23rd June 2026: Today was a day of unanticipated events! We set off at 8.30 am from Bramwell Station Tourist park to head to Fairview Station 19km north of Laura, a 415 km trip. We joined the Old Telegraph Road which was pretty rough, but it got worse after the Batavia Downs Road turnoff. Along the way we saw another lace monitor lizard and a black snake on the road. We came to an unexpected un-signposted big dip with a river crossing at the bottom, giving us quite a jolt. We then came to a section where they were re-grading the road, and, in an unavoidable position in the middle of a narrow road, there was a large rock which we hit. When we could, we pulled over to find that our one shock-absorber on the driver’s side was now hanging loose!! We proceeded cautiously to Archer River where we asked for a mechanic. Glyn the bush mechanic who lives at the back of the roadhouse provided a bolt and re-attached the shock absorber, saying that it would last until Coen where there was a mechanic who could help us, Steve.
So we left Archer River, driving quite cautiously, and about 20km down the road we came to another big dip, and on the other side of the dip there was a slope downhill towards us with debris strewn all over the road with a wrecked Landcruiser to the left of the road with 2 people emerging from it, and a dog! This Landcruiser had rolled minutes beforehand and we were the first on the scene closely followed by 3 other caravans. Miraculously the young couple only had abrasions but were very shocked. I dressed a few grazes and cleaned up a cut on the lip of the woman and someone had Starlink to report the accident , and then a team of us cleared the road of everything, in other words all this family’s possessions, including in particular pieces of glass and hundreds of nails and screws ready to puncture tyres. The couple maintained that their vehicle had rolled 7 times after becoming out of control in the gravel. They had left their jobs in Sydney 2 weeks previously to travel around Australia…the dog seemed OK at the time, but we heard later that it had been quite badly injured as it flew out the window of the car when it overturned. It was a sobering experience to see how easily disaster could strike..
Once again we proceed cautiously to Coen, 70 km away. When we got there, we found Steve at Coen Mechanical, next door to his wife who ran the Little Bush Pantry, in turn next door to the Sexchange Hotel! We had to wait until Steve served a couple of other customers, during which time we had a coffee and chatted to others who were at the scene of the accident including our first neighbours at Punsand, and they filled in a few more details of the accident and the couple involved.
Then it was our turn and Steve miraculously repaired both of our faulty shock absorbers with new bushes and new bolts which he had in stock!! He said he keeps them because shock absorbers are a common problem on the Cape York route! I asked him why the bolts came loose in the first place and he pointed to a sticker which gave me to put on the back of the caravan:
CAPE YORK - WHERE BOLTS COME LOOSE ALL BY THEMSELVES!
Steve only charged $ 125 for such a great report for us ! We notified Fairview that we would be late arriving and set off to drive the 227 km to reach our destination! Along the way we saw lots of crows, black kites, whistling kites, egrets and white faced herons in water holes, crimson finches, red winged parrots, magpie larks, a feral cat, an agile wallaby and lots of cattle on the edge of the road to be avoided! We arrived at Fairview at around 6.30pm in the dark and had a mediocre meal at their restaurant before settling into the caravan , but not before I had loosened the stiff stabilisers and our step with Lanolin WD 40, my new favourite WD 40!
Photos below are extremely boring as too much was happening later in the day to take photos!
They were lucky to have you on the scene! Poor things. Hope today is less eventful.
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