Mitchell, Condomine and Cecil Plains

I thought I should give you a little info about some of the places that we have stayed recently:

 cloud formation at Westmar.  Thought it looked a bit like one side of a zipper......

BAN BAN SPRINGS

Ban Ban Springs is a traditional site of the Wakka Wakka people which is guarded by the Rainbow Serpent.

BIGGENDEN

Biggenden’s hidden secrets include a wealth of natural beauty and delightful getaways with the town resting in a dramatic landscape below the rugged cliffs of Mount Walsh.
Mount Walsh
Rises to 703 metres above sea level, and the bluff area at the northern end, is a prominent landmark.
Chowey Bridge
The Railway from Maryborough reached Biggenden in 1891 and Chowey Bridge, the first of its kind in Australia, was constructed for the railways and opened in 1905.  It is a concrete bridge that is supported by a main 27m concrete arch and a number of smaller arches.
Coalstoun Lakes
Rising 200m above the cultivated valley, Mt Le Brun, contains two large craters which occasionally fill as shallow lakes.  Formed more than 600,000 years ago, the mountain is one of the youngest volcanic formations in Australia.
Coongarra Rock
Situated 24km south of Biggenden, Coongarra Rock is a magnificent sheer granite plug, towering 520m directly over you.
Paradise Dam
Just 20minutes drive north-west from Biggenden is Paradise Dam on the Burnett River.  The dam is named after the old gold mining township of Paradise, which now lies under its waters.  Completed in November 2005 after 4 years of construction and has a capacity of 300,000 megalitres.

KUMBIA

 

Kumbia was fairly wild in the 1920’s. Two men, furious when the publican Mr. Smith refused to serve them more drinks, rode their horses into the bar, then threatened to shoot him.  He refused, they left, fell of their horses on the way home, and arrested there by the Police from Kingaroy.  It was after this incident that the local Police Station was commissioned and built.
In 1927 Kumbia had: A Bank, Hotel, Bakery, Butcher, Café/Fruit shop, 2 General Stores, Drapery, Auctioneer, Memorial Hall, 18 houses, State School and 3 Churches.
In the 1930’s the Saddlery became known as the ‘Chamber of Horrors’ when two men fired revolvers at each other AND missed.
Kumbia Hotel, est. 1913 by Henry Hayden.  In the early days there were races by patrons on their farm horse along dusty Bell Street in front of the pub, loser to shout the rest.  Two-up games were common.  In 1917 the licensee, Mrs Driscoll, threw some drunks out and they then threw over 100 bottles on the roof.
Up until the 1960’s, crops were transported in hessian bags.  From the 1970’s bulk handling of crops, mechanisation and on farm storage of peanuts and grain in silos brought big changes to farming.
Kumbia Engineering Works made silos and invented a trailer to transport them and erect them without leaving the trailer.
Kumbia School was a single roomed school in 1925.  There were up to seventy (70) children in seven grades and two teachers in the one room.  Children walked or rode horses up to 8 kms to school every day AND helped with the milking and farm work BEFORE and AFTER school.
Nindigully

tracks of the vehicles that were pulled out from near the river at Nindigully.

sorry for the double up

SURAT

On the Great Inland Way, 78kms to the south of Roma along the Carnarvon Highway, you will find the picturesque town of Surat.  Historically the site of a Cobb and Co Changing Station, the Surat community has, with much dedication, preserved this precious remnant of their history.

Steeped in History with links to Cobb & Co and the 'boom time' of the wool growing industry, Surat is an ideal destination for anyone wishing to reconnect with the history of the pioneering spirit of life on the land.  The Cobb & Co Changing Station - the original site of the Cobb & Co store and drop-off point for coach travellers and goods, houses a museum of regularly changing displays of the lifestyles of yesteryear.  The Museum is also home to a 14 seater Cobb & Co Coach.
HISTORY OF THE BUILDING
The Museum area of the building was first erected in the late 1800's and began life as a General Store run by the Sheridan Family until 1916, when the Patterson Family took over.  In 1921, Cobb & Co purchased the store as part of its program of diversification.  When the company wound up operations in 1929, the store was sold to Gordon Studdert, the former manager of Cobb & Co.  Mr Studdert fought a court battle to win the right to use the name Cobb & Co on his shop, and the name lived on until 1953, when the Webb family became the proprietors.  Throughout the next decades the building continued to trade as a store up until the Warrego Shire Council purchased the building in 1996. 

