Memorable holidays - Eastern Australia August/September 2010

http://joyolneyfamily.blogspot.com.au

Eastern Australia - August/September 2010

A 9 week trip away in our caravan was quite an adventure. We travelled up the coast to Brisbane, Townsville to Cairns, returning inland via Undarra, Carnarvon, Lightning Ridge, Bourke, Gundabooka National Park, Cobar, Wilcannia, Menindee, Mongo National Park, Wentworth, Swan Hill and home.

We found the home of Walter Cummin Macdougall (1855-1917),
brother of Joy's great grandfather at "Dunolly" 74 Louisa Road, Balmain.
Joy remembered visiting there as a child.

As a frequent watcher of "Home and Away", we went to see where they do the filming.
 This is Alf Stewart's Bait Shop along side the jetty.
 "The Boat House" is a lovely restaurant in Palm Beach (Summer Bay) north of Sydney.
We bought an icecream at the Kiosk Surf Club where Alf Stewart is the President
and walked along the jetty where "Home and Away" is filmed.

We crossed the longest single span wooden bridge in Southern Hemisphere at Tabulam, northern NSW
 on our way to visit Greg and Catherine Lister.

Free camping between Grafton and Casino which we did as much as we could. We visited cousin Glen & Debbie Petfield in Laidley, my Cartwright cousins in Brisbane, had a day at Australia Zoo,
visited cousin Barbara & Alan Dean in Mapleton and friends Mark & Nancy Bishop in Gladstone before reaching Cairns. 

Jose Paronella built a castle on his 13 acre property in 1929. "Paronella Park" was opened to the public in 1935.

Graham Olney celebrated his 70th birthday - with brother Peter, wife Julie & Joy at Yorkeys Knob Sailing Club.
While in Cairns we saw Helen & Howard Andrews.
Wendy & Rob Cannon, Ken & Pam Olney were camping near Millstream Falls so able to spend the day with them also.

Free Camping between The Lynd and Charters Towers.
We visited the Undarra Volcanic National Park
 which is home to one of the longest lava flows from a single volcano in modern geological time.
This massive eruption caused lava to flow more than 90kms to the north and over 160kms to the north-west.

There are many grand buildings in Charters Towers.
Gold was discovered in Charters Towers in 1871 by a young Aboriginal horse boy.
 In it's heyday it became Queensland's 2nd largest city with 11 crushing mills and 65 hotels.
The Stock Exchange was built in 1888.  It was hooked into the world by telegraph. 

Free camping off Gregory Highway 130 kms south of Charters Towers.
We stayed 2 nights and only 6 cars went past.  The cows were inquisitive.
 Nearby was a road to various stations up to 200 kms away.

Clermont Railway Station.
In 1916 Clermont had the largest ever recorded flood in Australia - the town was wiped out and 63 people died.
Joy's father, Allan Petfield was a Home Missionary in Clermont in 1933.  

Road to Carnarvon Gorge Queensland.
.  We walked to Balcon Cave, Mickey Creek Gorge & Warrumbah Cave
where we saw Aboriginal art.

We took a 14km return walk into Carnarvon Gorge which included Moss Garden,
Amphitheatre which is accessed by a ladder, Ward's Canyon with its rare King Ferns, 
and Art Gallery with over 2000 engravings, ochre stencils and free-hand paintings adorn
 the 62 metre long sandstone walls of this magnificent Aboriginal site.
We rock hopped across Carnarvon Creek 14 times and took 7 hours to complete.

We continued on to Surat between Roma and St George.
Sir Thomas Mitchel named Surat in 1846 after going through there on St Georges Day on 23 April 1846.
It is also famous for its Cobb & Co post and has an excellent Museum covering Cobb & Co days.

The Hebal Hotel is on the Queensland and NSW border.
 The hotel is famous for the Kelly Gang frequenting it.
 It's hitching rail is still there.  An old quirky outback Australian Pub.

Our best attempt at 45 degree parking in Roma, Queensland.

Fred Bodel's camp with bedroom/lounge on right and kitchen on left at Lightning Ridge.
He built his hut on 3 mile Flat in 1915 and died at 92 in 1973.
Miners live in very roughly built homes or camps.
They make their claim and put a roof over their head in very primitive ways.

Miner's store in Lightning Ridge, NSW.
Many old vehicles, trucks, equipment lie around and get rusty.  They are left where they break down.

Opal field & mine landscape.
Lightning Ridge has a quirky way of giving instructions.
 Example -  follow "Green car door road, Red car door road, or Yellow car door to 3 mile Open Cut" .
We went into an underground mine on the Blue Car Door Road.

