Mini Tour South-East Queensland

15th to 20th February, 2021

Over the last 2 years John and I have spent so much time moving our gear from one place to another. This time we needed to pick up our car from Jenny’s place in Bundaberg as we were going to be living around Brisbane for the next few months.

Feeling really modern and adventurous we took an Uber to Cleveland station where we learnt how to use our new Go-Cards and took the train into Roma Street station. It was quite entertaining to watch a family taking their son to court and listen to the phone calls with the solicitor.

We got to the station an hour early as recommended but frankly, with only light luggage, you could arrive only minutes before the departure time.

Queensland Rail had limited their seating during Covid – only window seats were used to allow clear pathway through the carriages. This was pretty good as we had 2 seats each although I had to resort to texting John rather than yelling across the aisle. We ate the lunch we bought with us and purchased a small bottle of wine. John and I are very conscious to make the best gourmet choice, even on QR we manage to match our food and wine. On arrival in Bundaberg, it was very difficult to get transport, and we waited with a fellow who had got out on “proby” and was going home to surprise his son. Lucky son.

John and I spent the evening with Jenny and left early the next day for Esk 360 km, a tiny town that has re-invented itself, south west of Bundaberg and 99 km west of Brisbane. This time we planned to take our time and to actually look around the little towns on our journey.

Isis: this unfortunately named village was our first stop. It’s a sugar mill town on the Isis River about 43 km west of Bundaberg.

Childers: we stopped in the tourist park for morning tea and had a lovely walk through the main street. Childers, on the Bruce Highway, is a bustling community with beautiful heritage buildings, all 27 of them, reflecting the wealth of the town from sugar cane in the 1800’s. The town is situated within lush rolling hills and overlooking fields of rich volcanic soil.

Biggenden: 46 kms west of Childers. We had a little look around – neat and tidy but not much happening. This drive reminded me of my early childhood driving to mum’s parents place outside Dalby.

Goomeri: 112 km further on via Bam Bam Springs on the Burnett

Highway. A quiet town.

Cherbourg: 21 km further. My first job as a registered nurse was in Cherbourg and I have very fond memories of the 10 months there (1982) and the people I met and the life long friends I made. Cherbourg is an Indigenous settlement and formally known as Barambah. We drove off the highway across the Frank Bigshot Fisher Bridge into the community. There was some sort of community event happening with lots of people out and about and a group of dignitaries gathered across the road from the hospital. John bought us to everyone’s attention by driving down the wrong side of the road.
Murgon: 6 kms from Cherbourg. The Australian and the Royal both looked like they were still doing well.

Wondai: 15 kms south on the Bunya Highway. We had lunch here at

a little park next to the Timber Industry Museum. It’s a neat little town but also very quiet.

Kingaroy: 31 kms further south. We drove around the town and through the back streets. It had the appearance of a regional centre. We found my old haunt the Broadway Hotel to be devastated to find it was closed.

Nanango: 24 kms south on the D’Aguilar Highway. It’s a small, neat, agricultural town which has an annual Pumpkin festival.

Yarrraman: 21 kms on, Yarraman is another small neat community.

Blackbutt: 14 kms further on Blackbutt advertises its Avocado Festival and its giant rat tail grass.

Toogoolowah: 49 kms south east. The town seems a little small for 3 pubs.

Esk: 18 km south on the Brisbane Valley Highway. We stayed at the Wivenhoe Esk Motor Inn close to the main street. I’d recommend Esk as a weekend escape place and the motel which was reasonably priced as well as having cooking facilities. We ate at the Grand Hotel which had great menu and wine list and overlooked Mt Esk.

The following day we decided to take the scenic option back to Brisbane around Wivenhoe and Somerset dams – very beautiful but not the sort of road to be towing a van. We stopped at Maiala picnic spot and at Mt Glorius and through to Wynnum for a late lunch.

Summer Breeze was booked into Boat Works in Coomera for some warranty work. The next few days we spent preparing for the works, medical appointments, visiting mum in hospital and caring for old man Tallis.

Paul and Ness were again very kind driving down to Coomera so we

could drop our car at Boat Works. Whilst there we had a meal at the bar at George’s Paragon which was quite good. That evening we had sundowners on Temptress with Mark and Wendy, Jeff and Anne from Skedaddle and some solo sailors we hadn’t met before.

Next: Boat Works