Toowoomba – Garden City of SE Queensland

Earlier this year we signed up to a house-sitting website and soon had a booking to house-sit for 2 weeks in Toowoomba.  It was nice to be able to spread out and relax in one place again.  Toowoomba is about 130kms south-east of Brisbane at the top of the Great Dividing Range and overlooks the Darling Downs –the fruit and vegetable bowl of southern Queensland.  We arrived from the south via Stanthorpe and Warwick.

Springtime is a great time to visit this city of about 120,000 population.  The nights were cool and the daytime temperatures varied from low 20sC to mid 30sC.  There’s plenty to see and we were kept busy exploring the area.

The spring weather brought out the best in Toowoomba’s gardens.  Jacarandas and silky oaks, a native grevillea, lined the streets with their purple and orange flowers.  By the time we left they were in full bloom all over the city.  The University of Southern Queensland has a well established Japanese garden on campus.  We spent a pleasant morning wandering through the Ju Raku En Japanese Garden. There are some 3kms of paths and walkways in the 5 hectares of the landscaped garden with a central lake, streams, bridges, sculptures and beautiful plants and flowers.

The State Rose Garden in Newtown Park was a hive of activity at the end of October as the Friends of the State Rose Garden had a fundraising afternoon tea to celebrate their 10^th anniversary.  The State Rose Garden was opened on 25^th November 2001 and there is a new Heritage Garden with many old-fashioned roses.  The roses were all in flower and we walked along the paths and under rose covered arches after our Devonshire teas.

There are several museums in Toowoomba and we visited the Cobb & Co Museum.  This well presented museum tells the story of the Cobb & Co coaches which provided mail and passenger services throughout eastern Australia in the 19^th century.  The museum also houses the National Carriage Collection with some 50 horse-drawn vehicles including an omnibus (women were not permitter to ride on top), cab, ambulance, fire cart, wool wagon and personal and family carts.  As we walked through the museum we opened cases and boxes which each told a story about life in the horse drawn era.

There were plenty of activities on while we were in Toowoomba and many vantage points to enjoy the scenery.  We had hoped to attend an outdoor performance of Shakespeare’s Richard III in the park at the University but unfortunately the weather intervened and we decided not to attend in the rain.  The following day we drove to nearby Helidon, about 25km east of Toowoomba on the Warrego Highway.  The Celtic Festival of Queensland was in full swing when we arrived and we joined in the fun to listen to Celtic highland and lowland pipe music and watch Scottish dancing.  The main street of Helidon was closed to traffic and there were plenty of stalls selling Celtic collectables and crafts.  At one end there was a medieval village set up with sword fighting re-enactments and shield making activities for children.  Another happy day spent soaking up the local atmosphere.

About 30kms west of Toowoomba is the town of Oakey where there is an Army Flying Museum attached to the ADF base.  We drove through the rolling Darling Downs and turned off the highway to Oakey and proceeded through to the Museum.  This is a great little museum with many replica and renovated planes and helicopters.  We saw several training aircraft including a 1914 Bristol Boxkite, WWI Bleriot and Winjeel trainer.  We now know where the second Red Baron aircraft emblem is kept, having seen one at the Air Museum in Blenheim NZ when we were there in April. There were planes flown in WWI, WWII and Vietnam, with a good display of various helicopters including a Huey, Chinook and Blackhawk.  As well as the various aircraft there was a well done interpretive section with photographs and memorabilia.  Another day well spent.