Australia 3 - Airlie to Toowoomba

Airlie to Clermont

28th April 2012

We were up at dawn and ready to go inland to take in some of the bush country via the Great Inland Way.

We headed south along the coast and stopped at Mackay for fuel. We then cut inland south west across the increasing bush through vast coal mines and camps that house the workers. These open-cast mines take thousands of acres of land as the surface is scraped away into yawning great scars on the earth. 

Our camp site on the edge of town had a huge number of cabins, permanently in use by miners or ancillary workers. The air had an all encompassing smell of burning wood and coal and we found that there was a large controlled fire in progress to clear a stretch of land prior to mining. The effect on the local economy is that a lot of money can be made if you have a store, hotel, camp site, supply business or skills that the camps need.

There are stories of young men working at a mine for a year and being able to buy a house for cash at the end of that time. The down side for the local people is that they cannot buy a house if they are on 'normal' wages or even find anywhere to rent at a reasonable price, because demand is so high. The effect on the small town society can also be devastating. Going from knowing everyone, never locking your door and being able to wander alone on the street at night, to a situation where the place is doubling in size in a year and awash with men, money and drink, can be pretty tricky.

We came upon the Fairbairn Dam, a vast expanse of water in the middle of the bush, which supplies the towns, farmers and mines across the whole area, and also acts as a reservoir for rainfall and runoff for flooding – so it was quite full. We stopped for a picnic lunch in the company of a host of Parakeets and Cockatoos in the Eucalyptus trees, Kites overhead, and a Darter, drying its wings by the water.

We got talking to a couple of gold fossickers (Australian for gold and gem prospectors), Gary and Norm, at the cook house. They had interesting stories to tell of their exploits out in the bush with metal detectors. They always hope to get some gold but mostly they enjoy the fun of exploring the different mining areas on their holidays. It was a lively camp site and there was a group of women on a girls weekend camping trip. They were stuck into the drink early on and were having a really good time, however, as they had started early in the evening, by 11 pm all was quiet!

Drama of the Day: Just after dark, as we sat in the cook house with Norm and Gary, a young man started calling out for help from a caravan a hundred yards away. John and Norm went over and an older man had collapsed and had stopped breathing. John started CPR, taking it in turns with another camper, until the ambulance arrived and the paramedics took over. We were told later that after taking him to the local hospital they put him in a helicopter to Townsville. The heroes returned to the cook house and after all that excitement, it was time for bed.

Clermont to Carnarvon Gorge

Sunday 29^th April 2012

Up at first light and stopped for breakfast, as it warmed up on a beautiful morning, at a viewpoint. We drove 55 kilometres to Emerald and went west to visit Anakie and Sapphire, and in case you hadn't guessed, they are all in the gem fields.  

We went to a Sunday Morning Sale, full of local characters, prospectors, fossickers, ladies selling home made crochet work, junk, antiques and, of course, gems and jewellery. John bought a phial of 'gems'. There was also a stand for joining the miners union.  

In the village, really just a garage/store and a couple of mining outfits, you could buy a bag of dirt from a local fossicking company and sift through it to find gems of your own, or you could go out to one of their sites and pay to fossick in certain areas. John thought it might be fun but Celia thought it might be a tourist trap and she prevailed – no fossicking for us. But lots of tourists were giving it a go and enjoying themselves.

We filled up with fuel, as we are now in country where the fuels stops are few and far between, and there is nothing in-between these small towns. We drove back to Emerald, then south through Springsure and Rolleston and at that point were very glad we filled up with fuel because we discovered that the Carnarvon Gorge camp site was another 100 kilometres off the main road. It is really easy to underestimate distance here and the quality of road surface can also slow you down, however, not the traffic, as there is very little of it. Most people you see on the road, always wave as they pass and we do the same. It is the sort of country where if you break down you will always be helped and everyone is really friendly.

We turned off to go into the national park that Carnarvon Gorge sits in, looking forward to reaching our camp site in late afternoon after a long day's drive, but quickly realised it was going to take us quite a while, as the road turned to a hard packed gravel, twisting and turning through creeks and crossing river beds. Steep hills tested our brakes and steering and we were tired.  

The upside of all this was we saw lots of emus, kangaroos, wallabies, birds of prey, a great bustard type bird and lots of small birds we could not identify. This was when it really hit us how very, very different everything is here; the flora and fauna is all upside down! We continued to drive through magnificent scenery and the light started to fade as the last twenty kilometres became harder to negotiate. 

We made it just before dark. The camp is in a flat river valley surrounded by steep, tree covered cliffs and hosts loads of outward bound groups in cabins and tents. There is a large and well equipped open air camp kitchen and we get cooking – lamb chops of course!

There are serious hikers here, who all look very healthy and are equipped with all the right walking equipment and clothing. Also, a group of 40 equally serious university students from the USA. They are here studying ants - what can we say, except we were impressed and feel rather frivolous in comparison. We met Charlene and Ed, newly-weds from Toowoomba, who were a delight, plus the couple doing all the catering for the US students and we had good fun under the stars. 

Carnarvon to Injune

Monday, 30th April 2012

This is a pretty magical spot and we would have liked to stay longer and explore the Gorge more but the road was pretty rough coming in and the weather forecast is for a lot of rain. That will mean the road will become impassable very quickly, especially without 4-wheel drive, so we have to go.

Back on the main road, after another bumpy but scenic ride, the vista stretches out before us of an endless undulating white ribbon. We started worrying about our fuel supply, because there is nothing in-between. Again, the sense of space and sky is just amazing out here and we are so glad we have come inland and seen this landscape.

