onebigcountry

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Gayndah

This is our last night away. We’re camped by the Burnett River and heading to Goomeri bakery tomorrow for a pie on the way home. It will take a little longer to get home this way but petrol is under $2.00 there - cheapest we’ve seen in a while and really, you can’t go past the Goomeri Bakery, well, that’s what Bob and Valerie say anyway. 

Perhaps there’s room for a couple of extra photos.....

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Just outside Monto we came across these strange little raised huts with chimneys. I wondered whether they could be tobacco drying huts but could find no info. so I’m going to email the local council when I get home cos I’m intrigued.

The painted silos at Three Moon are, apparently, the farthest north in the country and very striking they are too, as are the signs going in and out of Monto.

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Callide power station

A  great sign

Biloela water tank mural depicting the importance of women in society

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When you have a town called Banana, all the signs are funny.

Pete drove straight through town. He was disappointed, he’s thought the roads would have bends in them (oh dear).

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Biloela

Coal mines and electricity generation mainly but a nice friendly town - the one that wants to keep their sri lankan refugee family.

We drove to the power station lookout and saw the coal mine, nearby.

There is also a spectacular water tank mural, dedicated to women, throughout Australian history in town.

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Yay, a mural, they’ve taken over from birds now I don’t have my camera!

Two Aussie icons, placed in the park - the Southern Cross windmill and the corrugated iron water tank.

If I have time, I like to visit cemeteries; there are always stories to be found there. Often, in some of these out-of-the-way places they are crowded with people who’ve drowned or died in fires or young ones, who’ve died of diseases that would be cured today. Rolleston was no exception. In fact, there were two huge rocks with the names of those who’d drowned locally. Also, these two touching plaques.

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Rolleston

This was only a sleep stop but turned out to be a very nice little town.

It had a coffee cart in the middle of a gorgeous little park with historic buildings, which had been moved there to create tourist interest. The coffee cart is “personned” by volunteers (not sure if I can say manned) to raise money for local projects. The lady who was making coffee that day was a friend of someone who lived there who’d asked if she had a week to spare to help out. so, she came up from the Gold Coast to help, as you do!

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This is the final map, but we didn’t follow this route. We found out that the Cracow pub was shut on Mondays and the Goomeri one was shut on Mondays AND Tuesdays and we wanted to visit each of them. so, we came through Biloela and Gayndah instead.

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It never ceases to amaze me how reverently those who were lost in wars are treated in Australia. Every tiny town has a war memorial and this one is no exception - a beautiful avenue of bottle trees leads to this fantastic weathered sculpture of a light horseman.

Driving back to Emerald we stopped at the lookout, we could see right over to the coast.

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Just for fun!

Possibly my favourite mural so far..... a dunny painted on the wall of the public toilet.

32 of the telephone poles in Capella have murals on them, mainly depicting country life.

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Capella has what looks to be a very interesting Pioneer Village. I really wanted to see inside Peak Downs Homestead, which was moved here and restored. It’s prized for its carpentry style (drop plank) and restored it’s unique in Australia.

But it wasn’t open on Saturdays.

I also wanted to do the river walk and bird viewing area but we couldn’t find it.

At this point my camera stopped working and hasn’t come back to life since. 

So, I’m just waiting for Pete to upload his photos from the last couple of days so that I can finish up the blog before I get home. When I get there I have a few jobs to do................

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1916 flood marker

Replica of a piano found 32 ft up a tree after the flood subsided.

Thought we’d pop into the cafe for a coffee. It was almost midday so perhaps something for a light lunch or even just a cake. Nope. “Sorry folks we’re just closing”. So, we’ve renamed it Notalotalatte’s.

Some of the train murals.

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Hood’s Lagoon

 Billy Sing memorial - Billy was a sniper at Gallipoli and also fought in France and Belgium. He single-handedly accounted for 150-200 enemy Turks and was awarded the DCM and the Croix de Guerre.

An assortment of ducks and a goose with attitude.

These two Little Corellas were snuggling up, all lovey dovey (if they’ll pardon the expression) and the one on the left was not happy at my intrusion ..... or he could be saying, “Peace sister” I suppose.

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Clermont and Capella

Two little towns 100km and 50km north of Emerald.

Their economies have been driven by coal and grain but they’re also steeped in history. Clermont was originally built on a floodplain but the whole town had to be moved after a devastating flood in 1916. It now attracts visitors to see its murals painted on the sides of four rail wagons each depicting part of local life and its wagon reflecting that too eg. Mining life is painted on a coal wagon. Each mural also shows historical and modern methods used.

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Between Lara and Emerald you pass through Jericho, with the smallest drive-in in the southern hemisphere, complete with canvas seats for those without a car (no that’s not the current projector!) and Alpha, another tiny town with murals.

The road stretched out ahead of us. It seemed to take forever...

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Opportunistic Kookies await bacon scraps

My sunset shot

The fires were lit in baskets and we really needed them. It was so cold we had ice on the windscreens in the morning and before bed I boiled a kettle on the gas stove to warm the van and then wrapped it in my pj’s and put it in the bed.

I slept in socks and a hoodie over my pj’s!

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Sunset the second night (Pete’s photo)

Just after sunrise 

Our spot, the donkey shower-you light a fire under the heater and the cold water comes down from the tank on the roof, heats, rises and feeds the showers, when the fire goes out the process stops so showers were about 2 hours a.m. and two p.m.

Artesian spa and overflow into the lake