Next stop was Charters Towers, a few hundred kms inland from Townsville, and an old Gold Mining town of formally the very highest repute. Previously nicknamed "The World" for its fabulous wealth, it is now a sleepy place of faded charm surrounded by a lot of nothing. Save for the rock wallabies, of course. In the 1890's it was no so, following the accidental discovery of gold by one Jupiter Mossman, whose portrait I am pictured. Thereafter came every man and his dog, including many a swagman, the itinerant men who roved the lands looking for adventure. As the wealthiest city in Australia, fine hotels and banks and a stockexchange were built. Those hotels still, happily for us, continue in a particularly dusty service, allowing us a couple of brilliant days wandering the wild west streets being filled with tales of the quest for gold in the ground.