Some photos for the CCCC crew - the Jardine

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Originally Posted by garrycol

I am surprised there are so many people flopping around in the water - I know that crocs had not really started to recover however I was aircrew in aircraft flying patrols in the northern cape area around 1980 and we used to chase plenty of crocs in the rivers in and around the Jardine - and there were heaps and big ones.

Garry

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Yeah it is strange about the crocs. I remember we were never conscious about the croc danger anywhere we went, camping alongside and in the beds of many of the creeks and rivers up that way. As did everybody else.

For instance, on the banks of the Jardine when we were there I reckon there were 80 - 100 individual camp sites spread along the southern side of the river.
https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/im...009/06/280.jpg

I think the presence of so many people and constant movement of so many vehicles in and around the water just scared them away. After all everybody on the Cape converged and passed through this one single point.

The situation around the Jardine today may be very different – maybe not so many people stopping there now since the ferry has been running for years.

Our group of 3 vehicles were the only ones camped on the southern bank of the Jardine in '78.

We walked through the full width -to check the bottom and depth, not being aware of crocs in those days as culling had ceased not long before, and there weren't too many big ones around at that time.
http://img197.imageshack.us/img197/1659/57435173.jpg

One of our group had a small dog and let it swim in the Jardine....it survived to live another day.

None of our party had snorkels on their vehicles, but we did attach a hose to to the air cleaner and another to the exhaust pipe.

Erich

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Originally Posted by Bundalene

Our group of 3 vehicles were the only ones camped on the southern bank of the Jardine in '78.
Erich

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Well that is interesting. You say you were there in June. I was there in mid August. Later in the season may explain the presence of more people.

By the way, I have a picture taken in almost exactly the same spot as yours. You can even identify the same trees and other features of the northern side in both pictures.

https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/im...009/06/263.jpg

WOW!, Its pics like these that take my back to my teenage years, when i was growing up in Weipa,,(69 to 79, aged 10 t0 20). The shot of telegraph track shows just why there were no corrigations back then, compared to now. Far too many washouts, gullies, creek crossings and since the track was for the maintenance of the telegraph line, it wove and deviated in and out of the scrub and was mostly just 2 wheels tracks with a mohawk of grass growing in the middle of it. By the time you made it to Cairns, you had the shiniest sump and diffs.
A family holidaytrip to Archer river, in a series 3, in 1971 took 16 hrs, and the road house didn,t exist, and you had to carry all your fuel for the drive, but the camping was magic as the cement crossing wasn,t there, either.
Now its done in a little over 2 hrs.
Laurie

Weipa has certainly changed since we first went there on that Cape trip in 1978. It did take a long time to drive in from the Archer River.

On that same trip we met a young fellow at Coen who was driving his Valliant into Weipa as he was starting a job there. We travelled with him from Coen to Weipa, to make sure he got there in one piece as it was a rough old track. He made it without too many dramas, as far as I can remember.

Erich

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Originally Posted by Numpty's Missus

I don't think the crossing as such exists anymore

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I'm sure the Gall boys crossed the Jardine in the same spot in their latest DVD. They had some trouble with the van but the lead car made it across OK.

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Originally Posted by Numpty's Missus

I don't think the crossing as such exists anymore
When we were there in 1994 there certainly weren't any approach and departure points like that
and the water was over 6ft deep :eek:
We did the crossing in a tinnie and then took the ferry :D

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I think the reason you may not have seen the crossing points and the water was so deep was because the roads locations are now so different.

Here's the old crossing point, the northern crossing point is clearly visable and you can see the sandy southern bank where everybody camped.

Old Jardine Crossing

By contrast here is the ferry. They are miles from each other.

Ferry Crossing

Strange to be able to look at maps like this now. When we went the only map we had was a standard RQAC road map. While you stayed on the telegraph road all was OK but once you strayed from that you were pretty much on your own. Coming home we diverted through Lakelands and become lost for 2 days, ended up somewhere on the shores of Princess Charlote Bay.

No maps, no sat phones, no gps - how times change.

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Originally Posted by V8Ian

After the ferry was commisioned the 'locals' 'modified' the crossing forcing vehicles onto the ferry. Some enterprising 4x4 folk, and aren't most of them, found ways to avoid the ferry, so an excavator was left, permenantly at the Jardine. Also one used to pay each way, untill too many people claimed destitution southbound. A return was charged northbound, but you had to retain the ticket or pay again. I don't know what the situation is these days.

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I remember when this was done. The destruction of the crossing to force the use of the ferry caused a lot of bad feeling amongst road users. A lot of (racist) name calling also. I gather the traditional owners will not permit the crossing to be restored or a bridge built. The ferry is probably the bulk of the community's income other than welfare payments.