COBB & CO
In 1880, Cobb & Co won the contract for Mail Service N0 177 from Yuleba through Surat to St George - a total of 203kms (127miles).  It thus secured its most famous route, serving faithfully until that historic last coach run of Cobb & Co in Australia, as Fred (Tommy) Thompson took the reins for the last time on 14th August 1924 from Surat to Yuleba.
Cobb & Co's changing stations were situated approximately every 25 kilometres along the coach route and provided a meal break for the driver and passengers, as well as a change of horses.  As the coach approached each changing station the driver would blow a bugle to alert the groom and his family, who lived there, of its impending arrival.  While the groom fed and watered the tired team of horses and harnessed the fresh team for the next stage, the groom's family provided meals for the driver and passengers.  The passenger paid this fee directly to the groom's family.
According to the memoirs of a past Surat Resident - "The coach would depart Surat at 7am on Mondays and Thursdays and arrive in Yuleba at 4pm, even on holidays such as Christmas Day and Boxing Day, but it left early, departing about 5am".
THE HORSE TEAM
Cobb & Co bred their own 'coachers', for some time "Warkon" (in the Warroo Shire) was used for breeding these horses.  Teams of five or seven horses were used and each team consisted of 'polers' and 'leaders' - these terms related to the position in which they were harnessed to pull the coach.  'Polers' were either side of the pole and the closest to the driver, the 'leaders' were the horses in front.
As the coach prepared for departure the driver took his seat, the 'polers' were led into position and the driver took their reins before they were hitched to the coach.  The 'leaders' were then led in and the reins handed to the driver before they were hitched to the swingle bars.  The groom then stood by the head of the team until the passengers boarded and the driver signalled "right away" and the coach proceeded on its way.
Horses were usually matched for their strength and gait but the teams used to enter or leave a town were sometimes matched for their colour.  The Surat to Yuleba Route for example would have used up to 40 horses.

One of the wide loads that crossed the Balonne River bridge

The second one

What was on the truck

 

 

Well we left Surat on Wednesday (15th May) morning as it had rained all night and looked like it was going to rain all day :(. 
Our tracks out weren't too bad---------

compared to others

 

Wet weather gear that did NOT keep the wet out :(

 

The ground was becoming VERY boggy very quickly, so we packed up - along with about 7 others -  and headed north.  When we reached Roma we headed west  and trundled through the constant rain and the roadworks until we reached Mitchell.  We were thinking of travelling to the lowcost camp at Morven BUT by the time we reached Mitchell we had both had enough.
We pulled into the Major Mitchell Caravan Park and booked in for two nights.  We hooked up to the power to get the batteries fully charged and finally took advantage of the HOT showers.  It certainly did make a difference - calmed the senses and then we relaxed in the van.  It was too cold and wet outside to sit and watch the world go by.......  I actually multi-tasked and put the wet washing in the machine and then put it in the dryer :) :D

Major Mitchell Cockatoos

Thursday dawned a little bit wet and the occasional shower but on the whole - reasonably drier then yesterday :).  We wandered through the van park and along the banks of the Maranoa River and watched the building of the NEW double width bridge into town.  The bridge currently in use - had all its safety rainings washed away in the January floods and is now down to ONE lane and is controlled by traffic lights.

Friday morning we packed up and headed EAST again.  We had decided that we wouldn't push on to Morven but head back the way we came :).  We reached Roma and stopped for some groceries.  We had to walk about a kilometre from the van parking area to the shops and back, carrying the groceries - in the rain again.   We then headed to the town of Miles (apparently there is a very good historical museum here, but we didn't stop as it was - you guessed it - raining again!
We turned south at Miles and headed 33km down to the township of Condomine.  We then went 7km SW to an area called Caliguel Lagoons.  It is a series of Billabongs along the edge of the Condomine River and are currently pretty full - forming one big Lagoon. 

Day we arrived

 

sunset

 

moonrise

sunrise next day

 

night sky rising - taken on my phone

 moon rising

There is a lovely camping area on the banks and we found a spot where we will be able to get the batteries fully charged each day and made our camp.  The lagoon is lovely and there are lots of different birds here - the main variety being Corellas.  Noisy birds that they are, and everytime they decided to land in the trees we are showered with bits of eucalypt trees and the scent of eucalyptus is VERY strong.  We have pelicans on the water, cormorants, herons and ducks.  There are little birds that sing but I haven't been able to identify them.  Darryl has been down trying to catch a fish - he has managed to catch some small yellowbelly fish but they had to go back.  He even had a visit from a Brown Snake.  Yep it swam past him about 4 times over two days.
We stayed here for 5 nights.  We had some very pretty sunsets and Darryl set the alarm to get up for a sunrise :)  Most of the vehicles that have come in to join us have Victorian number plates and some have told us that this is their fourth time of staying here.  A very popular spot.
We left on the morning of the 29th May as Darryl needed his INR done and we both needed fasting blood tests for our doctors visit in the middle of June - so we headed to Chinchilla.  We arrived in town and found the path lab and had our tests.  We then headed to the new cafe - Jamaica Blue - for a coffee and breakfast......
After that we headed to the east and when we reached Dalby we headed south east to Cecil Plains.
We are here in the van park for three nights.  We paid for 2 and get the 3rd free.  We were going to stay in the free Apex park but decided on the van park to access showers and washing machines.  The machine is also FREE to use too. :) BARGAIN.
Yesterday (30th May) we got three loads of washing done - all sheets and towels etc - before the misty rain started.  YES!!!  We also managed to wash the van AND the car AND detail it before the precipitation started.  We should have known - whenever you wash the car it will rain!!! :).
We went to the pub last night for happy hour and stayed for dinner.  Very nice indeed.  I had Chicken Parmagana and Darryl had the seafood basket.  Nice food and a great welcoming atmosphere.
Today I am catching up on emails and things and tomorrow we will head to Clifton to visit some lovely people that we first met back in 2010.  Will be good to see the Burgoynes again.

