20120705 Qld Julatten-Jeff and Monique

20120705 Our next stop was to be Julatten where Jeff Williamson lives only, I left Cooktown with the flu and wasn’t keen to share it with his kids, so we stayed a night in Mt Molloy.

In 1885 Pat Molloy, a teamster, was looking for some missing cattle when he came across an out crop of copper, he worked the diggings for 4 years.  Molloy left the claim in 1893 when the price of copper fell; it was worked again by James Venture Muilligan and James Forsythe who sold the claim for £6000.  The Southern based company did not run the claim, so Forsythe and a man named Buchanan took over the claim again.  They sold the claim to John Moffat who established the Mt Molloy Ltd Company, and he built a smelter and employed 250 men.  About 1909 Mt Molloy Ltd closed the smelter and in 1916, Moffat liquidated the company.  Forsythe built the hotel that Mulligan ran until he died in 1907 at the age of 70 years after hitting his head while trying to break up a fight.

This is what is left of the smelter.

06-07-2012  Des finally got onto Jeff, he picked us up at our camp site and we went for lunch and a couple of beers at the hotel (except Des he can't drink) we picked up our van and followed him home.  

Jeff is such a thoughtful and wonderful friend, he knows how much Des loves his cattle so he left all his cows out to run around the van and shit everywhere, so the whole time we were there we had to side step cow dung, love you to Jeff.
Sitting around the dam waiting for Monique and the kids to joined us after school with a beer and catching up on old times.  After a BBQ for dinner we played card in front of the fire place followed by a few drinks, the boys against the girls, only  Des had a hard time following the game and I wasn’t far behind him, but we got through and the girls won of cause.
Years ago I gave Jeff a photo with himself,Des and Mick Chapman, which had a caption saying "The Three Wise Men" Baden's such a funny little fella, said to Des, I know you, your one of the three wise men, which gave us a good laugh. Not sure about the wise we said.

Des was more fascinated with the size of the logs Jeff puts in the fire place than the fire, but they were large logs. 

07-07-2012 We woke to a sunny day, had breaky then packed the cars for a trip to a creek.  

Jeff and Monique taken us bush bashing to a creek, all the boys in Jeffs ute and all the girls in Moniqu's fore wheel drive.

Jeff being a bush fella took along his trusty chain saw to clear the way of fallen branches blocking our way.

On some occasions it was easier to source out a new track and that’s what these bushes are doing.

Baden and Madine wait patiently for their parents return with a new plan of attack.

I gotta tell ya, I recon Monique out smarted Jeff in four wheel driving even though the kids didn’t think so, Dad’s better,Mum.  We had a great day fishing, canoeing and toasting breville in the fire then Baden spotted a snake and ran out of the bush yelling.  Jeff and his trusty dog went in search of the monster snake and Monique and I had our cameras ready for some action but the dog couldn’t find it, bummer.

 

A family day out with Jeff baiting the fishing line for Madina his cute little girl while Mum and son have a casual chat.

 Monique and Des try there hand at a bit of fishing with no luck of cause, but who cares.

The bush man lighting a fire for our lunch, come on Jeff get it going.

 Breville for lunch and a beer to wash it down, yummy, great idea Monique.

Monique with her little man, Baden (little Jeff) and Jeff with his little girl Madina (little Monique) lovely kids.

It was a wonderful day had by all, thanks guys.

08-07-2012  The weathers turned to shit so Monique and I played on our computers, she gave me heaps of movies and song now I am in need of another external hard drive but that will have to wait.  I gave her Lightroom to downloaded and she gave me Adobe Elements 10, so we played around with our new programs for a bit.

09-07-2012  Jeff and Monique had to work so Des and I hang around the house watching movies and blogging, waiting for the workers to return.

 Jeff and Moniqeu's Cosy abode, what a great place to bring up kids.

Jeff's cattle in the bottom field, now he decides to move them.

10-07-2012  Monique left a puzzle out for Des and I to try and piece together, man did we got hooked, we puzzled all morning and did quite well I must admit, but I need to catch up on my blog so I left it with Des for a bit.  The workers returned home, we had tea, puzzled some more followed with a few last drinks.

They started out looking fine on the couch.

Is Jeff asleep and listening to Des, or is Des asleep to, no there not asleep but I don't think Jeff's far from it. 

11-07-2012  The kids were quick to come to the van and make sure we were awake to say

Goodbye, it became a game waking us up so they could jump on our bed and tickle Des.  We said our good buys to the kids and Monique as they left for school.

I checked my email before leaving and had an urgent message from Sharyn so I called her and got the bad news that Pa had past away that night, so it was a sad ending to a great few days with great friends.

We said good buys to Jeff and headed back to Cairns to book my flight to Brisbane.