We have some friends that own a cattle station in outback Queensland. We have visited twice before, driving 12 hours from Newcastle and each time we’ve had an absolute blast. Living in the city, it is rare that we experience the true outdoors. This is why we love camping and why we have recently acquired a caravan.
When we moved to Brisbane at the start of 2023, we thought “This will be great, now we’re in Queensland it’ll be a shorter drive to the Station”. We would be mistaken. According to Google Maps, the difference in time it would take us to drive to Kilcowera is 1 whole minute. Nonetheless, it gave us an opportunity to explore another part of the country by road on the way so over Easter 2023 we set off, stopping along way, making a road trip of it.
There are two main highways that run west from Brisbane: The Adventure Way (the southern road) and Warrego Way (the northern road). They run more or less parallel to each other so it made sense to take one on the way out there and take the other coming home.
Day 1: Brisbane to Bestbrook Farmstay
Our caravan is currently not living with us. So first thing was to retrieve it so we could put some last minute things in it (you know like clothes and water) before setting off.
An hour and a half later we had our first stop for morning tea/morning beer at Scenic Rim Brewery. In the small town of Mount Alford, Scenic Rim Brewery offers a range of 6 core range beers plus a ginger beer. I found the beers were good enough to buy a mixed 6 pack, but not amazing. It’s a beautiful setting though. We sat out the back on a medium sized verandah with timber furnishings and a few token Bavarian decorations to match the menu.
The menu was decent, it has a range of German pork sausage hot dogs, and since it was only 11am, kynie and split a Bratwurst with mustard and sauerkraut. Delicious. They also have coffee and ice cream to keep the whole family happy.
In the front of the cafe there is a secent store with hand crafted food and condiments such as meat rub, bbq sauce, relish, candy, honey and many other things. I bought up big because I like to support the towns I go through, and also because I really like sauce.
Half an hour down the road is our first night’s stop: Bestbrook Farm Stay. We immediately fell in love with the place. Set on a large hilly property, surrounded by trees it can be easy to forget you are just a couple of hours from the city. Being on a large property is great because you never feel like you are camping in someone else’s backyard.
We found a spare section of grass, rolled out our brand new awning and setup in record time.
Bestbrook offer various activities and at 2:00 they were doing a butter making demonstration. We didn’t stay long as the kids weren’t that into it but I learnt how they made butter before the days of mass commercialisation. Put the milk in a churner and get one of the kids to spin it for about half an hour.
They have this classic playground with features that might be from the 1950s. I’ll tell you this: they don’t make ’em like they used to! It even has a classic see-saw. You know, the kind without giant safety springs you could absolutely drop your pal on. Good times.
The kids loved looking at all the animals nearby. We walked through the chicken coup which also housed geese and roosters. There’s a goat and a whole lot of sheep. For those into riding there are also several opportunities to go horse riding as well. Don’t fret if you’ve never ridden before though, they’ll teach you first before taking you out on any trails.
By 3:30 is was time to get dinner on. On the menu for tonight: roast lamb, pumpkin, and carrot, slow roasted on medium in a Weber BabyQ. I tell you, this is how you caravan. Not only is it delicious and nutritious, is also less effort than almost any other camping meal.
We sat around a campfire, read stories to the kids and hopped into bed as it was starting to get cold.
Remember, this is the mountains. (We didn’t!)
Day 2
According to my weather app the temperature got to 6.6 degrees Celcius overnight. That’s cold, particularly when you only pack summer pajama’s and a light blanket.
So we wore all our long clothes to bed and for us adults that meant jeans and for me, a button up shirt. So comfortable.
We still froze.
But we survived and while it’s up there in terms of camping fails, it wasn’t worse than when we camped in a tent at Mudgee (NSW), when it reached below zero celcius. That was the weekend we decided to buy a caravan.
As soon as the sun was up it was warm and shot straight up to 25 degrees.
