Charleville and Wallal

After spending the day in the pub at Mukadilla just past Roma ( this was entirely due to the floods and constant rain of course). We had set up our little camper in the veranda of the Mukadilla Community Hall ( free hot showers and toilets- way to go) and had no where else to go!! Lucky decision not to go to Carnarvon Gorge, after all the info centre had said the road up there was open ! Westward  ho on to Charleville, birthplace of my Dad and his family. Really nice camping spot on the side of the Ward river about 20 kms out of town but very risky had there been rain as there was a lot of dried river silt over everything due to the recent floods. Went to visit Grandma and  great Grandparents Charlie and Louise Phillot in the cemetary. Carried on our nostalgic tour out to Wallal - beautiful property, would have been awesome in its working days. Lots of history there for our family. Sheep shed with still working handset leads and wool everywhere. Checked out the shearers quarters and found this rather large kitchen range ( can see why they call it a range) This ones for you Chris - what an amazing coincidence as he told me this is the property where he came up to do a job and stayed in these same buildings.

Homestead

Shearers quarters kitchen stove

The swimming hole at Wallal

Shearing shed

Onto the Save the Bilby presentation which was very interesting and thought provoking - they are so cute and endangered - have always bought my girls choc bilby's at Easter but the only ones that donate back to the fund are Darrell Lea apparently. Then straight over to see the cosmos where they have very large and powerful telescopes - we saw alpa centauri, saturn and its ring and the full moon up close ( through a filter of course). Great stuff.

Boondooma Dam / Chinchilla Weir

Our Place

Just up the road from Gary's place is a pretty spot with lots of camping all around the foreshore. Found a great spot in between the trees and right on the waters edge.Took the tinnie out to another lake with no fish! Had fun trying any way and having lots of luck with bait trap. We have decided now its better to eat the bait we catch than give it to the bloody fish or should I say turtles which keep taking it. So far we have had shrimp, redclaw (very small lobster) and yabbie - yum! Bit crowded here due to school hols starting.Met some nice neighbours Bob and his missus from gympie who very generously offered us good red wine for John's music. Took pushies up to lookout about10 kms return trip, rode across dam wall very scary and illegal ( dont forget I'm with John the daredevil ) and checked out the other side of the spillway. Photo shows full dam and front side of spillway which looks almost as if the world is flat.

Boondoona Dam Spillway

Typical fence after the flood

Chinchilla Weir - where the birds have all the luck

Gary & Sam' s Kingaroy / Gordonbrook Dam

Arrived at Kingaroy on Monday afternoon - great to see Gary & Sam  again. Their property is looking great due to all the rain and their burn off. On Wednesday Sam went to Gympie and Gary, John & I went to the dam to go fishing but not a lot of luck even catching our own bait in the new bait catcher we'd just bought.

Broadwater Lake NP

                       Travelled through Millmerrman, Cecil Plains and camped south of Dalby to Lake Broadwater NP. The lake was dry at Xmas but with the floods is now over flowing looks great reminds me of Mungo Brush but  without the melalucas. Next day moved to bush camping not so much wind but lots more bugs! And no garbage trucks. And no cocky’s. Went for long push bike ride to nowhere, 

Went to Dalby show on Sat- watched the sheep shearing trials and snake man, bought heaps of stuff from camping shop to celebrate selling Isabel st.

Sunday took boat out on lake as it was finally not windy – beautiful day and lake very calm lots of blue green algae.

Goat Rock - Texas

 20kms west of Texas amazing rock formations -can camp out there and they have shindigs at the shed at Easter which sounds like fun but too late for us. Need to move on to make Mackay by May!

Texas!

 Stayed at Cunningham Weir 30 kms north west of Texas for a few days - so much flood damage evident around here. Did a bit of fishing but not sure about putting the tinnie in the Dumaresq River as there is so much debris around. Stayed 4 days and then back to Texas for our volunteeer work. John played at the Stockmans Hotel on Saturday night for dinner and drinks - good fun and they thought he was great. Not a late night - in the country now!

Cunningham Weir

Outside George's Farm - check the debris in tree!!!

  Up at 6 on Monday morn and ready for work! Given free breakfast, lunch dinner and accomodation for our services which was great but not necessary but funded through the Federal relief fund. First day out to Farmer George's cleaning out sheds that were full of mud ( but now dust as it had all dried up) all the gear out, shovel the dust/mud out , all the gear in. Hard dirty work but with lots of hands helping it was great fun too. Worked that day with Cindy, Peter, Bob ( have met so many Bob's now we are going to call all the blokes from now on Bob!) and Kevin. 

 Next day after a good nights sleep out to the Kitchener Farm at Bonshaw Weir ( south of Texas) and rebuilt a new fence after the old one had been washed down the river somewhere. Learnt a lot and was a good days work! Met Dougy a Koori Ranger assigned to help us as he had a lot of fencing eperience.

John hard at work on his holiday!

Macintyre Falls - west of Ashford

The Beach

27kms West of Ashford found us at the Limestone caves discovered over 150 years ago. Amazingly large with lots of bats in the bigger rear caves. Then on to Macintyre Falls - awesome place in the middle of nowhere! Lots of steps down to the "beach" had a cooling swim then over to the "swimming Hole" so much water coming through still.

The swimming hole.

Ashford -Severn River

Camped just East of Ashford at Wells Camp ground on the Severn River. Free camping and lots of fresh water as this is where the floods started to show their damage and benefits. Pindari Dam about 20kns away is an amazingly large body of water and you could camp their also ( on the side of a hill) . Had  a great time in the tinnie cruising up and down the river  catching a few fish but some got away. Rode our biles into town 7kms and a bit hilly, but very scenic.

 
Befriended a baby possum that was  not scared of people at all, it enjoyed our sweet potato found in the veggie bag too.

Ebor Falls

Travelled up through Bellingen to Dorrigo on an amazing mountain road with waterfalls and roadworks all the way up. Stopped  at Ebor, Guy Falkes NP,   Ebor Falls.

 Getting colder up here. Camped at Native Dog Camp area. Walked to Wool Pack Rock  a few kms up the mountain through creeks and rocks with amazing 360 deg views of all the tablelands.