2013 Winter trip to Queensland

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After a very rough night (weatherwise) - Lots of lightning thunder and buckets of rain, we refuelled and headed south. We drove through Cecil Plains and on the way passed a lot of wheat fields. Some were really green while in the field opposite they were golden yellow.

Next town was Millmerran - not much here except some rather nice murals.

Onwards through Inglewood to Texas which is on the border of Queensland and New South Wales. We stopped here for a while and had a walk around the town (didn't take long).
Next stop was at the even smaller town (?) of Yetman where we had lunch before driving to Warialda.
There are a couple of quite nice old buildings here including The Soldiers Memorial Hall and the Court House built in 1882.

We were expecting to stay in a rest area just outside of warialda however it was VERY close to the road so we continued on looking for one near Bingara without success so onwards again to Barraba where we booked into a caravan park at only $20 a night. It's great especially since it's getting quite cold and since we have power here we have the electric blanket on. We even have a private dunny (old fashioned outside toilet) which has been modernised inside to a flush toilet and hand basin.

The Manilla River flows right at the rear of this caravan park.

Wednesday 18th Sep. We left Barraba quite early and drove down the road to Manilla and then through Tamworth where we took a photo of Hiroe and The Big Golden Guitar.

Onwards then to Wallabadah where there is a Memorial Gardens to the First Fleet of convicts who arrived in Sydney on January 26th 1788. There were 4 Campbells amongst the arrivals. One, James who was a Marine and another James a Dependant as well as 2 convicts James and John-James.
Not sure if there is any link to our tree.

We continued on through Murrurundi, Scone, Aberdeen, Muswellbrook and Singleton before turning off the highway to Cessnock where we have camped for the night in the local showground.

This will be the last entry as we will reach home sometime tomorrow and from early in the morning we will be back on the same road as the one we started this journey on.

Thanks everyone for reading our news.

See you next year.

BOB AND HIROE

Friday morning we departed last nights stop at Lawgi Park rather late for us – it was 9.00 am.
We had morning tea at a great rest area (Coominglah Range Rest Area).
We drove to Monto where we stopped for a look around and a walk up and down the main street.
Not too much here except for a statue of a racing horse rider who was born here and was killed while involved in a race.

We drove on to Mulgildie which is a very small town with a colourful Pub.

While we sat and ate an icecream we talked with a local who explained the story surrounding the statue of a Bunyip (a supposedly mythical animal). There is a hole in the local river where Aboriginal Folk would not camp because the water hole contained a Bunyip which ate people. A visiting Arch Bishop who was travelling by horse and buggy during the pioneering times came upon the water hole and set up camp. An Aboriginal man spoke to him and told him not to camp here as he might get eaten by the Bunyip. The Arch Bishop said “How can you believe that - have you ever seen it”. The man thought for a while and then said “Have you ever seen God”.

From here we travelled to Ceratodus on the banks of the Burnett River where we camped for the night. There was a huge flood here last February as can be seen by the effects on the tree plantation adjacent to the Rest Area. There are currently many cattle grazing amongst the trees.

Next day we continued our journey, stopping to have a brief look at Eidsvold then Mundubbera before having morning tea at Gayndah where Hiroe bought some mandarins at The Big Mandarin. (Not very nice ones).

Next stop was at Goomeri where we drove around the town then had lunch in a park.
On then through Murgon, Wondai and Kingaroy before camping for the night at a Rest Area at Kumbia. This is an old town, quite small with most of the buildings now empty.

Would you believe it - We were in Nindigully when the Pub there had free beer yesterday - The Pub has has Free Beer tomorrow.

Leaving Kumbia we drove leisurely to Dalby via Bell. About halfway to Dalby the landscape changed from quite hilly to reasonably flat and we were in the Darling Downs a grain growing area.

We arrived in dalby just after 9.00 am and booked into a caravan park. We have an ex student of Bob's coming to visit us from Toowoomba about lunch time and then tomorrow an old Navy mate and his wife are coming to catch up with us from Lowood so we are going to have a relaxing and good time while here.

On Sunday the 8th Sep we went to the open air markets in the grounds of the Heritage Village. It was quite large – over 140 stalls.
We spent over 2 hours there and only purchased a small amount of vegetables and 2 cups of coffee. Gee we have good self-control.
Hiroe had a sit in an old Overland car which was on display and pretended that she was driving it.

There were quite a few rides for the young ones including a Cobb and Co coach and camel rides.

Hiroe noticed a wonderful view of the Moon and Evening Star so took a photo.

On Monday we visited Mount Archer which has wonderful views of Rockhampton and Yeppoon. As well, there was a large group of Grass Trees (blackboys) at one of the lookouts.

Next stop was at the Cities Botanic gardens to have a wander around including a look at the local zoo out there. These gardens are over 140 years old and a credit to the cities fathers.
There was a very nice and friendly wombat at the zoo

We had a look in the Catholic Cathedral and took a photo inside as well as one of Hiroe on the steps.

There are quite a number of statues of bulls all around Rockhampton (It’s the beef capital of Australia – well that’s what they claim).

Tuesday arrived and after exchanging a gas bottle for the caravn we drove to the local shopping centre in search of a chemist. Well after about 45 minutes we finally tracked one down then had to wait a further 40 minutes to have the prescriptions filled.
Next stop was to the heritage Train and steam tram station museum which was very interesting. The station was built in 1899.

We then went for a walk around the historic centre of Rockhampton. There are some very nice old building in the city.

After having lunch we drove to have a look at Kershaw Gardens. We had been here before and unfortunately these gardens are in pretty poor shape and lack of care is evident. Still we had a good time walking around.

Wednesday 11th Sep. This is to be our lst full day at Rockhampton so we decided to do the Capricorn Tourist drive out to Yeppoon etc. The first stop was at Yeppoon Beach for a couple of photos. There wasn't any surf whatsoever here.

We drove around the town then on to Rosslyn Bay to have a look at the marina there and also an interesting rock outcrop. You can see that this was sedimental rock which has been forced to tilt by an earth movement in the past.

Continuing on we came to Emu Park. We actually stayed here on the beach many many years ago. Everything is built up now. We visited the "Singing Ship" sculpture which was mad to commemorate Captain Cooks visit to the area in 1770.

We had lunch (fish and chips) before returning to Rockhampton and the caravan park. It is very hot today (35 deg C).