Chapter 3 - Roma to Yeppoon

We drove out of St George at 8am on Saturday 14 June - a wet and overcast morning.  Just down the road a kamikaze kangaroo tried to commit suicide but my new brake pads thwarted his attempt.  Shirley’s language will not be included here.

We stopped at a small town called Surat for coffee, then pressed on through the rain.  By 11am we had set up camp in Roma.

Above, crowded aisle

The lady at the information centre advised Shirley to check out the craft shop in the main street.  It was a real eye opener, with two aisles so crowded that we could not move down those aisles.  Boxes were stacked up outside the shop, obviously moved so that customers could enter the shop.

Above, boxes outside the craft shop 

We then visited the largest bottle tree in town, which has a girth of over 9 metres and is over 100 years.  Roma also has an avenue of honour of 140 bottle trees as a memorial to the local soldiers who died in WW1. There are many other bottle trees in and around Roma.

Our next visit was to a 3 dimensional mural that was created by a local dentist.  It gives a concise overview of the history, industry and culture of Roma.  It is 18 square metres, and has a audio explanation to accompany the visual effect.

We then visited the Roma Court House where the infamous Captain Starlight was tried (for the theft of 1000 head of cattle) and found not guilty.

I was impressed to see the largest windmill in the district, on our way to the cattle/sheep sale yards—the largest in the southern hemisphere.

Roma Wet Lands

 

We  finished our day of tourism with a walk around local wet-lands, popular for birdlife.  A couple of Pale Headed Rosellas did the right thing and posed for me. 

On Sunday morning we went for another walk and enjoyed the local birdlife, as well as the local gum trees. The adjacent photo is a 400 year old River Red Gum (Eucalyptus Camaldulensis). 



The walk was accompanied part of the way by a miniature railway.

Australian White Ibis

Royal Spoonbill & Eastern Great Egret

Glossy Ibis

After our walk we visited the “Big Rig” exhibition which is a self-guided tour over displays that show the history of oil and gas discovery around Roma.  It all came about because they were drilling for water and found gas.  The history is well worth reading.

 We have enjoyed Roma, a nice town of around 8000 people.  It is the centre of a rich pastoral and wheat-growing district, with beef, grain and wool being its chief industries.  However oil and gas also play a big part.  There is a big “fly in / fly out” population in and around Roma.

We finished our stay in Roma by visiting the nightly light and sounds show at the “Big Rig”. It was an audio repeat of our morning day-time visit, but still worth seeing.
 

Monday 16 June. It is a pleasant way to see out the day with a glass of red beside a lovely camp fire, smelling the dinner cooking and talking to the one you love.  This all happened at the Dawson River free camp site—a excellent camp area about 7 km west of a small town called Moura.

However a lot happened before then.  We departed Roma on a cold frosty morning about 8:15 and took a short cut to a town called Taroom.

We stopped for coffee and then pressed on to a nice little town called Theodore.  On the way we passed a flat grassy paddock that must have had 50 or more Brolgas, many of whom were dancing just like Brolgas do.  

They appear as if they are trying to fly but are too heavy to do so.  Hopefully my photos give you an idea as to what we saw.  They were definitely not line dancing.

We duly arrived at Theodore which has a “Bake shop” (not a Bakery) that sells Outback pies which are superb. 

It also has an excellent mosaic on its water tower (which like many old country towns, is in the middle of the main street) - see photo to the right.  It was about 2 metres square.

As it was only lunch time we departed and detoured to a place called Dawson River—the scene of the above camp fire. 

Between Theodore and Moura we passed the Dawson Metallurgical Coal mine—a commodity that I have not heard of before.  It appears that metallurgical coal is high-quality black coal primarily to make coke used for the iron and steel making  process, as opposed to brown coal that is primarily used in the generation of electricity.  The Dawson mine combines three adjacent coal mining areas, stretching almost 60 kilometres. 

So we ended up at Dawson River camp site with a fire, a glass of red, damper and chicken casserole.   

Left, Dawson River Camp Site mid afternoon.

 

Dawson River at 6:20 am [just before sunrise]

Tuesday 17 June was a chilly and foggy morning as we departed Dawson River.  It soon turned into a lovely day as we headed north east towards the coast.  The drive yesterday was through land that was much better grazing land than we had seen previously on the trip.   Today was even better as the quality of the landscape and stock improved markedly.  Both days have been very undulating with the car often needing to drop down a gear on the hills.

 We travelled through towns with the unlikely names of Banana and Dululu, plus Mount Morgan, before we arrived at Rockhampton. It had been a pleasant drive, mainly through beef country.  For the first day in some time we did not see an emu or a kangaroo.  The appearance of large palms in some of the waterways gave an indication that we were moving towards the tropics and the coast.

We bought a few necessary items in Rockhampton then drove the remaining 40 odd km to Yeppoon, and set up camp at Capricorn Palms Tourist Park about 8 km from Yeppoon itself.  It was time to clean some of the dust and dirt out of both the car and the caravan, before we washed the dust, dirt and smoke (from last night) off ourselves.

Dinner consisted of leftovers, to get the fridge ready for shopping tomorrow.

Wednesday 18 June was Day 22, and what a busy day it was.  I woke at 7.10 am, had the clothes in the washing machine soon after, showered, hung the washing out, did some paperwork, made a couple of phone calls, had a coffee with Shirley, had a walk on the beach, quick lunch, off to lawn bowls (played against a guy from Eltham), did some shopping on the way, bowled all afternoon, had a beer afterwards, came home for fish and chips for dinner, another shower, read for a while, bed, then sleep.  Phew.

Thursday was not much different.  Sleep in until 7:30.  Shirley and I had bacon and eggs for breakfast—together.  Rather an oddity for us.  We had a casual drive into Rockhampton to do the tourist bit and have a look around.  But we seemed to do more shopping than sight-seeing, so I guess we will need another trip into “Rocky”.

The highlight was the purchase of some fresh local barramundi which Darryl cooked on the BBQ.  I did the chips, the ladies did the salad.  It was superb.

Friday was Day 24 and I started with a 6:30 walk to the beach, just in time to get a photo of the sunrise.

The rest of the day was very quiet.  We had a walk on the beach where I got another bird photo.  I reckon it is a Nankeen Kestrel. 
 

Blue Faced Honeyeater

We returned to the caravan park where a blue faced honeyeater (below right) tempted me to get the camera out again.   

If you like your camera and birds, this is a paradise.  Some sit and pose, some make it hard.

Saturday was another quiet day.  Darryl and I went exploring along the local (Mulambin) beach and took a few photos.

Sunday was yet another quiet day as we enjoyed the lovely weather and tried to get rid of the doses of flu that was trying to attack us—particularly Shirley.  Minor activities included a walk around a small market, a walk and a splash on the beach and an enjoyable ice-cream.

This is the end of this posting. 
Please come back soon and look for new updates.