Author: kbosh40 at hotmail dot com

Left Mingoola Station & headed towards Texas, Glenlyon dam only 6klms away – quite a nice spot. The road to Texas crosses over the Glenlyon dam wall which is very nice, so much water, lotz of cacti fruiting along the roadside.

It was very nice driving through this country, all the animals fat & lotz of feed for them. Not a lot of road kill which is nice, drove through a few country towns & arrived at Goondiwindi, the home of the mighty Gunsynd, fuelled up & did some food shopping then kept going. Got to a little place called Toobeah & camped up behind a pub – very nice. We dined at the pub which was a really nice place.

Driving towards the dam wall

lotz of cactus fruiting at present

other side of dam wall

driving over the wall

the dam can be seen from a long way

WOW! the Goondiwindi Grey.

another mural in goondiwindi

our camp – very comfortable

Drove approximately 60klms west of Tenterfield to where Mary & Gary were helping a friend on their farm while they were going to be away. WOW – what a beautiful property but also lotz of work to get it back to a good working farm. The property situated on 2 rivers -the Mole & the Dumaresq. Cows, dorper sheep (wool shedding sheep grown for meat) & few ponies & collie dogs. There was also wild pigs, deer & goats roaming the properties. But the walks Mary & I did were fantastic(although not always easy).

Due to the recent rain(we had a great storm our 2nd night there), the mushroom supply was good – so we were able to go out & collect lotz to go with our dinners.

Fencing was big on the agenda, kept everyone busy. Also the lambs had to be drenched & needled – over 100, interesting job, took longer than you would expect, those little critters can be a bit feisty at times.

Daniel & Stanley(Mary son/grandie) arrived after 2 days & the fishing comp was on….Dan got a nice murray cod, quite a few carp caught, Peter &Stanely caught some nice yellow belly; a good time had by all.

Thankx Mary & Gary for a wonderful week.

On the road again.

Mary standing on the NSW side of the bridge.

Dumaresq River (both sides of bridge) which is the NSW/QLD border.

2 days after we got there it was in flood, very close but did not go over the bridge.

on our walks

classic fungi

had some great veiws

found these locals on our walk

one of Mary’s favourite activities – preping the mushrooms

sunsets were awesome

some dinner on the way

beautiful fire

fencing

preparations for lamb drenching etc.

red wing parrots were frequent visitors

fishing in the Mole river

56cm Murray Cod with Stanley

Mary & her carp

Peter caught a nice yellow belly

Daniel, Mary, Stanley, Peter & Gary – what a great crew.

After spending time with family & friends it was great to get those wheels turning. We had wonderful times with family & friends & it is always a joy to spend time with these amazing people but the road does seem to have some sort of pull that gets us moving again – it is now March 2023 & we ae off again.

Spent a few days visiting cousins at Pitsworth – thankx Ros & Neil, Ros had some beautiful dragon fruit flowering – wow! they were awesome. We drove south then through Warwick, Killarney, Woodenbong, Urbanville, Bonalbo to Casino – some amazing countryside looking wonderful with the recent rains, we actually drove through some showers at times & it continued once we got to Casino. We spent 4 nights in Casino visiting Peter’s Mum & families – it was wonderful.

We then headed west on the Bruxton Hwy to Tenterfield, approximately 40klms east of Tenterfield we pulled up not far from the Crooked Creek rest stop & camped up for the night – no one else, just us & a little rain….We managed to get a fire happening to cook dinner – it was quite a nice spot.

Dragon fruit flowers.

Mt. Lindsay in (r) background with sorghum in the foreground.

Lotz of rain/mist in the hills on the way to Tenterfield

Not far from Crooked Creek rest stop

our camp for the nite

yummy dinner.

October 26th – 28th, 2022.

