My partner Angela and I had planned a trip for weeks to head to the Gemfields near Emerald in Central Queensland, with us leaving the Sunshine Coast and heading west north of Gympie near Kilkivian.
We packed up our vehicle on Saturday night, a 1989 Mitsubishi Pajero with a rear bed fitted in the back with the seats taken out thanks to a good friend of ours who welded up a bed frame out of 1" steel tubing and plywood base so we could keep our camp compact and on the move.
After a few hours sleep and rest, we hit the road while it was still dark and got into Gympie to fuel up just before sunrise. We left Gympie and headed towards Kilkivian, on the road we caught a beautiful mist covered sunrise over the cattle properties with large power line towers and used the chance to get our first pics of the trip. We then continued on towards Ban Ban Springs, we went and looked at a small creek system nearby which had clean crystal clear water, a beautiful spot to camp for the night if you needed to, just watch out for cows around the area.
We continued on our travels to Gayndah, pulling up at the Big Mandarin for information in the area
After receiving some top notch information, we went to the Gayndah Museum, a nice little museum in the town, the collection on display is fantastic and amazing and well worth the $5 admission, with large collections of farm tools and machinery as well as home lifestyle items, they also have a big stuffed wedgetail eagle on display... geez they are a big bird! We went and looked at a colonial home they have on display with items of the time as well as some really old Woman's Day magazines from back when they used hand painted covers before photographs.
We walked across the road from the main area of the museum and explored the machinery shed, full of old tractors and vehicles, I was happy exploring the old Fordson tractors including a blue halftrack which looked to be in brilliant condition for its age and it looked like they were all still in good working condition. After leaving the museum we headed out of town and upto McConnells Lookout on Mount Gayndah with a beautiful view looking over the town and surrounding farm areas and down on the Burnett river and distant hills and mountain range from about 700 meters up.
From Gayndah we headed through Munduberra to top up our fuel and continue on through Eidsvold, continuing north, we decided to stay the night at Wuruma Dam, on the road there we dodged only one Kangaroo, and when arriving, found nothing there but lots and lots of bugs. We had dinner there and decided to go off to Monto and sleep there. Arriving in Monto we found a nice little spot to bed up for the night.
After waking up in Monto, we grabbed a little bit of fuel to top up the tank we went on our ways to Cania Gorge, which is just 16 kilometers outside of Monto, on the road in we saw flocks of Sulphur Crested Cockatoo's and Scaley Breasted Lorikeets. Cania Gorge is a magnificent place, the road appears to drive all the way up the middle and continues onto Cania Dam, which we didnt explore this trip as we assumed it would just be another dam. Once we arrived at Cania Gorge, we had a quick breakfast and packed our camera gear to go and explore this beautiful looking piece of Oz. Once we were on our feet and trudging through the forests we quickly started spotting the local wildlife, Cania Gorge has 2 species of Wallaby, Rock Wallabies and Brush Tailed Wallabies. The Brush Tailed Wallaby was one of our first sights on the track, a small little guy siting up on a bank eating grass. When it saw us, it looked up and did the most odd thing, it wagged it's tail like a dog, seriously odd for a wallaby we thought, so we continued to watch it, and while trying to grab it's attention I whistled so I could take a photo, it looked up and started wagging its tail again and had this look on its face just like a cat about to pounce! After our encounter with the psycho attack pounce wallaby, we walked on through the dense forest and granite rock formations upto the dripping rock, a massive rock formation that has water dripping out of it constantly with large fern grottos underneath and lychen and moss growing everywhere.
From the dripping rock we continued the path on upto the Overhang, a large bit of rock that overhangs the pathway like a big wave of stone about to rollover and crush you like a wave in the sea. After that we backtracked and got back onto the main footpath and went onto visit the Dragon Cave (named for a long dark figure in stone on the wall that looks like a dragon) a fairly small cave by cave standards but it looked over the valley and Cania gorge with some impressive views of the tree tops and local birds. Once out of Dragon Cave we went on to Bloodwood Cave, a cave a bit further along the track and alot higher and a bit more dangerous due to no protection along the footpaths on cliff edges, Blood Wood cave has a large opening, but you will still need to crouch to get in, but once your inside, its high enough to stand and you wont be able to touch the ceiling. Inside the cave Angie found big beautiful coloured moths, and signs of aboriginal art, and she also thought she heard bats down one of the smaller tubes of the cave but was unable to get close enough to find out, the view from Bloodwood Cave is one of the highest vantage points at Cania Gorge and at times pretty daunting if your afraid of heights but it does show the magnificence and beauty of the entire area and well worth visiting again for us.
After leaving Cania Gorge we were off on our way to Biloela, arriving late in the afternoon. We ducked into the Woolworths at Biloela to grab some supplies and some ice to top up our esky. While hopping out of the car I said to Angie "be funny if we ran into Matt", Matt is a regular on DigitalSLR Forums, a website we are also regulars on but have never spoken to Matt before, he made a post to our going away forum thread but we were unable to read it as we had no internet access at the time, we only heard about it from other friends. While doing our shopping, I get stopped by this fella with his young daughter and asked if I'm Tim, I said that I was and we finally meet Matt.. within 5minutes of me saying it would be funny if we met him..it just had to happen in Woolworths in the middle of Biloela at the busiest time of the day.