We had no schedule. Which is the way we like it when in the wild. We played card games. We read our books. We explored the creek, collecting firewood for the afternoon’s fire.
At about 10:30 we decided to explore the property. The Bestbrook map shows a 4wd track up to a lookout and it sounded like a fun activity.
A little way up, maybe 15 minutes of (slow) offroad driving, we stopped as there is a short walk to what they call Gnomes Gully. It might be a 10 minute walk. Very easy, but beware of prickly plants. In the side of a cliff, very accessible, is a small, shallow cave that they have filled with garden gnomes.
It’s nothing spectacular but it’s a bit cute and was an entertaining thing to do with the kids. For those without a 4wd there is also a walking track that goes a different way up from the campsite.
We kept on driving up towards the lookout and things started getting a little hairy. The rocks got bigger and ravines from washouts also got bigger.
But up we crawled, analysing every turn in every track looking for the way up that is least likely to damage our Prado. It bottomed out plenty but there was only once I felt the Prado slipping and only once I felt actually stuck. But both, mercifully were short-lived. Ironically, we had opted not to bring the Maxtrax (those big orange things people keep on the top of their 4WDs), as we didn’t intend to drive anywhere we thought we’d get stuck. They would have helped immensely.
After, I don’t even know how long, maybe 30, maybe 45 minutes, and as the road was seriously not improving, I stopped. I felt done. It was exhausting and I was starting to worry for the damage I might be doing to the car, not to mention, what goes up must come down.
I called the farmstay reception and Kynie went for a wander to see what she could see beyond. They said we are likely very close and also confirmed that beyond the Gnomes Gully there are a lot of washouts and it can be difficult: information I wish I’d asked for beforehand.
At that moment Kynie returned and said she found the lookout. I remained parked on the road, believing we were the only idiots dumb enough to come up this far. The view was pretty special, and after enjoying it sufficiently we started back down.
Kynie became our guide on foot and legit walked 80% of the road back down, going on ahead, pointing out the likely best route down. It was actually most helpful and thankfully it was a fully easier coming down than going up. We realised as well that had we brought the Maxtraxx away (big plastic grips for rescuing bogged 4wds) they actually would have helped bridge a lot of the gaps we crossed. In some cases we filled in ravines with large rocks as a makeshift bridge.
We survived. The car survived. Most importantly, even though it was a high stress situation, no-one (me) barked at anyone. Everyone kept their heads. And we can look back as one of those crazy adventures we did “when you guys were little”.
When we got back to campsite we needed a stiff drink. The tonic was cold so G&Ts all round! Then we finally got to lunch. We had actually packed supplies to make a picnic lunch but at the top I was an absolute nervous wreck the last thing I felt like doing was eating.
At 2pm, Bestbrook hosted a time of whip cracking in the field. I think the entire Farmstay turned out for it. It was not a demonstration but a chance for anyone to come and have a go at cracking the whip. Not many were able to.
Me and the kids headed back up to the farm house for a play on the antique playground and a catch up with the animals before picking up some more firewood.
We built the fire and kept it going all afternoon. I fired up the Weber again to roast some more vegetables and reheat last night’s lamb.
Another delicious meal by the campfire as the sun set.
By the end of dinner there were absolutely no complaints about getting ready for bed. The 3 year old practically put herself in bed and the others happily followed. Kynie bunked in with the small one as her sleeping bag looked warmer than our blanket. So A joined me in the double, which meant we could share her sleeping bag and the blanket.
Day 3 – Goondiwindi, St George, Nindigully
Our third day was a mostly driving day. We still have to cover a few miles to get to Kilcowera and in 3 days we’d only driven 2 of the 12 hours required.
Anyway. Warwick is a small town 30 minutes from Bestbrook. We picked up a coffee at the number 2 rated coffee place in Warwick on our way through (because number 1 was Zaraffa’s and we don’t believe good coffee comes in a drive through.)
