Winter 2013
Part 11
Rockhampton to Kingaroy

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I NEVER expected to see FOG in Rockhampton.

One of our favourite free camp spots is Calliope. We seem to stop here almost every year but this year we didn't know how fast we could drive in and out of the camp. Look carefully on each side of the road.

Thats a tiny sailing boat.

Last year we found a shop selling this brand of ice cream at Childers, and it was unbelievably good. This year we spotted the factory where it is made and I nearly ran off the road trying to stop. We sat in the shop and had one serving, then bought some more to put in the caravan fridge.

Unfortunately something happened to the ones in the fridge a short time later.

We wanted to sit right there in front of the shop to eat the ice cream but the proprietor was a little worried about the traffic driving in and out.

So he quickly painted this sign and put it up beside us until we had finished.

One minute we had a clear blue sky. Then we realised that there was a massive fire front up ahead.

Ten kilometers later it turned out to be a field of sugar cane being burnt.

Another 50 kilometers or so south I saw this shop and my heart started to race - more ice cream.

Although it was advertised as "Italian ice cream", it was nowhere near as good as Mammino. 

Of course we did!

These massive wheat silos in Kingaroy caused me some embarassement. I jokingly said to the lady in the tourist info bureau, "just as well they aren't full of peanuts, the ones at the bottom would be squashed ha ha".

Kathryn replied "thats what we are famous for - peanuts - and thats what the silos are full of - peanuts". They started the building of them in 1928 and finished up with 99 silos, some round and some star-shaped. In total they can hold 13,000 tonnes of peanuts. In a good season Kingaroy processes 40,000 - 50,000 tonnes of peanuts.

How things have changed. This sign was once at the entrance to the maternity ward of the Kingaroy General Hospital. 

At first glance it looks like a rubbish tip. On closer inspection it turned out to be a collection of thousands of dolls that are to be auctioned tomorrow. The collector also collected model cars, old radios, tobaco tins, bottles, rocks, tools, farm implements and so many other things that it would be impossible to list them here. Unfortunately he passed away recently and for some reason his wife wants it all auctioned off - I can't imagine why!

The wreck of the "Buster" has been unearthed again on Woolgoolgas main beach by heavy seas and king tides. We saw the remains of the Buster on our last visit here in 2009. The ill-fated vessel washed up onto Woolgoolga Beach 119 years ago and was last uncovered three years ago. The 310-ton vessel, a 39-metre barquentine-1 was built in Nova Scotia, Canada in 1884. The Buster arrived at Woolgoolga from Sydney in February 1893 to load timber bound for New Zealand. The crew put down two anchors and ran a cable to a buoy near the former Woolgoolga Jetty. But when a storm from the south-east hit, the vessel's anchor cable snapped and its holding chains failed. The vessel then broke away from its mooring and eventually beached stern-first 200 metres down the beach just south of the Woolgoolga Lake mouth. Now thats tough titties! Roughly every three years the wreck is partially uncovered having been exposed previously in 2003, 2006 and 2009.

Yes kasi, you are right, I don't think I would want Lee to build a house for me. But, I dont know what goes through a womans mind - I probably never will.

Thanks for looking at my web pages. I hope something in them made you smile. Next year I may know more about writing web pages and maybe I'll get them to display correctly. I'll also get rid of the squeeky bird that Joe didn't like :-). The tracker and the map should be back too.

I'm nearly home and So I'll say cheerio now. I hope you come back here next year in May when we head for west Australia.

 allan.jeal(at)live(dot)com