Heading from Biloela, we decided to do the dash to Emerald, only a few hundred kilometers, but not much to see along the way except for the beautiful big bottle trees that dotted the landscape, a big change from our well known coastal views of ocean, rainforests, running rivers, green foliage and lots of flowers. Arriving in Emerald, we fueled up and continued for another 40minutes to Sapphire. We slept the night in a local park used by caravaners and tourers, in the morning we got up and went to the Sapphire Trading Post and got our Fossickers Licence which cost us $8.50 (costs was for a family of up to 4) for a month which is the shortest and cheapest you can get. From Sapphire we drove to Rubyvale which is about 10 minutes drive, use caution on these roads its all common land so you will encounter stock animals on the road, we saw cattle and horses and from what we were told there is also camels roaming the area.
In Rubyvale, we drove around the town and explored the area a bit to have a look to see what was on offer, after having a look we went to the Miners Hut fossicking park and bought a bucket of wash, after sieving through the bucket we scored about 12 Zircons in clear, red and pink. We decided we would go around town to try a few different places that offer buckets and experience the area. Our next stop was Monique Mine, a small mine run by Whyalla Bill (after where he was from) who has lived in the town for 4yrs but had only taken over the mine in September. He offered buckets of wash for $10 or 3 for $25, we decided to only get one bucket to start off with. On our first sieving, we scored 2 larger sapphires and by the end of the bucket we had a nice lil packet of sapphires, zircons and star sapphires. We were so impressed with Bill's wash we got 2 more buckets which resulted in even more precious little stones for our collection
After leaving Monique Mine, we did some fossicking with Angie finding a couple of specs of sapphire but no big keepers worth cutting. We camped the night just outside of town and got up the next morning to do some more specking and exploring, then decided to head back to Monique Mine, yep, Gold Fever had set in! We surprised Bill as repeat customers and did a few more buckets of wash all the while scoring even more sapphires. It was Wednesday and the day before Angie's Birthday so we decided to go one of the local gem cutters in the area known as Old Mick's Gem Shop (The owner is Matthew, as for who Old Mick was we have no idea) where we got 2 sapphires cut for Angie for her b'day. We also went up the road and visited the Little House of Gem's and got Karen (the owner) to cut a star sapphire for us but it would take longer for us to get it so its being mailed down to us.
That night we went to the local pub and got dinner for Angie's b'day as we didnt know where we would be on Thursday and wanted to celebrate it. I had probably the most beautiful fish I've ever had, a plate of baked red throat emperor with chips and vegies, a big statement from me as I've been a fisherman my whole life and eaten alot of fish in my time. Angie had porterhouse steak with a pepper sauce, thick and juicy, it sure looked good and was cooked to perfection!
We then had drinks at the Bar and got talking to some of the locals. Garry had lived in the area for 15 years and his neighbour Donna had been there for 6 years. Garry was an ex pro fisherman from down in Northern NSW and we got on well, talking alot about fishing after he mentioned seeing the fishing stickers on the side of our car. That night we got offered to park in Donna's front yard and get a few hours shut eye before continuing on our road trip on Angie's B'day.
On Thursday morning, we got up and had a coffee with Donna and her kids (3 dogs and 2 cats) and got offered to come out to her real home. She was one of many residents in the Gemfields area who were affected by flooding in the recent rains. They received 3 1/2 foot of rain in 48hrs and did alot of damage to the area, we arrived at Donnas place to find craters all over the landscape from mines that had collapsed in the area, including Donna's which was under her house, she had four walls and a 20ft hole where her floor was.. I spent some time photographing the area because it really is amazing and sad to see. we left Donna's place and headed back into Rubyvale to pickup Angie's b'day presents, the 2 sapphires we had cut the day before, they ended up being 1.03 carat and 0.48 carat both in blue green and blue yellow parti colours.
We left Rubyvale on Thursday afternoon and headed back to Emerald for fuel, then headed south towards Rolleston and Springsure stopping along the way for photos now and then and to admire the beautiful scenery. By the time we got to Rolleston, the sun was just about to set. we decided to risk it and head to Moura for the night, on the highway we saw alot of kangaroo's, echidnas and owls along the road, in one spot we even saw a dead cow feet up in the ditch so we took it easy. After about 100kms we saw less signs of road kill and that made us feel a bit better. We got into Bauhinia, a small town from what we could see. It was around 8pm when we pulled into the petrol station/corner shop/post office/diner (it's all one shop) and grabbed a couple of drinks and spent a few minutes talking to the 2 ladies who ran the place. Also had to give the shop cat Tiger some pats which weren't ignored.