We had a brief toilet stop in Inglewood before having a decent stop for lunch in Goondiwindi (Gundy for short). There was a lovely playground with tables that we could easily pull up to with the caravan and was the perfect stop for lunch.
We topped up supplies at the local Coles (ie bought the things we left at home in the freezer), and bought some firewood as we hope we’ll be able to use it at either of the next 2 stops.
Gundy seems like a lovely little country town. It has the nice wide streets you find out this way, it seemed quiet yet very much alive. It has the obligatory central clock tower but it also was far greener than I expected it to be for being this far west (about 4 hours from Brisbane).
An hour 45 further down the road was the Nindigully Pub. A classic and iconic pub, one of the oldest in Queensland, founded in 1864. It has the classic wide tin roof and a long verandah and it’s name painted on the roof. It has a real “give me a home among the gum trees” vibe about it. Not disimilar to the Royal Mail Hotel in Hungerford, where we stayed this time last year on the way to Kilcowera, on the far west border.
It’s parking lot also doubles as a (very) large free camping spot. I was expecting a small strip of dirt out the back by the river but this would have easily been a few acres of space. It is wide open but with plenty of trees and clean toilets and showers at the pub you can use.
We quickly setup and I got dinner on. On tonight’s menu, marinated butterfly chicken cooked on the Weber. While it was cooking we wandered into the pub for a drink. Kynie had a ginger beer and I had the obligatory local beer: a Gully Gold, which, judging by the taste of it was probably just XXXX with a different sticker.
We drank in the beer garden, under fairy lights while the kids played on the little playground they had, complete with Flintstones car.
We made delicious wraps with salad and began the bedtime routine.
Not knowing anything about what the free camping situation would be like, we contemplated whether our backup plan might be too stay at a tourist Park in St George, another 30 minutes but I’m very glad we stuck with the pub. It’s such a great location if you don’t need to be plugged in. Surrounded by nature and on the doorstep of an iconic pub. How good.
Day 4
I woke up earlier than the family so I took a short walk around the campsite to see what it was all about, as I like to in times like these. There is a lovely creek that flows past the campsite with a covering of trees. This would be the premium spot to camp but would fill up the quickest so you’d need to probably get in a bit early. We arrived yesterday about 5pm and it felt very full. There would have been at least 20 Caravans at the free camping site.
I walked the length of the riverwalk, which was about 500 metres and read about the filming of Paperback Hero, an Australian film starring Hugh Jackman just before he made it big in the X-Men series. The movie was filmed in and around Nindigully and the boomerang sculptures are part of the set.
The pub offers shower facilities as well as toilets but unfortunately this was a very cold shower. It got me clean but it was excruciating.
Typically we take it easy in the mornings. We haven’t been under massive time pressures — only driving about 4 hours each day — so there has been no need to rush off. While we’ve stopped in each major town we’ve gone through, generally at the parks, fuel stations, and supermarkets, the “tourist attractions” have generally not attracted us. This may sound harsh but each town will have little bits of history which they turn into visitor attractions, which you would almost certainly do if you had nothing better too do as a visitor. But when the alternative is to keep making progress to the end goal that’s what we chose. This was all the more reason because the places we were camping were all pretty cool, so for us it was more about the destinations than the journey.
After we’d packed up we made the 40 minute drive to St George. Along the way we were treated to a beautiful surprise as the cotton fields were all in bloom. As far as the eye can see is just white fluffy crops. Absolutely stunning.
Unfortunately, cotton crops at 110km/hr were difficult to capture by photo, and with a caravan (and probably even without), there were no good pull outs to do so either. But we gave it our best shot.
We topped up our groceries at the IGA and bought some pies, sausage rolls and sweets at the St George bakery and had ourselves a little picnic down by the river. All the towns we are driving through are set on rivers, and there always tends to be somewhere pleasant to stop. We ate our treats in this lovely setting and got moving.
