Day 3 -Eldeebar near Dingo

Another fine but windy and sometimes cloudy day.

This morning I did a few minor things on the Karavan like tidy up the electrical fittings attaching to the Mazda. The outer insulation was not the best so I used a product called Weld Tape to make a good job of the areas. A few other minor jobs were done, too. Mean while, Prue had done a some more washing.

By the time Phil and his 'staff' returned from starting the pump it was time for morning tea in the sun. After morning tea, Phil and I adjusted the roller door in the house garage as it had become a bit hard to use.

I then took Margy's Landcruiser wagon to the wash down area and gave it a pressure wash down. Phil's pressure cleaner is far more effective than the one I have a home.

Following that, I helped Phil with a job of removing a gear from a shaft belonging to a stationary engine. It took quite a while as we had to use a press and also make up some other items to assist in its removal. It brought back memories from my farm days.

Finally, all those jobs were completed and we then had afternoon tea outside of our Karavan.

This has been our final day visiting Phil and Margy at Eldeebar. It has been wonderful to spend extra time with long time friends.

Day 2 -Eldeebar near Dingo

No photos today as we were a bit busy to get any suitable ones.

The day dawned nice and clear but later in the day it became quite windy with a few clouds.

The first job Phil and I did was to take a portable water pump out to the north of his property. This was to lower the water in a melon hole. This is to force the cattle to use a water trough and to make mustering the large paddock easier.

We loaded the portable pump into a trailer that is towed by the big Honda four wheel drive quad bike. Phil rode it out to the melon hole while I  rode a slightly smaller two wheel drive quad bike. The ground was very rough as cattle had been walking on the track during the past flooding rain. The result of the roughness was the rate of travel was slow. I am pleased I was not in a large four wheel drive like a Toyota Landcruiser. It was worse than any corrugations we have driven over.

The pump was set up in a safe spot and the hoses connected. The suction hose being thrown as far out as possible to allow for maximum water extraction. Phil went out later in the afternoon to refuel the engine .

When we returned from the pump installation, we had morning tea.

Following morning tea Margy, Prue , Phil and I all attacked the garden or rather trees in the garden. Many needed to be trimmed and tidied up.  So Phil was on the chain saw, I was on the tractor and loader while Prue and Margy did the  initial loading of the cut material into the Landcruiser. We all did a big job on the garden that was completed after lunch.

Earlier in the morning, I had realised by testing the water temperature in the Karavan that it was too high.. So I had to undo a panel in the rear of the Karavan to access the Hot Water System to adjust the thermostat to a lower temperature. This required me to leave it for  several hours and check again with my hand held meter. I had to adjust it a second time but now I am satisfied I have reduced it to a safer level as suggested by my Karavan friends Trevor and Ian. Later I had to reattach the panel. All done.

By now it was late in the afternoon and time for showers and get ready for dinner.

Eldeebar near Dingo

We visited this place, Inskip Point, only a week ago and we camped within 100 metres of where this video was taken. Nature can be very scary.

This morning was a mixed morning in that there were a few different things to be done. Prue did washing catch up and i guess some chatting with Margy.

First up, Phil and I went to retrieved a wayward steer from a neighbouring property in his tabletop truck with cattle  float attached. We unlocked a gate into the paddock that the yards were in. Then went a bit further to the yards. The key to unlock the loading ramp was hidden and the directions to them were vague. So we had to attempt to contact the owners by mobile phone but the reception is very poor. Eventually, we made contact and then unlocked and loaded the steer onto the truck. Then it was back to his correct paddock.

On return it was time for morning tea on the verandah. Nice and pleasant just chatting. In the sun although it was cloudy and later in the day there were some rain showers.

Duncan working on the Karavan plumbing

My project for the morning was to replace the hot water tap washer in the Karavan. It was a bit of an involved process as I have put in a drinking water tap near the original unit. The drinking tap had to be removed to allow access to the hot water unit. It meant the second drawer had to be removed, too.  The actual tap washer unit replacement, ceramic type, took about 1 minute but the whole repair and replace about an hour. So far no more dripping taps!

