Day 51: Sun 12 Jul 26 - Cloncurry to Mary Kathleen

July 12, 2026

Sun 12 Jul 26 - Cloncurry to Mary Kathleen (73km)

12 to 25 Degrees, clear with light SE winds.

With only a short distance to drive today, we packed up and left at 09:30, stopping on the way through town at the Mary Kathleen Memorial Park, then to grab a takeaway coffee from a coffee van. We then continued 59km to the Clem Walton park free camp at Corella Dam. We were thinking about staying the night, but there were only a small pockets of space available, and with already a lot of vans here, we turned around and continued another 12km along the highway to our 2nd (and preferred) option, the historic and abandoned Mary Kathleen village campground. The former townsite now serves as a popular, free camping spot, and you can still wander the old streets and see the original concrete slabs where homes and amenities once stood. On arrival, we found our concrete slab, unhitched the van and drove another 7km over some very rough and rugged road to the abandoned uranium mine pit. After a while admiring the sheer expanse of the mine, the red, orange and yellows of the rock, and the bright blue water, we returned to van to finish setting up for the night. An afternoon of planning for the next week of our trip, I then went for a wander around the old 'township' as caravan after caravan rolled in for the night. It's a fantastic place to camp, lots of open space and plenty of green grass around, and of course the concrete slabs are a bonus. Apart from the sound of birds, cows and horses, its a very quiet place. Sadly, everyone else seems to have a need for a fire, even well before the sun goes down, so it's quite smoky. Thankfully we are parked well away from everyone, so it's not as bad as it could be. Tomorrow, we're off to Mount Isa for three nights.