Day 10 Dysart
Wednesday, February 17, 2010 at 05:24AM
Today I wanted to share a little bit of information about where we are, a lot of you will be creating mental images of our travels, here is some information about the town, I stole most of the info from the internet.... hope you don’t mind
Dysart is a friendly community with modern facilities. Established in 1973, the town caters to the coalmines of Saraji and Norwich Park as well as the many surrounding cattle and grain properties.
In the mid-1990s Dysart was a thriving community with a population of about 4500, however restructuring and downsizing of the mining industry in 1997 saw the population decline to approximately 2500 with a current population of approximately 4000.
In the centre of the town is located an Olympic-sized pool, It has a shopping mall, a nine-hole golf course and a bowls club.
Although built specifically to service the mining operations, Dysart is a public town administered by the Broadsound Shire Council.
Dysart has a sub-tropical climate; daytime temperature range from 25 – 38 degrees Celsius in the summer months with occasional heatwave conditions in December and January. Winter temperatures range from around 19 to 25 degrees Celsius in the daytime.
Got a question from Rob.... Thanks Rob....The rest of you get your act together! Rob has asked if there is any particular site that I want to take Ness to & why. I would have to say that I am lucky in that I have been to many amazing places in Australia with my work. A lot of minesites are in remote places & believe it or not the mining companies do a great job of only working in the areas that they are allowed to & they do very little damage to surrounding areas. But some favourites of mine that we will get to on this trip are The Pilbara, there are a few iron ore mines in the Pilbara that are surrounded by natural gorges. The beauty of the Pilbara is that it can be barren for miles & miles & then you come across this amazing rock outcrop or waterhole, other beautiful places are Bowen in Qld, Weipa up the top of Australia, Nhulunbuy in the gulf, Tom Price in WA, the Hunter Valley in NSW, a sunset in Darwin is something that everyone should experience. Actually Rob, now that you have made me think of it every place we will get to on this trip will be different. Currently we are in the lushest green countryside I have ever seen, & I have travelled here lots. When we get to WA it will be the opposite..... But still beautiful.
Rob also asked how many pairs of shoes Ness has worn so far.... Well I’d like to say that she has only worn one of them! But she has actually worn 5.. Yes 5. She actually wore high heels when we went for dinner the other day!
Another question from Campbell was “What is the can count?” well I don’t know how many cans we have left but I’m guessing it is about 150Kg worth.... I told Ness if we don’t start using them ill dump them at the Salvo’s. It is hard though as the food at the mess is supplied & really nice. So we don’t have to cook.
Still raining here, a lot of the creeks are flooded & some roads cut. The mine also cannot work when it is wet as the trucks just slide all over the roads. Some of the equipment weighs over 400 tonnes fully loaded, that is heavy... so you don’t want it sliding down the road out of control. So the guys just do maintenance, clean the truck cabins & lunch rooms. Some of the managers use the rain as an opportunity to give the guys additional training. Which most of them hate!
Ok, till next time...arrivederci
Ps.... send us some questions! If you send them via post comment on this website then others can also see the questions you raise.
James
Reader Comments (3)
hey there father and ness
just thought i should say hi
brad
Hey guys, I worked in Bowen (known as "blowin Bowen") many years ago and it really is a nice place.......good fishing too.
My question is, does the 9 hole course at Dysart have turf greens or sand ?
Cheers
Questions for you to ponder or answer if you can:
What river runs through the Gemfields Region to Lake Dalrymple?
How far is it to Mt Isa from Dalrymple? (do you go to Mt Isa? I'd avoid it if you can)
Not sure if there are any mines there - are you heading up to Cape Tribulation? It rocks!
Whats Longreach famous for?
What is the nearest body of water you are closest to?
Enough trivia.....enjoyingthe updates team. love loads xxxxx