20240703 Qld Nebo to Coppabella

20240703 It’s time to move on from Lake Elphinstone as we pack up and head to the town of Nebo following the Suttor Development Rd, part of which is rated as a local road of regional significance. We passed another mine, Hale Creek which extracts coking and thermal coal from a large-scale Permian coal basin, stretching 600 kilometres long and 250 kilometres wide.

Arriving in Nebo, a town that came to life with the return of soldiers in 1919, after the first World War, it was hoped the new settlement would become a thriving farming community, marketing its produce to Brisbane, but there was a need for an access road to the valley. Using an old bullocky's track a new road was constructed taking over a years with the labour of the returned soldiers and by 1924, the settlement was beginning to grow in population and develop into a community.

This painting Wari Vanala Bidjiri, meaning Rain Cloud Dreaming, tells the story of the WidI Peoples' birthplace of Bunggari. Long ago (murrinnga) in the creation the rainbow serpent travelled through the dreaming mountains and underground streams. Sacred places were created for men and women for lore and ceremonial spiritual practices.

The entrance to the town centre, this is a clean tidy town with not much going for it but to my surprise 857 residents live here.

The hotel site was licenced in 1863, and the building as it is now, was finished in 1886. It was formerly known as the Fort Cooper Hotel.

Another one of our great Queensland Hotels with nice meals, she’s a but quite but I can just see this place going off on a good night.

The Nebo Hotel in its early days, a cornerstone of the community since 1863, and is one of the only listed heritage pubs in Australia, the quirky architecture and its natural charm have been carefully maintained to honour its identity and preserve its it's history.

Across the road from the pub is the only store/Post Office in Nebo that carries the bare essentials.

An old pump that was used to pump water from an hand sunk well which is about 50ft (15mtrs) deep with timber slabs.

20240704 We left Nebo travelling along Peak Downs Highway towards Moranbah but we’re not sure if we can stop there, there’s been a fire in the mine and people have been told to stay inside if possible. We are still looking for that special spot on a creek to camp for a few days but nothing has jumped out at us yet. This road is good in patches and is quite busy so it can get a bit errr when a truck is heading towards you and you have no choice but to hit the rough patcher.

Truck rollover at Coppabella just before the Coppabella Mines, there was a dead pig which makes me wonder if that’s what caused it.

Coppabella was established by Queensland Railways to accommodate train crew and railway maintenance staff, it had a population of 594 people in 2021.

This is a busy road but a good road in most places so it makes you wonder how this could happen.

 

Part of the bush burnt out or maybe it’s been burnt off.

We just passed another mine, the re-born Millennium metallurgical coal mine at Coppabella, the latest in a boom of job creating resources projects green lit by the Palaszczuk Government. Peabody ceased production in 2020 and in 2021, the new owners opened it and converted it to an underground operation with a 1.2 million tonne capacity.

OMG! I had no idea we had that many mines, there are 30 operational coal mines and that’s just in the Isaac Region. 

We spot a camp that looks ok, we might be able to stay a few days and have a fire so we pull in and took over the shelter with table and seats. The wind picked up so I don’t like our chances of a fire place plus more vans keep arriving, by the afternoon we had a full house. We had a few ales then Des cooked dinner before hitting the sack, there’s no reception so it looks like we have to read.

We always manage to find somewhere to take a walk when we followed a track down to the bridge and found this spot under the bridge.

Any excuse for a photo, Cheers 🍻

On our way into Moranbah, It’s difficult to see but in the distance there’s a mine that is the length of this photo, it’s just massive.

I’m Loving the Mines