Guide to Camooweal Queensland Australia

Camooweal is a town of about 200 people on the Barkly Highway, 188 kilometres north-west of Mount Isa and 13 kilometres from the Northern Territory border. Because it lies inside the Mount Isa city boundary, locals like to say the highway between the two is the longest main street in the world.

Known For

• Camping on the Georgina River billabongs
• The Drovers Camp
• Camooweal Caves National Park

Things To Do in Camooweal

The billabongs

Just west of town, the Georgina River forms a chain of lily-covered waterholes where travellers camp for free among brolgas, pelicans and whistling ducks.

The Drovers Camp

Old drovers run this museum and tell their own stories of moving cattle across the Barkly Tableland. It opens in the season, and a festival each August brings drovers from all over Australia.

Camooweal Caves National Park

Twenty-four kilometres south on a gravel road, in Camooweal Caves National Park, sinkholes open into caves in 500-million-year-old dolomite. You can look down into them from the edge; going in is for experienced cavers only. There is a small camping area by a waterhole.

Freckleton’s Store

The heritage-listed general store in the main street has traded since the 1920s.

Where To Stay

There is a hotel-motel, a roadhouse with a caravan park and the free billabong camps.

Eat & Drink

The hotel and the roadhouses serve meals and sell fuel. It is 260 kilometres to the next fuel in the Territory.

History

This is the country of the Indjalandji-Dhidhanu people. The town was gazetted in 1884 as a customs post and droving centre.

Getting to Camooweal

Camooweal is two hours from Mount Isa on the sealed Barkly Highway. A gravel road runs north to Gregory and Boodjamulla.