Winton

The family with Banjo Patterson

 We stayed a little while at Winton while Steve was recovering from the flu. Just before we got to Winton we  looked for a bush camp to stay at. At one place we pulled up near a river,  I didn't get out of the car very quickly, but Steve got straight out of the car.  I didn't really pay attention to him, but as he returned to the car I looked up and saw him standing there dripping wet and naked. I said what on earth are you doing?  He replied that he was so hot he just had to immediately immerse himself in the creek.  That's when we realised that he was  running a significant fever.  Not a good thing to have in almost 40 degree heat.  After we took Steve to the doctor he was told to have cool showers to cool himself down.  We were perplexed as to how he could do this as the water out of the tap was naturally nice and warm as it comes straight out of the Great artesian Basin.

I wrote quite a bit about what we did as I probably realised that Steve was in no condition to be keeping up with his diary.  I will relate Evan's diary entry first because his is nice and short:

Today we're at Winton.

I wanted to go to the Waltzing Matilda Centre but mum and dad said that we would go through the route of the river gum.  It was in the desert, so there wasn't much to see.

One of the days we were at Winton, me and Harry went with dad to the library. We played games on the computer, Harry didn't want to leave because he wanted to play on the computer at the library.

It was lovely at Winton.

My diary entries:

26/4/07

Drove to Winton today.
Camped at Pelican Park in Winton. We looked at a campsite at Bladensburg National Park, but they wanted to charge $18 per night!  For only $24 per night we could camp in town with full facilities, a pool and nightly entertainment.

Tonight, country music singer Graham Roger, sang and we were also entertained by a bush poet with some very funny verses.  We ate dinner watching the entertainment. I really enjoyed it.

Steve has had a wickedly sore throat for a couple of days.  He can't swallow or even talk without great pain.  I hope that the rest of us don't catch it.  Harry ran a fever on the 21st and said that he had a sore throat. Steve may have caught it from him.  Today Sarah is complaining of a sore throat . This maybe an ongoing sickness if it manages to make its way through the entire family.

27/4/07

We are spending a quiet day around camp seeing as Steve and Sarah don't feel well.
Harry and Evan are enjoying the dirt roads around camp by driving their cars through it. They are getting quite filthy.

We went to the town library around 3 o'clock so that Steve could rest in air conditioning and so that Sarah and Evan could do some school work.
It's a very nice library. There are lots of good books that I would like to read.  There were heaps of toys for Harry to play with and videos for Steve to watch.

We thought that using public libraries where we can go to do school work during the hot part of the day is a good idea.

On the way back to camp we dropped Steve off at the doctor.  The doctor found pus on his tonsils and a 40 degree Celsius temperature. The doctor has put him on antibiotics and painkillers.

While Steve was being doctored the kids and I checked out Arno's wall.  It was a few hundred metres of a stone and concrete wall that had had all manner of junk cemented into it - lawnmowers, lots of wheels, motorbikes, typewriters, TV sets, microwaves - everything.

28/4/07

Another lazy day while Steve gets better. As the day wore on he definitely improved.

We went to Fitzmaurice - an old shop that is now set up as a museum for opals and dinosaurs.

We visited the musical fence.  It is great! It is made up of different tensioned wires that make a great musical sound by hitting it with whatever you can find - sticks, pipes etc.  There is a drum kit made out of junk, fantastic.

Here we are in the dry outback. It only rains once every 15 years and yet everyone has a nice green front lawn, and the van parks and sporting fields are all green.  There are no signs of water restrictions here, they water at anytime, day and night.

This is an interesting juxtaposition to the major capital cities in Australia where they are on strict water restrictions and have front lawns that look like dust bowls.  Even green and lush Coffs Harbour that normally has extremely high annual rainfall has permanent level 1 water restrictions, because, well, morally we just should.

So, why can the outback use so much water?
The Great Artesian Basin!!! It is a massive underground water resource.

ANZAC Day 2007

In 2007 we spent ANZAC Day in Ilfracombe.

We were staying in the local caravan park and were invited to join in with the town march.  It was a very welcoming and friendly gesture. I had never been involved in an ANZAC march before.  Now that our children are older and involved with scouts, they participate in ANZAC marches every year. But to be staying in a small town and invited to be a part of the march and festivities was a very touching thing.

