The property here is 27 acres and alot of it is grassed areas which we need to cut using ride-on and normal mowers, but there is also a large area of bushland surrounding the property as well which has firebreaks and will need to be kept slashed using the tractor as well. Graham and Sue have a nice tropical garden and several fruit trees. Amongst the fruit trees is one which produces an unusual fruit called "Chocolate Pudding Fruit"(photo) and it tastes similar to chocolate mousse dessert. The birds love it and are constantly eating the fruit as soon as it is ripe. Yesterday we watered the garden plants and some young palm trees that have just been planted and need to be watered regularly, later in the afternoon, we took a trip into Gin Gin in the Suzuki to visit the post office. Whilst Lesley did some laundry this morning, Peter went for a walk to a nearby town called Wallaville, which is several kms away on the Burnett River. The area here is famous for vegetable and citrus irrigated crops and there are several in the local area here as well.
Well we managed to find the property that we will be looking after until mid-January yesterday without any problem and met the owners Graham & Sue, who are very nice people indeed. They are helping with the wheat harvest in S.A. and they departed around lunch time today after explaining everything that we needed to know about. Graham & Sue are also members of the Motorhome club and have a 5th wheeler and a brand new Iveco truck to tow it. The rest of the day was spent setting up "Lucky Pigs" on the grass in the backyard for our stay here. Digital TV and Vodafone Mobile\Internet coverage here is good, but Telstra mobile is poor.
Today we took a trip into Gin Gin today to check if our mail has arrived and do some shopping. After a walk around we headed back to our camp site just north of Gin Gin. The layout of Gin Gin is very different from other small country towns in that it is along the Bruce Highway and not laid out in a square fashion as normal but length-wise along the highway with a new walkway\park\infomation bay in the centre of the highway itself. Tomorrow we are heading to our stop for the next four months at a property south of the town itself.
Leaving our camp this morning we travelled into Monto and the country is now mainly dairy cattle and crops etc. now. We needed to head east after Monto for 120kms, 30kms of which was dirt road through a small town called Mt.Perry and finally back to the Bruce Highway just north of Gin Gin. As we are not due at the property we are looking after until Saturday and is south of here, we needed to find a place to camp until then. Just opposite the junction of the Mt.Perry road and the Bruce Highway is a stop and only 2kms north of Gin Gin so we found a camp for tonight easily. Digital TV, Vodafone and Telstra coverage is all poor here though.
After leaving our camp site at Dawson River we travelled through Moura to a town called "Banana" - but no bananas here at all! It was named after a steer many years ago that used to round up wild bush cattle and bring them back into the yards all by itself. After Banana where we refuelled (Diesel $1.469) we headed to Biloela where we had a conversation with a chap who works at the local coal mine and is thinking about travelling as we are doing. Leaving Biloela we headed south to a stop called Coominglah Range, which is on top of a mountain top 20kms north of Monto. Here we had the place to ourselves with great views over the valley below. We did however meet a chap from the south coast of NSW who was travelling up towards Mission Beach to do some building work there and a semi-trailer driver from Atherton who was taking some huge blocks of marble, which were cut from the ground at Chilligoe, down to Brisbane. Vodafone Mobile & Internet had no coverage here at all, but Telstra coverage was poor. Some Digital TV was available too.
Departing our camp at the "Virgin Rock" we travelled east through Springsure, Rolleston and Bauhinia via the Dawson Highway for 210kms today. This country is beef cattle country with several big coal mines throughout the area and the mining sector here looks huge indeed with mine vehicles on the road all the time along with large road trains as well travelling east towards Gladstone. We found a nice camp 7km before Moura called "Dawson River". Digital TV and Telstra Mobile had coverage, but not Vodafone at all
Today after refueling in Emerald (Diesel $1.489)we only travelled 65kms south to a natural feature called "Virgin Rock" which is 2km north of Springsure. In a cliff face here is an eroded section which resembles the Virgin Mary holding a baby and they light it up at night, but we think it looks better during the day than at night. Digital TV and Vodafone coverage was non existant here and Telstra mobile was very poor.