After leaving Bedford Weir we drove to Blackwater & had a yummy pie at the bakery, from here we drove to ‘Old Gordon Station’, a friend of Ben’s (Bronte) caretakes the station, it is located approximately 50klm north on the Fitzroy Development Rd at Dingo, QLD, then approx 60klms NE from the turn off to the station. It a fantastic place, the MacKenzie river passes through the property so the water was on the rise. Bronte has an amazing garden, full of roses & dessert roses plus a great vege patch which gave us lotz of supplies. We helped out at the station for a couple of days & had a fantastic time, our last night we had a massive storm luckily not too much damage.

Next stop Lawgi Hall Park rest area, 30klms S Biloela on the Burnett Hwy, a fantastic overnight stay, great toilets & water. Beautiful spot & quite popular. We got up early next day & drove to Monto, did a little shopping & feasted on carrot cake with our coffee – very nice.

Drove to Waruma Dam which is approximaely 50klms NW of Eidsvold & set up camp another great spot. We put several redclaw pots in, so hopefully we will have more success here. This is our last camp with the’Leburbs’ ( our great mats from Bargara), lotz of feasting on amazing food & game playing, thankx Gary & Rae. Got lotz of redclaw………………………yea!

Old Gordon Staion

Bronte has 4 working dogs.

Dessert Rose

A variety of roses – beautiful

sunrise

Swamp mahogany – eucalytus robusta

sun going down

entrance to ‘old gordon station’

next stop/sleep

our campsites

sunset – WOW!

driving into Monto (QLD)

Monto has some great locals.

Wuruma Dam

below the wall of the dam

our camp sites

lotz of Mumma’s & bubba’s

A few ‘big’ boys around….

sunset

Yummo – Rae’s famous oysters kilpatrick, sooooooo nice

a few more locals

a storm on its way – beautiful night

checking the red claw pots

not a bad catch

18th – 23 October 2022

Bit late with blog but you get that.

Bedford weir is located 25klms (N) of Blackwater on the Mackenzie River in the Central Highlands region of Queensland, it is a free camp although donations are appreciated, it has great ablutions & a great place for camping, fishing boating & relaxing. There is quite a lot of wildlife & the camp area is overseen by a pride of peacocks who chat at night & roam the grounds during the day.

The day after we arrived the rain began, although we weren’t inundated, upstream of us was, the water level was rising quite a lot. Vehicles were driving over the causeway early on the first morning but not for long.

We had a great campsite & managed to stay dry with the rain we had over the 4 days, the last few days the sun was shining & the water was still rising…..We put in some redclaw pots the first day, our catches weren’t the best but it was nice going out in the boat, as the water rose some of our pots were hard to find, Gary & Rae had placed a couple on the other side of the weir to us but because the water rose so quick they were unable to retrieve them & it wasn’t possible to get to them via boat either- so they were donated. But we did manage to get a couple redclaw.

Every morning we would walk down to the causeway to see how much the water was rising – in the photo’s watch out for the ‘giveway sign’ it will give an indication of the water levels. The water still had not peaked when we left Bedfors Weir, lotz of locals (humans) were checking out the water levels everyday too.

A lovely place, even with the rain & flooding.

our camp sites

one of the many……

still able to drive over causeway the first morning(approx 30cm deep)

the water colour – a nice shade of green

so many galahs around the place

water definitely changing colour

give way sign emerging into the water

Pink Bohemia’s flowering everywhere – very beautiful

grevillea near the ablutions in full flower too

the locals keeping an eye on the water levels

not a bad size, just not many

early morning jaunt to the causeway

woo ho – lotz of fun with these two 🙂

boys putting pots out

topside of weir

water still rising, the 1st day we tied boat to small tree near reeds

sun going down

After the ‘sculpture trail’ section we did, we arrived at Barcaldine – WOW! quite a lovely spot, lotz of history.

We actually camped a night in town then drove out to Lloyd Jones Wier, the water was quite brown but they had previously had quite a lot of rain so there was fresh water flowing through. We put the red claw pots in & managed to get a couple feeds & went for a few walks – a lovely spot. It has been wonderful to spend time with our mates(Gary & Rae) from Bagara while discovering these amazing places in Queensland. We cooked up a roast chicken & veges in the camp oven (worked out well) & also cooked up a few savoury scones for morning tea. Its a free camp with donations excepted – definitely worth it & is quite a popular spot, lotz of wildlife & some interesting walks.