Then I went to see what Phil was doing with his antique engines. He is absolutely amazing in what he is doing to restore engines that had long ceased to work. He has numerous types in a variety of levels of restoration. Some may not have run for more than 50 years. He has made missing parts to ensure they work again. Currently he is working on a Y series Hornsby engine and this was built very early in the 1900s and was found on a farm near Goondiwindi and had been covered with flood water on numerous occasions.

After lunch, Phil took Prue and I on a tour around their extensive cattle farms. He came here in the early 1970s. He lived in a very primitive caravan and shed for 6 years before he and Margy built their first flat and shed before their now beautiful homestead. The land was won in a Queensland land ballot and was covered in Brigalow scrub mainly. Part of the conditions placed on the land was that it had to be cleared, seeded and fenced.

Some Eldeebar cattle

Phil's cattle country looking south

Turkey nest dam and brigalow to the right

Phil and Duncan in Phil's cattle yards

In subsequent years, it has had to be blade ploughed to cut the root system of the Brigalow suckers to kill them off. A very expensive operation to get the property to the state it is in now. Numerous ground tanks and dams had to be constructed as there is no underground water on the farm. We saw lots of his cattle and assisted Phil to return 2 bulls back into their correct paddock.

By then it was almost the end of the day. we had a lovely dinner and lots of catching up.

Mount Morgan to Dingo area

No photos for this issue.

We had a casual departure from Mount Morgan as we did not have very far to travel. Once we packed up we pulled out of the caravan park and went into the Mount Morgan CBD to get a Sunday paper. Then we stopped at a little shop for a coffee. We wondered what the quality would be like. It was passable but definitely not the best i had had.

The journey continued to the village of Dululu. It has a unique looking hotel, a well looked after rest area and not a lot else.We turned to the north to rejoin the main highway.

After joining the Capricorn Highway again, we proceeded towards the west. As we traveled we saw the regular coal trains again. I am led to believe when the coalfields are doing full  production there is a train passing a single point every 7 minutes.

The next stop was a small village of Duaringa.  It has a large rest area and free camp that has showers and toilets. we had lunch there and caught up on emails.

Soon after, we crossed the main rail line and drove north on the Beef Road before turning off it to drive the 5 kms into our friends, Phil and Margy, farm. we set up and then chatted until later in the evening.

We are here until Thursday morning, so a few maintenance jobs to do while here. Phil has a few helpful workshop items should I need them. His hobby is restoring antique engines.

Gladstone to Mount Morgan

It was a relaxed departure from Gladstone and the Kin Kora Caravan Park. As we did not have a very long journey there was no rush. I refilled all the water tanks on the Karavan and put some into the tank under the Mazda’s canopy. That was all necessary as we will be visiting a farm and do not plan to get water from them as it is so precious to them in the unpredictable climate.

Our departure was west onto the Dawson Highway which eventually gets to Biloela. The major junction of this highway and the northerly Bruce Highway is where we turned towards Rockhampton.

As we drove north, we passed quite a few trains (these were electric) travelling in both directions. There is a major rail network that runs beside a lot of the Highway. A lot of coal travels on this line from the Central Queensland coal fields.

Soon we arrived at the turn to MountMorgan which is about 15 kilometres south of Rockhampton. This takes you over to the Leichardt Highway and is also a short cut to the famous Gracemere Saleyards.

On this highway we travelled through the village of Bouldercombe then we started our ascent up the winding and steep road that climbs the Razorback Range. It is not a road for very long vehicles. Quite soon, we arrived in Mount Morgan and found the Mount Morgan Motel andCaravan Park. One of the cheaper parks and its amenities are very pleasant. We soon set up and made a coffee on board the Karavan.

Then we went into the CBD and did a little minor shopping at the IGA store. We returned to the Karavan to eat our sandwiches that Prue had made before we left Gladstone.