We drove from Lighning Ridge to Walgett and camped 56kms west of Walgett under large Coolabah trees.
 There was no moon that night so very dark and spooky with the rain and thunder.

Bourke's local artist, Jen Greentree took us 90 kms north of Bourke to Lednapper Nature Reserve to see the wildflowers.
It was Joy's birthday so a lovely way to celebrate.

Jen Greentree owns the "Back O'Bourke Gallery".
 Jen uses pastels in a style that is fresh and crisp, manipulating pure colours, line and tone
 to capture the extraordinary images of the Australian Outback.

Wildflowers in Lednapper Nature Reserve.

Yellow Grevillia.

Darling Peas

Frill neck lizard.

Jen introduced us to the medium of chalk pastel and taught us the basic technicques in landscape painting.
Joy's pastel done under the supervision of Jen with a 1 hour lesson.

An example of Jen's work.  We bought this one with Gidgee trees.

Breakfast by the fire overlooking the Darling River near Bourke.

We camped for 2 nights at May's Bend by the Darling River 20 Kms north of Bourke.
The Darling River is Australia's longest river, starting in south east Queensland, flowing through NSW and joining the Murray River 2740 kms later in Wentworth.

Gundabooka National Park stretches from the banks of the Darling River,
across the plains and over the Gundabooka Range 50 kms south of Bourke.
We stayed there a couple of nights.

Mulgas and wildflowers in Gundabooka National Park, south of Bourke.

Great Western Hotel in Cobar.  It took 3 years to build and completed in 1898.
It is said to have the longest iron lace verandah in the Southern Hemisphere.
There are a lot of heritage buildings, homes and Museum in Cobar.
Copper was discovered in 1870 and Great Cobar Copper Mine peaked in 1912.

Shire Offices, Wilcannia, NSW.
Wilcannia is on the Darling River and has an old centre lift bridge like Bourke and Swan Hill.
 There are some grand locally quarried sandstone buildings but most are not in use.
They are reminders of a once-important inland port from the late 1800s.

The main street in Wilcannia is wide with most shops closed and boarded up.
 It is almost like a ghost town.

What a thrill to find Sturt's Desert Pea on the road side between Wilcannia and Menindee, NSW.

The Menindee Lakes system is located on the Darling River 200 kms upstream of the junction of the Darling and Murray Rivers.  There are 4 large natural lakes and several smaller connecting lakes. Menindee was the first European town Mitchell discovered in 1835.  Burke & Wills passed through Menindee 14 October 1860.

Menindee Lake had been dry for 10 years, until May 2010.

Cawndilla Lake.  The sight of dead tree branches poking out of the water tell an interesting story.

Menindee Caravan Park.  We needed to charge up the phone and camera!
And it gave us an opportunity to leave the caravan while we explored the area.

A Goanna ran up a tree at our morning tea stop - on road to Pooncarie.

Lake Garnpang in Mungo National Park.  The 3 lakes dried up 18,000 years ago - Leaghur, Garnpang and Mungo.
A place where an ancient civilisation lived up to 6o,ooo years ago.
The oldest recorded cremation in the world has been found in Mungo National Park.
Given World Heritage status in 1981.

"Walls of China" in Mungo National Park.
An eerie region of high sand dunes that have been eroded by time and wind into fantastic shapes.
"Walls of China" are 27kms long on the eastern shoreline of Lake Mungo.

Travelling through the outback we saw lots of Apostle birds.
They are native to Australia, about 13" long.
 They often travel in family groups of 12 with only one breeding pair,

while the rest rear the offspring sit on eggs, feed chicks and keep the nest clean.

Darling River (left) and Murray River (top) meet at Wentworth.
Captain Charles Sturt, the first European arrived here 23 January 1830 and had good communication with the Aboriginals.
Named in 1859 after William Charles Wentworth, an Australian Explorer, journalist and prominent politician.

"Possum" lived for 50 years around
Wentworth area as a hermit, 
dying at 81years. 

Joy chats to Captain John Egge
at Wentworth Wharf.

We met Jen and Keith while at Gundabooka
 and even though we camped independently we met up almost every day
  until we said out goodbyes at Mildura as they went home to Sydney and we went home to Melbourne.

Windmill overgrown with time at Boundary Bend on the Murray River
which acts as a natural border between NSW and Victoria.
It flows 2530kms from the alps in Victoria to the ocean with its mouth near Goolwa, South Australia.

If you have any comments please email Joy Olney - joyolney@gmail.com