2 Jan 2008 Fitzroy River Crossing - at the Lodge. Below you can see some aboriginal art the school children have painted onto the walls of the original Fitzroy Inn (100 years old) - make sure you don't do any "humbugging" whilst there. The face is that of Jandamurra, a local legend or Ned Kelly type hero, who is said to have used the nearby (115km away) limestone Tunnel Creek as a hideout during the last century, he led the aboriginals in his fight against the white settlers and was tracked down and killed in 1897.





































































































30 Dec 07 Fitzroy River Lodge - we went croc catching - looked him right in the eye, then along came the Croc Catchers and "relocated" him to the Fitzroy River, it was very exciting, nobody is sure why he was at the resort pool???? There is an abundance of frangipanni, boab seeds and many other beautiful flowers here - the bus smells very pretty.
















31 Dec 07 Fitzroy Crossing WA - sorry Officer, please don't take me away........midnight yay and we had a great night, Margo danced away with the aboriginal community ladies, the dj played country and western and we sat with 8 white folk blowing whistles, eating yummy dinner and lots of champers luvs!!!!









































28 Dec 2007 We departed the loverly Fitzroy Crossing and headed west again on the Great Northern Highway.......heading for Broome...........alas, the harmonic balance thingy on the engine disintergrated in a puff of white smoke..... right out there in the middle of absolutely completely utterly NOWHERE!!!! We unhitched and crawled back to the lovely Fitzroy River Lodge.......mmmm.... found the mechanic, nursed a community baby, ordered a new harmonica thingy and wait.















26 Dec 2007 - We departed Halls Creek



and headed west on the Great Northern Highway, 310km through two deserts, The Great Sandy Desert and The Tanami Desert. Amazing country we have, it's awesome and huge and beautiful....and arrived at the beautiful Fitzroy River Lodge. The grass here is green, the bus is shaded by eight - yes - eight trees, you can get cappucino here, and we had a cup of tea with 4 white folks. I can hug my own boab tree, swim in the pool, and this resort is like being in a 5 star resort......love it............there is even "Dress Code"in the bar - how good is this huh!! And only half strength alcohol is served to the community members here, so it is a rather happy place, and the pub doesn't open till midday.

















25 Dec 2007. The poodle got tired............




















25 Dec 2007 MERRY CHRISTMAS.......ARE WE THERE YET.......... yep we are and yay, we at.....HALLS CREEK......we three had a ball, Tilly opened her new clippers, and her stocking, and her bon bon (with a bone in it). David cooked kangaroo and gumleaf stew for Margo, we also had turkey and boab fruit jelly, and ham with pickled boab roots. It was grand......we also had on board one only bottle of Moet - just had to drink it..........Halls Creek is very hot, very red dusty....... we had four days here and were the only tourists in the park, the management were very nice to us and invited us over for Christmas drinks, it was lovely to speak to some white people...............we saw lots of interesting activities at Halls Creek, unfortunately I didn't take many photos of Halls Creek, it was however very red and dusty, with tin shacks throughout for the community members, and cars being burnt in the street..... there did not appear to be more than a handful of white folk living here.....the population is said to be approximately 4,000. A lovely day was had by all - all three of us that is!!!!!



















In 1948 Halls Creek was moved to a different location. By 1954 the original Halls Creek was completely abandoned.
So there are infact two Halls Creeks, the original location having only remnants of the original buildings.

The new Halls Creek is a small, predominantly Aboriginal settlement. It has a hotel, motel, caravan park and two roadhouses.
The Old Halls Creek was originally established as a gold mining town but once the gold was gone it was nothing more than a service centre for the surrounding pastoral holdings and the traffic which moved along the highway. The highway was re-routed to avoid winding through the hills around the old town and that coupled with the fact there was a lack of water at the old site were the reasons for the move.
Travellers today can visit the site of the Old Halls Creek settlement and find remnants of buildings, some street signs, the ruins of the old mud brick Post Office, a recently built well to celebrate the discovery of gold in the area, a graveyard, and a modern restaurant. The 15 km journey out to Old Halls Creek on the Duncan Road passes the China Wall. 1.5 km off the road is a limestone formation which rises from a creek up over a small hill. It is a natural formation of white quartz which looks like a small version of the Great Wall of China. There is a stream below that is good for swimming.