About an hour away is the small town of Bollon. There wasn’t much to see or do but we needed a pit stop for a toilet and an ice cream. I considered staying here at the free camp, however, where we stayed ending up being heaps cooler.
An hour and a half later we arrived at Charlotte Plains Station, famous for their Artesian Spring Baths. That is of course why we had chosen it. We setup in record time, donned our swimmers, and filled up a bath. There are several bath sets around: some near the bore head, some a bit further away. I didn’t realise this but you can also swim in the artificial creek that is created by their leeching of the bore 24/7. I saw blow up boats, stand up paddle boards and kayaks in there.
Also surprisingly, it was chockers. There must have been more than a dozen other caravans staying in the grounds. It is a large enough area so you don’t feel like you are in anyone’s backyard, but also not completely deserted and isolated. You could even buy merch: work shirts, hats, beer coolers, tea towels. The works.
Feeling refreshed I fired up the Weber and cooked a marinated, butterfly chicken.
Day 5
I woke up right on sunrise. I grabbed my camera and did the best I could with my limited time and zero subjects you work with. After breakfast I tried to cajole the family into having another Artesian bath but Lily was the only taker. I wanted to be fully fresh for the day’s drive.
40 minutes later we were in Cunnamulla. We parked near the visitor centre, home of the famous-ish Fella statue. As far as both small towns and visitor centres go, the Cunnamulla visitor centre is sublime. It has a sizeable museum of artefacts from the last two centuries including history of the formation of the town and notable people involved in is formation. There is also what they call a time tunnel that takes you underground and back in time to tell you about the fossils found in the area as well as all about the Artesian Basin. All very interesting and well worth the $15. There is also a 30 minute video which I didn’t have time for.
We ate lunch in the park, I bought bread from the bakery and we continued on. The next stop was to top up fuel in Thargomindah before our final destination: Kilcowera Station.
The last leg was always going to be the most difficult. Most of the road from Thargo to Kilcowera is unsealed, which was always going to be sketchy for the 30 year old Windsor we were towing. It survived with only a few minor bruises to the windows and fairly minimal red outback dust inside so that’s probably a win.
After 4 days, 12 hours of driving and over 1,200 kilometres of driving we had made it and I couldn’t be more pleased to be surrounded by red dirt.
We caught up with the station manager family, ate dinner with them, and setup the caravan for the next 5 nights.
Day 6: Kilcowera
On our first full day at Kilcowera we started slowly with breakfast in the caravan and showers for all, having not had great access to good showers so far on the trip. We had a few things to do to help out the station manager in preparation for the large amount of people that would be arriving in the coming days.
Because we are good friends with the station owners we have also become friends with the station managers and have more access to them and some of the facilities than most visitors would. That is why we are helping with some organisation and we we are eating meals with them. They are hosting us more as friends then as tourists. I say this up front because our experience will be different to the average tourist to the station. That said, the entire station can be explored, you just won’t have the same access to the managers nor will they cook for you…sorry about that.
While there was a lull, myself and one of the family took our drones and went for a drive in the hope of spotting some of the many wildlife that live on the property. We were in luck, within 10 minutes of driving some emus crossed our path. We stopped, we launched, we tracked.
We must have spent 45 minutes hovering, watching. I have seen emus before, there are actually emus at Blackbutt Reserve in Newcastle, but to see them in the absolute wild was truly something else entirely. Often when I’ve seen them here they might be in a mob (yes, that’s the correct collective noun) of 5 or 6. Today it was a mob of two, I like to think it was a male and female in an exclusive relationship, looking for somewhere private to fertilise an egg. But we were having none of it.
“Bzzzzzz” went our drones overhead. We didn’t get too close, but we did get close enough that I was surprised they hadn’t run away frightened, as which point I pulled back. Afte a while I went after them on foot. I had the arial photos and even some video, I wanted the photo from the ground. But the emus were obviously more sensitive to footsteps and this did frighten them and they ran away.
