Around the Darling Downs & a bit of History

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After leaving Dalby, we continued east along the Darling Downs and finally up some hills to Toowoomba, which is known as the Garden City. It's quite a few years since we visited Toowoomba and were surprised what a huge city it is now. We drove around town, having a good look, then we decided we'd go north a few kilometres to the town of Highfields to visit a little shop I'd followed online Simple Things Small Joys. As luck would have it, when we finally found the shop, it was closed - only open Thursday to Sunday. We did have a look around the other shops there though and had lunch in a little restaurant in the complex.

Back to Toowoomba where we visited Dymocks and Spotlight. We were going to stay the night in a caravan park there but as it was still early, we decided to press on down the New England Highway towards Warwick. On the way, at Emu Creek we saw a sign pointing to a side road - there to the original selection of Albert Davis. Albert Davis was the father of Arthur Davis, better known as Steele Rudd, the writer of On Our Selection and Dad and Dave. A replica home has been built there - very small and basic - and there were signs telling about their hard life trying to make a living on the selection, Arthur's school days at the Emu Creek school and his later years as a writer. The movie 'On Our Selection' was made a few years ago starring Leo Kern, Joan Sutherland and Geoffrey Rush.

One of the signs was a map of the area and a mark not far from where we were, of the little town of Nobby, and there, the Sister Elizabeth Kenny memorial. When I was growing up, poliomyolitis was raging, and bush nurse Sister Kenny was something of a heroine as she got locked limbs moving again. So we drove to Nobby and went through the hall which is a memorial to her. She came from Nobby and treated the first case of polio there, all but curing the little girl. She began touring the country setting up clinics then she was invited to tour the United States to show her treatment to doctors there. She stayed 11 years in America and opened up many clinics there. She returned to Nobby a year before her death and is buried in Nobby Cemetery. A movie was made of her life 'Sister Kenny' which starred Rosalind Russell.

It was such pretty countryside as we continued along the Darling Downs, lots of broadacre farming . We came to the town of Warwick, a town of rather grand old buildings We drove around having a good look at it all, and then went out of town to the caravan park - and it is here we are staying tonight, overlooking paddocks of horses and cows.

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Photos

Replica of Steele Rudd's home
- on their selection

The Steele Rudd Hotel, Nobby
Immortalised in Dad and Dave

Comments

[anonymous]

Val, I remember Sister Kenny coming to the USA .It must have been inthe mid 50's.She was concidered a hero here also