AGATE CREEK-Best time of year to go?

[Jimnyjerry]

Hi Guys,


The time has almost come for me to head off to Agate Creek.


I'll be leaving home around 4:00am this coming Wednesday morning. The campers all packed and just got a few last minute purchases to make and pack the rest of my stuff into the car and I'm off.


According to Google maps it's 2549klms from my place in Sunbury Melb. to Agate Creek FNQ and 29 hrs drive. But google maps doesn't take into consideration, road works, traffic, detours, slow trucks or any other spur of the moment delays. So I think it's going to be a 4-5 day drive.


Cheers Ranger Itchy

5 day trip for me from the Blue Mountains to Agate Ck with a trailer

[Rusted]

Well I might just see you there, It's going to be a bit of a rushed trip this year but hope to get a couple of weeks in. We will probably be leaving later in the week.

[Ranger Itchy]

Hi Rusted,


I'll be in the Dark green Ford Ranger with the Blue Tongue camper trailer!
Come and say HI!


Cheers Ranger Itchy

[Rusted]

Yikes, I just had a look at the road closures up through central Queensland, We normally go straight up through Cobar, Bourke, Cunnamulla, Charleville and Muttaburra to Hughenden, Muttaburra to Hughenden is black soil and unsealed. Every time I have said I wouldn't like to be on this road if it rained. Not a bad road, quite a pleasant drive, no Winnebagos or huge caravans out there.
Hughenden to The lynd is open to 4WD. But not many options for getting to Hughenden so a slightly longer trip is on the cards.

When (if) we get there I have a white landcruiser trayback with a camper on it.

[geowork]

Yes, Central West Queensland had an incredible amount of unseasonal rain recently. There is more predicted over the next week or so, currently up to 50 mm. Hey, but knowing the fickleness of weather that will change. Even if the dirt roads somehow dried, they may be in bad, rutted condition until graded. Maybe best to plan your trip staying on the bitumen, eg come up through Emerald, via Miles or Roma. We will be heading up in a couple of weeks, but we start from Emerald. Note that rain is also currently predicted for the Einasleigh/Georgetown/Agate Creek region. So the dirt roads, no matter which way you go in, may be affected. Safe travels!

[Rusted]

We are home again, We made it to Agate creek with half a day to spare before the "big wet". Boy did it rain. It pelted down for two days, hard to say how much rain because it was very patchy and no rain guage at the Creek. Georgetown hardly got any, Dot and Dave got 80mm, I think we got a lot more than that. Agate Creek was up to the top of the banks but the Robertson River didn't even manage to get enough to run.

We came out the back way via Gilberton as usual, the road was in a bad way, the Percy River crossings were "interesting". The idea was to camp at Moonstone Hill, we drove in and I had my window half open, the mossies just mobbed us, no way you could stay there.

Anyway we all had a good poke around in the creeks once the water dropped and we managed a few nice pieces, some nice bits came from the roads where gullies formed, Walking the flats was good this year, The rain knocked all the spear grass seeds down so you could walk grassy areas and not have to worry about socks and clothes full of burrs and seeds.

[Jimnyjerry]

Glad you had a good time and got home safely.    
The rain really chased you.

[Bucket]

Any photos Rusted? Having not been out through Gilberton before I'd love to see what it was like that way, looks like it would cut off a fair bit of time if you were going to travel south.

[Rusted]

It depends on your tolerance of dirt roads. We like the Gilberton Rd. We have a capable vehicle and aren't towing anything, we just take our time and it is fun, it is remote and beautiful. We hardly ever see another person.
At the moment it is rough, every gully is a run through the gears. It is about 160 Km from the camp to the Hughenden Rd, the first time we did it after the grader had been through it took us 2.5 hours. It hasn't seen a grader since then so it is getting rougher, last year was 3 hours, this year after the rain it was 4 hours.
Going in we came from Winton to Hughenden, dodging closed flooded roads, then Hughenden to Lynvale just north of Moonstone Hill. then the Gilberton Rd. We did all of that and got to Agate Creek about 3 OClock so it does save a lot of time.
Lynvale to Gilberton is reasonably easy, Gilberton to Agate Creek has three major sandy crossings of the Percy and about seven small (dry) rocky creeks, The road up and down off an escarpment is very very steep. It isn't a trip you would do if you were towing anything, and with the road in such bad condition it isn't something you would do without a high clearance vehicle. Though the first time we did it some backpackers did it in a HiAce van.

It is reasonably straight forward, only two intersections you need to worry about that might bamboozle you, the first (coming from Agate Creek) is Gilberton, T intersection, right takes you to Gilberton (not really, it doesn't exist any more) so you go left. Next intersection is a right turn, the finger board points to Kidston and Einesleigh, the right turn takes you out to the Hughenden Road.

If you decide to give it a go let me know and I will go over those directions for you.

[Bucket]

Thanks Rusted, i won't be up that way for a while but sounds like it might be worth a go. I have some experience at 4wding, went up the Tele Track on Cape York a few years ago and have done a fair bit down here and in W.A., always looking for something a bit different though.

[Rusted]

Righto, you will enjoy it then. It's not in the same league as the Telegraph track, just a road that has fallen on tough times. The only time the 4WD got a workout was the Percy river crossings because they were still new wet sand, after a while they pack down.

They might even be going to grade it, they are doing the Agate Creek road to the Safari camp and I noticed pegs on some of the gullies around Rungella National Park.