A Whole New World

Duck off the highways leading to cape york proper and you’re in for one helluva treat!

- Dick Eussen

Cape York Peninsula may be the popular choice, but there are a few amazing side tracks en route before you step into the Cape’s wilderness.

Many mining operations were active in the Great Dividing Range between Charters Towers and Palmer River to the north. While mining is ongoing, the vast majority of mines that opened from the 1870s are now closed; with mining being what it is, though, there is always something happening in one form or another. Tracks leading to nowhere are a feature of this area; some are new and in use and others that end at abandoned mining shafts and forgotten ruins are now long-forgotten. Most are on private land and permission must be sought from local land owners before entering.

Bad things happen in this part of the country, like the vanishing of a prospector a few years ago on the lower Palmer River Goldfields. His body has not been found, but the former Palmerville station owners are doing time for murder. There is also a saying in this country not to follow the PVC pipeline because some ‘farming’ practices are questionable… But don’t let this stop you from enjoying some of the finest wilderness tracks in North Queensland, though.

For example, Mount Surprise on the Savannah Way is noted for the amazing Undara National Park and its lava tubes. It’s not to be missed, as there is nothing else like it on the continent. It’s only a 40-minute detour to Undara via the Savannah Way from the Kennedy Developmental Road, just before entering Forty Mile Scrub NP.

From Mount Surprise it’s a 160km trip to Almaden, located between Mareeba and Chillagoe on the Burke Development Road. The Mount Surprise link is an all-dirt road often used by 50m-long trucks north of the Tate River crossing, which haul ore or cattle from Chillagoe. It’s a true adventure drive that passes termite cities, rugged hills, stream crossings and open woodlands, via Lyndbrook Station.