Around 1300, we joined 2 other couples in the park and joined onto a tour run by TMC (Town Mine Cave) Tour. There were 15 people on board to do this tour. The owner, John was the driver and his daughter, Heike, was the very well informed guide. We highly recommend this tour as it gives you a lot of sites only available to the tour.

The tour started with a drive by of the Railway Station and Information Centre. It is heritage listed. The rail lines were decommissioned in the 1980s and there is only 3 kilometres available for tourist use left. Many buildings were destroyed by fire over the years with many being rebuilt.

The State high School was built in 1908, originally to teach technical and trades skills, and formerly became a high school in 1912 becoming the first high school in Queensland. Today, there are around 250 students in the school.

Nearby is the School of Arts which is heritage listed and is currently undergoing external restoration. Further along the street is the Historical Museum that traces the history of the gold mining as well as the whole town’s history.

Also, not far away is the Mount Morgan Masonic Temple. It was built in 1903 with a cost then of only 1500 pounds. It is a beautiful building.

A short drive from the town took us to the main water supply dam which originally was built to supply only the mines but in more recent years the water has been reticulated to the town. It is used for domestic water as well as recreation. It holds about 12,000 mega litres of water. It is not so big but apparently very deep. Just 3 years ago it was down to holding just 3% of its capacity due to lack of rain.

As we returned from the dam, we past the swinging bridge which is the last remaining bridge of that type. There were up to 8 when the mine was working. They allowed the miners to attend to work even if the Dee River, over which they crossed, was in flood. The town was divided up into various areas that were dominated by various nationalities. Many streets retain names of places from overseas or names from those countries.

 

Our next destination was the lookout. From there we could see not only the mine area but also most of the town. Especially dominant is the larger of 2 remaining stacks which is about 70 metres tall and is believed to contain about 750,000 bricks. It is hard to imagine that the hill that was there was higher than the stack and was mined for gold. The gold being contained in ironstone meant it was quite difficult to extract. Silver and copper were mined from the same area. There is still a range of former mining equipment on site to be seen.

Now the whole mine area is subject to environmental rehabilitation. There are several processes to contain the runoff from the mine as well to reduce the captured water within the mine.

 

The final item we viewed was the cavern with its footprints of dinosaurs on the ceiling. These footprints have been authenticated. They were discovered after many years of clay extraction for lining the smelters. The miners dug out the clay which was below a sandstone layer. An incredible amount was removed, hundreds of tonnes, and now there is this massive cavern remaining. In recent years a colony of some form of bats has taken residence in the cavern. The footprints are very obvious when pointed out.

 

So the very informative trip ended back at the Caravan Park for a quiet evening.

Gladstone area

  

We took it easy this morning by not rushing around. Our departure from the Karavan was not until after 0900.

Our track this morning was a continuation of the tour of Gladstone that we commenced late yesterday afternoon. As we visited the Port of Gladstone with its Marina and the Auckland Hill Lookout our first stop was the City Centre.

The first thing we noticed was how quite the City Centre was. We parked in a side street and walked roughly north along this street. There were not a lot of people on the street at all, however we did notice a lot of the quiet buildings had the names of various Liquid Natural Gas (LNG) companies as well as other support industries like employment agencies.

Not a lot of specialty shops on the street but included several pharmacies, hotels, numerous restaurants and coffee shops. Not unusual for us, we found a reasonable café and had the morning coffees.

Following the coffee break, we visited the Grand Hotel the ascertain if we could watch the Super Rugby semi final between the NSW Waratahs and the NZ Blues to be played in the shaky isles later in the day.

Queensland Alumina from Barney Point

We wandered back to the Mazda and then drove the short distance to Barney Point. This was the birthplace of Gladstone, formerly known as Port Curtis. Barney was an advocate for Gladstone to be the capital of the North Queensland. It was approved by Queen Victoria but this was rescinded later in the year. Barney was to have been the Lt. Governor of the new colony.

While getting to Barney Point we had a call from our special KK friend, Di. She just wanted to be sure we were getting into a coffee! We had to tell her that was a little while before. Great to speak to her and catch up on her and Trev.