We could still track them if we wanted, but we had had our fun. Off we went to the next spot.
We did not encounter anymore wildlife so we stopped at what is normally a waterhole, called Red Hole, but at the moment, because of the lack of rain, was completely and utterly dry.
Towards dusk, we got word that our friends, the station owners were arriving from Newcastle. By plane. Being a pilot, he is able to fly himeself and family in a light aircraft and is their preferred mode of travel to the station. We headed out to the airstrip, which was just a 5 minute drive away.
Day 7
When caravanning, we enjoy slow starts. Without any much responsibility we enjoyed a self paced breakfast, showered, and headed up to the homestead so meet the station managers.
Day 7 was Good Friday and our friends had put together an Easter service at the homestead. It was beautiful with songs of worship, a Bible reading, and a few people shared. This pretty well filled the morning and it was great that, even though we were far from home, far from the city, far from our church, we could still have a morning of reflection.
In the afternoon, myself, the station owner, the station manager, and a few others went out on what they call a lick run. This basically where we drive around to all the water troughs where cattle congregate, check for any obvious health problems and leave blocks of nutrients that they lick, as well as bags of feed. Some might find it dull but (probably only as a novelty) I found it fascinating. Not just in seeing how people in completely different industries to me live and work, but the property is very beautiful, and I just love driving around it.
Day 8
At this time, I am actually training for a half marathon in June, so a holiday to the outback was actually a major inconvenience to this plan. Nevertheless, I was determined to keep some level of training up. I woke earlier than the rest of the caravan so I grabbed my gear and headed out on the bull dust. I ran out to the lagoon, just 2.5 kilometres away, watched the sun rise as I ran, and guessed what some of the foot prints in the dirt had been made by. In all, I’m not sure how helpful it was. Running on soft sand and bull dust is not exactly my normal arena. It was hard work, but in the “I’m trying not to get injured again” sense, not so much the “what doesn’t kill me makes me stronger” sense.
After breakfast, several cars headed on the Kilcowera tourist drive. The tourist drive is a loop that goes all the way out to the eastern boundary, which borders Lake Wyara in Currawinya National Park. I have detailed most of these places in my previous post on Kilcowera before.
We took a stroll out to Rustlers Roost, a lookout over a valley which you can walk down into, but we didn’t.
We had lunch at what is often a watering hole, but again was bone dry. We had packed sandwiches in bulk this morning and enjoyed them with a cup of billy tea and baked slice. Some of us also thought ahead and enjoyed a beer brewed on the Sunshine Coast.
On the way back we stopped at Shepherds cave. We aren’t sure if shepherd’s used to actually stay inside it. It isn’t real big, but it is big enough to sleep in if you wanted to. Personally, if you could somehow put something up to keep wildlife out, I think this would be a brilliant experience.
At night we finally had a campfire. Some of the guys were generous enough to collect some firewood and they did not hold back. Look, I’m not going to say it was the biggest campfire I’ve ever experienced, but it was genuinely up there. The logs were thick too and they burned until morning. We sat around telling stories, catching up, and enjoying the bliss of the outback nights.
Day 9: He is Risen
Day 9 was Easter Sunday. The plan was that everyone who wanted was to get up early and meet at Sunrise Lookout, which is a new area along the “driveway”, 10 minutes from the road and 10 minutes from the Shearer’s Quarters. It it up a small hill so has an incredible view east of the entire property (actually I don’t think you can physically see the whole property but you know what I mean).
I had every intention of getting up for it. The plan was to meet at Sunrise Lookout at 6 sharp, which, as I said, is a 10 minute drive. I woke up, after missing my alarm, at 5:50: not much wiggle room. Look, this wasn’t a compulsary event, but I still wanted to be there. Thankfully I had laid out my clothes the night before, I put them on in record time, grabbed my boots and saw a Hilux idling just over by the fence. They had a spare seat, I jumped in, and we hooned up the road faster than I would recommend.
