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Published: January 6th 2011
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The Great Dividing Range
Australia's most substantial mountain range and the third longest in the world and stretches more than 3,500 km the northeastern tip of Queensland, running the entire length of the eastern coastline through New South Wales, then into Victoria. The width of the range varies from about 160 km to over 300 km. Our plan of heading to Brett's cousin's on Wednesday for 4 nights over New Years had to be delayed a day because of the rains which had caused flooding and roads to close heading towards Goondiwindi where they live. Luckily it dried up a bit, and we were able to get there heading through Tenterfield the following day. It was a nice, scenic, although bumpy, drive from Byron, and when we opened up the caravan several times on the trip we would see more things that had jiggled loose, fallen off or broken. Not quite built for the bumpy roads and potholes! Nothing to major though, but just a bit of a clean up when we got there.
The drive took us through Lismore and Casino, over the Great Dividing Range and Tenterfield, which is known as the "Birthplace of The Nation", and has some of the nations most historical settlements and buildings. We only stopped for a quick bite at lunch, but it is supposed to be an amazing place in autumn, so we may have to check it out one time. The Bruxner Highway which we were taking to Gundy was pretty quiet, and not like a typical
highway. More like a country road in spots. It was a nice scenic way to get there though. We even saw a pack (herd? group?) of emus crossing the road on both the way there and the way back. Our first time seeing them in the wild. We did think that the baby emu's (who were about door height) were going to walk right into us – they didn't appear to be the smartest... May have to look that fact up.
We arrived in Goondiwindi after about 7 hours, and with the one hour time change it was just about happy hour. We did a quick set up our caravan in Mick's yard, we even had some good neighbours - Brett's aunt and uncle, Shelly and Dennis who had their caravan set up there as well, and it was time for a cold one since it was pretty hot.
Mick and his wife Nicky, and their daughter Madison live on a nice big property just out of town with it's own creek, and plenty of animals to keep them busy. Maddy had a great time showing us her chooks (chickens), guinea pigs and horses. Brett's other cousin Corey,
his wife Val and son Hayden were also in town from Chinchilla so it was great to catch up with them as well, it had been awhile.
The next day, New Years Eve day, was spent with the guys all helping Mick put in some new fence posts for the horses. There was even a little concrete involved, so Brett was back in the mud – it had been awhile! Shell and I and the kids went into town and got a few things for New Years Eve, and by that time the guys were done working and it was really hot, so Mick took us to an artesian mineral spa for a soak. It was great, although not sure it helped make it any easier to stay up to midnite that night! It was a bit tough... especially with the extra hour time difference which meant midnite was 1am for us. We had a great New Years Eve dinner with cold prawns, bbq'd garlic prawns, calamari and chicken and salads. So that wasn't helping to keep us up either... but we managed to make it, and let off a few poppers and watched the Sydney fireworks on the
tv.
The next day was pretty quiet, and hot. We all didn't get up to much, just relaxed, well as much as we could... Unfortunately, Corey and Val had been waiting for word on how their house and property had made out in the floods which had them pack up as much as they could and their animals, and leave on Christmas Eve. Most of their town has been flooded now, along with alot of other areas of Queensland. It had been a tense few days, but they did get word that water didn't get into their house luckily (which is set up higher on stilts as alot of houses in Australia), but they lost cars, their pet chickens, caravan, fences and more, and no power or water in the house, and a big mess to clean up. Also, Den and Shelly who have had a container stored on their property with all their posessions from their house (while they travelled around Australia) have lost most of it, photos included. So we are all sending good thoughts their way, and to so many of the other people who have lost so much in the floods. They say it's the
worst floods in Australian history.
We made our way back to Byron the following day and were back set up for another 2 weeks before heading back down the coast, and maybe some work?? Shocking I know!
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