Queensland Alumina

Next we drove along the foreshore towards the massive Queensland Alumina plant. As we were unable to get on a tour we did the next best thing. This was to go to the specially constructed lookout with numerous information boards not only explaining the process from bauxite to the aluminium ingots. This is a very intense process that has changed minutely since its first operation back in the late 1800s.

Queensland Alumina, along with other companies in the past, have helped, and still are, Gladstone to develop into the large community it is today. One item they have worked on is to recycle all the waste water from Gladstone into the alumina plant and thus saving a very large amount of fresh water from being fed into the alumina plant. Obviously, they and all the other companies are involved in major employment opportunities in the area along with the mines and associated bodies.

Gecko Valley Winery

Following our informative time at the lookout, we drove further on our little tour. We past by the Tondoon Botanic Gardens and drove along the edge of them into the Gecko Valley Winery. We did not know what we might find as it looked quite basic as we climbed up and down a washed out gravel track. Then we arrive to find this magnificent winery and café waiting for us.

Gecko Valley Winery

We had to sample their wines which we did find to our liking. As we enjoyed the tasting, we purchased several bottles of a lovely chardonnay and a bottle of a magnificent Honey Mead. I guess these will not last too long. While there we had our lunch, Prue had smoked salmon foccaccia and I had a salami foccaccia. These were followed by another reasonable cappuccino. This is owned and run by a mother and her daughter and is a credit to them.

Part of the new Gladstone development area.

Our final leg of our tour was around the southern areas which are being rapidly developed for homes. It appears that all infrastructures are in place. This is an amazing area of growth with so much happening not too far away and in the city itself. So many industries see Gladstone as their service centre. No wonder the airport is so busy.

We went to the Grand Hotel in Gladstone to firstly watch the Waratahs get beaten by the Auckland Blues in the first of the qualifying final games in Super Rugby. Secondly, we had a nice dinner with several drinks during the game. Then home early.  Not sure if I may be succumbing to a cold. May be I should be having more red ‘anti-oxidant’ wine!

Bargara to Gladstone

Concrete Works at Gladstone

Gladstone Marina

Port of Gladstone

It was pack up time this morning in Bargara. It was much colder than the previous morning. I think it was down to just 6 degrees and we were only about 200 metres from the beach.

Once we were all packed up, we said farewell to our neighbours, Geoff and Lynn. They were moving around the park to a different location today.

After we departed the Caravan Park, we wound our way onto the main Bargara-Bundaberg Road. Not far along we turned into the Woolworths Centre to have a coffee at Zarraffa’s Coffee, where we had a coffee yesterday afternoon.

We travelled out to the Bruce Highway but not before passing through the CBD of Bundaberg. Our track took us through GinGin and eventually to Miriam Vale. It was time for a short rest so we walked through the village and saw its small shopping centre.

After about half an hour, we set off for Gladstone. We passed through the village of Bororen, where I spent a night last year. Before too long we were heading into Gladstone to the Kin Kora CaravanPark. It is a clean park but fairly basic and the worst part is that is right under the flight path to Gladstone airport where there are numerous arrivals and departures.  I guess a lot of mining related flights as some of the aircraft are marked with names that are unknown to me.

Well after lunch and the Karavan all set up, we went for a drive in search of the Tourist Information Centre. We were helped by a very enthusiastic volunteer who gave us some much information of places to visit. As we departed the Centre, we chose to do a drive past the large Marina and into Spinnaker Park. It is all very well kept and conducive to visitors.

Alumina in the back ground

Then we did go to the Auckland Hill Lookout that does give an overview of the Port. It is amazing the industry that is here. We could see the Rio Tinto Alumina plant away in the distance and also the Power Station in the opposite direction. There are many other industrial plants which we will check out later.

Then we drove back to the Caravan Park and cooked dinner.