At Sunset Lookout we enjoyed a fire and watched the sun come up over the property. This was no service. Nothing was said. It was just amazing to be in the outback with friends watching the sun rise, celebrating Easter.
After breakfast we did indeed hold a small Easter Sunday service. The service morphed into morning tea, which shortly after become lunch and before knew it was 3pm. A few of us were ready for something more so we grabbed some motorbikes, and went for a little ride out to Delta Dam, one of the few waterholes still with water in it.
It doesn’t look like much, indeed it looks absolutely filthy. But although it looks muddy, and despite the dam floor being either excruitiatingly hard on the feet or entirely squishy, boy was it refreshing.
Oh and Kynie learnt to ride a motorbike.
Day 10: Leaving for Quilpie
Easter Monday was our last day at Kilcowera. We had an excellent time but it was time to start heading back west. But not before one last adventure.
A convoy of 4WDs and motorbikes headed west from the Shearer’s Quarters to scout a new road that had been graded. We headed west again then turned south to the boundary and circled back until we ended up at the lagoon. The lagoon, in parts, was bone dry. This means it wasn’t much to look at (normally it is very beautiful and attracts a lot of birdlife), but it did make it a LOT of fun to hoon around on. I didn’t grow up riding motorbikes, and in fact the vast majority of my time riding bikes has been at Kilcowera and, while I’m still no expert, I’m actually quite confident in riding now.
We returned for lunch, packed up the caravan and said our goodbyes.
Quilpie is about 3 hours due north of Kilcowera. After an hour we reached Tarmac and passed briefly through Thargomindah and it was mostly tarmac the rest of the way, save for about 16 kilometres. We were thankful for this because the caravan was a little worse for wear due to taking it a little bit too fast on the dirt road on the way in.
We arrived at Quilpie at sunset, with just enough light to setup the caravan. Thankfully this generally only takes about half an hour. We were staying at the Channel Country Tourist Park and their attraction is they have 3 outdoor spas that are fed by the Artesian Basin. In fact there are a lot places that use the beautiful water from the Artesian Basin for some kind of spa or bathing draw card. We had a spa while dinner cooked in the Weber and felt refreshed after. These sorts of things are always a great place to meet people and we met a family that had just arrived from Birdsville, which is about 8 hours away. They told us about Birdsville and what did out there. I was fascinated because I’ve heard of it, but all I know about Birdsville is that the town is very remote, it has an iconic pub, and they hold some massive races once a year.
Day 11
After our customary cruisey morning we headed back the way we came – only about 10 minutes – to Baldy Top. Baldy Top is the first item on every “Things to do in Quilpie” listicle on the internet. I mean, they are not wrong, it is the best thing to do in the area, but it’s not like you are spoilt for choice. Baldy Top is a small hill with great views over the surrounding areas. It’s about a 15 minute walk up on a fairly rugged and rocky track. We accidentally went the wrong way and took a much more difficult way up. This resulted in a slip, a scrape, and the ensuing tears from one child. At the top you have excellent 360 degree views of the surrounding area, which is basically a few other small hills, some trees, and a lot more red dirt. It’s well worth doing if you are in the area.
The walk to the peak of Baldy Top (if you go the right way) is quite easy and people of most fitness levels should have no problems doing it.
After our walk we headed back into Quilpie and found some coffee. We found a coffee van on one of the corners on the main street and got coffees for the adults and smoothies for the kids. It was a very pleasant setting and surprisingly great people watching. There was a small group that seemed to be catching up after not seeing each other for ages and a local policeman (the policeman?) came in his squad car (high clearance 4WD actually) with his 3 kids for his morning dose. Everything about the situation was quintessential country town.
