Sunshine Coast to Thargomindah

We left the Bushtracker factory at 16:00 today after our service and planned changes to the van. We continued on through Beerwah and Peachester climbing the Great Divide before setting up camp at Cruice Park. Its in the Camps 6 book and is camp #512. It's 21 kilometres east of Kilcoy.

Friday and Saturday 30th September, 1st October:
After a leisurely start we continued further west passing through Yarraman and Quinalow before stopping at Dalby for lunch and a refuel then camping at Lake Broadwater Conservation Park which is situated about 30 kilometres SE of Dalby. This is our second time camped here. There are two camp areas within the park and the caretaker who lives on site collects fees each afternoon. A nominal fee pays for showers and flushing toilets. The campground has a lovely view of the lake but unfortunately this time there were no Magpie Geese in residence. May have something to do with the full lake and people water skiing.  Camp #628.

Sunday 2nd October:

Today's drive totals 197 kilometres. We are camping at the fishing club at Surat on the Ballone river. Camp #866.

Monday 3rd October:
Sees us heading through Roma and Mitchell before camping at Morven for the night. We are staying at the Morven recreation ground and a gold coin donation is appreciated for staying. We normally camp at Neil Turner weir at Mitchell but the extra mileage today will give us the chance to look around Quilpie .A distance of 335 kilometres. Camp #664.

Tuesday 4th October:

Leaving Morven we continued on towards Charlivelle. Our only stop on the way to collect some disused sleepers beside the railway line. They make lovely coals especially good for camp oven roasting . We end the day at Lake Houdraman. Camp #671. Today's distance 306 kilometres. 

Wednesday and Thursday 5th and 6th October.
We had planned to drive through Adavale to Blackall and then onto Welford National Park but some road closures put heed to that plan so we went west. We passed through Eromanga whose claim to fame is the furthest town from the sea. The town has a refinery which handles the oil from the surrounding oil fields and then ships the oil by tanker to different parts of the country. Diesel was cheap at $1.53 cents per litre.

Tonight's destination was to be the Noccundra waterhole on the Wilson River. Spent two lovely days camped here and were amazed at the antics of the several hundred pelicans who were in residence. Three times per day they would herd fish into the shallows and then proceed to gorge themselves. The publician said there were normally only a dozen at any one time but this amount of birds was effecting their fishing.Distance for today 285 kilometres. Camp#842

Noccundra pub built in 1882 from Sandstone quarried from Mount Poole in NSW transported over 200 kilometres by camel trains.