Cumberland is an old gold mining area. Most of the evidence of mining has now gone except this chimney stack. There is also a dam that held water for the gold field. It is now a haven for bird life. We actually used an iPhone app to check birds and logged 26 different types of bird while we were camped there. It is a "free" - donation box site with some facilities. Drop toilets, picnic tables and large binoculars for bird viewing.

We were fortunate to experience some very nice sunrises and sunsets while we were there. Sunrise over the Cumberland dam.

Magpie geese setting off to do some foraging as the sun rises.

It is also almost a full moon. The moon rising over the Cumberland chimney.

So I had a reasonable hike to find some fire wood but managed to get enough back to the campground to have a small fire for the evening. The full moon also enabled me to take this nice moonlight shot after the fire died down ( ran out of fire wood )

Croydon being an old gold mining area has a lot of history which they are trying to preserve and present to the increasing number of tourists.

We only intended to have a bit of a look around and not stop. While looking in the information centre we found that today being Wednesday we could have a short ride on the Gulflander rail motor to Golden Gate siding and a meal while the sunset before returning to Croydon. So being flexible we booked this and stayed the night in Croydon.

The Gulflander at the Croydon rail station.

All aboard.

Tea in the scrub before heading back. I don't see a turning facility for the rail motor - so yes we headed back to Croydon in reverse.

The gulf lander stopped at Golden Gate siding while the sun sets and we have tea.

The drivers cab.

The rail motor is really a glorified bus. It has a 6 cylinder diesel engine coupled to a  4 speed crash gearbox with  a tail shaft driving one set of wheels. Fortunately the gear arrangement gave us 4 speed reverse for the trip home. It was up to the guard to radio through track details such as cattle on the track.

So we didn't ride the Rattler all the way from Croydon to Normanton. Rather we drove and then continued driving to Karumba.

Sunset over the Norman river at Karumba.

Pretty sure that Ann was disappointed that we had to pay to do a sunset boat tour to see a crocodile.

On the cruise we did get to see some Jabirus up close. Really lucky that in the afternoon light the Australian Black Necked Stork doesn't really have a black neck, it is iridescent green.   Turns out they get hand fed daily so are pretty much guaranteed to see one on the cruise.

It was a sunset cruise, and fortunately this boat was heading out to make the almost cloudless sunset interesting.

It is about 5 to 6 km from Karumba to Karumba point. The settlements are separated by these tidal saltpans.

Looks like someone has been trying out their circle works.

Not far from Normanton is "Camp 119". This the northern most camp of the failed Burke and Wills expedition.

150 years ago this was a billabong and it was from here that Burke and Wills struck out for the Gulf. They blazed about 15 trees around the camp site. Most of which are now gone.

This is one of the blaze trees overlooking the billabong.

This is by far the most prominent tree blaze at the site. Unfortunately it is not one of the Burke and Wills blazes. It was created by Walker a couple of years later who was looking for Burke and Wills. He described the Burke and Wills blazes as being timid and so created this more prominent blaze.

The other interesting thing is that when he created this blaze it was 800mm above ground level. It is now much closer to ground level, The whole area has silted up.

Not much water - well none - going over these falls at the moment. Was still a nice spot to camp.

This is the morning view from our camp site.

I wasn't lying this is where we camped.

This can't be right. I haven't seen any crocodile warning signs and yet here is this 5 to 6 ft Johnstone river crocodile.

While we didn't see any sign of a saltie I also didn't go swimming for our lost fishing lure.

We didn't see any fish either although the people camped next door got two Barra.

"Clifford" under the Milky Way .

The rising moon illuminates the clouds.

What I think are the remains of a windmill tower that didn't survive the flood waters.

A bit like a lot of the Gulf Burketown seems to have it's share of boom and bust. At one stage it had its own meat works and boiling down works producing salted beef and tallow.

Now a lot of the machinery is just lying in the scrub.

We went looking for the Landsborough tree. It was a tree that was blazed by Landsborough who was sent up on a ship from Brisbane to look for Burke and Wills. The short story is that he buried some supplies and blazed a tree. Turns out the tree burnt down several years ago. I took a shot of this interesting tree instead.

This bore has been flowing since 1880 something. In the process it has built this mineral mound. The water is hot and is only drinkable by adult stock. Unlike other free flowing bores there are no plans to cap it. The Burketown community is trying to get government grants to build some pools to have heated "bathing" at different temperatures and some board walks through the associated wet lands. There  was a hot public bath here in the ancient past.