Anyone for steak?

SALES YARD, ROMA is a national icon having had the honour of being Australia's largest selling centre of cattle for many years. Today they were selling fattened stock with one lot of stock averaging 785 kilos each.
THE BIG RIG, Roma has a lot of natural gas and oil that was discovered over 100 years ago, with natural gas going by a 450km pipe to service Brisbane. Origin Energy is going to be spending $35 billion dollars in the next few years in the surrounding area on these resources, so Roma is set to boom!
ROMAVILLA WINERY is right next door to the caravan park, didn't need to stagger home as we only tried one drink and I purchased a bottle of Muscat. This is Queensland's oldest winery established in 1863 and the timber barrels smelt divine.

BOTTLE TREES and Roma likes it to be known that they are not Boab trees. The one on the right hand side has a girth of 8.9 metres.

Are you listening to me?

Rural Chinchilla

CHINCHILLA has a lot of wheat and like most of Queensland is bone dry and badly in need of rain. It was lovely to get here yesterday and to have some warmth again, it appears that Toowoomba actually had a cold snap and this afternoon they had storms there with hail. We had a brief storm last night with a few gusts of wind, thunder and lightning and only a light shower.
KOGAN CREEK POWER STATION is at Brigalow and is Australia's most modern and environmentally friendly power station. Standing at the above inspection viewing area it was surprising how quiet the plant was. It is powered using local coal via the conveyor belt visible to the right hand side.

It Had to Happen

APPARENTLY THE LOCKYER VALLEY Well it had to happen at some stage, after 38 weeks we have had a wet day when out exploring. The above lookout is at Ravensbourne National Park but alas due to the cloud and rain there was no view. We set out north this morning along the New England Highway to Crows Nest, went to the National Park there to have a look at the waterfalls, which were non-existent with the lack of rain although whilst we were there it started to rain.

SPRING BLUFF STATION is nestled into the side of the hill in the Lockyer Valley, really nice station with all the spring flowers out and although damp there too there were a few bods there enjoying a cuppa at the cafe.

The Garden City

LAUREN BANK PARK, TOOWOOMBA This area sure does live up to it's name of the Garden City with lot's of parks and gardens. A lot of families were out utilising the facilities, they seem to mark their territory of a picnic area by a show of balloons. Toowoomba is 700 metres above sea level and has very rich soil so lot's of vegetables are grown in the area. All the homes are very neat and tidy with colourful gardens.
BOTANIC GARDENS

JAPANESE GARDENS

ORANGE AND LEMONS ROSE

PETUNIAS

Snakes Alive!

CARPET PYTHON letting his breakfast digest at the Mary Cairncross reserve up near Maleny. The reserve has a lovely bush walk through rain forest. We spotted one pademelon basking in the sunshine and could hear lot's of birds, one in particular sounded like a baby crying and it is a cat thrush.
EASY TO MISS I reckon we are going to have to be REALLY alert when out walking from now on. Wonder how many we may have missed?
GLASS HOUSE MOUNTAINS from the Mary Cairncross reserve, what fabulous views this home has. The drive today was different to yesterday taking us up and behind the mountains and coming back via Woodford.
Just as we were nearing home the rain started, the first we have experienced since the end of May which has been great when you are on the road, but not good for the locals. Some thunder rolling around and now lot's of wind and rain, the ground sure does need the rain.

A happy day in the Hinterland

MAROOCHY BOTANICAL PARK is a hidden treasure, there is a lovely section with well maintained lawns and gardens which has several statues carved from Queensland marble. These ones are each from just one piece of rock. Sculptors from all over the world worked on site back in 2005, it is a very restful area and appears to be maintained by volunteers.

GLASS HOUSE MOUNTAINS Although we have been to the Sunshine Coast several times, we have never explored this area. The mountains are remnants of volcano's that were active about 25 million years ago. The area also has pineapple crops and macadamia farms.

A FUN NIGHT with Terry, Tracey and Liam Kearns at the van.

Back on the road again

MOOLOOLABA Our time on the Gold Coast has just flown by, Mum has recovered really well and was a model patient and is now aok to look after herself. We had a lovely time there catching up with different folk.

Yesterday we left and headed 200km's north to Mooloolaba on the Sunshine Coast, it will be a good base to go out and look at the hinterland. As we were turning into the street where the caravan park is that fronts onto the beach we spotted a friend, Terry from Christchurch, so catching up with the Kearns family later today, it sure is a small world.

We caught up again with our caravaning friends who live here, had last evening with them and then this morning a lovely stroll along the beach and a bbq breakfast on the esplanade, what a tough life!