Loyalty Beach, Paradise in the North

Our two weeks at Loyalty Beach has been fantastic.  This second week has not been as busy as the first week.  Many of the school holiday campers have gone so the campground is not so crowded.  It really has been bush camping at its finest with the beach only 75m from our camp, far enough to put some space and other campers between us and the salt water crocodiles that are prevalent here, plenty of power and water.  The bonus has been the fresh crayfish (lobsters) that the local boys sell.  We've spent this week relaxing and doing a few things around the caravan.  Daily chores like washing and cleaning still have to be done (unfortunately!).


The town of New Mapoon is only a couple of kms from us.  This Aboriginal Community was established in the 1960s against the wishes of those who would be moved here.  Mapoon Mission was about 90 kms north of Weipa, about 400kms from here.  In the 1960s the Government of the day decided to close down the mission and forcibly remove those living there to New Mapoon.  This was done to enable the mining of bauxite in the area.  Because many did not want to be relocated, they were forcibly removed and their homes, and the mission, were burnt down so they couldn't return.  The "town" of New Mapoon was established after the people were moved here.  Now there is an Art Centre and an information gazebo with plenty of information about the story of Mapoon/New Mapoon.  Mapoon has now been re-established as an aboriginal community close to its original location near Weipa.


During World War II there was an active armed forces presence on the Cape York Peninsula.  Near Bamaga there are a number of aircrash sites.  Some are well hidden in the rainforest.  Others are easily accessible and are well marked.  We visited one near the airport where a DC3 crashed when flying from Brisbane to New Guinea in 1945, killing all those on board.

The wreck itself is well preserved and the site is well maintained with a memorial to those who lost their lives.

A more recent aircrash is memorialised at the Bamaga Airport.  In 2005 and small plane was en route to Cairns when it crashed on approach to Lockhart River killing all on board.  The memorial is just outside the airport terminal building.

 We decided to do a day trip to Fruit Bat Falls in the Heathland Nature Reserve.  We packed our morning tea and lunch and set off for the Jardine River Ferry which would mark our half way point.  Once across the Jardine River we continued on to the falls on the Eliot Creek.  We walked the 200m to the creek along a well maintained path and boardwalk.  This is a very popular swimming spot and the carpark was well patronised.  We had our coffee and cake while perched on a rock at the waters edge and watched the many fish in the creek.

After an hour or so we made our way back to the ferry which had just started running after their lunch break.  We lunched at the nearby campground before crossing the Jardine River again and making our way back to our little piece of paradise at Loyalty Beach.

We've got crayfish for dinner tonight (again) before we pack up camp and start our way south tomorrow.

Visit to Thursday and Horn Islands

There are a few ways to visit the Torres Strait Islands from this area.  There are helicopter flights over the islands and ferry trips with and without tours.  We opted to do a ferry trip with tours of Thursday and Horn Islands.  It would be a busy day for us.  We arrived at the Seisia wharf which was crowded with fisherpeople at 7.30am, ready to board the MV Torres Magic at 7.45am.

The ferry was full and took off on time at 8am for the 90 minute trip across the Endeavour Strait, past many islands and on to Thursday Island.  Prince of Wales Island is the 3rd biggest island in Queensland at 203sq kms and Possession Island is where Lieutenant James Cook planted the Union Jack and took possession of the east coast of Australia for King George III.

Thursday Island is one of the smaller islands in the Torres Strait and only 5.4sq kms.  It is the administrative centre and has a population of about 4000.  The main industries are tourism and crayfish.  Until the 1970s there was also a large pearl diving industry to harvest mother-of-pearl for making buttons.  This industry diminished from the 1950s when plastic replaced pearl shell for buttons.

Once on the island we boarded our bus for a 90 minute tour of the island.  We stopped off at Green Hill, which is the highest point on TI (as it's known to the locals).  During World War I this was a gunnery point with an underground bunker.  One gun was fired in 1915 on a ship which failed to identify itself - it soon signalled that it was friendly after a shot across the bows.  Early in the 1930s the site was decommissioned.







As well as the guns, the underground bunker houses a small museum with a lot of information about the pearl diving industry and a history of the Torres Strait Islanders' involvement in World War II, most notably in the Light Infantry.

We also stopped off at the Thursday Island Cemetery and our tour guide explained some of the burial rites on the islands.  Graves are covered with flowers immediately following a burial and a plain wooden cross may be erected.  This may be followed by building a roof over the gravesite for a time while the family arranges for a headstone and more permanent grave decoration.  This can take several years and many graves are very elaborate.



When the headstone arrives it is erected and and covered until the official Tombstone Opening.  This marks the end of the official mourning period.  We have seen several notices of Tombstone Openings as we've visited the various towns around Loyalty Beach.  There are many graves of divers from pearl diving days.

Thursday Island has plenty of infrastructure with a hospital, shops, cultural centre, schools and sporting venues.  All inhabited islands have a primary school and the only secondary school, to year 12 in the Torres Strait is on TI.  The one thing it doesn't have is a source of permanent fresh water.  Fresh water is piped from a reservoir on nearby Horn Island.

After our tour of TI we boarded a small ferry for the 15 minute ride to Horn Island.  This island is much larger than TI and it has an international airport with regular flights to Papua New Guinea and Cairns.  Horn Island was an army base during World War II and was bombed by the Japanese in 8 air raids in 1942 with 33 war deaths (14 of these were in an aircrash).

After lunch we had time to visit the small museum which had good informative displays about the Torres Strait and European cultures.  There were several displays illustrating myths and legends of the area which we found very interesting.

After the museum we were back on our bus for a tour of some of the World War II sites.  We saw a split trench, machine gun placement, ammunition bunker, strategy bunker and plot room.  Our final stop was the site of the previously mentioned aircrash where a B17 bomber crashed with the loss of 14 lives when it missed the runway on landing.

Then it was back on the small ferry for a quick trip back to TI and from there back to the mainland.  In all a very interesting day.  We arrived back in Seisia at 4pm.

North to The Tip

When we left Townsville in mid-June we knew it would be a long way to Cape York - the most northerly point on the Australian mainland - affectionately known as "The Tip".  It's the very top of the "pointy bit" in Queensland.  It only took us 2 days to get to Laura for the Aboriginal Dance Festival (see separate post).  We stayed overnight at Rocky Creek, a great free camp on the Atherton Tablelands about halfway between Atherton and Mareeba we had checked our when we were in the area a year ago.

After 5 nights at Laura immersing ourselves in the Aboriginal Dance Festival we were back on the road.  Our vehicles wouldn't stay clean for too long as we wouldn't have many kilometres of sealed road for the next few weeks.  The Bend, a popular free camp just north of Coen was our next stop.  There's not much water in the river and there were campers on both sides of the river.

The next day we drove on to Weipa.  This is the largest town on the Cape York Peninsula with a population of about 3500-4000.  It's primarily a mining town surrounded by large bauxite mining leases owned by aluminium giant Comalco.  We were booked into the only caravan park in town for 3 nights.  We had booked from Laura - a good move as the park was full.  School holidays were about to start and there were many campers in town for extended periods of fishing.  Fishing seemed to be the main topic of conversation - when, where, how many, how big ..... and the ones that got away.

Weipa is a pretty town about halfway up the western side of the peninsula on the Gulf of Carpentaria.  There's a bauxite loading port facility which always seemed to have 2 ships berthed.  We drove around the town past some picturesque picnic spots on the nearby man-made lakes.  A visit to the North-West Cultural Centre was very informative about both european and aboriginal history of the area.  First european contact in the Cape area was by the Dutch traders in the mid 1600s.  The Cultural Centre has one of the best views in Weipa, out over the bay, and has good coffee as a bonus.

Weipa is on the estuary of the Mission River and we drove north over the Mission River Bridge - just because we could.  We could see bauxite exposed in the rock strata as we drove along.

After stocking up at the local Woolworths, we were back on the (red dirt) road heading north again.  There are several good campgrounds along the way which we will stay at on our way back southwards.  We're also back in the country with ant-hills several metres high.

We arrived at the Jardine River Ferry about 2.30pm, paid our money ($129 for car+van return), drove onto the ferry and we were soon across the Jardine River.  Sometimes there's a bit of a wait for the ferry (it closes for lunch from 12 to 1pm which can lead to a lengthy queue) but we were lucky and drove straight on.

About an hour later we were setting up camp at Loyalty Beach, one of several large campgrounds with beach frontage, power and water - bush camping with all mod-cons!

It's very relaxing here and is quiet during the day when most campers are off doing touristy things.  The main things to do are to visit The Tip, fishing and a visit to Thursday Island.  The campground restaurant has good meals at reasonable prices and we can vouch for their fish and chips on Sunday evening.  A great way to relax and watch the sunset.  The locals often have crayfish for sale and we've helped out the local economy and bought some.

Our trip to The Tip was uneventful. We stopped off at the Croc Tent which is a souvenir shop run by a young couple and which provides good information on road conditions, weather and things too see.  About 18km further north we passed the remnants of a disused resort and shortly after we parked our car and walked over the ridge to the northernmost point on the mainland.  The 15-20 minute walk was certainly worth it with great views as we rock-hopped up and over the ridge before making our way down to the waters edge.  Islands of the Torres Strait were only a few hundred metres away.  There were plenty of people there, all taking photos as were we.

This is another one to tick off the bucket list - we've now been to the most northerly (Cape York, Qld), most westerly (Shark Bay, WA), most south-westerly (Cape Leeuwin, WA), most southerly (Cape Otway, Vic) and most easterly (Cape Byron, NSW) points on the Australian mainland.

Whilst in the northernmost region, we drove the short distance to Somerset Beach, a very pretty beach with Albany Island about 800m across the water.  Gravesites mark the nearby Jardine homestead. Then it was back to our campsite.

It's so nice up here we've decided to stay for another week.