of the Camp Kitchen is ‘The Shack’-referred to later in blog.
Started sorting out the caravan, going through the holds under the beds and seats and putting things into cupboards for easier access. Next day Euan was on amenities cleaning duties, so I joined him to learn what was needed. Removed three green tree frogs from the amenities, one was up under the rim and had to flush the toilet to get it down so I could grab it and remove it. Have done many more days of amenities – at one end are bush showers and drop toilets, by the office/dining area are another set of toilets and in a separate block next door are showers/toilets and laundry, down in an area called The Grove are three more drop toilets and down the other end are camp showers/toilets (terrible water pressure at these ones – it is gravity fed and if the main shower/toilet block showers are all being used then no water makes it to this block) and then another toilet block near our area. There is also one toilet and shower for staff use near the workshop. When on amenities duties you start at 7.30am and finish around 3.30pm with a morning tea and lunch break. It consists of cleaning toilets and showers and laundry, sweeping and mopping floors and cleaning wash basins. Have removed a few more green tree frogs from the toilets since. The most I have heard found in a toilet bowl at one time is five!
The Amenities vehicle. This is what we drive to get around to the amenities blocks and drop toilets. All the cleaning gear in the back. It is an old Suzuki.
Have also done quite a few nights working in The Shack which sells fish & chips – there are two people working there, one looks after the orders and payment and one does the cooking. I have done both. One night we had a small snake visit the shack – we think it was an Orange-naped snake – pencil thin and about 40cm long. Euan directed it back out of the shack.
Inside The Shack – bench, sink, microwave. Inside is triangular in shape, floor space about four foot across at widest spot.
Looking across work space from serving bench. Fryers along back wall. Entrance/exit on right.
Freezer in alcove next to door plus fridge. Cash register on serving bench-rhs.
One morning I assisted with the housekeeping ie cleaning rooms. There is one lady who looks after the housekeeping all the time. Have had some mornings of kitchen duties – ie washing dishes from breakfast or lunch and also been a kitchen hand a few times, for breakfast and lunch which is a 5.30am start until 2.30pm. (There are some miners staying here from a local mine site, so they have breakfast around 6am to head off to the mine around 6.30am.) Any tour groups that stay usually have breakfast around 6.30am to be ready for their days tours or heading off to their next destination. Euan has done quite a few morning bird walks. They go for two hours. Sometimes with two or four paying campers and once had seven in the group. He prefers the smaller groups – less noise. He regularly gets about 30-40 species on the walk which the campers are delighted with. Some of Euan’s jobs, when he doesn’t have a bird tour, are: going to the national park and looking after the canoe hires, ‘Rub the donk’ – which is looking after the camp and bush shower fires that heat the water for the showers (the system is called a ‘donkey’ system) and collecting the rubbish and ash from camp fires, throughout the day and topping up the ash bins by the drop toilets. When people use those toilets they are to scoop some ash into the toilet when finished. He has also taken the ‘Boojamulla’ tours which consists of taking campers down to the Lawn Hill (Boojamulla) National Park Gorge, providing them with information, and while some of the campers go on a boat tour, he takes the others for a walk to fill in time until they do their boat tour and then takes the other group for a walk. Puts out the morning tea for them as well. A lady here name Ange (a lovely lady) is the main tour leader for these tours, so Euan fills in when she is not available. There is also a half day bird trip which campers can book and Euan would take them in a vehicle off site. The other week we went and checked our where he might go.We visited two dams and an area next to the national park, called the market gardens. It was made way back in the early 1900’s by a chinese man to sell food and goats etc to miners. Nothing much left of the gardens now, but there is a creek running past and it is warm water which comes up from the Georgina basin underground. This spring feeds into the creek that runs through Adels Grove but the water is not as warm at the Grove being about 10klms from its origin. We went with one of the campers, he driving his own vehicle and Euan giving directions as to where to go. This camper is a birder of course. One of the dams had water lilies on it and quite a variety of bird life. The other one not many birds as it is damaged by cattle using it. Euan has now done one of these tours but it was quite a windy day so not as good birding as it could have been, though they did get a flock of budgerigars which delighted the group.
We get one day off per week and it has mostly been spent doing washing, cleaning and sometimes relaxing. I cleaned the camper one day and ended up with reddish brown shirt & shorts from the mud off the camper. As it is warm, went into the bush shower and washed most of the dirt off still fully clothed. Have soaked the shirt a couple of times but there is still a trace of the reddish brown stain.
The other staff here are great. Very helpful and friendly. Some are here for only a few weeks, some a couple of months and some longer term. Just recently a new chef arrived, young chap, but an excellent chef. As part of our employment package, we receive dinner every night. I am enjoying not having to think about what to do for dinner. The meals are delicious and we get dessert as well! The only problem I have is that we don’t have access to fresh fruit. The fruit and vegetables that come here come from Townsville. The vegetables are ok but the fruit is obviously not that fresh. There is watermelon, canteloupe and honey dew, but they do not have much in the way of vitamins/minerals. The bananas are ok but the oranges and apples are obviously old. Once a fortnight we can put in orders for supplies from Woolworths in Mt Isa which come 10 days later but as a supermarket the fruit does not keep that long as they would have the fruit in storage for quite a while and so not be good quality fruit. If I forget to order something then I have to wait another few weeks which is a problem. Thankfully I do not have to order much. There is a shop here and we get a discount, but the prices are high as the freight costs are high to get supplies here. We got to go to Mt Isa one day and stayed overnight and brought back supplies for the kitchen & shop ie about 10 trays of bread, some large trays of meat, uht milk and various other supplies. Some of the shelves at the supermarket did not have much left of certain things after we had been through. Did our own shopping as well which was great to stock up on uht milk/rice milk, cereal etc.
