Bush to Beach and Back Again...
How long since we did the blog says she, mmm, before we met up with Jenny & Ronni says I. Mmm, about a month ago then? Yup. We have posted lots on the Book of Face but are conscious that not everyone takes the Zuckerberg Drug and actually the Blog is a much better medium for digging a bit deeper into our experiences. I don’t mind doing it this time says I. Mmm, says she, can you just tell people what we have been doing and not go off on one? I can try says I. So I am.
Currently we are in a small camping ground right by the Cania Gorge National Park. In Australia, dogs are not allowed into any National Parks (and very few people live in them either so not at all like National Parks in the UK) but this site is dog friendly and so it’s been great being able to leave Dennis at the van, or with the non-walker Jen, and then do a few of the designated walks. The Gorge has a diverse sandstone landscape with towering cliffs, ancient caves and a range of vegetation from dry eucalyptus through to damp fern gullies. It is also home to more than 90 species of birds including dollarbirds, wompoo pigeons and regent bowerbirds and no, I am not making up any of those names.
Jenny & Ronni are the couple we stayed with on the Gold Coast back in January. They also have a small caravan, called Kevin, and so were keen to meet up with us for our meandering around Queensland. Our RV location was, suitably, a pub in a place called Maidenwell.
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| The Rainbow Wanderers (Australian Chapter) and some understated evening attire. |
Many Aussie pubs allow campers to stay in adjacent paddocks or even car parks in return for buying a beer (or three) or paying a small fee. In fact there is a Facebook & Internet site called Country Pub Camping which provides details of the many hostelries who are plying for the (not too shabby) Recreational Vehicle and Nomad trade.
Maidenwell is also close to the Bunya Mountains National Park which not only is home to many Bunya Pines but also has significant family history connections for Jen whose relatives dug the Burtons Well for the benefit of their horses and bullock teams. The Well is still in existence although leaves seemed to be most in evidence rather than water.
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| Jenny and her Well |
The Bunya Pine produces an edible nut and usually crops only every three years. The Pine is particularly important to the Murri people who would travel to the area for the ‘boyne boyne’ festival - a time of feasting, ceremony, law making and trading when the Bunya nuts were abundant. Colonisation was not kind to the Murri people. By the late 1840s all of the country around the Bunya Mountains was taken up by large sheep and cattle runs and by the 1850s, logging for timber had decimated the red cedar, Hoop pines and the Bunya pines. Logging continued for nearly 100 years and during that time the few remaining Aboriginal people were removed from country and placed in Government settlements. The Aboriginal Protection Act of 1907 impacted the traditional way of life and severely restricted the movement of Aboriginal people, something that was so fundamental to their way of life. I know Shazza said I had to stick to the travel story but I feel it’s important that we acknowledge the parallel histories of the places we are visiting.
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| Bunya Pine and sculpture representing 'Past History and Future Hope' |
From Maidenwell we headed north, through peanut country, and into North Burnett Shire (NBS). I specifically mention this Shire as we have moved in and out of it over the last few weeks and, apart from being completely useless at providing recycling rubbish options, has delivered in spades. Whether low cost or free camping, walkways, information boards or just lots of lovely tidy towns, North Burnett council should be congratulated for seemingly creating settlements that appear to be thriving. Gayndah was our first NBS town and attracted us due to its rather large Orange, abundance of citrus fruit and a great view was had from Archers Lookout. Gayndah was also home to Mellors Drapery which is still using a ‘flying fox’ change dispenser. The old boy serving was not the quickest, or most twenty first century, shop assistant but, instead, had an old world charm where service still counted; Shazza was so enamoured she got some new shorts.
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| The change delivering machine in Gayndah. Who knew interfacing could be both sew on AND iron on? |
We continued our sojourn through North Burnett Shire and headed to Biggenden. $5 to stay over and within staggering distance of not one, but two, pubs! The first pub had a bizarre rule regarding dogs - they could stay outside the beer garden (in the blazing sun) but not in the beer garden because the “pub served food”. They did, but not when we were wanting a drink, and the “pub served food” rule didn’t seem to be an issue when it came to patrons smoking. Suffice to say, we decided to give it a miss and, instead, the Grand Hotel sold us a few drinks each AND a marvellous meal. As Julia Roberts once said, “mistake, huge mistake”.