We make it to Injune by midday without running out of fuel and we are really tired, so decide to stay. There is a camp site in town, mostly full of miners cabins, separated off from the tourist campers and have their own chef and dining hall. 

Injune is like an old wild west town, with a great hotel/bar that hasn't changed in a long time, full of old pictures and cowboy hats, so we went over for a drink, something we have hardly done in Australia because the prices are so high. It had a few locals at the bar and they were a friendly bunch and we had a good chat.

We visited the post office to send some post cards, again a really old building, and chatted with the postmaster as people came and went, collecting their own post and taking their neighbours' post for them. This is the sort of courtesy that is the way of things here – people help each other with the everyday things to make life easier in this harsh environment.

Injune to Roma

Tuesday,1st June 2012

Driving down long roads listening to the local radio playing songs like “The boys from the bush are in from the country”, we see kangaroos, emus and then a camel! (apparently there are loads of wild camels here). The 90 kilometres slip away and we are in Roma at midday getting our shopping in for dinner. This is where we first come across the fantastic and very beautiful Bottle Trees. 



This is also where we come across the Dame Edna lookalike at the camp site reception: perfect red talon nails, bouffant hair, immaculate and startling makeup, finished off with large, red, be-winged spectacles and of course a spotless outfit of matching slacks and shirt. Celia is transfixed taking in all the details and wondering how she stays so perfect. Visiting the showers later, you see the long arm of Dame Edna at work here too, as all the facilities are a show stopping deep lilac, but immaculate.

We visit the lovely old Villa Roma winery next to our camp site and are shown round by Don Roberts. He is looking after the place for the owners while they are away in hospital. It has been in the same family for many years but is now up for sale He is a retired vicar and now works part time as padre to the police in the district, covering thousands of square miles. The vines were all wiped out round here by the floods last year and so they have to buy in their grapes now. The impact of the floods is still being felt everywhere, particularly in farming.

We buy three bottles of wine and get back to camp where we meet the usual bunch of friendly Queenslanders, including Lorraine who loans us her bird book and gives us some of her home grown lemonade fruits. These are a green citrus and she recommends squeezing them for breakfast, which we duly do and they are like a sharp cross between grapefruit and lemon – very nice.

We eat delicious avocados with prawns for dinner and sit under the stars with a glass of rather good rose wine from Villa Roma . . . cheers Don.

Roma

Wednesday 2^nd May 2012

Took a drive out to see the local area. Visited Muckadilla (a picturesque pub and a couple of houses) and got stuck in a road work scheme in the middle of nowhere on the outskirts of the outback that took a while to get through, although we were the only car and nothing for miles. Then we wound our way back through low hill country to Roma.

Detail of the Day: The road works don't usually have traffic lights to control the traffic through the improvement area, but a person at each end with a 'stop' and 'go' lollipop. They are just as likely to be women as men and are invariably cheerful and always give you a wave and a smile as you pass them. Just another part of what makes being in Australia an enjoyable experience.

Roma has some lovely old hotels that have been well preserved and a brilliant hat shop that John spent ages in, trying on everything and looking wistfully at Celia in the hope that she would give in and let him buy one, however her response was always “Where would you keep it?” and “Could you wear it in Totterdown?” 


 At which point, John's winning smile would collapse and he would replace the hat on the shelf with a disappointed air, before finding another type of hat and would start trying them on and we would go through the whole process again. We returned to the camp site empty handed.

Over at the camp kitchen we met a couple from Brisbane, Steve a South African and Henry an Australian. They are in real estate on the Sunshine Coast and have several holiday properties there. They are in Roma looking at buying property here because of the mining boom and the opportunities it provides for rental income.

We have more chats with some of the 'grey nomads' who wander round Australia in droves in their campers and never tire of exploring their own country. Their enthusiasm is boundless and infectious and we are very careful never to discuss politics in any depth, as the views are very fixed and not open to change in any way.

Roma to Dalby
Thursday, 3rd May 2012

The usual fantastic dawn chorus wakes us and parrots flit amongst the trees as we breakfast. The Warrego Highway is our road to Miles where the camp site is full and so we push on to Chinchilla, where the camp site is also full. We had a look at the Show Ground camp site but it is a bit too basic. So we ate some lunch under a tree and then pushed on to Dalby, a larger town with room at the inn for us, on a lovely site by the river with bandicoots running about, bats in the trees and kookaburras to wake us in the morning.


Dalby to Toowoomba

Friday, 4th May 2012

We travel through small hamlets on straight roads through cotton fields that shed little puffs of cotton that make you think there is a dusting of snow. We get to Toowoomba in 2 hours. It is a very green and prosperous city, sitting on a mountain with wonderful views from the lookout at Picnic Point, at the top of what is known here as, The Range, a very steep and sweeping hill that drops 700 metres to the flood plain below. The air is gorgeous and scented with roses and other blossoms as we sit in the sun and have a drink.

We decided to try and book in to Murphys Creek camp site down in the valley and it was a fantastic site by the river, but it was full so we had to turn around and try and find somewhere else. It was at this point when we were just turning up the main road to drive back up The Range, that the car started making lots of very unhappy noises. We pulled in to the very friendly and helpful KMS Garage and they told us the brakes were locking and it was too dangerous to drive.  

Just like that, our camping trip came to an abrupt end. All credit to our hire company, Jucy. They paid for taxis, a motel and refunded our last 3 nights, plus the tow truck for the next morning. But we were very sad because the trip had been so fantastic and we were savouring every last moment of our wonderful road trip and didn't really want it to end. We both want to come back and explore the rest of the country – there is just so much to see and so many great people to meet.