This is my diary entry for that day:

Joined in the town march from the primary school to memorial park, complete with marching band.  It was very moving.
The service at the park was also moving, and  the poems brought tears to my eyes.
As a town/shire of just 400, I was amazed and impressed at the size of the large crowd at the park.

The after service celebrations were amazing. Free beer, champagne, rum, scotch and soft drink was provided by the council and football club.  There was an enormous spread of sandwiches, sausage rolls, quiches and Anzac bikkies, all provided by the CWA (Country Woman's Association).

The shires here in outback Queensland are tiny.  Some, like Ilfracombe, have only 400 residents in them.  It looks like the state Government wants to amalgamate them into super shires and make them at least 5000 people strong.  This would mean that some shires could cover vast distances.

Longreach

Diary Entry for 24/4/07

Longreach

Went to the school of the air today - or LSODE - Longreach School Of Distance Education.  We watched a live radio lesson.  It was very interesting.

We went to the Qantas Founders Museum. It was interesting and well set out, though a bit expensive.  We also did the tour of the 747.  All up it cost $69 for the whole family.  I think that the kids enjoyed seeing all of the old planes.


Evan's diary entry for the Qantas Founders museum is much more interesting and informative.

Today we went to the Qantas Founders Museum and the 747 Display plane.

At the museum there were planes hanging on the roof going around in a circle.

And there was a movie about the history  of Qantas.

There was also a Qantas airplane that you could sit in.

Also, I went on the computer and did the Qantas challenge and got up to level three.

At the Qantas display plane we saw the business room, the school room and we also found out that the black box was actually orange.

My legs were aching by the time we had lunch.

Ilfracombe

Langenbaker House

Evan's Diary Entry:

Today my family and I went to the Ilfracombe pool and spa.

Me and Sarah went in the spa with Harry, then we went in the pool. It was cold. But Harry stayed in the spa because he thought the pool was too cold.  He also kept pressing the spa on/off button. But the only reason that the pool was cold was that the spa was hot as.

Today we went to the machinery mile which is actually 1 km long.  There was so much machinery that it took about half an hour to finish climbing all over it.  That day was a fun day.

We loved Ilfracombe, and were so happy that we decided to stay there.  It was a lovely, friendly little town, that we later found out was the birth place of our Governor General, Quentin Bryce.  We stayed in the Caravan Park for a few days and used it a base to head to Longreach and explore there.  I'll blog about Longreach next time.  We managed to spend ANZAC day in Ilfracombe and I will make that the subject of a later blog also.

My diary entry for 23/4/07 is as follows:

Looked at the Machinery Mile
Swam in spa at Ilfracombe - free!

Staying at a lovely caravan park that is very friendly.  Happy hours each night mean you meet and get to know the other guests.  They are all baby boomers so not quite our demographic group. The park owners Jessie and Cath have 4 kids - Jessica 14, Holly, Chloe and Jaxon 4. Our kids got on well playing with them and their little dog Gypsy.

I remember how fantastic the machinery mile was.  It was literally a mile of an assortment of farm equipment, old trucks and bits of trains etc.  It was arranged right up the highway through the centre of Ilfracombe. It was free to visit and for the kids to climb all over, which they did.  There were so many interesting bits of machinery that the boys, in particular, were enthralled.  It was an amazing collection.

Jericho

Back to the travel diary......

Our next stop on our trip was Jericho. I actually  wrote quite a bit over the days that we stayed there.  I must have been starting to get into this diary writing thing.  Evan has a diary entry for Jericho too.

The first night that we stayed at Jericho we camped at the showgrounds.  It was okay, but not that nice.  The caretaker of the showgrounds suggested that we try camping at the river Jordan.  Yes that's right, Jericho is situated on the river Jordan.

Dawn at the River Jordan, Jericho Qld

Don't you love Aussie humour?  I'm not sure which one was named first, but it just follows that if you have a town and a river they would be matched in that way.

We did enjoy our night at the showgrounds, the caretaker had a horse called Tru Blue that he let Sarah ride.  She loved it.

The following day, we checked out another river as a possible camping spot while we were visiting Barlcaldine.  We didn't like it as much as Redbank on the river Jordan, so we returned to Jericho for the night.  Barcaldine was the birth place of the Australian Labor Party and we visited the tree of knowledge.  The tree is now quite dead, from an alleged poisoning so I'm not so sure what that says about knowledge or the Australian Labor Party.