After coffee it was off to Charleville, which is a 2 hour drive from Quilpie and a bigger town. Actually, the closer we get to Brisbane, the bigger the towns get. We stopped at playground for lunch and the kids played on the playground, after which we visited the Cosmos Centre. Because there is very little to no light pollution in the outback it makes for a great location for stargazing and perfect place to do so on an industrial scale.
The Centre houses many fascinating exhibits about space flight, our journey to the moon, life on the International Space Station, and what we’ve learned about our solar system and beyond. For the enthusiasts, there are kid-friendly educational shows you can watch in their planetarium, there is a sun viewing tour, as well as the obligatory night tours, where you can look through the telescopes yourself. The majority of our family was only just interested enough for the museum so we skipped the tours.
The Cosmos Centre is one of 3 major attractions of Charleville. The other two being the Bilby Experience and the WWII museum. There was not much interest in the other two attractions so we hit the road.
We passed through Mitchell and stopped in at Roma for dinner at the Commonwealth Hotel. There was nothing particularly special that drew us to the Commonwealth except that we felt like a good hearty pub meal and that’s exactly what we got. Service was good and food was exactly what we expected. And it was very reasonably priced: something that cannot be said for all corner pubs these days.
By now we had some momentum. We were tired. We were ready to get home. It was now 6:30 and we did not have a place to park the caravan for the night. I had driven for 5 or so hours already and I was wiped. Kynie felt better than I did so she drove another 1.5 hours to Miles, which would make our final day of driving just that little bit easier. We arrived at around 9pm at the Miles Crossroads Caravan Park.
The Miles Crossroads Caravan Park was a bit of a weird one to me. It was super basic with very few bells or whistles. It was very economic, at only $37 for the night, and it suited us perfectly, but I don’t think families are exactly lining up to have a stay here like they do for a Big4. Don’t get me wrong, it was absolutely fine, it was somewhere to park our van for the night for us to sleep in. It had excellent toilet and private bathroom facilities (better than most actually, with far better privacy than any caravan park I’ve been to) and a very good kitchen. I’m just glad I didn’t want to step out of my door onto grass because it was fully paved. Like I said, very economic and it got the job done.
Day 12: Heading Home
The one thing to do in Miles is visit the Miles Historical Village Museum. The mesuem was conveniently across the road from the Crossroads Caravan Park. This is not an exaggeration, we pulled out of the caravan park and then parked by the road in front of the caravan park, crossed the road and we had arrived.
If you are at all interested in modern history I would highly recommend the Historical Village Museum. The Miles Historical Society have done an excellent job in collating many pieces of history from the area, including many buildings that have been donated over the years, and setting up a llittle village of real buildings that shows what it would have looked like 100 and 150 years ago. Buildings include a bakery, a cafe, a bank (which is in the process of a bank robbery), a hospital, a school, a church, a mechanic, a fire station, and more. It was fasinating.
After this it was home time. We stopped in at Toowoomba for lunch at Laurel Bank Park. This is a beautiful park with hedge sculptures and a great playground for kids. In the spring, it is also a well manicured garden that displays flower in its many, many flower beds. We visited in April, which is autumn, so unfortunately all the flower beds were bare.
This was a truly epic road trip for us. 2600 kilometres were driven over a period of 12 days. We saw a lot of Queensland but at the same time, we actually did it quite quickly because of the way we did it. There is a lot more to see but my summary was this. Adventure and Warrego Highways house some truly beautiful towns and nature. Each town has a select few things to do but being small towns history is a huge part of what they have on display. If you aren’t interested in local history you may not find the towns all that interesting.
True, the nature is stunning, especially as you get into the red dirt, but lets not forget about the Scenic Rim either. Two completely different landscapes, seen on the one driving holiday. We did this trip in a caravan but you absolutely could do it in without camping. Each town will have, at a minimum a pub (or technically a hotel), which will have at least some accommodation. It just may take a little bit of extra planning depending on the time of year.
If you haven’t seen this part of the world I can highly recommend. Get into the Australian outback.
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