The Muster

Relaxed at River Heads for a couple of days then went to Maryborough to a Liesure/Camping show. Whilst at Maryborough we had a look at the old port area and the old buildings and museums. Maryborough is about 30 kms from the coast on the Mary River and was a major port in the 1800's. In the 1860 era there were only two ports which processed immigrants (legally anyway), being Sydney and Maryborough, so a lot of early Australian history in the Maryborough area. For the book reader, Maryborough was also the birthplace of the author of Mary Poppins, a statue is erected outside the building in the old port area where she was born.
We then travelled to Gympie and stayed with my uncle Geoff/Marie for a couple of days and had a look at the local historical attractions, particularly the gold mine and museum. Gympie is known as the town that saved Qld, as in the late 1800's Qld was on the verge of going bankrupt but discovery of gold at Gympie brought great wealth to the region and Qld. They are still mining gold at Gympie today.
Off to the Muster YEEHAAA!. Called the Gympie Muster it is actually in the Amamoor State Forest, about 40 kms out of town. This event is huuuge, attendance over the weekend was 70,000 people. Most people stay on site in vans/tents or whatever and the camping area stretches for many kms. A lot of people attend for the full week and erect quite elaborate camping palaces with people arriving some 3 MONTHS before the event. You have to see this one to believe it. The entertainment was fantastic, and was not limited to the old country style music but also blues, Jazz, some stuff bordering on Rock, and also many comedy acts. We had over 13 hours of entertainment on the saturday and saw most that we wanted to see. Anyway some acts we saw were;
Catherine Britt - quite good,
The Slim Dusty family Reunion - self explanatory but good nevertheless,
Tripod - three male singers, and were excellent. Their show and songs were a mixture of comedy and crudeness. These guys are idiots but extremely entertaining, well worth seeing,
The McClymonts - three sisters who are very good. We liked them so much we tried to buy the company but had to be satisfied with their CD instead.
On The Road again - Willie Nelson and Roy Orbison impersonators. They looked and sounded like the real thing, a very good show,
Sara Storer - she was ok but a little bit disappointing considering her reputation (sorry Godfrey),
The Wolverines - they were good,
Adam Brand - was OK but his songs and stage show seemed to be aimed at the younger female audience who loved it. He was not as good as I thought he should have been. He did some songs with the Sunny Cowgirls who sounded really good.
Jimmy Barnes - Jimmy at his screaming best. A young Hayley Lawson used to refer to him as the man who shouts, and he certainly does. A brilliant stage show, it is a wonder his voice is not f****d from all the screaming. Oh, it already is.
Anyway a huge event, all performers and workers donate their time free of charge and all monies go to charity. To sum up in Maree's words F##^^**# awesome. Next year we need some more campers, so start planning now.
Back at River Heads, I will ring my cousin Cheryl in Mackay and arrange to go and see her. I would like to do some fishing at 1770 and also call into Turkey Beach to try and catch up with Lew Beazley (one for the old speedway guys) on the way back. Uncle Geoff is going to arrange a fishing trip to lake Awoonga and then to lake Monduran in the next couple of weeks when the weather warms up a bit and the Barra come onto the bite. We will hang around the beaches up north till we get the phone call. On the way back to River Heads we will go to Cania Gorge for a couple of days. Thats the plan at the moment. So much to do.

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