LIFESTYLE in CLONCURRY

Location

Cloncurry is located on the Flinders Highway. It is 776 kilometres west of Townsville, 120 km east of Mount Isa and 1,976 kilometres NorthWest of Brisbane. It was founded by Ernest Henry in 1867. It is famed as Australia's hottest spot after recording a high of 127.5F (48.8C) on 16 January 1887.

Population

According to the 1996 Census the population was 3,898 people. The population is projected to be 5,600 by the year 2016.

General Description of Town

Cloncurry is situated in the semi arid tropics and experiences long hot summers and short cool winters. Rainfall pattern is summer dominated monsoonal from November to March.
 
The town is nestled against a backdrop of mineral rich hills and situated on the banks of the Cloncurry River. The town's water supply comes from Chinaman Creek Dam situated approximately 3km from the town centre. There are also river soaks to supplement supply during the summer months and a number of private properties have house bore water supply.
 
The Shire of Cloncurry has a rural and mining based economy. The mining activity has occurred for over 100 years and recent development has brought significant economic growth to the Shire. There are world scale and medium scale projects in production and well-advanced in development. There are fifty-six cattle properties in the shire. The tourism industry is also gaining in importance as an economic generator for the region.

General Description of Town

The town offers a variety of facilities including business, industry and retail. These include stock and station agents, arts and crafts, bakery, builders, carpenters, clothing, shoes, communications, computing, concrete, contractors, dry cleaning and laundry, electrical contractors, employment agencies, engineering, fitting and turning, firearms and sporting goods, florist fuel distributors, service stations, vehicle repairs, furniture, gas supplies, hair and beauty salons, hardware, household appliances, mine services, newsagent, nursery, painters, sign-writers, photography, photo processing, publishing and typesetting, real estate agents, saddlery, security, shoe and boot repairs, sports, supermarkets, surveyors, TAB, taxi cabs, timber supplier, transport and freight, travel agents, veterinary clinic, video hire, water and drilling and welding services.
 
There are branches of the National Australia and Westpac banks. The Post Office offers a Commonwealth Bank Agency. Primary Industry Bank of Australia (PIBA), Credit Union Agencies and EFTPOS facilities are provided by many businesses.
 
Schooling is offered in the form of a Pre-school to Year 12 State School and a Catholic Primary School. Churches represented in the town are Anglican, Catholic, Uniting, Assembly of God and Living Waters.
 
Emergency services are also situated in the town. These include a 35-bed hospital, ambulance, pharmacist, fire brigade, police station, dentist and doctor's surgery and regular visiting specialists.

Transport within the Region

A taxi service and hire car facility is available in town. Flight West Airlines and Macair offer daily flights to Mount Isa and Townsville with connections to Brisbane. Coaches travel daily to Mount Isa, Townsville and Brisbane. The "Inlander" train service also travels twice weekly to Townsville.

Tourist Attractions

Cloncurry has two major tourist centres, John Flynn Place and Mary Kathleen Park.
 
John Flynn Place honours the birthplace of the RFDS in the form of a memorial museum. It was officially opened in 1988 by Their Royal Highnesses, the Duke and Duchess of York. Sir Robert Menzies once described it as "the single greatest contribution to the effective settlement of the far distant country". This museum also boasts an Art Gallery and, between the two, there is a valuable collection of historical material including photographs, documents and the first Traeger pedal wireless and automatic morse keyboard.
 
Mary Kathleen Park is a monument to the doomed uranium mine and town and preserves a unique chapter of North Queensland's history. When the Mary Kathleen Township was abandoned, four of the buildings were relocated at the Park. These were the police residence, the police station, the town office and the ANZ Bank building. Housed in the former town office is a splendid rock and mineral display ranked by experts as one of the most comprehensive in Australia.
 
The original QANTAS hangar still stands at the Cloncurry airport.

Events

See the Website Calendar.

Tour Operations

A number of tours are offered from Cloncurry for residents and visitors alike and they range from tours of the town to fossicking to gold panning and detecting as well as historic towns tours.

Accommodation

The town offers all types of accommodation ranging from a campervan stopover to caravan parks with cabins through to a number of motels up to a four star rating.

Visitor Information Centre

Visitor information is available from the Cloncurry Shire Offices on 4742 1333 or John Flynn Place on (07) 4742 1251 and Mary Kathleen park on (07) 4742 1361.

Lifestyle