Camooweal, Droving and Back on track

Friday 25th June 2021

Today we drove from Mount Isa to Camooweal, on the border of QLD/NT.

We finally had the battery system running properly and are back on the road using solar power.

At Camooweal, we stopped and stayed at Post Office Hotel and Caravan Park.

Camooweal History

Situated 191km from Mount Isa is the small country town, Camooweal, which is known as the gateway to the Northern Territory and Queensland. It also happens to be the most westerly town in Queensland as the Northern Territory border is only 14 km to the west.

Camooweal is home to a rich history and rural lifestyle. The Barkly Highway which joins Mount Isa to Camooweal is considered the longest main street in the world, at 188km long.

The Camooweal district is honeycombed with rare sinkholes and caves, dating back to the Cambrian Period, about 500 million years ago.

Camooweal is essence of basic rural town: a general store (the famous Freckleton’s General Storekeepers) and a supermarket; two petrol stations and a pub all located on the Georgina River.

The road from Mount Isa was built during World War II with American funds as a link between the southern states and the theoretical ‘front line’ in the Northern Territory. It was built in such haste – ie just bitumen over the flat countryside – that it became known as Tojo’s Revenge – a reference to the Japanese military leader who had forced its building.

Pre European History

Prior to the arrival of Europeans the area around Camooweal had been home to the Indjalandji-Dhidhanu Aboriginal people for tens of thousands of years.

In 1861 the explorer William Landsborough was the first European to pass through the Camooweal area. He was looking for Burke and Wills. By 1870 Landsborough’s reports led to the area being settled by pastoralists.

The town was surveyed in 1883. In 1884 that the town of Camooweal was gazetted.

It operated as a Customs Post between Queensland and South Australia (which controlled the Northern Territory) until Federation.

By 1892 the town had a police station, a court house, two hotels and a school. The Barkly Tableland Shire, which included Camooweal, was formed in 1914.

In 1943 Joseph Freckleton took over the General Store. He earned a good living selling goods to the military forces who moved through the town.

In 2009 Freckleston’s Store was closed.