Brisbane

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Our trip back was taken via the inland road and our first stop was Charters Towers after turning off the coast road at Townsville and travelling south west for 90 minutes. From a chance discovery of gold in 1872 by a young Aboriginal horse boy, Charters Towers soon turned into a bustling metropolis, which in its heyday boasted being the second largest city in Queensland. At the height of the gold rush the town included 11 crushing mills, 65 hotels and one of the very first regional Stock Exchanges in Australia which still stands proudly today. There are many old buildings which are magnificent and also heritage listed. It was also a significant allied military base in World War II as there are some 30 concrete bunkers dotted throughout the hills around Towers Hills close to the township. There are some lovely parks dotted around the town as well and in one of them there is a big cricket match played each year.



We then drove onto Emerald for a couple of days. Emerald was established in 1879 as a base for the building of the western railway and it was named after Emerald Downs Hill, a lush emerald green hill located just north of the town. 25% of Queensland’s cotton is grown around Emerald as well as wheat, maize, sorghum and other such produce. It is also a big coal mining area and especially around Blackwater , a town south east of Emerald and fully laden long trains can be seen when travelling to Rockhampton.



We met a couple on our train trip up Cairns who live in a small town called Baralaba, about 1-1/2 hours south west of Rockhampton and whom we wanted to call in to visit on our way back. We camped along the river in the township for 3 nights which was really great as we were able to have a campfire and we caught up with Bill and Marie for lunch on one day.



After Baralaba we travelled towards Dalby to meet up with an Aunt and Cousin of Margarets and we stopped overnight at Miles as it was too long a drive to travel to Dalby in one day. We arrived at Dalby to find out my Cousin was away for a couple of days, but my Aunt was there so we had morning tea with her and then her grandson turned up to visit and he took us for a tour of Dalby and my Cousin’s 800 acre farm which is on the outskirts of Dalby. It was very cold in Dalby so we were pleased to leave and travel onto Boonah where we were to take up a house sitting job in a week’s time.



The Boonah area which is about 1-1/2 hours drive south west of Brisbane is a very pretty area and we caught up with good friends of ours who live near Boonah. We then spent 2 wonderful weeks house sitting at a property 18 kms out of Boonah and there were 2 lovely dogs, 3 horses, 5 alpacas, a fantastic veggie garden and also a couple of cottages they rented out. We only had one booking while we were there, but I took a few bookings for when the owners returned. They had just over 40 acres and we fed the wallabies and birds that visited each day. They had a small creek running through the property so we put our red claw pots in one day and the next morning we went along to see if we had caught anything and we had a very big water rat. Obviously it couldn’t get out as it had drowned so we didn’t try again after that.



After our house sitting we travelled to Brisbane to catch up with our friends, family and to see our doctors, dentist, skin specialist and all those things before going to Tasmania. We stayed at a Showground on the northside of Brisbane which was great as they had markets there every Saturday so we went and bought our fresh fruit and veggies each week. We had a hectic 2-1/2 weeks, but we had a great time catching up with everyone. While we were at the Showgrounds we had a small furry animal join us and it was living in the walls of the 5^th Wheeler. We would see it go out at dusk and then around 4 am it would come back into the rig. We found out where it was getting in as it had eaten some of the foam packing away to make its way inside the walls. We also found out where it was doing it’s droppings after a few days, in the cupboard where the heater is housed so each day we would have to clean it out and that was our way of knowing it was still with us. We finally said goodbye to it and the story is later on in our Blog.



We then spent a week on the Gold Coast as we had a few warranty jobs to have carried out on the 5^th Wheeler. We also caught up with some more friends of ours. One couple have been doing the same as we are but over in the States and it was great luck of ours that they arrived back in Australia to spend Christmas with their children a few days before we were due to leave the Coast so it was great to catch up with them. It was good to leave the Coast as the traffic is just horrendous and it is like that 7 days a week, but we did have good weather.