A big day today as we travelled 510kms from 20kms outside Charters Towers to our stop here at Emerald Botanical Gardens - right between the railway line and the highway to Rockhampton(photo) arriving at 6pm! We still have 600kms to go in order to reach Gin Gin by the 24th, so we decided to put in a big day kilometre wise today. After refuelling at Charters Towers (Diesel $1.519) we travelled southwards through Belyando Crossing, Clermont and Capella. The country was quite dry and the drive was very monotonous as far as the scenery went. We saw another large snake crossing the road in front of us between Clermont and Capella. Also saw a huge coal mine at Clermont. Digital TV and all mobile coverage her is very good as we are basically camped right next to the Emerald city centre.
Only travelled 50kms today from our camp at Reid River to Macrossan, which is about 20kms east of Charters Towers. We decided to stop here at a Macrossan Park which is right on the banks of the Burdekin River and there are several other motor-homes camped here. It has been windy all day, but it was quite refreshing otherwise it would've been hot here as there is not much shade around unless you can camp right on the river itself. Beautiful sunsets out here and plenty of 3 & 4 trailer road trains, as this is the main road between Mt.Isa & Townsville, but sanity prevails as most of them travel late afternoon or at night. No Digital TV only analogue, Very poor Vodafone mobile\internet, Telstra mobile coverage is poor but working here.
Leaving our camp at Rollingstone around 9.30am we travelled the 50 odd kms into Townsville in order to refuel (Diesel $1.439) and do some shopping. A lot of bushfires are burning around the area and even near our stop for tonight at Reid River, which is between Townsville and Charters Towers. With all the smoke about the sunset was pretty good too. Digital TV, Telstra and Vodafone Mobile\Internet coverage is good here.
After saying our goodbyes to our friends at BlazeAid we left Tully around 10.30am and travelled south towards Cardwell where we intended to stop off to visit Bill & Lyn whose property we looked after back in July, but they had gone to Townsville for the day. Just before the small town of Kennedy a long snake was crossing the road in front of us and it was nearly the whole width of the bitumen so it must have been around 15 feet long and it turned and took a strike at "Lucky Pigs" as we past close to it's tail. Taipans are very aggressive snakes up here, so I think it may have been one. We carried on south to Ingham, after waiting for 20 minutes for some roadworks on the way, where we stopped for lunch and finally arrived at our camp for the night at Rollingstone, which is north of Townsville around 1.30pm. We spotted some very rare Black Cockatoos feeding on the lawn here upon our arrival(photo).
Today was our last day in Tully with BlazeAid and Lesley had the day off whilst Peter, Lea, Deanne and Grant went a few kms. south of Tully to a property owned by Leanne. Deanne and Grant are local people from Tully Heads who are also volunteering with BlazeAid. Leanne had hired an excavator which made moving huge fallen trees easier. Tomorrow we will head south towards Gin Gin and the trip will take us about 9-10 days as we need to be there by 24th September. We intend to travel to Townsville and then take a different route inland rather than just going back down the Bruce Highway. Our intention is to travel via Charters Towers, Clermont, Emerald, Springsure, Biloela and Monto.
Last working day today for Lesley here at BlazeAid in Tully as we are off further south on Thursday to Gin Gin as we have a property to look after near there until mid January. Lea, a girl here from France joined us today to help on a property north of here near El Arish owned by Wayne. He had a great design for his house based on three separate buildings connected by under cover walkways as seen in Bali etc... Wayne works on the cane trains as the offsider. Wayne also had a nice tropical garden, which although having cyclone damage is still very nice. Photo is of a Bottle-Brush Orchid taken at Elaine's place last Sunday.
Off again to another property today owned by Marie to help remove irrigation pipes, poles and wires used for passionfruit crops that were destroyed and covered with debris from the cyclone. With us today were Glenis from Forest Beach near Ingham and Chris from Brisbane. Lesley & Glenis worked very hard pulling out the "poly pipes" used for irrigation that were completely grown over with creepers and other tropical undergrowth. We also had the rescue helicopter buzzing around Tully last night as six bush-walkers got stranded on Mt. Tyson after dark and had to be air-lifted down from the mountain.