We were told that there weren't too many kangaroo's on the road from Bauhinia to Moura so we should have a good run there and that it would only take us 40 minutes or so to get there so we kept on our way. After about 20 minutes of smooth driving a grey kangaroo, about 5ft in height, jumped from the side of the road and came straight at us with no intention of veering away. Ang slowed down considerably, but there was no avoiding it without doing something dangerous. Luckily it hit the bullbar and went straight down and under the car so the only "damage" done was that it knocked the 2 driving lights backwards. The kangaroo wasn't so lucky and was killed instantly.
After that little incident, we continued back on the highway taking it a little more easily and cautiously, we only had 15kms to go by then so all was fine and there was no traffic around at that time except for local Roo Shooters/Pig Hunters. We stopped at Moura Lions Park situated right on the Fitzroy River and camped for the night. We woke up overlooking the river with big gum trees surrounding and local fisherman getting ready to launch their boats. We had brekky and ran into a couple we had chatted to back at Cania Gorge. They had gone north and then back down south, we had gone north west, south and back east. It's a small world. From Moura we were on the highway going past the Moura and Biloela Coal Mines which were totally and utterly amazing. The machinery and pure awesomeness (sorry, no other way to describe this) of the size of the mines is breathtaking. Especially when you think that this immense scene is all Manmade.
Arriving back in Biloela, our only real cross road on the whole trip, we stocked up on ice again then headed east, soon realising that this meant we were essentially heading home now. From Biloela we stopped at Callide Dam and checked out the local bird and insect life and what the drought has done in the area. There were many turtle shells on the banks of the dried out dam that had died while stuck in the mud from the quickly receding water. Being out there made us realise how lucky we are to have the water supply we have back home. Leaving Callide Dam, we got back on the highway and continued east, getting through Calliope and back onto the Bruce Highway.
Stopping on the Boyne River, we had lunch while waiting for the car to cool down for its daily inspection to make sure we had all the important things topped up and running properly. From there we headed south and then east at Miriam Vale to go to Seventeen Seventy and Agnes Water. One of my favourite places to visit as it's a leaving point for me on many of my fishing trips with friends for a few days. Unfortunately there was no fishing this trip.
Arriving at Seventeen Seventy just before sunset, we headed up to the Round Hill Lookout and spent an hour or 2 taking photos of the sunset and chatting with a local called Dave who was a plumber and was heading to Blackwater in a couple days to work in the mines. After getting his life story, we parted ways and headed to Captain Cook Holiday Cabins and Caravan Park, getting a camp site for the night so we could take advantage of the hot showers in the facility. We setup for the night and had a wonderful dinner of canned spam, tiny taters and pasta mix which cooked up a treat and the only incident was a sugar glider that tried to land on my head while going for a tree I was sitting under.
Saturday morning saw us get up bright and early for sunrise photos over Seventeen Seventy, before we decided to leave and head south towards home. We went to Bundaberg and got some information about the area and went to the Bundaberg Botanical Gardens where we tried to find the Japanese Gardens but were unable to due to misleading signage and the fact we both got a serious case of the giggles from the possility of rum being turned into a gas and sprayed into the air to keep the locals happy. Either way we couldnt figure out why we were laughing so hard but as soon as we left Bundaberg we returned to normal. From Bundaberg we went to Maryborough to refuel then continued on to Tin Can Bay. We camped the night at the boat ramp so we could watch the wild dolphin feeding in the morning.
After watching the dolphin feeding we went into Gympie and got some goodies from the Sunday markets and of course went and saw Angie's kids. After a few hours there we were on the highway, for the last 75kms of our road trip. Finaly we pulled into the driveway, walked in the door and collapsed on the sofa, feeling exhausted, but happy and sad. We had a wonderful trip with lots of fun and beautiful scenery to see. We didnt try to kill each other and had smiles on our faces the whole time with only a few stressful points...
We would like to thank the following people for there help in preparing us for this trip.
Shane "Big Red" Gerrish from www.4x4store.com.au, a friend of ours who gave us good advice on things we might need and should prepare for, aswell as helping us fit out the Pajero with new driving lights and a dual battery system to keep us powered up all the time when we needed to run chargers for camera batterys, lighting and the laptop.
John "Oneputt" Daniels, a friend of ours who loaned us his roof cage for the trip, a very handy accessory for us to have. It enabled us to carry our chairs and table and empty jerry cans for fuel and water incase we decided to venture off the beaten track a bit. We'd also like to thank him for advice and information on the areas we would be visiting, John was a great help there!
Tony "Mangajack" Wood, a good mate of mine who built up a steel frame for us to fit into the back of the Pajero. It enabled us to fit a foam mattress inside to use as a bed and have storage space underneath where we kept 5 x 55 litre storage boxes with all our items needed including food, cooking gear, cutlery, tools and car needs, clothes and another for assorted items. We also had space to fit a 25 litre and a 15 litre water container, as well as a 25 litre esky for cold items. Next time we'll try and buy a small fridge and run it off our new dual battery system.
Also a big thank you to the members of Overlander Forum, without your help and advice, we would of had alot more hiccups during the trip, but you helped us make it run smoothly and we got to spend alot more time enjoying ourselves!
