400 km west of Hughenden on the Flinders Highway. If you’ve made it this far, you deserve a medal. Cloncurry was once the world’s greatest copper-mining centre. It also claims the record for the highest temperature recorded in Australia – a cool 53.1°C. (I know of only two other spots in Australia which lay claim to this record.)

In case you’re interested: copper was first discovered here in the 1860s, when it was transported out on camel trains. A few years later gold was discovered. News of this spread quickly to those in need of this commodity in Afghanistan and China, causing an Afghan-Chinese gold rush. If you think I’m making this up, go and visit the two foreign cemeteries on the edge of town. Here you can see the graves of the Afghans and Chinese who didn’t strike gold (or who did, but then someone struck them).

Cloncurry was so far off the map that it gave the local Reverend John Flynn the idea for the famous Australian Flying Doctor Service, which he founded at Cloncurry in 1928.

Here, you’re halfway to Alice Springs.