Mitchell
Gunggari people
Mitchell’s history involves an Aboriginal population acknowledged to have inhabited the area for at least 19,000 years, bush-rangers, miners, and the birth of Australia’s shortest-serving Prime Minister, Francis Forde. A more modern experience, however, might bring you to Mitchell as a worker for one of the nearby mines, or see you settling into the soothing, healing waters of the Great Artesian Spa, conveniently located not two meters away from one of the most beautifully kept traditional halls in Australia, featuring heavy red curtains, a dance floor Fred Astaire may have felt inadequate around, and the old mouldings and niceties of a time when buildings were decorative as well as functional. Mitchell is a wonderful stop on a very long, very straight road trimmed by red dirt, kangaroos at dawn and dusk, and frequented by a goodly number of Australia’s Grey Nomads. The town is still rebuilding after the Queensland floodwaters took out sections of road and worried bridges, but the recently re-opened Spa should see tourists returning in droves, as should the warm welcome of the quietly resilient community.
Population: 944
SHOW FEATURES ANDY BROWN (CANADA) and THE MAE TRIO (AUSTRALIA)
Tickets available online