Normally we break the drive and spend a night at the Yelgun rest area north of Ballina but have decided to continue through to Eumundi on the Sunshine Coast.
Camping is allowed adjacent to their famous markets and at $15 per night for an unpowered site it's a great stop over. The price includes the use of toilets, showers, non-potable water and there is even a dump point on site.
A limited number of powered sites are available at $20 with a maximum two night stay.
Deb and Hank who live at Tewantin are joining us for a two week trip out as far as St George with some time spent around the New England area north of Tenterfield including Stanthorpe in South East Queensland. Our plan is then to camp at several locations before returning home to Sawtell.
After leaving Eumundi we continued south along the Bruce Highway and took the Landsborough turnoff. At Beerwah we headed west towards Peachester before joining the D'Aguilar Highway just east of Kilcoy.
We passed through Kilcoy and Moore before stopping at Blackbutt for morning tea. I have it on good authority from two pieaholics that the bakery here is hard to beat. A selection of pies and other goodies were purchased with some consumed and some left till later.
At Yarraman we joined the New England Highway and followed that south for 33 km before taking the Dalby to Cooyar Road turnoff at Wutul. This minor road is quite rough and narrow in places but thankfully doesn't seem to carry too much traffic. We stopped briefly in Dalby before continuing along the Moonie Highway for 17 km and then turning towards Lake Broadwater Conservation Park a further 10 km away.
We have camped here on numerous occasions and your $6 per person per night fee gets you flushing toilets and hot showers. The campground looks out over the lake and at present the water levels are low so our time spent here was nice and quiet without the hum of jet skis or ski boats spoiling the serenity.
A limited number of powered sites are available at $20 with a maximum two night stay.
After leaving Eumundi we continued south along the Bruce Highway and took the Landsborough turnoff. At Beerwah we headed west towards Peachester before joining the D'Aguilar Highway just east of Kilcoy.
We passed through Kilcoy and Moore before stopping at Blackbutt for morning tea. I have it on good authority from two pieaholics that the bakery here is hard to beat. A selection of pies and other goodies were purchased with some consumed and some left till later.
We have camped here on numerous occasions and your $6 per person per night fee gets you flushing toilets and hot showers. The campground looks out over the lake and at present the water levels are low so our time spent here was nice and quiet without the hum of jet skis or ski boats spoiling the serenity.
We experienced rather high temperatures over the 38 degree mark while we where here and the locals came down every afternoon to cool off.
Unbeknown to us the Chinchilla bi-annual watermelon festival was on while we were here so on our second day we headed the 100 km west of Dalby to check out the action. So on Saturday morning we joined the constant stream of traffic heading along the Warrego Highway towards Chinchilla. The days temperature peaked at 38.7 degrees so after checking out some of the stalls we found ourselves a spot in the shade and watched the passing parade and watermelon races.
On our return we took a minor road that passed through the small town of Kogan. We stopped in at the local pub for a few beers and a healthy plate of hot chips and gravy.
Camping is allowed at the Kogan Memorial Hall and power is available for $15, or unpowered $10.
A sculpture in the park beside the hall represents Hugh Sawrey a famous Australian painter who with RM Williams founded the Stockman's Hall of Fame in Longreach. He was a great friend of a former owner of the hotel in Kogan, and who was responsible for erecting the sculpture. We have an association with Hugh Sawrey in that we have a couple of original paintings by him.
After two days camped at Lake Broadwater we rejoined the Moonie Highway and soon passed through the small town of Moonie. It was the site of Australia's first oil field and still is in operation today producing about 35 kilolitres each day. Several hours later and 187 km had us stopping in St George for lunch and several beers.
Then we continued on towards the Nindigully Pub a further 44 km away. The Gully sits beside the Moonie River and camping is free and a gold coin donation will get you a shower.
Hank received a book for Christmas titled 'Australian Bush Pubs' and wants to tick as many of the list as he can, so this pub is his first. We also celebrated his birthday while camped here so on our second evening we enjoyed happy hour before dining at the pub.
This particular burger is the smallest on the menu and weighs in at 5.5 kg's. Of course we were unable to do it justice but the resident dogs were more than happy to assist in devouring what we couldn't.
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