MOUNT SURPRISE, 40km from Undara, takes its name from the shock of the local Aborigines when they first saw whites. It’s little more than a van park/gem shop/service station (tel 07/4062 3153) and hotel (tel 07/4062 3118; $31–45); the main point of interest is the anachronistic Savannahlander train, which runs in recently renovated splendour from Mount Surprise through Einasleigh and down to Forsayth.
You spend the five-hour journey being hauled over rickety bridges in carriages with corrugated-iron ceilings and wooden dunnies – a pastiche of Outback iconography. The train leaves Mount Surprise on Monday and Thursday at around noon, departing Forsayth for the return leg Tuesday and Friday at 7.30am ($35 each way); for an additional $40 you can have dinner and a bed at Forsayth’s Goldfields Hotel.
The other local attraction lies a bumpy hour’s drive north of Mount Surprise at O’Briens Creek Topaz Field; you’ll need a 4WD. Arthur Griffin lives on the field and, for $10 a head, will organize fossicking trips for anyone turning up by 8.30am at his home, the Oasis. You might find a handful of topaz in a couple of hours, and while it’s not very valuable, there’s pleasure in the hunt.
West of Mount Surprise the road crosses the Wall, where expanding gases in a blocked subterranean lava tube forced the ground above it up 20m into a long ridge. The same gaseous expulsion also seems to have cracked open a much deeper seam at Ambo Springs on Tallaroo Station. Formed by water 3km down becoming heated and forcing its way to the surface, the clear blue, sulphurous pools gradually accumulate a crusty grey collar around their vent from dissolved lime, which eventually closes the outflow – until the build-up of pressure explodes through to create a new spring. The water emerges at 92°C, but there are some cooler spas that are more comfortable for soaking in. Tallaroo Station itself is open to the public (Easter–Oct daily until 4pm; tel 07/4662 1221; $9).
Maps
Gulf of Carpentaria (Northwest Queensland)
GreaterTownsville Area (Tropical Coast)