LAWRIE WILLIAMS: Topaz Trip

On November 30th I took some friends out to Topaz for a bit of a look around. It was sad to see how much forest has been wiped away as well as how many public roads have locked gates. The Labor Party was founded in opposition to the squatters (as in Waltzing Matilda) but in the 1980s they got the bright idea of devolving state power to local councils usually dominated by conservative farmers. As a result many of the finest scenic and prospecting areas in the state are now inaccessible and many public roads have been closed, making it impossible for the public to use them.

Oh, well; all the better for the survival of crypo-critters.

We went to check out Wairambar Creek. From a distance Topaz shows only as a sliver of pale green - it is mostly dairy farms. The google view shows Topaz along with the Russel River and some of the most difficult terrain on the planet. Topaz is the tongue of
land in the mid-ground and Millaa Millaa is at the top left. Topaz is 12km away but its a full 30-km drive to get there.

Topaz - a long range view

Topaz and Bartle Frere

This is a well-known Yowie area and I shall collect some witness accounts in the fullness of time.

I'd promised some friends I would show them some gold so we went across some private land (with permission) and into the rainforest. About 2km in, the track ended and then we went about 200m down a steep slope, all of it through a dense maze of saplings and vines under the mature canopy.

The last part was truly precipitous but with so much stuff to grab or get tangled in if we fell it was not so much deadly as merely risky and difficult.

Karen in the creek

We got to the creek and the first thing I noticed was that all the rocks were loose. In other words, some time in the past 15 years it has all been put through a gold dredge. No harm in that although it is illegal. We delved to a bank next to a big pool and got a couple of dishes to 'wash.' The first had a speck of gold in it and the second a fleck. The worthwhile gold would be in a horizontal stratum all around us up the slopes.

This goldfield never got cleaned up because of the dense scrub, the "wild blacks", the basalt overburden and above all, because of the deadly depressive effects that set in once the rain starts and the scenery becomes dark monochrome, even during daytime.

I'd done my bit so I resorted to the pool. What with spending so much time writing I've started to put on weight so to fight da flab I stayed in the cool ( 17 C approx) water for half an hour. Wonderful.

At one stage while swimming underwater across the pool I was cruising between big boulders and ahead of me I saw a big dark cloud of mud. It put the wind up me because it could only mean I was sharing the pool with something fairly large. I hastily retreated. Years ago in nearby 5-mile creek a water snake fixed his teeth around my calf making a huge circle of small holes and I did not feel like a repeat of that experience. Another time I met a very big eel in the Russel River - we simultaneously turned tail and fled!

There was no chance of meeting a yowie that day. I'd taken my dog Chelsie along and could not navigate the slope with her on the chain as it kept getting impossibly tangled in the vines. So she was set free. She is trained not to go off chasing things and one of the strange characteristics of North Queensland scrub is that it is very rare to see any animal life. So she just showed off her all-terrain abilities literally running up and down the impossible slope while we hauled our way up inch by difficult inch.

I am sure dogs are the reason humans are not extinct. No large predator could possibly catch a human by surprise because of the way dogs constantly circle their people in dense forest. Naturally when I go deeper into the scrub I leave Chelsie at home.

I believe the tropical rainforests of Queensland are the closest thing left on this planet to the original natural habitat of Homo sap and related species. The temperature is stable, there is constant food if you know what to look for, there is always water and there is the security that comes of being invisible just 20m away from unwanted prying eyes. Despite the horrid climb with clutching at thorny vines and scrabbling in the dirt none of us suffered any injury worse than some very tired muscles in our arms. (I did pause on the way up to wonder what I'd do if I blundered into a colony of jumping ants!)

Today I feel weary but very much alive. My appetite has reduced in response to that long spell in cold water. More long cool swims coming up this summer!