Gold, Herps and bones

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indicus

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It's often said, Australia was founded on the sheeps back; however early pioneers quest for richs played a significent role in the birth of a nation....
The Mid 1800's seen struggling colonies such as Queensland, in need of resources to cover the expenses for exploration, and developement of new industries.....
A wave of early explorers, visionaries, and fortune seekers set about forging paths into uncharted and often hostile terrtory. Prominent names such as James Venture Mulligan and Christie Parmerston, whose exploration lead to the construction of tracks through unexplored terrain, the discovery of Goldfields; and subsequently, Northern gold mining settlements...
By the late 1800's, the rush was in 'full-swing'...Miners, fortune seekers and their families, who were hoping to 'cash-in' on the rapidly expanding colony; turned up by land and sea, from all corners of the globe in large numbers, as news of richs spread. Small towns, sprang to life overnight, in the vast northern outback. Queensland was spared financial ruin, but at what cost?
For one; the human toll was astronomicial...newcomers, often faced a lack of basic essentials, and were ill equiped, including a poor knowledge of how to survive in a harsh northern outback. In the begining, starvation and often hostile natives, were the worst of their problems.
Most of the fields were short lived, every creek and gully mined for it's alluvivial. The large reefs were mined out, or unworkable; due to flooding.....Most of the scrub had been cleared for it's timber, to power the steam engines for crushing the ore.....very little was left. Mostly it all died as quick as it started; most of the small settlements disappeared, as did most of the gold, apart from some bygone remnants.....
 
My love, and interest for the bush and it's colourful history, has allowed me to spend several years, riding, prospecting and exploring parts of one of these historical gold fields...
The Trees have returned, but the wildlife has never really recovered. Oldtimers commonly talked about large elapids, in which i've, and others have only seen afew...Kangaroos once were said to be common as they are in other parts of NQ; however, in seven years i've seen one. Smaller species of herps are fairly common; to name but a few....eg:
Lialis burtons
Diporiphora bilineata - Two lined dragon
Carlia schmeltzi
Oedura rhombifer - Zigzag velvet gecko
Oedura castelnaui - Northern velvet gecko
Liasis mackloti - Water python
Boiga irregularis - Brown tree snake
Morelia spilota variegata
Demansia papuensis - Greater black whipsnake
 
I commonly find various rock-art.....some depicting, snakes, men, turtles etc
this overhang was rather interesting....it had human bone fragments, tools, and one pic of a prospecter wearing a hat?, as well as a creature i could not work out?....anteater?....various other men and a turtle
 
Kenshin, if your ever up this way, your more then welcome to come on a trip :wink:
Possom, i guess your refering to the gold....let me be the first to tell you; as with all things you can have good and bad day's....and they can be few and far between....however it's the lifestyle thats rich.....living to watch the sun come up and go down doing what i like best....being in the bush.....very understanding wife ....or long suffering :lol:
Good on you Dicco; i'm amazed that i learnt very little at school how important these goldfields were in making of Australia and it's history.......Tourist towns like Cooktown only came about due to being a port of call for the servicing, of the Goldfields.... :)
 
Awesome stuff Tremain. Will be there in the morning to go bush....can't wait...;-):D I love the outback, can't spend enough days there IMO.
 
Great stuff treedude , I loved hearing your stories of the bush and past times and one day i would love to go bush for a while with you. Kylie is more than just understanding cause she shares your passion as well. Good to see your back and make sure you post some more pics.
Cheers Stevo
 
Yeah that's the life,total freedom,herps,pockets full of gold and no telling what you might find next along with the perfect climate"well maybe not perfect but a few places close by are".The chinese inscription is a good find.I reckon Kylie's more than just understanding Stevo having to put up with a prick like Treedude :wink: :lol: Oh yeah by the way i'll be up to pick up that handfull of nuggets i won in that card game,remember???? :lol:

Man i love the blue in that skink ,awesome colouring!!!Come on mate surely there's a couple more pics to share
 
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