The Towers
Charters Towers is an interesting place:
Charters: for W.S.E.M. Charters, the Gold Commissioner - the big man from the Cape (Charters was said to be about 6′6″ tall and weighed some 20 stone). Towers: because of the conical shaped hills in the vicinity of the discovery.
It’s the sort of place that is both rich and poor. It’s the sort of place that you can tell had a heap of $bling$ in the past, but has maybe lost it’s way since. The architecture is grand; the construction solid and perpetual. The streets are wide and the gardens well kept; people seem to have a real pride of place - much unlike Townsville. Having said that, just out of town there’s people living right on the edge of civilisation (in every sense of the word).
Now the people also have a pest fish, and that’s why we were there. Queensland Fisheries Service sent Alan and myself out to take a look around. There’d been reports of a few Tilapia in one of the creeks, but nobody seemed to know if there was a serious infestation or just a couple of fish. Turns out that there were just a few, but seeing as the species has been discovered downstream in the Burdekin River, I think that they’ll be in the Towers soon enough.
In any case, we spent most of the last 5 days trudging along dry sandy stream beds, dip-netting small pools that were drying up. It was muddy and hot, but a good workout for the Hinchinbrook Walk. Although I ate a lot of food, and drank my share of XXXX Gold, I burned it off each day and returned home feeling fit and relaxed.
I haven’t spent much time in the Burdekin River area before. It’s sort of like the Wild West out there. and the whole place has an atmosphere of the dramatic and spectacular.
I posted some photos in a Charters Towers gallery. There’s a few nice shots, including one of a cloud shaped like a duck that I’m particularly proud of:
and one of an old pumping station that I think dad would like:
