This weekend I am off to a reunion with people who used to live in a small town in Nth. Qld - Mt. Mulligan. This town was completely closed down in 1959. So this weekend I will be meeting up with people I have known for 70 years (when we started school together). What a nostalgic trip. Alice
Mt. Mulligan is a beautiful mountain. 10 miles long with an awesome rock face along the full length of it. In my book it beats Uluru. I wrote the following few lines about it a few years ago.
Ode to the Mountain
The world is a wonderful place, inventions & innovations so great.
Everyone rushing and dashing about, Come on, hurry up or we'll be late.
And then there is May weekend & isn't it so very strange
In this go fast, computerised world we find a place that will never change.
The sun still lights up the beautiful mountain, the colours of the escarpment get their morning shine
And the feeling of this place so had to explain still lights up your heart & mine.
This mountain doesn't change, it welcomes us back. It doesn't get upbeat, modern or new.
It's that "sameness", that I'm here to "stayness"; Mt. Mulligan to itself will stay true.
So men on the moon & stations in space may be making a mark on our culture.
But we come to Mt Mulligan with a yearn for the past but leave with a hope for the future.
Fran Because these reunions have been held often the changes don't seem so obvious. But there are changes of course. I get such a fright when I look in the mirror I try to keep that activity to a minimum LOL Alice
We were up there with the Cairns 4WD Club on the weekend of the 18th & 19th for our annual cemetery clean-up (Mulligan and Thornborough).
The road in at that time hadn't yet been graded and was rougher than usual but hopefully has been fixed by now. It wasn't in bad condition but just a bit rougher than usual. You should also be aware (if you are not already) that Mulligan station is under new ownership and camping is not permitted, so you will have to stay at Dimbulah and day trip in unless you stay at Tyrconnell or Kingsborough.
Incidentally, a group of our members are currently preparing an application for a grant to fund new fencing for the Mulligan cemetery which we hope to have done in the next few months.
The new owner of Mulligan is planning to build a 5 star resort up there so expect to see some large trucks coming and going on the road in.
Cheers,
John.
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I dream of a society where a chicken can cross the road without having its motives questioned.
I first went there in 1962/63 I think it was, for the first Back to Mt Mulligan Re-Union in an old rebuilt International Scout that Dad and I restored. I have also camped with my own kids in later years and returned a couple of times for the Re-Union the last being 2/5/09 with my Dad. My Great Grandfather lost his life in the 1921 Mine Disaster.
Always loved the country around Mt Mulligan, Hodgkinson Gold Fields and Mitchell River system for camping/fishing when the kids were growing up, a lot of the great camp sites around these areas now locked up or commercialised.
