Westward Ho....

 We waved goodbye to Broadwater Lake and its abundant birdlife and hit the Moonie Highway on our journey into south-west Queensland.  Along the way we saw patches of prickly pear in flower.  This pesky cactus seems to be mostly under control with only isolated patches of the plants.  We turned off the highway and stopped at Tara  after travelling about 80 km for morning tea.

Our next stop was Meandarra which is a small town with plenty to see.  We saw the statue of "Me and Darra" and then wandered next door to the Anzac Memorial Museum.  This museum was well worth the visit and is very professional in its presentations.

There are exhibits covering the army, navy and air force.  There's also a special display which is regularly changed.  It's currently an exhibit about some local members of the air force.










Our destination this day is Glenmorgan, another small town with plenty to see.  Our campsite was at the "End of the Line" which is the relocated old railway station building.  Both Meandarra and Glenmorgan are using their old railway buildings as tourist information centres.  Next to the campsite was a vintage car museum.  "Monty" has all manner of parts available for old cars.  He also has some very well restored cars on display.

 In the morning we drove the few kms to the Myall Creek Botanic Gardens.  This is a world reknown botanic gardens where the popular Robyn Gordon Grevillea was developed.  We drove the 4.5kms circular track and stopped off at some of the little walks along the way.  

The "Enchanted Walk" is marked by painted flagstones illustrating the various features of the gardens.  There are also a number of sculptures along the way.  
The "Thongophone" is a musical instrument played by hitting pipes with rubber thongs.  The large mural at the visitor centre was painted as a collaborative effort by 6 artists using the internet.

We hit the road and our next stop was Surat, 60 kms down the road.  This area is a now major centre for the nearby gas fields.  We were last in Surat in 1976.  We called into the  old Cobb & Co Changing Station to look at the museum which has some very good displays.  There are some great stories about life in this area with a series of exhibits about drilling and water management.  The main feature of the museum is a replica 14 person Cobb & Co coach.  Next door we saw a gallery of fabric art based on a nearby small town.

Once out of Surat we headed south to St George on the Balonne River.  We're into road train country now and we see plenty of these behemoths on the road.  St George has lovely riverside gardens and we easily spent a couple of hours looking at the sights.  The Pilots Memorial and the flood marker are at the gardens.  

One thing on our list here was a visit to The Unique Egg where we saw a display of carved and illuminated emu eggs. Well worth the visit.  Unfortunately the bush tucker garden and museum are suffering from flood damage sustained early in 2012 so we were't able to visit them.  The lady in the Information Centre was very helpful and suggested that we stop off at Bollon on our way west - we take her advice and our next stop is 100km west along the Balonne Highway.






Ballon is another small (pop 130) town with a great sense of community.  There is a good free camp area on the river with flat sites and plenty of good quality water.  It's starting to get hot now with temperatures well into the 30sC.  We have kangaroos coming to the river to drink and several bossy ducks hanging around the camp.  The yabby net we bought in Tara has been put to good use although we are mainly feeding very smart yabbies that eat the bait and escape from the net.  We have managed to catch one large yabby which was delicious with salad.  We have really good mobile and WiFi service here, although no TV which is satellite only.

We got up early on the 14th November to see the solar eclipse - partial here and total in the Cairns area.  Although the sky was clear we weren't able to see much apart from a significant drop in the light for a few minutes.  We  watched the actual eclipse on the internet from Cairns.  Later in the morning we called in to the Heritage Centre which has a big collection of memorabilia from the area.  We have booked into the Nullawokka Aboriginal Tour for the next morning.
At 8am Bill Speedy arrived at our caravan and we set off on a walk through the bush.  We really enjoyed this tour, hearing stories about aboriginal life in the area.  We passed several scar trees and saw plenty of kangaroo and snake tracks.  
We stopped off a traditional gunyah and saw a bowerbird's courting bower before walking back to town for a bush tucker morning tea prepared by Bill's wife, Judith.  Wattleseed coffee, saltbush scones, smoked kangaroo and emu pate were just some of the delicious treats we enjoyed.  This tour is highly recommended.  Bill has been the driving force behind the establishment of the paved riverside walk with its indigenous art panels.