Some history

The Gulf of Carpentaria is made up of extensive tidal flats and the mouth of the gulf is 590km wide. The depth is no more than 55 Metres and maximum anywhere is 82 Metres. Here at the mouth of the Norman River the anchorage depth is between 7-9 Metres. There is a narrow channel that heads out to deeper waster and there is only 1 tide a day!!  
We cruised past the town taking in the sights from the boat. Large prawn trawler fleet owned by Raptis Seafoods. Trawlers in dock at present as it isn't prawn season. Some pretty impressive prawn trawlers. 
Next was Wren Group who have 3 of the 7 only licensed Mackerel trawlers. 2 out fishing and 1 at dock. 
There was Carpentaria Freight which ships goods up & down the Norman River, plus does a milk run out through the Gulf to small islands. They are also the fuel depot for Karumba. 
Karumba port services the Century Zinc Mine at Lawn Hill. There the zinc is mined and the crushed, water added which forms a slurry and it is piped the 304km to Karumba. The cost difference between trucking and pipe line is something like 3000% saving. Zinc is running out at Lawn Hill and currently they are in the process of returning mining area back to pasture lands (about 30years). They are also trucking zinc from mine at Cloncurry to Lawn Hill, then via slurry to here. 
Once the slurry arrives here it is separated from the water and dried. Then loaded onto the transition boat which takes it out to the mother ship waiting in the gulf. The transition ship can only do 1 trip per day as it has to hit high tide to get enough depth and The mother ship has to move further out in the gulf each day until it's fully loaded as it sits lower in the water as it takes on more ore.  Sounds fun doesn't it !
There were no crocodiles around but we did see several Jabiru - beautiful birds, and a boat wreck.
The sunset was beautiful but hard to capture on the phone.

And then we finished off with a quiet drink at the Animal Bar ( Red Hot Chilli Peppers song Animal Bar is named after this ) 
A great evening and if you are interested - like most things in Karumba - Ferryman Sunset Cruises is for sale!