20140921 Qld Wandoan, Rolleston to Emerald

20140921 We drove onto Miles looking for somewhere to shower but the garages only catered for the men but that didn't stop me, we continued onto Wandoan and all the time watching the storm clouds roll in, this doesn't look good.  Again, these town have nothing to see, if it wasn't for the mines, I don't know how they would survive.

20140922 After sitting in the van all day reading and sleeping, we are getting bored so as the pub is the only source of entertainment, I guess that will have to do.  It's not the most appealing country pub I have been to, but they played great music, and it was loud, enough to drown Mr have a chat out anyway, just joking.

Des found an abandoned weigh bridge in the industrial area at the back of the shops. 

Our home for the next couple of days, he's such a romantic.

23-09-2014 Going back over some old grounds we headed to Moura to camp on the Dawson River where we stayed in 2011 and we loved it but the water level was much higher and there wasn't as many campers. 

We meet Ken a 71 year old deviate who we camped beside and we became his companion for the next few days. We read books, watch campers come and go and walked the rest area in search of a good old chin wag or information on good camp spots from the many travelers.

25-09-2014  I broke the lid on a beer at lunch time then Des and Ken followed my lead and we drank steadily all day and as it's our last night I collected wood and after dinner sat around having a few more until the music on my iPod went flat.

There were many Butterfly's in the garden.

26-09-2014  We restocked our supplies in Moura the drove onto Rolleston only to drive back a few K's to free camp for the night.

Another romantic camp site for the night in a gravel storing pit just of the road, that's my Des.

The old homestead is described as 
"a real old timer" build on slabs.

27-09-2014  Back to Rolleston to make breaky and top up our water before heading to Springsure to camp at the Virgin Rock Rest Area at Mt Zambia and check out the National Park. Travelling along when we spotted a large King Brown slithering across the road, I hate for that mother to roll up under our van.  At the information center in Springsure we were informed the park is closed after the rain, bugger I was so looking forward to a walk through the park, so now what to do as Des is trying to go slow.

I did happen to come across a bit of history that I found interesting: At Cullin-la-ringo not far from Springsure a group of Kiri warriors killed 19 people in the largest recorded massacre of whites in Australia history.  They say it was prompted by a combination of frustration at the loss of land and as an act of revenge for the atrocities which were being committed by the whites (who were eager to rid themselves of the aborigines) and the native police who had stolen tribal woman.

Pattern Comet Windmill has a diameter of 24 feet (just under 7.5 m) and the head weighs 2.4 tonnes. 

The rock to me looks like a baby in a womb but it is said it resembles the Virgin Mary cradling the baby Jesus.  It’s true what they say it is the most prominent feature looming above the town because there certainly isn't much in the town itself. 

As we have no choice we left for Emerald to check out Fairbairn Dam and there’s signs everywhere saying No Entry or No Parking, even up dirt roads, the caravan park certainly monopolies the camping around here and at $50 a night they can stick it, since when did caravan parks become so expensive, "O" that's wright it's a mining town and there happy ripping off the miners.  The dam is one of the prettiest I have seen and is very inviting, this is when we wish we had a boat.

Fairbairn Dam was constructed in 1972 across the Nogoa River “Gap” creating Lake Maraboon and is Queensland’s second largest lake.  Marboon is the aboriginal name for “where the black duck fly”.

Driving into Emerald I kept on looking for places to camp but that didn't happen, when we ended up at the Emerald Botanical Gardens Rest area under the train bridge, I guess the theory is if the campers a stupid enough to camp under a bridge with the traffic and train noise then "so be it".   I text Shane letting him know were in his old stomping grounds, any tips, Shane:Yep don't get on any quad bikes and I PMSL.  He told me about Anakie where you can dig for emeralds but unfortunately it was 30ks back.

The walking path around the gardens was worth the stay with it's free gas BBQ's and the added bones of power points so I blogged in the BBQ area all day while chatting to some of the locals. 

The bridge across the Nagoa River which is feed by Fairbairn Dam.  Des ended up throwing in some Yabby Pots but there just not biting.

28-09-2014  Even though you are only suppose to stay 20 hours we ended up staying for two nights as Des needed to go to the Bank on Monday so we decided to walk the town and check out the local scean.

The Van Gogh project is a series of Big Easel paintings based on Vincent van Gogh’s sunflower paintings measuring an impressive 7 x 10 metres, which rests on a 25 metre, 17,000 kilogram steel easel.  The project is to erect them over the world with the 1^st in Altona, Manitoba, Canada in 1998 and the 2^nd was completed in 1999 in Emerald, other proposed places are USA, South Africa and Japan.

I tried to get Des to stand beside this tiny old petrol pump but he wouldn't be in it so I snuck this shoot in while he was distracted.

I get the feeling he's sick of me putting shit on him.

Found this on the Pub wall in Rolleston.