The day after we left and drove into New South Wales the weather changed and over the next 12 days we had 5 fine days, the rest it either rained or there were showers. Now about the story on our little furry friend and the only way we could think of to rid him for good. The story goes, after leaving the Gold Coast we drove down to a rest area in NSW south of Kempsey, took our chairs outside and sat and waited until dusk which was 7.30pm in NSW (daylight saving time) with the hope of seeing him depart on his nightly feed. As per normal he showed up under the 5th wheeler just on dusk, looked around for a few seconds and then scooted into the bush so this was our opportunity. We quickly packed up and while I watched to make sure he didn't come running back from the bush as his home was being towed away Trevor started up the F350 and drove off up the track with me running after him and looking back all the time to make sure he wasn't following us. There were a few other people around so we don’t know what they thought seeing us pack up and drive off in a hurry. We then drove off quickly down to the next Rest Area 20 km down the road and stayed there the night. We haven’t found any more droppings or heard him in the walls so it looks like he has gone and to this day we still are not sure what it was as it looked like a squirrel and so small. I honestly did feel guilty running away and leaving him there all alone, but unfortunately we had to do it. I could picture him coming back in the early hours of the morning with tears running down his face and wondering where his lovely warm comfortable home had gone, oh so sad.



We then drove onto the Hunter Valley, one of Australia’s wine growing areas which is just inland from Newcastle and we spent a day wine and cheese tasting, but didn’t purchase any as we have enough in the 5^th wheeler to last us a while, but it was enjoyable tasting the different wines of the region. As it was raining most of the time during our stay there we finally got to see the movie Red Dog which we have been trying to see for some months now and kept missing it at different locations, a very good movie. Lake Macquarie area was our next visit as we have some friends, Dave and Debbie whom we met a couple of years ago while touring in our caravan down at Narooma Caravan Park on the South Coast. They came for dinner one evening and we had a good time going over all our adventures since our last meeting.



Our next stop was at Burrill Lake just south of Ulladulla to visit more friends who live at Mollymook which is a small town on the coast just north of where we were staying. Unfortunately the day we were to meet up with them (Neville and Bronwyn), we received a call from Neville to say Bronwyn had pains in her chest that morning (probably with the excitement of seeing us again no doubt) and was at the hospital having all types of tests taken. There was good news as they couldn’t find anything seriously wrong with Bronwyn so she was home that evening and we were quite relieved. We had lunch with them the next day and once again a good time was had going over all our news since our last meeting which was two years ago also. The funny thing is when we were at Burrill Lake we had a possum in the motor of our truck. A couple saw it go under the truck one morning and it didn't come out so we lifted the bonnet and there it was all curled up to spend the day asleep there. We tried to get it out with a stick, but it just went in further so we had to wait until night again for him to vacate to the tree beside our rig and then we moved the truck and sprayed some horrible smelling fertilizer around the truck with the hope he wouldn’t come back and as it happened we were lucky he didn’t. We will have to rename our outfit “The Possum Home” and just as well the couple saw it go in there or else it would have been a dead possum and luckily we didn't have to use the truck that day as Neville and Bronwyn picked us up to go to lunch.



We had a couple of nice relaxing days at Burrill Lake and it was a lovely setting on the banks of the lake. We are now at Merimbula and the day we arrived it was very foggy and it poured raining that afternoon and most of the night. Yesterday was lovely and sunny so we went driving up the Coast to Tathra which is a lovely little town on the water with a great wharf for fishing, but unfortunately we didn’t have our fishing gear with us. We had a picnic lunch and then drove onto Bega, yes where Bega cheese is made and then back to Merimbula. The area down this way is really lush and green and very picturesque, but a lot cooler as we have our flannelette sheets back on the bed this morning as we venture into Victoria tomorrow to Lakes Entrance and it is cool down there also. Until our next Blog which will probably be from Tasmania keep well everyone and if we don’t have it done prior to Christmas, Merry Christmas to you all and remember don’t drink and drive.

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Photos

Charters
Charters Towers. A Heritage town

Baralaba
Baralaba ffree camp down by the lake

Boonah
View from our house sitting location at Boonah

Boys
The Boys at Pine Rivers Showground

Girls
The girls at Pine Rivers

Burrill
Burrill Lake NSW South Coast

Tathra Jetty
Tathra Jetty just North of Merimbula

Tathra Surf
Tathra surf beach