So you want to see the Adelaide River, Eh? well this is it at the southern outskirt of town. There are four bridges at this location. The old highway bridge, which I'm standing on, the new Highway bridge in foreground, and the new railway bride which is hiding the original railway bridge.














The railway station, now a musuem, The Ghan doesn't stop here.














The Snake Creek WWll depot. These hill side bunkers (about 15 I think) were serviced by a railway complex and housed high explosives and munitions during the war. There are several dozen buildings etc. here but were well worth the look. This site is about 6 klms from Adelaide River township.









This is the mighty "Ghan" crossing the Adelaide river. I couldn't show the locomotive as they were using an old one due to the extensive repairs being done on the Ghan loco due to the major derailment a few weeks earlier. Onr of the road trains from Brock's creek had been hit by the train and a cataustrophic derailment had resulted.

Aaron Armstrong takes us down the Brock's creek gold mine. Brock's creek is a further 56 kilometres south of Adelaide river. It is a mineral rich area with many workings and small ghost towns from the turn of the century. Here we are in full regalia after our induction.














Enterance to the mine is via this tunnel which is at the base of a previous open cut pit. We drove down the spiral shaft in a Toyota land cruiser. If I remember correctly, we decended 300 metres below this point and travelled 3 kilometres of spiralling shaft to get there..


















Aaron and Susan inspect a gold ore sample off the floor. Although you could see "colour" in the sample it takes a fair bit of extraction to get payable dirt. It was fairly hot and certainly humid as large pumps kept the water at bay. Remember this is the wet season and seepage from above provides plenty of water below.











This a mobile unit fixing mesh to the ceiling to stop rockfalls. These units are multifunctional and can change operations to do other work as well. There were surprisingly few people at work inside the mine.

Susan beside a large termite mound at Pell Mell.














Tolmer Falls in Litchfield national Park. Probably the most spectacular set in the park.
Florence Falls. What a beautiful spot. We spent about 3 hours oin the water here. Another of the Litchfield Park falls. The wet weather has put our proposed visit to Kakudu on hold for the moment.

















Sunset from the front verandah at Pell Mell. The photo does not do justice to the spectacle,

The War Cemetery at Adelaide River. This is a beautiful place maintained by the Australian War Graves Commission.

















There are several resident Peacocks as well as hens in the cemetery.























Susan sits on the North verandah of the Pell Mell residence doing Sudoku. She's been addicted to it for several months now. Note the van parked at the front.

















Inside the lounge and dining room of our section of the Pell Mell residence. We stayed in a modern addition to the original residence. Fully self contained.

Enjoying Robin Falls south of Adelaide River. This creek is full of sooty grunter. Lucky for them I left the rod and lures at home otherwise they would have felt the full effect of my legendary fishing skills.


















Wangi Falls in Litchfield National Park. We made several trips to the National Park. We had intended to spend christmas in a cabin at a private caravan park adjoining the National Park. We returned home after finding the cabin at the van park unsatisfactory. There are nunerous falls in the national park, all well worth the trip.














Machine gun emplacement on a hill top at Pell Airbase. There are several of these on the property we were sitting. The property name is Pell Mell. More photos of the property in other blogs below.













A Slit trench below the gun emplacement above. This was cover for the troops if straffed by Japanese aircraft.

The property sits are not just fun stuff. Here I am working my butt off. Susan helps by taking photos and then quite unfairly calls me the "Pyro maniac".









The temp. was about 38 in the shade. It looks so bloody beautiful here though doesn't it?















Mowing the lawn on the northern side of the house.














Returning home after checking the water troughs and fences.

Adelaide River. The sign reminds you of the role played by the town during the second world war. The Territory has done an excellent job in sign posting all of the significant WW 2 sites. There are a lot of airfields and army camps throughout the Territory and all have similar signs. Most have a history of the site and its role in defending the north. History lessons that I had as a school boy did not leave me with the knowledge that there were so many bombing raids on Darwin and surrounding towns and bases.














On our first day at Adelaide River this buffalo walked out onto the road about 100 metres away. He gradually made his way towards us as I was taking photos of him. At this point though it was "Into the bloody Nissan Susan and lets make tracks!" We saw others as time went on.














Susan Locks the gate at Pell Mell, the propertythat we sat for 5 weeks. She is actually standing on the old runway which runs beside the Stuart highway. This is 10 klms north of the Adelaide River township. The remains of workshops and various defence fortifications remain on the property.














This is the sign on the side of the highway telling of the role Pell airfield played during the war. It was built by the Americans and handed over to the Australians after they moved north. It was a substantial repair centre for damaged craft.