20160902 Qld Maryvale, Karara and Tara

20160902 Just a short trip before it gets too hot to travel and we were going to head south to Iluka but the weather has turned bad with flash flooding in parts of N.S.W so we headed towards Warwick stopping at Maryvale, a very small town just off the Cunningham Highway.

We camped at the back of the Hotel and our 2nd night there we partied with the locals and a couple traveling through.

Des found a friend and he certainly made himself at home, the dog I mean.

With the music pumping the girls hit the dance floor and we danced the night away.

Denise the publican and Des discuss the guys coming for a ride to his pub now Des is his best friend.  The publican even shouted the bar some shooters which done poor old Des in, so he staggered back to the van and locked me out, unconsciously I think, the funny part is when he tried to let me in he had trouble finding the door staggering one step forward and two steps back.

05-09-2016 Des woke feeling a tad under the weather and of cause it was the Sambuca and whatever else we had so we had to hang around till he sobered up. After his snooze we left for the Darling Downs Hotel with free camping only once there we found out the council banned free camping even though the land belongs to the publican, the bloody caravan park 20ks away complained so we ended up at the Leslie Dam.

The Leslie Dam where we camped at the lookout, but don’t tell, OK.

Kate Leslie Sculpture evokes awareness of the role of pioneer woman, wives and mothers with the development of this region.

In 1840 the Leslie brothers lead by Patrick Leslie settled a large area of land around the Condamine River.  This sculpture acknowledges the contributions of Patrick Leslie to the early development of Warwick and District.

06-09-2016 Waking to a lovely sunny day, now to figure out where to go next, gee! What a Delmer. We headed towards Surat when I spotted a camp spot so we turned around and after checking it out decided to stay a couple of days. Karara camp grounds sits beside a creek and is a free camp ground with showers and if you want power its $12 per night.

I collected heaps of wood then made some mince for our favourite camp meal, jaffles cooked on the coals.

The ground is covered in these lovely purple wild flowers and across the creek we could here wild pigs in the bush.

07-09-2016 We walked to the pub but unfortunately there were no counter meals due to renovations, bugger, back home now to make lunch.  Another night sitting around the fire with many drinks and great music and Des telling stories about his best mate, Ash.

08-09-2016 Concerned about the weather we need to find some solid ground to camp so we head to Tara and thank god the ground is bitumen so we park up waiting for the rain to clear.

Settlers Park just out of town is dedicated to the “Harry Smith Group” who in 1907 travelled from Victoria to Tara with seven families as freehold land had been made available.

Due to the weather we are held up in this tiny town and have walked to town on three occasions, all of which we were greeted with warm and friendly locals.

The Commercial Hotel in Tara where there were once two Hotel until the other one burnt down, I wonder how that happened.

In 1957 the paintings by Hugh Sawrey at the Commercial Hotel were given to the, then owners Jim and Nancy Murphy for making payments for his Chev Ute which was about to be repossessed if payments were not made on time.

After 7 weeks of shearing Hugh returned to the Hotel and thanked Jim and said, “you saved my ute”.  Hugh returned in 1960 to Jim’s surprise with two paintings in the back of his ute, Jim thanked Huge and gave him £20. The painting to this day remains the property of the Commercial Hotel.

We came across what I would call a junk shop but it did have some cool stuff but this old V8 Ford Custom Line is what got out interest, the owner paid $25,000, wow that's a lot.

Check out the old left hand drive V8 Mercury Pilot and she was in pretty good nick.

Just before leaving we came across this Ute in town, I swear the bull bar was worth more than the car but after talking to the opener he thought it was the best Ute in town.


Love These Country Towns