Day 7 - Gregory Downs to Hell's Gate

Hell's Gate Roadhouse - so remote that Google Maps has never hear if it! Nevertheless I'm sure their are plenty of grey nomads who've been there. Hells Gate Roadhouse is one of the westernmost localities in Queensland.

Gregory Downs to Hell's Gate

Travellers reported a few years ago that Hell's Gate roadhouse had closed down. Apparently the local Aboriginal community had banned alcohol, making the roadhouse business unviable.

• 180km west of Burketown
• 590km north of Mt Isa
• 1350km west of Townsville
• 1020km west of Cairns. 

The Waanyi, Gungalita and Gawara people are the traditional people of the area. Caves near Hell's Gate act as natural art galleries for the pictorial history of these early residents. Native wells and other remnants of their life in the district can still be found today.

There's an amazing atmospheric phenomema in this part of the world that would be fantastic if it happened in the morning. Late September to early November a peculiar cloud formation occurs. The Morning Glory is a series of long cigar shaped cloud formations that roll out of the Gulf in lines of three or four, usually in the early hours before daylight.Occurring in only two places in the world, the Gulf of Carpentaria and the Gulf of Mexico, these multiple formations follow behind each other, accompanied by a violent wind called a 'shock wave'. The cloud itself does not travel much further than 60km inland but the wind has been registered as far south as Alice Springs. The appearance of these formations heralds the unstable and changeable weather of the build-up to the 'Wet'.

Morning Glory cloud formation

Click on Archive (previous posts) to see reports from the previous days.

More to come soon.


T.