Week 4 - Travelling Through Northern Territory - April 2021.

Enjoying Camooweal but keen to keep moving towards Western Australia, we packed up mid morning and headed the short 10 mins along the Barkley Highway to the Northern Territory / Queensland Border. We had our border passes all organised, our NT Covid Safe App ready to go, and wanted to take a photo with Jonnie at the border. Well, the border sign had been taken down and there was no one to show our Covid border passes to. We headed to our first free overnight camp, had lunch and decided to continue to 41 mile Bore. We stopped at Barkley Homestead Caravan Park – too expensive to stay and continued onto 41 Mile Bore. 

Last time it was packed with vans and backpackers with the beautiful wind mill in the foreground. This time we were the only ones there and the top of the windmill was gone. We had choice of spots so went down the back and camped behind a small tree next to the fence. We had a designated fireplace (which we didn’t use – no firewood). It is located 115kms from the Barkley Homestead and looked safe. We were hoping someone else would stay, but no one else came. We had noticed there are not many vans on the road.

We had a good sleep and the next day we headed to Three Ways, 71 km, and Peter got his coffee. We were going to get fresh milk and bread, but at $4 and $6 we will make do. The coffee, which Peter said was OK was $6.50.

We took Jonnie up to see the Flying Doctor monument

... and then continued on, a long drive to Attack Creek for lunch. This was one spot I had ‘hearted’ on WikiCamps to stay at, and will keep it on our list, but there were some backpackers set up and playing really loud horrible music, so we decided to continue. It is named Attack Creek after John McDouall Stuart and his exploration party were attacked and forced to head south on 25 June 1860.

We stopped at Elliot to view the WW2 staging camp which was originally No. 8 bore Newcastle Waters, named after army Captain R.D. ‘Snow’ Elliot, and was used as a lunch stop for troops on their third day journey from Alice Springs.

Not far up the road and 3 km off the Stuart Highway, named after explorer John McDouall Stuart, is historic Newcastle Waters, a tiny town that was a bustling place for drovers who gathered there on their cattle drives. It is at a crossroad of three stock routes.

In 1930 the government resumed one square mile from Newcastle Waters station for the establishment of a town site. Some structures already existed, and that was the beginning of the town. Today it is almost a ghost town with very few still living there, still it remains as it was with Jones Store and the Junction Hotel both open for tourists. As we came into town we passed a large bronze statue of a Drover in the Drover’s Memorial Park. This statue was created as a bicentennial project and based on a stockman named Nat Buchanan. Nat Buchanan was the first to overland cattle across the Barkley Tableland and establish Wave Hill Station. We were surprised to find a school there.

Newcastle Waters was named by explorer John McDougall Stuart on 23 May 1861 when he set up camp on the stretch of water. He named it after the Duke of Newcastle who was at the time the Secretary of the Colonies. The Junction Hotel was built in the 1930’s by Jack Sergent and in the day was known as a drovers pub. It is said that Jack Sargent gathered a bunch of his debtors and made them build the pub out of what was lying around the area at the time in exchange for their debt. A liquor licence was granted in 1932. Max Schrober had a store across the road and took over the management of the hotel. It became a bottle licence in the 1950’s and was closed in 1960 and reopened many years later as a tourist visitor site. By the 1960’s road trains saw the end of droving and made Newcastle waters a virtual ghost town.

Jones Store was first leased in 1934, but with no improvements the lease was transferred to Alfred Ulyatt late in 1935. It was Alfred who built the central building, constructed of corrugated iron, bamboo and earth, and planned on opening a store.

 He never did and the lease was tranfered to Arnold ‘Jock’ Jones in January 1936. Jock and his family operated the store until 1949. They added the bread oven (I thought it was a pizza oven), and operated as a store, bakery, butcher and petrol station. The Jones family left the area in 1949 and the lease was passed onto Charles and Charlotte MacKenzie who continued to operate the store until 1953 when Archie Rogers took over. Archie was a saddler and he ran his business until 1959 when George Man Fong took over and worked as a saddler until 1985. It is one of the oldest surviving structures on the former stock route.

The town was saved by a local policeman, Warren Mungatroyd, stationed at Elliot who knew the value of the heritage and purchased the lease when George moved to Katherine. He had discussions with the National Trust and did a survey of the town. This lead to the National Trust buying the lease and with the assistance of a successful funding from the Australian Bicentennial Authority, restoration of the property took place. It is now a museum with displays of early life in the town.

We headed a short distance up to Daly Waters Pub for the night.