Beautiful bottle brush flowering everywhere & the parrots think it’s Christmas.

next stop

Brown water but still quite lovely.

our camp sites

great ablutions

Roast chicken in the camp oven – very yummm

lotz of visitors

out walking

love the pelicans….

Erect prickly pear – fruiting & was very yumm

Rae & Peter relaxing

more visitors

Good morning, Australia……….

This is the only part of the sculpture trail the we did but was fantastic.

We drove down Eastmere Rd towards Aramac & stopped at the sculptures – they were quite amazing.

Mary & I walked down to the ‘bronco’ from our camping spot

The ‘crayfish was at the entrance to the Lake Dunn camping area.

The racehorse was actually at the race track & off the road a far way so I could not get a very good pic.

9th – 14th October 2022

Lake Dunn also known as Pajingo Bola, meaning ‘Big Fella Waterhole’ is the only wetland area in Central Queensland & consequently home to a large waterfowl population, it is located in Upland & approximately 63klm NE of Aramac. It is located one third of the way along the well-known sculpture trail, the redclaw (yabbie) is at Lake Dunn. Its a very popular spot for campers, fishers, water skiers, bird watchers & picnic-ers. There is a reserve next to the camping area where there is several tennis courts, a basket ball court, a concrete cricket slab (in the middle of a paddock), kids play area & a resonably sized club house with power, apparently the Ballynetty Recreation Club hold a few ‘big’ events here every year. Gary & Mary (Peters sister) & Storm the dog arrived & stayed for 2 nights – it was great to see them again. The last few days we were at Lake Dunn, it was very windy & cool so we only went out in the boat mid-afternoon to collect the ‘catch’ of redclaw……..not many in numbers but quite large in size, there was a mix of redclaw & blue claw. Rae cooked them up to perfection & we all managed to have a pre-dinner feast, very enjoyable.

Spent a few days in Cairns doing running repairs etc, then drove to Elarish & caught up with Peter’s sister Margaret her son Ben & family – was great to spend night there, next stop Miriwinni – cousins Danny & Julie, always good when the girls flog the boys in 500 -thankx guys. Cardwell for 3 days with great mates Mandy & Raymond, Peter had a game of golf – very enjoyable time as usual in Cardwell. Next night we camped up just south of Townsville with John & Lyn, friends from Beenleigh- it’s amazing in the places where you catch up with mates. From here we went to Ayr, we stayed with Belina, Terry & girls – we met these wonderful people on Croker Island 5 years ago & have kept in contact.

Theresa Creek Dam is approximately 22klms SW of Clermont-a very delightful spot, lotz of unpowered sites scattered around the lake, water skiing & redclaw catching seem to be the most favourite of activities, we met up with Gary & Rae, our good friends from Bargara here. We spent a few nights here & put the little boat in, very nice, with the boat we were able to put some redclaw pots around the dam where you weren’t able to walk. Gary caught 99% of the redclaw in the pots he threw in off the bank, the boat pots were not very successful but it was nice out on the water.

From Theresa Creek we drove approximately 270klms to Lake Dunn via Laglan Rd. Lake Dunn is a fresh water lake located on Ballneety Rd, Dunrobin in the Upland district. We drove over Mistake Creek, there were quite a few ‘pink bauhinia’ trees full of flower along the banks, also saw lotz of moo, some very cute ones too.

The sunrises & sunsets are truly amazing.

Danny, Mary & I walked up to the dam wall, zig zagging around the dam edge – it was a great walk.

There were quite a few pelicans on the dam, WOW, they are so beautiful.

There was quite a few lillies – Water Snowflakes in the inlet bays – very cute, we placed most of our pots in these areas & it proved to be quite successful. The redclaw were quite plentiful but we did release lotz.

This is an amazing place, if the opportunity arrives we will be returning. 🙂