Croydon 12th July

Kids events all day with all the horse events for the kids and adults. The flag race/Barrel race/bending race etc etc.

Croydon is a town of about 230 people normally and is cattle country that is surrounded by vast cattle stations that cover many thousands of sq kms, however it was once also a gold mining town back in 1885 when gold was first found, up to the early 1900’s when it had then all become unviable to mine and most people deserted the place.

During this boom time there were about 6500 people in Croydon, 36 hotels, schools, shops and many Chinese who ran the commerce and vegetable gardens and generally kept everyone in food and whatever else they needed to exist. However history tells us they were much despised by most of the Europeans. Around town there is still evidence of the many abandoned mine shafts and rusting machinery that was used in the gold rush times. It is all now part of Croydon’s history as is the remains of the old China Town which has now been sectioned off and preserved though very little of it remains.

However the Gulflander train still runs once a week from Normanton to Croydon on Tuesdays and back again on Wednesdays and is quite a tourist attraction.

Sunday afternoon we walked over to the oldest original general store still operating in Australia.I thought I would buy the Sunday papers, silly me the latest one they had was from 3 days ago,last Thursday.

The shop fittings were still as they were when it opened in 1895 when it was owned by the Hubert family. We chatted to the shop keeper who told us that it was now owned by a great lady who ran cattle station and took people on for 8 days at a time and then paid them off.

Why we asked? That’s just the way she does things was the answer. He told us about his brother and his wife who had driven over from Cairns a mere 1600 kms away and on arrival his wife decided she wanted to see the sunset at Karumba so they then did the return journey of 560 kms to watch the sun go down and drink a bottle of red. So many fascinating stories of the people it would be worthwhile to stay and talk to more of the locals and get it all down on paper. Perhaps another time! I then walked over to the scrub area next to where we were staying to look at the abandoned military trucks, cars, and old caravans that were gradually becoming overgrown with the sun bleached scrub grass.

We walked over to the pub at sunset to have a beer and watch the sun go over the vast scrub lands horizon, we could see for miles. We finished our beers in the evening glow as the pub started to fill with some

We looked at some of the “not so politically correct posters in the pub”

of the competitors who had come up from the Rodeo ground, no doubt to talk and boast or commiserate with each other over the events of the last few days. We are sure it will all be declared as a great success. Tomorrow (Monday) there is a bank holiday here and the kids are back to school on Tuesday and no doubt the town and the surrounding stations will get back to their more normal way of life. It has been good to have been part of it all.

Tomorrow we head off for Normanton where we will spend a couple of days before heading off down south a bit on the Matilda Hwy and then along the Barkley Highway to Mount Isa and then on up to Darwin, a total of about 2000 kms and nearly all on bitumen, we hope!