QUEENSLAND.....Third State of Flux

YESSSSS we are finally in QUEENSLAND (30th July), the second largest State of Australia, and the third most populous; the capital being Brisbane. The population is around 5.1 million so just slightly bigger than New Zealand. It has over 7,000 km of coastline and is 1,852,642 square km (715,309 square miles) which means it is pretty flippin' huge! Known as the 'Sunshine State' and yes it is...currently a lovely 25C and we have packed away the thermals and the shorts are ON ! 

It's fair to say that it has a vast array of climate due to its size ranging from Tropical 'oop' North to Outback desert. 

Generally speaking there are 6 predominant climatic zones ranging from Warm humid summer and winter, to Hot dry summer and cool dry winter.The Northern climate has a WET season from around November through to April albeit last year by all accounts the 'wet' didn't really materialise. Much of the State has been in severe drought for the last 7 years followed by flooding at the beginning of this year.

It has meant that we have been lucky to see some of these areas looking a little greener than perhaps this time last year. We are currently in Southern Queensland which is pleasantly warm with cooler nights so perfect conditions.

In summary we once again left the safe haven of Kangaroo Valley to initially sort out all the servicing for the van and the 'mission objective' (oh Von will love that) to get in to Queensland ASAP before any other border restrictions kicked in. How so very lucky were we....given the current situation in Victoria and NSW. Gladys and Anna, the respective Premiers of NSW and Queensland, continued to have a border 'stoush' and it was with much haste we acquired our Border Pass to enter Queensland, unfortunately missing out on a trip to Lightning Ridge which we had been looking forward to...ah well.

We crossed the Border at a small...and I mean small... settlement called Hebel pronounced 'Heeble' which consisted of a Pub and a free camp and we swear we heard the sound of banjo's.

The Border was patrolled by Police and Army and we were spoken to by a very nice Police Officer who was a local.  He had with him a Police Diver and a Counter Terrorism Officer! Thinking they may well have been fish out of water but presuming they were getting good overtime? They were working a 7 day shift and 9 hours a day. It was not the busiest of crossing points as it is pretty much in the middle of nowhere. He said on the 9 hour night shift they had one car come through! So after a chat, presumably as he was stuck for conversation, he let us through. We resisted asking for photos and squealing loudly or accelerating in a blaze of dust and glory.

So we were IN. We picked Hebel as it was the shortest in distance from Kangaroo Valley and no plans thereafter. It still felt a bit close to the Border to stay there in case they changed their minds so we headed off to Dirranbandi; roughly translated as the home of the croaking frogs. Yes really.

A fabulous small town, which in the last census of 2016 had a population of 640. This is one of those towns that has had 7 years of drought followed by a huge flood at the beginning of 2020 where the village was completely cut off. Its main employment in the area is Cotton as it has the largest Cotton Station in the southern Hemisphere. We ended up staying 3 nights here, catching up with laundry and just enjoying sitting in warm sunshine in shorts! 

The campsite owners were also really lovely and laid on 'smally' eats by the campfire each evening at Happy Hour. Turns out that the sister of Scott(owner) lived about 5 houses along from us in Auckland...now that IS a small world given we were in the middle of nowhere.

Many of these small outback towns, as a result of the drought and subsequent economic struggles, have significant mental health issues to deal with. Amongst initiatives to combat this with 'Mens Sheds' and Outreach programmes we have seen the appearance of the Blue Tree. It is literally a tree that has been painted Blue (recognised as the colour for Beyond Blue Mental Health charity). We found a couple where messages of support had been written together with Lifeline phone numbers...quite powerful and a reminder that folk out here have done it tough. 

That said, there is a certain resilience amongst these towns and a willingness to welcome the tourist dollar by innovative means. Whether it is a great little cafe which always manage very good coffee or some form of Art; sculpture or mural. Dirranbandi had painted telegraph poles.

Having previously touched on the pulling down of statues and monuments around the world (Von) it was refreshing to see in Dirranbandi an acknowledgement of a local aboriginal character replicated as a prominent statue in the high street. 

Tom Dancey was born in 1888 and lived all his life in Dirranbandi as a stockman and boundary rider. He was also an amateur runner and at 22 years old was only the second aboriginal to win the prestigious Victorian Stawell Gift. At the time, and now, it was seen as a race entrenched in Australian folklore and an icon of Australian Sport. He earned 1000 pounds for the win and was decorated by the Victorian State for his achievement. This statue was erected in 2011 to recognise his contribution to the community....better late than never.

   

The #BLM movement throughout the world has certainly focussed the attention of how 'first peoples' have been regarded in their countries and Australia is no different. One aspect of the BLM movement that resonates is the need to educate to remove ignorances. This blog isn't necessarily the right forum, but certainly along our travels we are very much looking for opportunities to educate ourselves about the indigenous Australians.

This area, in particular, has provided some great opportunities, which, even when living in Sydney in 2009-12, we hadn't discovered.