Westmar, Nindigully and Surat

15^th May,

We left Kumbia this morning and headed down through Bell to Dalby.  We stopped at Dalby for fuel and then continued on the Moonie Highway to Moonie. J.  We went for a walk around this little settlement.  They have a Hotel with garage,  with a small caravan park attached – dusty and very close to the road; a info centre across the road and a small school.  Darryl went into the garage and got some hot chips for chip-butty and we had a lovely lunch.

We then continued on our way to Westmar.  This is basically a cross-road with a pub and a small motel out the back.  There is a huge camping spot across the road and the truckies stop here for a shower and a meal and then continue on their way OR have their break.  We found a nice spot tucked in amongst the trees and close to the showers and toilet block.

16^th May

We left Westmar this morning and headed down toward Talwood and then turned west toward Nindigully.  We arrived just on lunch time and set up the van.  On Monday night they had 40ml of rain and there were about 10 vans and vehicles down in the VERY wet black mud……  Apparently they were charged $150 per rig to be pulled out by the tractor.  The mess that was made of the ground was incredible.  They have now cordoned off the area and ask that no one park down there.  It is still very spongy underfoot – so I could imagine how a 2 ½ tonne vehicle would sink.

We were waiting for the Happy Hour Gong to sound and realised that at 4.45pm it wasn’t going to be rung L.  This is one thing that we were really looking forward to.  The gong calling all travellers together to enjoy a beer and some chat…..

Well we went up and had a beer or three and a good chat with some of our fellow campers.  We stayed for dinner.  The meals are still big BUT (personally I don’t think) they are as big as they used to be.  YES they do have the BIG (humungous) burgers that need 20 people to eat them, but the other meals are becoming more individual meal sized BUT the prices have increased….. L

Well we shared our money round anyway J

We stayed at Nindigully for two nights and could have stayed longer but decided to move on.

18^th May.

Drove up to St George this morning and stopped and got fuel  and some groceries supplies.

We then drove the 107km to Surat.  This is a small town on the Balonne River.  We are staying at the Fishing and Restocking Park which has flushing toilets and lovely fresh water and is 1km out of town.  So we have put some extra water in the tanks.  We both think that the gauge for the water level is wrong as we have been gathering our grey water and we have only used 30 litres over 4 days but the gauge is telling us we are in the red (our tanks hold 190litres!!!!!)  Not sure what to do about that one….. Will talk to Pas when we get back.  Will just have to keep monitoring our usage.

Buster is sleeping an awful lot lately.  Not the energetic puppy of last year – except if you get his walking lead out J.  He seems to be stumbling over his own feet more often too J

19^th May.

Got down to 1.7 degrees overnight – no wonder I had to put an extra blanket on the bed in the wee hours J

We went for the walk into town today and wandered through the Cobb and Co museum and up to the Shire Hall and then back to the café come General Store for lunch.  We had a hamburger each and a coffee which was consumed whilst sitting in the sunshine.   Very pleasant indeed.  We then walked down to the river, though the Memorial Park and back to the van.  Took us a whole 3 hours all up.  Both Buster and Darryl were exhausted when we got back :D

20^th May

Hmmmm got down to 1.1 degrees last night.  Had to put Busters extra coat and an extra blanket on – poor puppy was shivering…….

Today we went into town to use the Laundromat and then whilst they were working we went to the Shire Hall to the free showers – lovely big cubicles and plenty of hooks to hang things on.

Back and collected the washing and then back to the van.  Darryl decided he wanted to move the van so that the panels got more sun on them.  At 10.30 and they were already in the shade.  Yay I got to move the van and park it again BUT I have decided that I must give Darryl some inservice on how to direct someone into a parking area…..  Long story and too much to put here J :D

Anyway we managed to get the van moved and set up again within the hour and then I could hang out the washing……..

It is now 3pm and all the washing is dry.  They are predicting another lovely day tomorrow – so we will stay and see if Darryl can manage to catch a Silver Perch, Golden Perch or Murray Cod…..

He is out trying now….

Will try and up load photos when we reach Roma in a few days’ time as the reception here is fluctuating.