Further Ayrfield …

Day 14: Good Friday 6 April (7pm, Ayr)

Hire car at the ready – it was time for some exploring today! Shelley drove up from Bowen for an early start. We headed out to Charters Towers to see what this town, with its history of the first Stock Exchange in Australia, had to offer.

Original architecture

CT certainly has gorgeous architecture and we got to see some of it firsthand. We pulled up in front of an old pub and as the doors were wide open, we thought we’d wander in and see about a drink – it was mid morning, so coffee of course! Well, the pub was no longer a pub, but instead, had been converted to cater for a mix of different accommodation budgets. The owner found us immediately we walked in and offered to give us a tour. We weren’t sure if it was a museum of sorts or whether there was a fee, but he enthusiastically showed us around the entire building, greeting a permanent guest as he made a cup of coffee (wearing a chef’s hat, as you do), knocking at another guests’ door to check they had cleared out, and then revealing the ‘honeymoon suite’ with its supersized spa and bonus mannequin sporting an antique wedding dress (thankfully it wasn’t on show today as we didn’t want to ruin the surprise should we ever decide to have a second honeymoon). In 35 minutes we got the full tour, including the cellars, which we weren’t too sure about but proved harmlessly full of antiques ready for repair. The owner has truly done an amazing job of restoring the building safely and with oodles of character. Almost a shame that we had to press on, but we did …

We grabbed the coffee we’d been after at Henry’s Restaurant just down the road and then we drove up to the lookout to see some of the mine shafts and a holographic show. Turns out the show doesn’t commence till 6pm, but still worth the view and a bit more history of the area. Not much was open so we headed off for Ravenswood.



Ravenswood quarry



A Ravenswod pub



Ravenswood is a ‘legitimate’ ghost town – not sure what that means exactly, but we suspect shenanigans on the ghost town status as there was a bit of activity in and around the town today! The pub that said it was open all day over Easter was closed, so it was lucky that we’d brought our own lunch, and we drove up to a lookout over the local gold mining quarry to find a spot to eat it. Back down the hill after lunch, we noticed that another pub that had looked closed was actually open and there was a woman wandering around in a cape, so maybe those ghosts were playing tricks on us after all. Just to be sure, we drove on up to the cemetery to have a look around and found some gorgeous gates that had been made for it early last century.



Headed back towards home when Steve suggested we stop in at the Billabong Sanctuary as he’d had such a good day there yesterday. We arrived there at 3.45pm. Gates closed at 4pm. Front desk looked at us quizzically and gave in to us as 3.47pm (with a 66% discount!). We raced around to see the dingoes, crocs, and turtles and managed to pat some kangaroos and a wombat and take a few photos of birds and out by 4.04pm. It really was a whirlwind tour!

Fish and chips for dinner – sleep now J