Day 10 - Gayndah to Maroochydore

Just as we were coming into Gayndah we could see a very big river and bridge.

This is the Burnett River. 

You can see where the floods had been along the edge of the river. On the right hand side of the photo above you can see a water tower. 

The water tower on the right.

Me below the water tower.

This is me beside the water tower. The original one was beside it but was damaged in the floods so they had to put a new one in.

This is the top of the water tower. On it's left is the flood level guide, it only goes to 17 metres.

It had markers on it from 1893 and 1890. They were not as high as the flood in February.

This photo is from the flood. When I took the photo of the top of the water tower I was standing at the end of the building on the right. That is the museum with all machinery in it.

The building on the left is also the museum and Information Centre.

This is the big bridge from the first photo.

The water was very high and very hard to imagine. It must have been very scary for the town people, as there was no way out.

Gayndah is Queensland's oldest town. it was established in 1847.

Gayndah was meant to be the capital of Queensland but the river was not deep enough for the cargo ships to unload. 

The name Gayndah is from Aboriginal names meaning either 'thunder' or 'place of scrub'.

The town is also the centre of Queensland Citrus Growing.

The big orange.

A lot of the homes in this area are big Queenslanders.

We then headed off to Goomeri for brunch. They have a Pumpkin festival every year.

After that we went to Maroochydore to stay at my 'Great' Uncle Rods for a couple of days.

Day 9 Clermont to Gayndah

Today we had a sleep in and headed of to Emerald, a quick drive around then we where "on the road again", we stopped at a little top called Comet.

This was one of the many little towns along the way to Rockhampton.

When we left there we went to the Blackwater International Coal Centre. This has so much stuff to read and see.

This is a bucket off the dragline.

As in the machine in the picture below.

A little truck!

After stopping at Blackwater we left and turned off the highway to head south again.

A short stop at Eidsvold to have a look at the R.M.Williams Centre.

This Centre is in honour of R.M. Williams. It had information about his what he did and what continues to be done today.

As we were driving we noticed that floods had been through the area. There was a lot of roadworks and debris around.

After looking around we left for Gayndah for the night.

Day 8 Hughenden to Clermont

Last night there were a few very long trains come into Hughenden. They train drivers were moving them around and they made a lot of noise! So not much sleep, and it was only 4C overnight.
We were up early and packed up. We then left for Clermont.
We stopped at Charters Towers for a toilet stop, this town is very old and like Castlemaine and kept going to Clermont.
The landscape started to change from open areas to bush as we got closer to Charters Towers.
On the way we passed some of the trucks with the V8 Supercars in them heading to Townsville for the racing this weekend.

As we got closer to Clermont we could see some of the big coal mines in the distance.

This is Clermont Coal Mine.

We also passed alot of oversize trucks carrying machines and equipment to the mines.

Clermont was a lovely little town also celebrating it's 150th Birthday this year.

We stayed the night, it was very cold again.

Day 7 Hughenden - Richmond - Hughenden - Porcupine Gorge - Hughenden

Up early and we head off to Richmond to have a look at Kronosaurus Korner.

This is huge!

The Kronosaurus was discovered at the Marathon Station just out of Richmond by the owners.

They were out looking for cattle and one of the owners went to the creek to have a look, as he walked down the riverbank he saw what he thought was a tip of skull from a cow.  

So he kicked it! and realised there was a lot more under the earth. He came back later that day with his brother and a shovel and started to have a dig around. It was only when more of the snout of this Kronosaurus was uncovered that they thought they had better get people in to check it out.

So now in the museum is the actual skeleton. The best preserved one in the world.

It is very long and interesting to see its skeleton.

There are so many fossils to see that have been found in the Richmond, Hughenden area it took a long time to see all of them. You could also watch a palaeontologist at work. (they work with fossils and dinosaur stuff). If I put on all the photos I have taken you wouldn't have to go and look yourself.

After this we headed back to Hughenden and had a look in the Flinders Centre.

And this is inside!

Muttaburrasaurus

After we looked at more fossils and the History of Hughenden, (They are celebrating the 150th of the town this year) we walked around town and had a look.

This is how water was bought to the surface after boring into the Great Artesian Basin.

These are made from old car and truck parts.

After this we headed 67km out of town to look at Australia's Grand Canyon.

Procupine Gorge.

On our way we noticed Points of Interest signs, on the way back we stopped at them.

The Pyramid

It's a long way down!

We then drove to the Lookout. 

I thought this lookout was much better.

When we were leaving there were about 23 Black Cockatoos, they flew very low over us.

After we left we stopped at the Point of Interests on the way back to Hughenden.

This is the Whistling Bore. When you put your head closer you can hear what sounds like a kettle simmering away then a whistle starts and stops.

This is an unmarked grave

This is Bottle Tree lookout. This is a Bottle Tree.

The view from Bottle Tree Lookout.

Eaglehawk Gorge Lookout.

Everywhere we went there was Brahman cattle grazing on the side of the roads. A lot of the properties up here are so big they don't have fences on the side of the roads but have one fence with a cattle grid stopping the cattle crossing into the next paddock. 

After this it was nearly dark and went back to the camp to have dinner.