We touched down in Brisbane at around 6.30am and cleared Customs quickly so we were out on the streets and into the arms of my sister Mal and bro-in-law Roy “Diamondo” Groth. There was no time to waste as we made preparation for a combined family camping holiday with the Groths and my brother Thomas and sis-in-law Margaret. I guess we have all been so busy in our lives that it is sad to say that this is our first family holiday together. We plan to make amends for that over the next four weeks!
With all the stuff we acquired in New York and Montreal, we had to seriously look at how the heck it was all going to fit in an already cosily outfitted camper trailer. One of us has organisational skills. I sat back and watched her in action. In fact after the re-pack, we had slightly more room than when we set out from Perth. We spent the first day on the road thinking, “What have we forgotten? Surely we must have forgotten something!”
Our first stop was Kingaroy – home of the peanut and the Bjelke-Petersens (that’s not tautology is it?) We bought peanuts from the aptly named “Peanut Van” and also did a tour of “Bethany” where Joh’s son John takes you to the highest point of the Bjelke-Petersen property and tells you the history of the area, the family and freely intersperses it all with anecdotes about his dad. Strong family resemblance there too. After you get back down to the homestead, you get the chance of a lifetime to have a cup of tea and a pumpkin scone with Flo who is now 91 and possessing of as many marbles as she had in the 60s. A good effort.
We did a day trip to the Bunya Mountains, which is a beautiful area full of rainforest and Bunya Pines. We walked down to Paradise Falls but motored everywhere else – it’s a pretty big place.
Mal told us about some drapery store in a town called Munduberra that still used an old “flying-fox” system to send messages and money around the store – that last one in Australia! So off we set from Kingaroy through Murgon and Gayndah to Munduberra. We couldn’t find the Drapery so we asked the guy in the local Hardware Store. “Oh, that’s in Gayndah” he said. We weren’t going back that far to see some old coot fire a basketful of paper from the front counter to the back of the store. And whose fault was it that we missed it? Mal said, “It’s that bluddy Desi Groth’s (Roy’s brother) fault – he definitely told me Munduberra!” Or Gayndah perhaps?
On our way north we passed through Biloela. Maurs said, “I’ve heard of Biloela but I’ve never seen it spelt before...you’d think there would have to be a ‘w’ in there somewhere!” [For those not versed in Queensland pronunciation Biloela is ‘Bill-o-weel-a’]
We over-nighted at a “free” camp at the Wuruma Dam outside of Eidsvold (another classic Queensland-named town). It was recommended to Thomas by a friend of his. As we came over the hill to the camping area I was surprised at the incredible number of campers staying at free sites such as this – all packed in together getting away from it all! It was a lovely setting though with abundant bird life. From there it was on to Dingo for two nights while we visited the Blackdown Tableland National Park.
Dingo is a sparse little town and on the rainy weekend that we spent there, there was no room at the pub to have a meal (they were renovating the dining room that week apparently) and no store open. So we were on our own food-wise. The trains shunting vast tonnages of coal from Blackwater to the coast for export to China and India rumbled by the caravan park with such frequency that we didn’t even hear them after a while. Blackdown was not exactly a hidden treasure either – even though we travelled over obscure dirt roads in pouring rain, we got to “Gudda Gumoo” (that’s Aboriginal talk for Rainbow Waters) to still find it chock-a-block with 4WDs and people.
Gudda Gumoo at Blackdown - 240 steps to the bottom.
Now THAT'S a blown tyre!
Also, on the way there I managed to blow a rear tyre – a fine effort on my part – and then I discovered that the spare was speed-limited to 80 km/h! Not happy! We then had to hobble over to Emerald to get a replacement only to find there were only 13 of these tyres on the Australian database and most of those were in Perth! There’s a generic tyre coming from Rockhampton as I write this but we’re stranded in Emerald for a couple of days whether we like it or not. Emerald has got to be one of the busiest little towns in Australia! There is traffic everywhere – and it’s not that big a town! I don’t think people actually work there – the entire population just drives around the town all day to keep the road numbers up. I want my tyre back!
Great way of explaining, i loved way of pictures always more helpful to make understand, sure in future want to follow it..
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