REAL AUSTRALIA COUNTRY

Sadly, we are now in the last month of the first of our Australian trips. The time is now flying and we will be back in NZ before we know it. It will then be time to start planning trip number 2.

Our week in Maryborough was rather disappointing in some ways and great in others. The best part was seeing some friends from Waikanae, Jenny & Warren Harding. Jenny and I play golf together and she and Warren own an apartment in Alexander Headlands on the Sunshine Coast. They drove up to Maryborough for a night and we had a great time catching up on all the news, going out for lunch and dinner and sharing a few drinks. The rain set in the morning they arrived and lasted for 3 days but that didn’t hold us back. We had driven through Maryborough 11 years ago and we really loved all the old houses and buildings and always wanted to come back for a longer look so we booked in for a week. The whole area was a disappointment as most of the houses are in bad stages of disrepair and the city centre was looking very tired. We went on a very interesting walking tour and learnt that the Mary River, which runs through the city, has had some huge floods over the years with the highest being over 4 metres. This was high enough to cover both the huge bridges that cross the river in the city centre. There are plans to dam this river to provide water for Brisbane City but the locals want none of it and there notices all along the Bruce Highway condemning the idea. It will be interesting to see who wins this one, as there is such a desperate shortage of water here.

The author of “Mary Poppins”, P.L. Travers was born in Maryborough and it is thought that certain characteristics of the area were included in her books. There is a statue of Mary Poppins in the centre of Maryborough.

Our next stop was Toowoomba, a city of nearly 100,000 people at the top of the Great Dividing Range and 700 metres above sea level. We had left Maryborough with temperatures in the mid 20s but we were bought back to reality in Toowoomba where it was only 14! Toowoomba is the only city in Queensland where they have 4 distinct seasons. It is also known as the “Garden City”. It was easy to see why with most homemakers taking great pride in their gardens and the city itself also boasts 14 parks. Blossom was everywhere and azaleas and bougainvillea were all in full bloom. As the city is sited on a mountain range there are some beautiful views to be had from lookouts and parks all around the city. We were there for Father’s Day and walked around the city centre looking for a coffee and lunch. Everything was shut and so were all the shopping malls and plazas. In most cities in Queensland, except for beach resorts etc, the shops shut at mid-day on Saturdays and are closed on Sundays. We just take it for granted that we can shop over weekends and it takes a while to get used to not being able to do so.

Some of you will remember “Dad & Dave” serials on the radio. The author of these, who went under the name of Steele Rudd, lived in an area on the outskirts of Toowoomba called Nobby. We drove out there one day and what an experience it was. It was like going back 100 years. There is an old pub in Nobby where photos of Steele Rudd; the people who played the main radio parts in Dad & Dave and other historical identities are all over the walls. The pub serves lunch and dinner every day and most days they put through about 180 lunches. The pub is a favourite stop over for tour buses and travellers. They also have a bush poet. It was a great place to visit.

We wanted to get inland as far as we could on our trip back to Melbourne so our next stop was at Goondawindi. This little town of 4,500 people is on the Queensland – NSW border and has 6 highways leading into it. As a result it is a very busy stopover point for caravanners. We stayed here for 2 nights and both nights there would have been at least 70 – 80 vans staying overnight. The park owners organised a fish BBQ for all guests with a country and western band and a bush fire with billy tea. It was a great night with everyone mixing in and even the possums came out and joined in. We have a great photo of a mother possum with her baby on her back. Possums are protected in Australia and they are not infected with TB like they are in NZ.

Tamworth was our next stop and we took a short cut to get there. The road was sealed and no worse than some of the main highways, but we were so glad we had taken this route when we came across something we had never seen before. We thought it was a huge piece of farm machinery on the road coming toward us but it was a camel drawn caravan. There were 3 camels pulling the van and this old guy with his dog sitting on the front with a trailer behind the van loaded to the hilt. He wouldn’t stop for a photo but at the speed he was going, it wasn’t too difficult to get one.

Tamworth is the country and western capital of Australia and there are reminders of this everywhere. We went to see “Walk a Country Mile” at the information centre. This is designed to tell the story of Australian Country Music with interactive displays and documentaries. It was most interesting and bought back some great memories.

My next blog will probably be the last one and will come from Melbourne where we hope to arrive in about 2 weeks.