From July my days now are mostly working at the shack with Euan helping some nights. I have different people helping me at night but do the lunch times on my own. We broke the takings records, twice. Took over $900 for the day cooking fish & chips – around $300 for lunch and $600+ for dinner. Consequently our supplies became very low. Some people even coming back the next day they enjoyed their fish & chips so much. We use a cottonseed oil in the fryers and the fish & chips are nice and crispy.
Seeing plenty of birds – some are: Red-backed Wren, Grey-crowned Babbler, Budgerigar, White Gaped Honeyeater, Brown Honeyeater,, Variegated Wren, Red-winged Parrot, Red-collared Lorikeet, Olive-backed Oriole, Channel-billed Cuckoo, Black-faced Cuckoo Shrike, Grey Shrike Thrush, Blue-winged Kookaburra, Black Kite, Hobby Falcon, Long-tailed Finch, White-faced Heron, Little Pied Cormorant, Azure Kingfisher, Varied Lorikeet, Purple-crowned Fairy Wren, Bustard, Red-tailed Black Cockatoo Rufous Whistler, Pictorella Mannikin, Double-barred Finch …. Have heard at night Barking Owl and Bush-stone Curlew. There have been Brolgas across at the airstrip.
Channel-billed cuckoos
Varied Lorikeet stuffing its face with blossom
Variegated Wrens – Female trying to attack intruder which is its own reflection in the car side mirror. Male standing on window edge. Pic taken looking through screen on caravan window which is why it is a bit hazy. I went and put a cover over the mirror. Other staff have the same problem with some of the birds. One next to us eg.
Rufous Whistler attacking its reflection in the windscreen. I have shooed this one away a few times.
The weather here has been unusual. For the first month it was quite hot/humid. Then we had a sudden drop in temperature and we all were wearing jumpers and jackets plus we had some rain. I ended up with a cold and had to be taken off kitchen duties. Temp went up again and then a few days cool to cold. They say that this is not normal for here. People go from buying ice creams to hot pies etc. Beginning of August we are having windy days with quite cold winds, so jackets back on.
There are some campers that come by plane, fly in and do the tour to the gorge and fly out again and some that stay overnight and do another tour before flying out. We had a large group of about 35 that flew in on an Australian Holiday Tour – 8 day trip. The plane had to land at the mine site landing strip as it was too big for the Adels Grove landing strip. Three buses went out to collect them with Ange, Euan and Greg driving the buses. Ange and Euan had the travellers in their buses and Greg had the pilots and cabin crew in his. They came and had an early lunch and went to the gorge, back here around 2.30pm for a short break before being taken back to their plane to fly to Longreach, the last stop of their trip.
Weather is warming up again, not so cold in the mornings and evenings.
There is the main deck where meals are served, some of it undercover but open on two sides with trees around those sides and dropping lots of leaves. They say that usually the trees and finished dropping leaves by the end of Autumn, but with the unseasonal weather they keep dropping them so the tables are always needing to be cleared of leaves at meal times. There is an area called ‘The Grove’ which is next to the river and shady. No generators or dogs allowed so it is a quieter area but not very suitable for solar panels unless they are moveable and can chase the sun between the trees.
There were a couple here from Texas who went on Euan’s morning bird tour, so on our next day off, we went with them up to the Gorge and took two canoes, one a three person canoe and one a single. I suggested Euan go with them in the three person so he could provide information and point out the birds to them and I followed in the single canoe. Beautiful day and picturesque canoeing through the gorge. At one end there is a small waterfall and a track so you can take the canoe up to the next part of the gorge, which we did and canoed up to the end of that one. On our way back we saw a large fresh water crocodile, longer that my canoe, resting up on the bank. It was a great day.
Next to the dining area is the tented accommodation. The front tents have views of the creek.
On one of my days off I found time to sit and cool down in the creek.
Another view of the creek further along the walking track.
Along the walking track saw these two Azure Kingfishers. They were bobbing, turning around and opening their wings to each other.
Further along the track also saw these Honeyeaters and Finches having a drink and bathe.
With less people around I ended up working in The Shack by myself and if I needed help I called up on my two-way radio. Also did the amenities cleaning three or four times a week. Other times I helped out in the shop when they were busy, either restacking shelves or at the cash register and also tidying up the shelves of stock in the storerooms. Some days it was five hours work and other days it was ten hours work.
Had a great experience working at Adels Grove, learnt so much and worked with some wonderful people. It was hard to believe that the time had come for us to go. Some other staff had already left and others left shortly after us as the visitor numbers reduce until there will be only the wet season staff there. It was sad to go and I miss it but other experiences await.