Central and Western Queensland
Queensland’s interior has little of the charm of South Australia’s and Northern Territory’s outback, but it is in many ways more authentic. The land is unforgiving, water is scarce, and constant threats such as rabbit overpopulation and locusts have hardened farmers. There are no “cowboys” here: the correct title for a greenhorn is “jack-eroo” (or “jilleroo,” as the case may be). From the third year, workers are called stationhands, and the name “jackeroo” becomes a hard strike against pride. While outback towns can be unkind to outsiders, the people living here maintain an ethic of trust. Folks look you in the eye, and if they don’t like what they see, you’ll know it.
Like so much of this continent, Queensland’s seemingly barren dust was found to hide lodes of all kinds of sweet stuff beneath the surface, and thus began the region’s heyday. The gold rush has lost its luster, for the most part, but gem fossicking is still the backbone of towns with names like Emerald, while rich stocks of metal ore keep Mt. Isa’s smelters puffing. Up by the Gulf of Carpenteria the fishing is excellent, the roads are treacherous, and a single train engine shuttles between isolated Normanton and more isolated Croydon once a week, more out of habit than demand.
Queensland’s vast interior is traversed by a few highways, unsealed in patches. There are several east-west routes connecting to the coast: the Warrego Hwy (54) from Brisbane to Charleville; the Capricorn and Landsborough Highways (66), from Rockhampton through the Gemfields and Longreach to Mt. Isa; the Flinders Hwy (78), from Townsville through Charters Towers and Hughenden to Mt. Isa; and the Gulf Development Rd (1), from the Atherton Tablelands outside Cairns through the Gulf Savannah to Normanton. let’s Go has outlined the rest of this chapter to match the progression of towns, from east to west, along each of these highways, starting with the southernmost. Connecting them all, the so-called Matilda Hwy actually encompasses fragments of the Mitchell, Landsborough, and Capricorn Highways and the Burke Development Rd. It is the major north-south route, running from the NSW border up to Normanton.
Related Travel Information
Central West
The cities and towns of the Central West lie between the rugged plateaus of the Blue Mountains and the stark dryness of outback New South Wales. The major route into the region from the east is the Great Western Hwy, which crosses through the Blue Mountains to Bathurst From Bathurst, die Mitchell Hwy heads northwest to Dubbo, Bourke, and beyond, and the Mid Western Hwy runs southwest to Cowra and evenŽtually Hay. Both of these roads intersect the Newell Hwy, the major route between Melbourne and Brisbane, which cuts a long path across the Central West. Most towns of
Queensland
If the variety of the continent's attractions could be condensed into one state, the result would look something like Queensland, Australia's all-you-can-eat traveler's smorgasbord. Part rocky, part schlocky, part green, part marine, Queensland is the holiday of choice of Aussies themselves. It's the Pacific Coast that sucks most visitors in like an undertow: the endless surf beaches in the south, the Barrier Reef in the north, and the islands all along propel wave, dive, and sun enthusiasts toward the sea. For many, though, the coast is just surface skin, and the real pudding lies withinin the rainforest-drenched far north and
North Coast of Queensland
The northern Queensland coast sits at the junction of the tropical far north, the rugged frontier of the outback, and the civilized cities of the southern coastline. Waving fields and smoking mills represent the region's greatest industry, sugar cane. Towns-ville, Queensland's second largest city, is the economic and residential center of the area. Off its shores, Magnetic Island offers solitude and koalas in the wild. Between here and Mission Beach, white beaches glow next to crystalline water, across which the Great Barrier Reef beckons. The miles inland hide swaths of rainforest populated by birds, bugs, and bouncing
St. Mary's Catholic Cathedral
The western part of this Cathedral in Victoria Square was built in 1865. It stands on the highest point in the central part of Perth.
Far North Queensland
The northeast corner of the continent, from Cairns north into Australia's last great! frontier, is nothing short of heaven for backpackers and outdoor adventurers. The Great Barrier Reef snakes close to shore here, luring divers with shorter boat trips and longer visits to the spectacular corals of the reef. The reefs biological diversity is complemented by that of the vast swaths of tropical rainforest, pressed up close to the Coral Sea by the craggy mountains of the Great Dividing Range.
As with most places in Australia, it wasn't nature but the promise of gold that first brought European settlement
