2024

Barcaldine Barcaldine is situated on the junction of the Capricorn and Landsborough Highways and is known as the Garden City of the West. It is a springboard to visit regions as a base from which to explore central west Queensland. Barcaldine is home to the Tree of Knowledge, the reputed birthplace of the labour movement …

Charlieville-Rock Pool Back in familiar territory, having stayed here previously. Beautiful Queensland town. Well known for Bilby’s, Cosmos Centre, Rodeos, and secret US base during WWII.                                                               Floods are ever present in outback Australia, below is the high water mark in 1990 on this building.                                       Charlieville’s oldest tree, Moreton Bay Ash.    …

The road north towards Bourke. A quick stop at Mt Hope. (nice free camp by the pub)   Cobar has a great history from the 1870’s for Europeans, but many thousands of years for our indigenous people. This was a permanent waterhole, known as the Kubbur Waterhole, between rivers in this very dry country. Cobar …

Finally hit the road north for some sun. We had intended to leave a month earlier. We applied for our pension 12 months ago, and endless back and forth with Services Australia, and having to re-apply after our initial rejection, we were finally give the thumbs up at the end of June. Oh joy of …

Back in November last year at Eddie’s 70th birthday celebration, a group of St Elizabeth’s parishioners and primary school  parents forged a friendship that is growing stronger today. Many of us have caravans and some have been traveling our wide brown land for many years in a variety of vans. As the night unfolded, we …

  Made tracks for the final leg back home. First stop for a break is Holbrook. Formerly known as Germantown, after a German immigrant became the first publican during the 1850’s. During WWl, the town was deemed unpatriotic, and was re-named Holbrook, after Norman Holbrook, a decorated submarine captain and VC winner. Now bypassed, it …

Leaving Gosford, we quickly link up to the Newcastle Expressway. Nice traveling on multi-lane roads, very easy  and driving is more relaxing, especially on busy routes. This motorway enables us to bypass Sydney’s busy suburbs. This is the first time we have used the new tunnel which enables us to link up with all the …

After a lovely few days in Tamworth, time to hit the road 0n our way to Gosford. My brother Tim, who also has a van, has lived hear for many years since his retirement after a working lifetime in the RAAF. Stopped at Lake Liddell for a snack, which is just south of Muswellbrook. Big …

We really enjoyed our time in this part of the Northern Tablelands. Head south towards Tamworth, via Uralla, a small town with characteristic buildings, early settlement history from the 1840’s, discovery of gold and the infamous bushranger Captain Thunderbolt. Other towns are Bendemeer, before a steep descent from a 1000mtr to 400 mtrs in the …

From Tenterfield, we head south on the Northern Tablelands of NSW. The elevation along this section is 1000mtr plus above sea level. The first major town after leaving is Glenn Innes at a 1062 m, with a population of 6000. Original owners of theis region are the Ngarabal people. The region, Gindaaydjin, meaning “plenty of …