Goondiwindi to Theodore

My daughter Nadine let me know that Banjo Paterson wrote a poem on the town I passed the other day, “Come by Chance”, and the poem is worth a read.  You can read it at:  https://www.poetrylibrary.edu.au/poets/paterson-a-b-banjo/come-by-chance-0001046

On Saturday I set off from Yelarbon to go to Possum Park 20 Km north of Miles which is 250 KM inland from Noosa.  The camp is set in bushland but the camping area is bare gravel with no trees, but the outlook is OK.  I put the drone up in a howling gale and was able to take some photos between gusts.  Went the wind blew the drone would tip over a bit as the wind was too strong but it levelled out between gusts.  The camp was a RAAF ammunition store during WW2 servicing and airbase in Miles.  There are 30 bunkers around the camp and some have been turned into accommodation.

Camp at Possum Park

The owners of the park have bought TAA Viscount, which they plan to turn into accommodation.  When the park was an RAAF store a railway line that joined the line to Brisbane was laid and there are some railway cars retained in the park that are now accommodation.

TAA Viscount at Possum Park

Railway Car Accommodation at Possum Park

On the way here I visited Goondiwindi and the water tower art in the town.  It was a small water tower but the artwork was good.   There is no info available on the artist or the theme but it does look like the artwork is about the sun, land, water and water birds.

Goondiwindi Water Tank

Goondiwindi Water Tank

The next water tank I visited was at Wandoan on the way from Miles to Theodore.  Painted by members of the Wandoan Progress Association in the 1990s.  A member of the community Trish Rowen won a competition to decide the design, another local donated the paint, a real community effort.  They painted it at night using an overhead projector to project the image off a sheet of paper.  A local visited the painters and picked up the paper image to have a look and copped some abuse, but he did it again twice, the blistered paint had to be scraped off and repainted!  The tank still looks good but is faded.

Wandoan Water Tank

You can tell how much the art has faded on the truck and the flag.

Wandoan Water Tank West Side

I am staying a couple of nights in the Theodore showgrounds and tomorrow will visit Isla Gorge National Park.  Theodore is a small town on the Dawson river.  The map below shows my last five days travel to Theodore.

Journey Day 11 to Day 15

On Monday I visited Isla Gorge National Park.  It is one of the twenty five separate mountain ranges in Queensland that branch off the Great Dividing Range.  From Isla gorge the range extends to Robinson Gorge, Mt Moffat and Carnarvon Gorge.  The range is sandstone that was laid down under the sea in the Jurassic period 190 million years ago.  Uplifts and erosion have made the gorges.  In some places volcanic basalt caps the ranges.  Three creeks flow in the gorge eventually flowing into the Dawson River which rises in Carnarvon Gorge and flows into the Fitzroy river to the coast near Rockhampton.

The gorge looks just like Carnarvon gorge except you can only see it from the top, at Carnarvon you walk along the base of the gorge.  But the views are great and from the car park you look over towering sandstone cliffs that photos do not do justice.  There is a short walk to other viewing points but trees seem to be in the way at every turn.  I set up the camera and took a couple of panoramas.

Isla Gorge from the car park

Isla Gorge view from the walk

These are the views you see when you step out of your car.

Car Park View West

Car Park view East

While at Isla Gorge I had lunch, I made a wrap using a hamburger I cooked last night plus avocado, tomato, lettuce, cucumber, capsicum and dressing, it was yummy.  I sat on the other side of the table for lunch so I could enjoy the view you see in the photo.

Lunch at Isla Gorge

Tomorrow I am off to Carnia Gorge where Marg and I enjoyed a great stay twelve years ago, I may even have a campfire in her memory.