Maryborough a wonderful
little town inland from Hervey Bay
8 June 2014
We ventured out to visit Maryborough a journey of about 35km…where we found an event in progress. The town had been taken over by people dressed in purple all visiting every public house in the town for charity!! Security, pubs fenced off and certain roads closed but we did manage to look around and have some banter with the locals..
Maryborough is the birthplace of the creator of Mary Poppins its there claim to fame as she left when she was very young. It had a lovely feeling this town!!
On the way back to our campsite we called in Big W and purchased two
bicycles at a very good price, much to Richard’s delight!! Loaded them into our
Ute and off we went to assemble and so to speak get on our bikes!
9 June guess what? we did a long bike ride along the
very long cycle track.
We had to deal with more paperwork as Helen’s sunglasses didn’t turn up
and don’t look like turning up. We managed to print off the claim form and
visit the local Specsaver Optician for a written quote, the staff were
excellent and wanted to organise getting a new pair immediately. Helen had to
contact the Botany branch also for proof of purchase....this was so time
consuming but had to be done. The actual paperwork was collated ready to be
photocopied, but where!!
We left Hervey Bay and journeyed north. The Bruce Highway is undergoing
major upgrades and it seemed to take a long time to even get a move on. We
stopped for lunch at Granite Creek which was full of caravans and lots of red
soil.
Our overnight stop was at Boyne River rest area where we managed to back
the van into a good spot still keeping hitched up. This was fascinating stop as
once again people wanted to talk to us about the caravan. An elderly couple
(who had a pet Galar a parrot) seemed really taken with the van. A few caravans
turned up to overnight, we were pleased that we had managed to get there before
3 pm. After a good night’s rest we moved on to our next stop which was going to
be inland. We turned west at Rockhampton and once again were held up with more
roadwork upgrades on the Capricorn Highway. This highway ran alongside a
railway, where we chased and were side to side with the longest trains I have
seen, trains travelling west were empty others travelling east full of coal.
Our destination is Bedford Weir about 25 km north of Blackwater the Coal
Capital of Australia,
12 June:
Bedford Weir
A strange sight seeing a very big campground with lots of caravans sporting
open fires for cooking and socialising.
We were immediately invited to our neighbours for happy hour at 16:30. Bob and
Diane from Toowoomba, Brian and Kay from Gosford who had been friends for 9
years after meeting on the Nullabor. Remember we have to use our own water here
from our tanks but there were toilets and free hot showers.
The next morning the camp seemed to empty. Richard decided to telephone
the local Ford agent and book our Ranger in for its first service as we have
done 3200km. they would do the job on Monday. The sun was very hot at 10:00a.m.
Richard did his usual scouting around
and came back with a piece of metal and large stones to enable him to make our
own fire!! He then went off to find wood… Needless to say in a temperature of
around 23C at 16:00 he proceeded to make our fire where once again our
neighbours shared with us and some other very nice people. By 18:00 everyone
picks their chair up and go off to eat their evening meal. The stars are
amazing.
We had to leave this beautiful place and set off for Emerald which is
further west along the Capricorn Highway. The 25km road leading to the Highway
was abundant with groups of Kangaroos' hopping across the road on more than one occasion
so we took it very carefully.
On arriving at the Emerald showground it started to bucket down and the
Caravan tyres were covered in mud, Helen was wet through but we managed to get
ourselves set up. We paid for a 3 night stay the caretaker was very pleasant.
Richard took the Ranger on Monday morning and was brought back to the site. We
decided to walk into the town and find the Library and Post shop to photocopy
our documents and send the relevant information to our insurers! Emerald had
the most amazing station built in the late 1800’s the façade had traditional
fretwork etc. You could catch a train to anywhere from here, only on certain
days though! To us the town seemed to be wholly dependent on the coal mining
industry, something we know a little bit about. Saying that the town did look
up and coming with new properties being built and even a G. J. Gardener
showroom. The liquor outlets here were very expensive and some we haven’t heard
of before. They did need a Dan Murphys!!
