24/9/17 Around the towers

 The weather has been rather warm , topping out between 33 & 35 for the last few days - quite pleasant , it's a dry heat so it's quite bearable , the pool has been an efficient heat reducer as well !!
 Saturday was golf day on the oldest course in Queensland - all 9 holes of it - 18 tee positions though. All went well and I scored 39 pts , so 3 better than my handicap , and when I left the club I was in a tie for 1st place with the guy I played with , can't complain about that !!
 Today was time to check out town and all the buildings - gives you an idea of what the past was like and how much money was being tossed around - and how much money was being pulled out of the ground - there were 92 hotels in the city !!! now there are 8 !! That's what a gold rush can do for a place .
  Gold was discovered in 1871 by a young aboriginal retrieving horses that had run away in a thunderstorm . They retrieved 1,600 ounces of gold from the surface , before starting to dig the ground !!! Many mines were started and Charters Towers became the second largest city in Queensland at the time !! Here's some of the buildings .

The Police Station

   This building is now a Target store - it was turned into a department store that employed 140 assistants !!   The entrance area is amazing , there is a 5m wide verandah , tiled , and with marble steps , and leadlight display cabinets that you can walk all the way around , pressed metal ceilings as well . The raked ceilings inside the shop have the first fibre sheets that were imported from France as linings - we chatted to Stan Pollards son in law for 20mins !!

 The Post Office & Clock Tower

The Stock Exchange Arcade

 There are several murals around town , this one shows the Pyrites Works  , giving you an idea of what it used to look like on Towers Hill .

 This is Towers Hill from the Rotary Lookout

 There are many fine old houses here as well , this is just one of them .

 We then headed out to the weir on the Burdekin River - the cities water supply .

 This is below the weir , showing what the flooding does to these old tea trees

 Here's a very healthy bull , quietly grazing as we drove past on our way back into town .

 Another bit of trivia for you all - Charters Towers was one of several airstrips used during WW2 , they preferred to be higher up away from the coast , as they could take off and not waste too much fuel gaining height - they just flew low level over the mountains to the coast and they were already over 2,000 ft or more - saving on fuel , and allowing them to fly further on their bombing missions . They used too much fuel when taking off with a full load of fuel and bombs & ammunition at sea level on the coast . So there you go !!

  That's it for today , here's a map link : -  https://drive.google.com/open?id=16JeQ2PlC_siU2UteVxpszc4Po_E&usp=sharing