On April 20 it was Sarah's birthday and I wrote this in my diary:

We are writing a fictional account about our travels. We are on a quest and each place that we visit on our actual journey forms part of the fictional journey.
For example, yesterday we visited Barcaldine. It is the home of the tree of knowledge, named because the shearers had a meeting under the tree in the 1800's and set off the shearer's strike.  It was the catalyst for the formation of the Labor party.

The original tree still stands, but is now dead.
In our story, our quest takes us to 'Banky' to discover the secrets hidden by the tree of knowledge.  Only we are too late because our enemies have beaten us to the tree and killed it. Its knowledge  will forever remained locked and never be revealed to us.  We are forced back to Jericho for a second night to plan where our quest should continue from here.

We all started writing our own versions of this story.  I am yet to find any of them, but I know that they are (ironically) hidden in the house somewhere.  I would like to sit down one day and write the actual fictional adventure.  I just need to find my original writings, wherever they maybe.

I remember celebrating Sarah's birthday with a campfire cooked dinner.  Part way through the meal the local constabulary came down to see what we were up to.  They were happy that we were a family and meant no harm.  I think some wild parties have been held in that location from time to time.  We also enjoyed yabbying (this time for blue clawed ones) in the river and did quite well catching a few.

The next day in Jericho, we went to the drive in theatre, the smallest drive in theatre ever, I think.  We saw Flicker and A Night at the Museum.

On Sunday, we packed up camp and planned on traveling to Longreach.  We had heard about a campsite on the Thompson River that allowed you up to 4 nights free camping.  We stopped at Barcaldine on the way for shopping and a historic walk.  Unfortunately we decided that we didn't like the Thompson River campsite.  There were too many motorhomes, (remember we were tent camping) too much gravel and not enough shade.  We didn't like the Longreach campgrounds either. There was no grass, no shade, and was really expensive.  We back tracked to Ilfracombe caravan park.
Ilfracombe will be the subject of the next blog.

Evan wrote about Jericho by the river Jordan -drive in theatre:

Tonight we went to the drive in theatre and watched Flicka and night at the museum.

Flicka was about a girl who wanted a wild black horse. And her dad wouldn't let her have the horse. But every night she sneaked out at night and trained her, and named her Flicka.  She lost Flicka and the movie showed how she got her back.

And .... night at the museum was about a man getting a new job which was night guard at the museum.  At night all the animals and statues came to life because of the tablet. One night something went wrong and he saved the animals and statues.

Rubyville

Evan's Diary Entry for 30/4/07

Sapphire Hunting

Today we went sapphire hunting

First we paid the money to go on a mining tour.  And in the tour we looked up through the glass window and saw the shop.

Rubyville pub with walls made out of billy boulders

After the tour we bought a bag of wash and the man who took us on the tour, took us outside and told us how to sapphire hunt.

Sarah found the most sapphires.  I found half the amount Sarah got. And mum and dad and Harry got all together the same amount that I got.



Mackay

 

The next stop on our trip was a visit to family in Mackay.  This gave us another chance to stay in a house and a bit of rare privacy for Steve and I, so was most likely where we conceived bub number 4.  Steve’s brother, Alan, and his wife, Rose, and three kids Ryan, Carissa and Jazlyn all live in Mackay. Their kids and ours are all fairly close in age to our so have grown up always getting along very well together on the rare occasions that we have managed to holiday together.  We have usually managed to catch up about every 2 years.  This trip was a wonderful opportunity to catch up again, and it coincided with Easter, so there was lots of yummy chocolate to be had as well.

It is interesting really how few photos we seem to have of this early part of our trip.  This was pretty much pre-digital photography for us, so we were still being very conservative about how much film we were prepared to use in our conventional camera.  I can just imagine how many photos we would have had if we were using digital cameras.  At least this way there’s no need to really cull any photos as there are already too few to begin with.

Without any further ado, let’s see what Evan ad to say about his Mackay experience:

Mackay

16/4/07

At Mackay I slept in Ryan’s room.  Me Harry and Ryan like to play with the toy lightsabres. He liked being a baby Jedi.

One day, we went to the goose pond to play tennis with mum.