Ranger delivered back to us safe and sound at no cost.. (we are still
waiting the cheque of $753 compensation which we have been told is in the post)
Sorry for not posting pictures of Emerald, I cannot find them..
17 June: Moved on to
our next destination the Gemfields. On our route we saw signs letting us know
that there was no fences, this meant that we had to slow down very often for
cattle stock on the road. There is a bylaw where stock is allowed to roam free.
Our site is called Gemseekers at
Rubyvale. We were greeted by Terry and Vicki. Terry had to guide Richard on to
our spot (campsite owners seem to like to do this).
We had booked for 3 nights
so Terry gave Helen and bag of “Wash” and told her he would show her how to
fossick it later on that day. Take a look at me with my find!!
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| After I had washed my stones (note the tub in background) |
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| The sapphires are evading me!! |
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| Found some!! |
We found
this area very different from anything we had been to before as the sections were
at least and acre but the houses were shacks with lots of scrap vehicles etc in
the grounds I cannot call them gardens. The weather was amazingly hot, Terry
was expecting a tour group of 4WD to camp in his paddock at the side of the
campground. He had a massive bonfire set up ready to be lit for them. No TV
reception here so Helen wrapped herself in a blanket and went to the camp
kitchen to watch her favourite programme (at the moment) House Rules. Night
temperatures dropped quite dramatically so we used the heater and a blanket. We
managed to walk over the road to the pub to eat and watch the State of Origin
game on the 18th, very nice food and good company. We visited a few
of the people/workshops who could facet the gems that people find. Helen didn’t
bother to take her little hoard to find out it they were big enough or good
enough to facet etc. she bought some 9 carat gold garnet earring instead!
Theresa Creek
Dam
20 June: We filled our
water tanks and said our farewells and moved north, only 100kms to Theresa
Creek Dam we couldn't telephone as we had no mobile reception (first time). On
our approach over the crest we were both amazed at the amount of caravans here
it was like a little town of mainly white caravans which all had open campfires
some were the pot bellied type.
We checked in for 2 nights $10 per night. Karen the caretaker told us to walk around and find a place, which we did, we were told by one old fella not to put our van next to him as his son was arriving.. We did find a wonderful spot with a great view and no other van in front of us and not one arrived the whole time we were there. This is another campground with no water or electric hook up but good toilet block and free hot showers.
Once set up we were invited to join neighbours Dave and Vivienne, (who were from Yorkshire, but lived in Darwin) for happy hour at 16:30 we carried our chairs over and met a nice group of people. Kelvin and Julie from Adelaide and Broken Hill who had sold up, like so many others and hit the road.
Once again with had the ritual of showing people inside the caravan!!
The weather was amazing and we were able to sit outside to eat every night.
We decided to stay on for an extra night as the weather was good. We said lots of farewells and travelled to Mackay
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| Spag Bol made by yours truly! |
Mackay
23 June:
We had been invited to stay at Mackay in the garden of some friends Brian and Cheryl. We had organised this before lack of mobile service. Our TV had to be returned to the Jayco dealership as the aerial socket has broken off!! (we are still waiting to hear the outcome)
Richard had to back the caravan into their garden up a steep incline! Helen couldn’t watch, but Brian and Cheryl managed the guiding of the van. They had a beautiful has with pool and a massive car port for their caravan to be stored under.
Next day we duly visited the Jayco dealership and left our TV. Our friends took us on a quick tour of Mackay. The sights we saw were amazing. We went to a look out and viewed the coal terminal where we counted 18 ships waiting to be loaded with coal for China!
Unfortunately the price of coal has
dropped tremendously and is now affecting Queensland’s economy even though we
have heard that further west there are 6 mines being developed:
China 1, China 2, Korea 1, Korea 2, Gina Reinhart, Clive Palmer and we
have heard that India are or going to develop their own mine with their own
labour force! very, very interesting. We had a good time with Brian and Cheryl and we hope we will meet up
again somewhere along the track!
.