We had a hankering for the beach so from Biggenden headed east to Hervey Bay. Although Hervey Bay is primarily a holiday destination it still had enough to keep us busy. Chris and Di, our friends and neighbours from Rawene Road, have a good friend in HB so we thought it would be nice to meet with Sandra and impart some kiwi vibes. A pleasant afternoon sat in the sun and a new friend created. Marvellous. We were also invited to a BBQ at the home of J&R friends, Jude & Rob, and, again, had a very pleasant evening sat in the sun/under the stars. But the creature that most enjoyed HB was Dennis. To witness his joy at running up and down the beach and into the sea was beautiful and filled our hearts with love. So much so, we felt we needed another coastal fix before heading inland again. Keen to see more of the Queensland coast, we went north to Bargara which is a small seaside town just outside of Bundaberg. Passing through ‘Bundy’ we did partake of a visit to the Ginger Beer factory but were sad to see that Covid restrictions meant they were not doing their tours or tastings. We did buy some though!
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| At the Bundy pop factory, note the bottle top trees and yes, I did choose those colours with my eyes open. |
Bargara proved to be as relaxing and chilled out as we had hoped and so we spent five days not doing much more than reading and walking as well as the Rummikub Challenge - it’s a close run thing but we think the Aussies might be ahead in the Test Series (although we suspect there is some tampering and under-arming going on…).
It was difficult to depart Bargara but we are conscious that as the year rolls on, it will get hotter and humid further north such that by the end of the year and the arrival of the ‘wet’ it could become quite intolerable.
Stopping at the small settlement of Sharon and the Sharon Gorge proved much amusement for our Sharon with photo opportunities aplenty.
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| These photos need no caption. You've got to love her! |
Is it coincidental that the next place we stopped was Gin Gin? Mmm, I think not. Gin Gin was a good old country town but we felt it was missing some significant visitor trade by not having a Distillery, so good they named it twice? Have it with your ‘tonic, tonic’. The options are endless! Especially as we found a fantastic public garden which concentrates on growing native edibles, or ‘bushtucker’ in the local parlance. Salt Bush Gin anyone?
Back into North Burnett shire and the small towns of Mount Perry, Cracow, Eidsvold and Monto. All had their own uniqueness. In Mount Perry it was the history of the gold and, then, copper mine and how a town can go from being a commercial and social hub to a sleepy backwater. Cracow is, literally, a one pub town. There is nothing else. Nada. Apart from a whole load of single person accommodation for the 300 workers at the nearby gold mine. All of these workers are ‘fly in-fly out’ and so have no need of anything from the local community and, as such, the local community has died. It’s a shame that there cannot be some way to marry up those in need of a place to live and to work with towns such as Cracow. Eidsvold was different again with a great low cost stay in the RM Williams Bush Learning Centre (hee hee, she said bush)(it will never get old). It was a fascinating resource with lots of information about R M Williams, the man, he of the heeled riding boots, and the settlers and the indigenous population too. It also lays claim to having the only permanent ‘son-et-lumiere’ in Australia. The light and sound show lasted for 15 minutes, was interesting and also cast some great colours and shapes onto our vans which were parked in the background. Monto was our final North Burnett town and did not disappoint. A few painted silos, street art, fabulous butcher and a $5 a night camping area that afforded us a great sundowners position on the old railway station platform. What’s not to love?
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| The Big Orange in Gayndah |
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| The ghost town of Cracow |
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| The 'fly-in, fly-out' accommodation |
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| Dennis assumes the 'having his photograph taken by a thing of interest' position |
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| In a previous blog, Sharon mentioned how the aborigines took the bark from trees to make things, this is an example of a food receptacle made from the bark of a tree. |
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| Monto silo art with Kevin & Cilla in the foreground |
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| Sundowners on the station platform...mind the gap |
Monto also provided us with an amazing example of a resilient woman. Girlie Goody is a North Burnett cattle producer and, at eighty years old, is still single handedly running her 3200 hectare property, Malakoff. She bought the property when her father died, when she was just thirty, but had to fight tooth and nail to get the property after the Bank would not give her a loan because she was a single woman. Her two brothers eventually went guarantor for her and within 10 years she was holding a ‘mortgage free party’ having completely paid off the property. Apparently she is a strong, confident and ‘no bulls***’ kind of woman with loads of grit and determination. Wouldn’t it be fine if it were the Girlie Goodys of this world, rather than the Kardashians, who could be aspirational for our young?
From Monto onto Cania Gorge, from here we will head through Banana Shire (yep, really) and out to the coast. It's been fab having friends travel with us and puts a new slant on our experience. New adventures await and, despite all of the covid shenanigans, we could not be happier.
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| A small rock in Cania Gorge...it was an ordinary Friday morning... |
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