Scarred Trees have been evident in Dirranbandi, St.George and now where I am writing in Meandarra. We had wondered what was wrong with the tree bark and eventually found information to explain these 'carvings'. Bear in mind  Aborigines are believed to have been in Australia 40,000 years, these are quite a find....but not sure the trees are that old! They are, however, now of important historical significance throughout Australia. In NSW, for example, they had recorded over 7,000 scarred trees but now there are fewer than 100 left due to farming and development and some ignorance as to their significance back in the day.

The Aborigines would carve out sections of the tree bark, ensuring they didn't kill the tree, and use the bark depending on size for canoes, shields and carrying containers. We now find ourselves looking at all the trees alongside the rivers.

Another awesome find a few km's down the road in Weengallon were Rock Wells. They are part of a trail of Wells that stretch up to North Queensland and were used by the Goomeroi and Bigumbul peoples, when travelling, as a water source. They hand carved the holes in the ground, some of which were around 12 metres deep, which then utilised the artesian basin in the area. There were also grooves in the rocks alongside the Wells, scraping up the ochre from the rocks and used for ceremonial colouring. Awe & Wonder right there.

And whilst on the subject of all things indigenous, we came across another memorial dedicated to Warrant Officer Leonard Waters. He was the only aboriginal Pilot to fly in WW2. Sadly what the plaque didn't say, which we later found out, is that he had wanted to remain a flyer. He attempted to start a regional airline serving SW Queensland but could not find any backers or government approval. He never flew a plane again. While racism in the military was considered minimal in WW2, he and other aborigines who had served their country found their skills were not valued in peacetime....as he said himself he simply "returned to being a black fella". Seems a very sad waste of talent. So he returned to shearing and died in 1993. He was buried with full military honours in one of the towns we visited, St.George.

St.George a great little town and one that has also had it's fair share of tough times. Not withstanding the 7 year drought it had 3 significant floods in 3 years back in 2010, 2011 and 2012. It also flooded at the beginning of this year, but thankfully due to a huge government investment in levees and stilts (house stilts not clowns on stilts!) they came through it relatively unscathed. Why the name St.George? It's our old friend Major Mitchell who came through/invaded here on his 4th Expedition and arrived on St.Georges Day. Cheeky bugger also decided to name a Cockatoo after himself - like an all white one but with a pink head. 

We are coming to a very definite 'desire' list on our stops. One of them is having somewhere great to walk with Dennis and this town got a big tick for the lovely formed river walk along the Balonne River. It was really well looked after with an accessible pathway (flat and concrete), nice planting, information boards, plaques on rocks, sculptures, fitness machines and aboriginal scarred trees ! WIN WIN WIN ! It also markets itself as the 'Inland Fishing Capital of Queensland' although the water looked decidedly murky.....guess it makes it easy for the fish to hide.

Luck was on our side though as we stayed in Surat which had, amongst other stuff, a large freshwater aquarium displaying all the types of freshwater fish to be found in the river! 

Obviously a huge even bigger bonus to a town is either Silo/Water Tower Art or a BIG Thing. Thallon had both of these so a definite lunch stop. Thallons Silo Art was the first to be done in Queensland back in 2017 around the same time as the BIG Wombat. The Wombat was decided upon as their BIG thing to honour the endangered Hairy-nosed Wombat which hails from around this area. We first saw 'William the Wombat' arrive in Thallon as a result of watching a well known Australian doco called "Back Roads". It's now in its 6th Season and each episode features a small town and it's inhabitants. We have watched all of them so have been trying to incorporate many of them into our route. Hence why we went to Thallon. 

I will say we do our research from the WikiCamps app and deliberately look for towns with our 'desire list' but occasionally a town surprises. Meandarra, which is very dry, and very dusty, and only has a population of around 340 people, has an ANZAC Museum! Other than Canberra it's the only other one in Australia. A chap called Rod Keys was something of a military collector and  there is now a Museum of his collection which includes a RAAF Canberra Bomber! Needless to say they built the museum around the plane but it also has various vehicles and a landing craft. Uniforms, medals and paraphernalia and quite extraordinary. Given the torrential, much needed rain, this morning we spent an hour perusing. Von even checked out her knot knowledge.

I have been writing this blog for the last few days along The Sunset Way (great sunsets they were too), and so now find myself listening to the rain on the roof of the van in a small village called Kaimkillenbun ..yes really ! AND it is the longest place name in Queensland. Call that long ...weep Australia ! (NZ wins with Taumatawhakatangihangakoauauotamateaturipukakapiki ; a World longest). Suffice to say, like so many words in Oz they have shortened it locally to The Bun. This town had its moment of fame as Nicole Kidman was in a movie 'Chase in the Night', aged 16, which was filmed here! 

The strange symmetry of this factoid is earlier in the week we stayed at the Nindigully Pub which had been the film location for Hugh Jackmans first major film 'Paperback Hero'. Both now 'famous' and acted together in the movie 'Australia'. 

Everyday is a school day!

Tomorrow the intent is to head to an RV point of Maidenwell where all being well we'll meet up with our Australian Rainbow Wanderers! Our good friends Jenny and Ronni have a caravan so heading to us from their home on the Gold Coast for some travelling, eating and drinking around the campfire. FUN....watch this space.

Kia Kaha to all those not so fortunate to be travelling; we consider ourselves very, very lucky inspite of flexing and fluxing and, indeed, fluking plans!