A few of the SMBers who live on the Atherton Tableland left on Friday and overnighted in Georgetown.
The rest of us saddled up on Saturday morning and headed for Georgetown and our meeting up point for smoko.
After a quick smoko and the development of a co-ordinated backtrack of all the fixed wings we headed off for Richmond. Richmond proved to be an absolute eye opener for how a small outback town has done everything right, with the leadership of keen council and some foresight. Richmond has a number of facilities and services that would easily make it the "town to stop in" if you're flying past or if you are driving from Townsville to Mt. Isa.
The museum "Kronosaurus Korner" while small is extremely well presented and boasts a number of specimens which are the best of their kind in the world. The specimens, indeed the whole museum owes a debt to Rob Eivors, a pastoralist turned amateur paleontologist and local councillor. Rob owns the property on which many of the fossils were found and was responsible for preventing the specimens being sucked up into the Queensland Museum in Brisbane. Though they would have been preserved there they would have done no good at all for the community who found them and Rob's efforts have been rewarded with a first class museum. Kronosaurus Korner boasts it's own full time paeontolgist who took us out to a dig site and showed us how to find endless numbers of sea shell, fish scales and fin fossils.
Rob also took us to a huge area of green cereal crops being grown under highly controlled environmentally friendly conditions. At present the entire crop was being used as fodder for feedlot animals.
As well as the museum, Richmond boasts a man-made lake suitable for boating, water skiing and canoeing right on the edge of town. The lake comes complete with lawns, barbeque facilities and walking paths.
The majority of buildings in the main block are sign posted with a short history from the early days of Richmond. Most are not the original buildings as almost every building burned down at some stage in it's life.
Around the corner Richmond's football ground is taking shape with a rich green turf, lights and grandstand. As the town is about mid-point on the Townsville to Mt. Isa highway the town will host the region football competitions. Due to the foresight of the council in putting in the infrastructure then bidding for the competition venue this will also bring more money into the town.