When I went on the computer I play the games listed below:

command and conquer generals

102 dalmations

101 dalmations

speedy eggbert

fishing

garder

hmmmm, looks like Evan is turning into a list maker.

I really wrote very little about Mackay in my diary.  I stuck a recipe for home made ice cream in it, and made mention of visiting Kinchent Dam. That’s it.  I’m sure Steve and Sarah will have written a much more detailed account of our time in Mackay, I hope so, anyway.

Red Claw

We reluctantly moved on from Mackay and started what really marked the beginning of our grand adventure, heading west into central Queensland, the gateway to the outback.  This was the bit that I had been looking forward to, heading towards unchartered territory.  As it turned out, you'd be hard pressed to find anywhere unchartered in Australia, indeed, anywhere even particularly far from civilisation.  I didn't know that then, though.  This was still yet to be discovered on the eve of our exciting adventure.

Again, my diary entries are fairly ho hum.  I noted that we had lunch at Nebo on 14 April. I described it as a small historic town. I wrote that we had passed mining shanty towns along the Peak Downs highway.  I certainly remember seeing fully laden coal trains thundering toward the coast to fill all of those waiting tankers that we noticed lurking off the coast at Mackay and Rockhampton.  I do remember remarking at the time that it was like we (Australia) were desperately digging up our coal and exporting it to China as fast as we possibly could.

On the night of the 14th we camped at Teresa Creek Dam. The only things I noted in my diary about this location was that there was mobile phone reception behind our tent, a spot light and that there were many drunk campers, loud music and revelry.  I can't now remember why I put a reference in about a spot light, but I do remember the bit about the only mobile phone reception being behind our tent.  This was not definitely to our advantage, as it wasn't us who used the opportunity to catch up on mobile phone calls, but every man, woman and child in the place. As is always the case with mobile phone conversations, they are never quiet as it seems necessary to yell down the phone.  We found ourselves privy to many private conversations over the course of the night, I wish that I had written some them down!  I am guessing by the revelry and loud music, we decided that even at $5 a night it wasn't worth hanging around, so we continued onto Lake Maraboon to stay at Fairbairn Dam.

We stayed at Fairbairn Dam for three nights and tried out a bit of fishing and hunting for redclaw.  Both Evan and I made diary entries about this.  Redclaw is a kind of yabby and is delicious.  people come from far and wide to trap redclaw, after tasting it we could see why.

Steve and Evan caught a Red Claw today. They put Alan's Opera House trap in Fairbairn Dam last night and retrieved it this morning.

Steve got abused last night by an old codger who thought he needed a lesson in campsite etiquette. Fancy driving through the campsite at 7.30pm!  Steve seems to have a way of upsetting people. 

Evan's Entry:

One day dad and Harry went down to look at good places to catch big red claw.

Late at night me and dad put in the red claw trap

In the morning we took the red claw trap out and there was a red claw.

The next night the whole family came. Dad threw the red claw trap about twenty yards.

In the morning me and dad went down and pulled out the red claw trap. 

And instead of one red claw there were..............................................................................

three red claw. 

Rockhampton

April 2

I wrote: Left Bilo, travelled to Rockhampton. Kids were very sad to leave their new friends.

The Tropic of Capricorn

The caravan park is expensive, noisy and mosquito ridden.

Mmmmm wonder how long we will stay.

Steve and the kids swam in the pool

Evan's musings were much better

Rockhampton Crocodile farm

3.04.07

At the croc farm we saw many crocodiles. The names I can remember are:

King Wally

Shah

Buka

Princess

Harley the three year old croc

Alfie Langer

My favourite croc was the baby one that hatched yesterday

For afternoon tea we had corn chips and hot chips, salad and croc kebabs.

5.04.07

 

 

 

Rockhampton botanical gardens

We went to the botanical gardens.  Before we entered the gardens we saw a sign that said no bikes, skates, or skateboards. But we were on scooters so we were allowed to ride them.

For some of the time we stayed with mum and dad but after a while we went ahead.  Sometimes we got hungry, but we had food.

Finally we found mum and dad. They took us to Murray Lagoon and let us play a big xylophone.

Then we went home.

While in Rockhampton we also went to the zoo, where the chimpanzees were a favourite.
here is a photo of a dingo