This Sunday Lesley had the day off to wash the car, whilst Peter took a crew out to Elaine's property at Tully Heads to clean up some more debris. She has a wonderful tropical garden with lots of flowers including many varieties of orchids: Bottle Brush Orchids, Ground Orchids, Pencil Orchids(photo) and others. Very pretty indeed - especially now as most of the debris is gone too.
To view the amazing detail of these Pencil Orchids - just click on the photo to view it full screen - wonderful.
As we had today off we decided to do a bit more sight seeing around the Innisfail area to the north of Tully, so after Lesley did some washing we headed off. Cowley Beach was our first stop, followed by Mourilyn Harbour where there is a deep water sugar loading facility. Etty Beach was the next place, followed by a trip into Innisfail for lunch at "McDonalds", then out to Flying Fish Point, which is where the South Johnston River flows into the Coral Sea and then on to Elly Beach(photo), which has been purchased by developers and steel gates placed across the access road into the area - HOW RUDE, as if anybody thinks they can own the beach - only in North Queensland!
Today we helped on a property at Murray Upper, which is about 30kms south of Tully. On Noel's cattle property with us today were Dave & Ron and there was a large collection of old vehicles just laying around the property in various forms of decay, but this Landcruiser(photo) used to mix the cattle feed was unique indeed! They also had three two week old "blue heeler" pups which Lesley was very fond of indeed.
We still doing voluntary work and today along with Kat & Jenna again we went out to a "Golden Cane Palm" nursery which was devastated during the cyclone. The owners, Peter & Jenny are trying to get things back into shape so as they can try to make an income, as they grow these palms for the markets further south, even as far as Melbourne. The other day we took a photo of a huge "Stick Insect" at Elaine's property down at Tully Heads as it rested under her porch roof!
Well the rain finally stopped overnight, but more is forecast for tomorrow though! Today we worked on a 25 acre property just out of Tully at Jarra Creek owned by Bob, who is an ex- Vietnam veteran and he had trees down across his fences and access track which we cut with our chainsaw and removed them from the fence, putting them into the rain forest where they will decay very quickly due to all the fungus etc. that occurs in the forests up here. Our team today included the two girls from the UK(photo), Kat and Jenna...Kat is the one with the towel on her head - ha ha!
Rain, Rain, Rain - non stop since about 4pm Saturday and the camp ground here is getting really flooded! Friday we ventured down to a property just north of Kennedy to help clear up more cyclone debris with Kat and Jenna who are both here from the UK. So at the moment we are "marooned" in the motor-home until the rain stops, which doesn't look like happening any time soon. We had planned to do a bit of shopping and visiting but too wet today!
Peter came across a huge green tree frog in the shower\toilet block last night(photo). Today we travelled back out to Anna's property at Bingil Bay with Kat, a young girl who is visiting Australia from UK with her girlfriend. We had a great day as the weather was a lot cooler and was even raining this morning and at several times during the day. It is very rewarding doing volunteer work for Anna as she definitely needs the help.
After leaving our camp site at Dawson River we travelled through Moura to a town called "Banana" - but no bananas here at all! It was named after a steer many years ago that used to round up wild bush cattle and bring them back into the yards all by itself. After Banana where we refuelled (Diesel $1.469) we headed to Biloela where we had a conversation with a chap who works at the local coal mine and is thinking about travelling as we are doing. Leaving Biloela we headed south to a stop called Coominglah Range, which is on top of a mountain top 20kms north of Monto. Here we had the place to ourselves with great views over the valley below. We did however meet a chap from the south coast of NSW who was travelling up towards Mission Beach to do some building work there and a semi-trailer driver from Atherton who was taking some huge blocks of marble, which were cut from the ground at Chilligoe, down to Brisbane. Vodafone Mobile & Internet had no coverage here at all, but Telstra coverage was poor. Some Digital TV was available too.
Departing our camp at the "Virgin Rock" we travelled east through Springsure, Rolleston and Bauhinia via the Dawson Highway for 210kms today. This country is beef cattle country with several big coal mines throughout the area and the mining sector here looks huge indeed with mine vehicles on the road all the time along with large road trains as well travelling east towards Gladstone. We found a nice camp 7km before Moura called "Dawson River". Digital TV and Telstra Mobile had coverage, but not Vodafone at all