Lime heap at concrete works

Around Bargara

Last night, we had a lovely chat on Skype with our Dutch friend, Margriet. She sadly informed us of a lot of serious illness in her family, involving her youngest son and his wife. We really hope their issues are resolved quickly.

Something I worked out last night, I calculated the fuel consumption on the Mazda BT50. It is considerably better than the old Mazda Bravo that I had up until earlier this year to tow the Kimberley Karavan. The result is 13.44 litres per 100 kilometres and at about 6 km/hr faster. The old Bravo used to average around 16.7 l/100 kms. Time will tell by the time we get home.

This morning we started off slowly. It was not quite so cool early as we had experienced. Hopefully the weather is on the turn. We shall see.

After a leisurely breakfast, I went off for a bike ride around Bargara. Unfortunately, the wind was a southerly and it was strong as well as quite cool. It was good exercise anyway. Downwind was fast. Prue did the washing of sheets and some clothes in the Park laundry.

After a shower, Prue and I then walked the 1.9km to the village centre for a cappuccino and raison toast for me. It was slow service but when the coffee arrived it was very nice and that made up for the time it took.

After coffee, we walked around to the Post Office to drop some card in to be sent. We noticed an unusual building that we think may have been a coffee shop but is up for sale.

Something that is evident around Bargara is the very large number of beach side apartments that are not used. There is an apartment block of 43 and not one has been used. The whole complex has been for sale since last year. There are many others the same. In another area, there is a development that has not sold a block and now it is over grown with weeds, Maybe this is a sign of the times.

By the time we walked back from thevillage, it was time for lunch. We had a simple lunch of fish and some salad items.

Following lunch, we drove into Bundaberg and visited the Hinkler Aviation Museum. I visited this last year and wanted Prue to see it. It was nice to go through it again. Bert Hinkler was an amazing aviator who captured the hearts of a lot of the Australian population. He was a favourite of the Italians where his life ended in the 1930s while trying to establish another record.  They gave him a state funeral which indicated the respect they had for him. He is buried there.

Then we returned to Bargara to Woolworths to get a couple of items we discovered we were missing. While there I had a cappuccino and Prue a soy chai latte at a chain coffee shop.

Then back to the Karavan and started to prepare for the evening. While doing a few things out side I spoke with a fellow from Kandos in NSW. He did not think I would know where it was but when I mentioned a neighbouring village, Clandulla, he knew I had been around.

By now it was the end of the day.

Pandanus

Looking north to the Surf Club

Bargara coastline

Inskip Point to Bargara (near Bundaberg)

This morning was a fairly easy pack up as there were no power cables and water hoses the roll up. We managed to be away around 0830 and back into Rainbow Beach for our morning cappuccino.

After that we drove back part of the way towards Gympie then turned to Maryborough enroute to Bargara. When we arrived in Maryborough, we parked and visited the Tourist Information centre to obtain some information on the area and particularly for the Bundaberg area.

Then we continued on our way and soon arrived in Childers. As it was coming up to lunch time, we again went to Subway. After getting our lunch we then set off on the road towards Woodgate and so avoided having to travel on the Bruce Highway. It is a scenic rural drive with sights of various agriculture, horticulture and forestry. On the way, we pulled into a layby and had our lunch.

After wending our way, we soon came to the outskirts of Bundaberg and found a turn off to Bargara rather than having to go through the large town centre.

This area appears to be quite recent. Not a lot of old buildings but a large number of new homes and apartments.  Soon we found a Caravan Park and booked in for a couple of nights. Set up was not too bad and before long we had completed connecting everything to the Karavan.

Soon after, we drove to the village centre and walked around checking the few shops that were not dissimilar to Rainbow Beach but perhaps a few more. Another coffee shop beckoned so we tried it out. It was only fair. Maybe tomorrow we can try another.

We decided to have a bit of a drive around the village which seems bigger than first impression. Lots of newly developed areas mingled with some a few years older. There is large variety of homes from quite expensive to more economical ones.

Then it was off to Woolworths to get a couple of items before we returned to the Caravan Park to prepare for the evening.