In mid-morning, beneath a mix of sun and cloud, Vilis, Janis, and I drove west from Townsville toward Herveys Range, a span of steep-sided hills rearing up and blocking inland grazing lands from the coastal plain. To the south, the thrusting faces of Frederick Peak and South Pinnacle towered above a forested plateau. The Hervey Range Road led us past yellowing grasses in open savannah woodland. Riverbeds exposed sandy bellies, with dark cords of water twisting over them. We climbed into the  hills, with stunted trees and broken faces of pink granite beside us. Meadows of tall grasses bearing pale burgundy flowers painted pink over hillsides lumpy with spills of enormous boulders. A black kite soared overhead, as though leading us onward.

During the 19^th century, drovers pushed their cattle over  Herveys Range to bring them to the port city of Townsville. As well, bullock drays hauling merchandise took a day to travel from Townsville to the Range Hotel at the base of Herveys Range, and another day to climb from the base to the Eureka Hotel at the top of the range. Intrigued by this information, which we heard during an archaeology seminar given by Dr. Shelly Greer on Thursday (see http://maginams.ca//2010/05/20/), we were keen to hike that steep bullockies’ track, which has been maintained as a rough road.

From a lookout near the pass, we gazed out over the plain between Herveys Range and Townsville, spotting Mount Stuart with its towers to the east, Castle Hill to the north of Mout Stuart, and South Pinnacle closer at hand. The city was invisible in the haze, and the land looked wilder than it had appeared when we drove through it.

The old bullockies’ track was a sand, gravel, and rock road with a deceptively gentle descent near the highway followed by plunging, erosion-gouged switchbacks farther down the slope. A bloke driving a ute on the top section of the track told Vilis that the city council fixes the track every year, but the Wet washes it out again.

We skidded and crept and jogged down the steep inclines, amazed that bullock and horse teams hauling freight had been able to ascend the slope at all. Vilis suggested that perhaps two or more teams had been hitched together to pull a cart up one steep section, and then had returned for another. Tiny skinks raced across the sun-baked sand and gravel, and butterflies and grasshoppers fluttered and whirred over grasses and herbs adjacent to the track. I spotted a forest raptor with a long, slim tail, but otherwise heard only a few bird calls from a distance. We hiked down to the base of the steep slope, where the road began a gentle meander through open savannah woodland, and then retraced our steps. Janis strode easily up the hill, while Vilis and I – free from any freight at all – panted up the steep sections.

After our hike, we sampled hummingbird cake and lemon meringue pie at the former Eureka Hotel, now known as Herveys Range Heritage Tea Rooms. On Thursday, Dr. Greer had mentioned that the former hotel is the oldest wood building in Queensland and one of only a few wood buildings of its era in Australia to have escaped destruction by termites. Inside, the  tea room walls were dark wood or painted white with wood trim. Antique furniture, historical displays, and a wood stove added to the 19th -century ambience. Wood-framed windows opened out into the grounds, and a long veranda fronted the simply-constructed building.

An interpretive sign at the tea rooms stated that the building was the oldest known building of any kind in Queensland, and that it was constructed in 1865 – the year after Townsville was established. It owes its location at Thorntons Gap to the discovery of water that could supply thirsty livestock traveling the stock route, which climbs (or descends) over 300 metres. We ate our treats leisurely outdoors beneath gums and shade trees visited by blue-faced, yellow, and white-throated honeyeaters. Vilis noticed a spartan smoking area away from the dining tables, and I think now of how the air in the old Eureka Hotel had likely been blue with the fog of cigarette, cigar, and pipe smoke during the days the bullockies and teamsters drove their teams up Herveys Range.