Quirky Queensland Pubs

 The Walkabout Creek Hotel and beers with Mick Dundee

On the drive from Winton to Cloncurry we stopped at the Blue Heeler pub in Kynuna, along the Matilda Way.

A fabulous pub with a big blue heeler dog on the roof, blue paw prints painted on the picnic tables and 1000’s of signatures from passers-by literally covering all the walls and the ceiling. Jen tells me her signature is there somewhere and that she actually visited the pub with Bear, her much loved blue heeler dog from days gone by. We were also lucky to have another pair of Brolga’s greet us out the front of the pub as we pulled up (I actually thought they were statues until they started calling out and walking).

We then drove on to McKinlay, the home of The Walkabout Creek Hotel, famous in the iconic Australian movie, Crocodile Dundee. We had a beer with Mick Dundee and purchased Sippy a Walkabout Creek Stockman’s shirt. After lunch and a chat all things caravans with New South Welsh men from Mudgee and Nyngan (both of them desiring a BT), we headed on to the Mary Kathleen abandoned town site, 50km out of Mt Isa, for our first free camp of the trip.

We had time to nab a camp spot, then off came the bikes to ride the 18km return dirt and stone track to the open cut uranium mine site and the cobalt blue water that lays at the bottom of the mine. The weathering of the rock releases various metals and salts giving rise to the amazing colour. Definitely no swimming allowed in the crystal water however due to radioactive waste still being detected. We caught the last glimpses of the amazing aqua water in the sun, snapped some photos (it’s currently deemed an Instagram hotspot), dodged our first brown snake on the track (Andrew oblivious) and headed back to camp for the sunset and a cold beer. The snake was sunbaking on the track on our way down, but unfortunately flattened by a 4WD on our way back (hence the photo).

Cathy standing inside the old Olympic swimming pool, which was part of the Mary Kathleen town site - abandoned in 1984 - two years after the mine ceased operation.