Advertisement
Published: October 19th 2023
GRAWIN
The Club in the ScrubAfter leaving Caloundra we climbed over the great divide which was a bit windy in patches but went through green pastures and cattle country and pretty little towns on the way. By the time we arrived at our campsite at Kumbarilla which was about 5pm we had well and truly got out of the hills and across onto the more flat roads, the campsite was great well off the road and we slept like logs. Friday we went onto Moonie and stopped for a break and morning tea, after passing loads of gasfields and even oil which Santos seem to control....Moonie a quirky little place with lots of John Murray art on display, we are looking forward to seeing his gallery when we get to Lightening Ridge....from Moonie we went further on to St George, we booked a caravan park there but with all the sunshine we have had we could go for days without power and we have plenty of water. St George was a very neat tidy little town on the banks of the Balonne River, we were keen to do a tour on the river but it was closed for a few days so had a good walk
MOONIE PUB
Big feral pig hunting area around town with a walk down to the Jack Taylor Weir which has been in play for many years. As we got closer to St George we noticed the huge irrigated farms of cotton though cotton has been harvested already and they are ploughing and planting again. The acreage out here of cotton is ginormous! With the likes of Cubbie Station (which is actually closer to Dirranbandi) and The Beardmore group farms producing a huge amount of cotton. Cubbie Station alone has 93,000 hectares of cotton planted. Mind boggling really. From St George we went to Diranbandi another cute little town we stopped for lunch and had a delicious pie from the bakery, the guy serving had an accent and we found out he was RUSSIAN, his Mum has owned the bakery for 10 years unbelievable where people end up. Very nice pie too by the way. Then onto the Hebel Pub for the night we have been wanting to visit here for quite some time, it was worth the wait, what a georgeous iconic pub this is, very, very rustic but thats the way they like it and it was packed on Saturday arvo and early evening. A local
MOONIE PUB
John Murray Art in the pub station owner bought the pub in 2020 after the pub had been shut for 12 months, he has been branded with the title of "peoples King" as the local pub is the centre of the district for gettogethers for a few beers and a yak and that was so obvious when we stayed. Apparently the store owner was a grumpy old fellow and Frank went across the road and asked how much he wanted to leave and then told him to f.... off after he handed the money over. So the pub just sells grog though you can order food and it comes from across the road, we actually went across the road and had our dinner under the stars another thing ticked off our bucket list. Frank kills from his farm and supplies the pub with meat for the meals and also owns Three Rivers Meats the butcher shop in Dirranbandi and has it all happening! The meat was fantastic! He has also done a lot of work putting new cabins out the back of the pub, a big fuel tank and sells fuel there too, cheaper than in Lightening Ridge. We had a real laugh, a couple of
MOONIE PUB
John Murray Art locals had a game of golf on the dirt course out the back of the pub, came in for a few beers then jumped in their golf cart and whizzed up the main road to their house. It really did seem like the wild, wild west out here but we thoroughly enjoyed it and loved chatting to a backpacker from Orange County in California (now we don't see many US backpackers around but she was just gorgeous) who was doing her 88 days outback to get another years visa, she said she caught the bus from Brisbane which dropped her right out front of the Hebel Pub after a 10hr bus ride....WHAT A CULTURE SHOCK! You can tell we just love the outback and their quirky pubs! Next stop Lightening Ridge, now thats another quirky place, lots of people have lots of stories in Lightening Ridge. Did the colored car door tours of Lightening Ridge and then went out about 76klms to Cumborah to the three pubs in the scrub, John has been waiting years to see these pubs, roads were shocking but the van and car handled it well, 1st one we went to was The Club in the
MOONIE PUB
John Murray Art Scrub (with its golf course), 2nd stop The Sheepyard Inn for lunch and the war memorial, only a kilometre away from the pub, is work a look, then 3rd stop was the Glengarry Hilton...all three pubs are smack bang in the middle of opal mines, diggings, old trucks and cars, mining equipment and crazy miners. There is quite a band of Vietnam Vets that live out here....very dry, dusty, hot and rugged....but as the Manager of the Club in the Scrub said "thats just the way we like it". (and she is bringing up a teenage girl out here). Great to see this very unique area of our wonderful country.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.078s; Tpl: 0.015s; cc: 11; qc: 29; dbt: 0.0458s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
Valerie Keating
non-member comment
Hebel
Hi Gloria and John. Merv and I did the trip to Hebel in 2022, We were there when Heather Ewart was filming Back Roads. Had a wonderful time. If you get a chance look at the Back Roads episode on IView. It aired in middle of 2022. It is a good story and of course you get a glimpse of us two film stars. Keep enjoying and remember us if you make it up our way. Love Val and Merv xxx