We've arrived in Chinchilla just in time for the Chinchilla Melon Festival. We've set up camp near the picturesque Chinchilla Weir. The dam is full and there's water flowing over the spillway. The Condamine River has recently been in flood so there's water everywhere and the sandflies are thick on the ground. We can see where the floods have been with flood debris in the trees and picnic sheds and a black silty crust over the ground. The weather is cooler now and it's nice to be able to sit outside during the day and soak up the atmosphere.
Our communications are a bit dodgy here with intermittent WiFi and almost non-existent phone although we are only 10km from a fairly large town.
Roma is the major hub in the gas and oil mining area of southern Queensland. There's plenty to keep us busy for a few days and the Information Centre at the Big Rig has plenty of ideas. We picked up a town map with the highlights and set off for a drive around town. It's still quite hot so the air-conditioning in the car was welcome. We haven't needed to use the air con in the caravan for a while now.
We called into the Council building to see the 3D clay sculpture and listen to a narrative about the history and industry of the Maranoa as depicted in the sculpture. Another stop was the huge Southern Cross windmill - an Australian icon and then it was on to Roma's largest bottle tree, with a girth of 8.9m - that's one fat tree!
It was only mid-morning so we decided to drive to Mitchell, about 85km west, for lunch and to have a look around. Mitchell is still recovering from devastating floods in 2012 when the whole town was under water so most of the tourist attractions were closed or in need of love and attention. We did get to see the Kenniff Monument a few kms south of town. This marks the spot where the Kenniff Brothers, local bushrangers, were captured at Arrest Creek. There's also a monument there erected in memory of police who died throughout Australia fighting bushrangers. We had heard about the Kenniffs when we were at Cunamulla.
One of Roma's main attractions is The Big Rig which showcases the oil and gas industry of the area. Unfortunately the night-time sound and light show was "broken" and the "man from Brisbane" hadn't been out to fix it, so we could only walk around the day-time exhibits, many of which are interactive. We saw plenty of machinery and heard many stories about mining. There were some short films in the theatrette, one was a Santos recruitment film depicting life in the mining camps. Outside the complex is a statue to the miners and an old slab hut museum.
We've decided to head off to Chinchilla, about 240km east, where we will stay for a few days to experience the Melon Festival before making our way to the Sunshine Coast.
It's great to be back in the bush - although only for a few days. We pulled out of Capella and aimed south towards Roma via Emerald, Rolleston and Injune. Our plan is to take 2 days to get to Roma - not sure where we'll be camping.
We passed the impressive Mt Zamia and Virgin Rock, so named because it looked like a Madonna and Child - erosion has taken its toll so a degree of imagination is required. We stopped for lunch in the park at Rolleston, about 70 km south of Emerald.
This park was a little gem with a scar tree, memorial garden to the stockmen and women of the area from 1920s to 1960s with plaques listing their names, an old wattle and daub hut with some social history of the Bauhinia Shire and a "table" of tiles made by local school children and the potters group as a centenary project in 2001.
After Rolleston we skirted the eastern side of the Cararvon Gorge National Park. We've decided to save our visit for another time since the recent wet weather has affected the unsealed roads in the area. Our last visit there was in 1976 so we are keen to go back.
About an hour later we came upon a delightful camping spot some 65km north of Injune near Boxvale. This is a huge site with room for about 100 vans. There are no facilities but the sites are clear and flat and the Dawson River is nearby. We shared the site area with a couple of road trains. There was plenty to see around the site with an old drovers camp and some information about the area. A hollow log contained a message bottle where visitors have signed a piece of paper and put it in the bottle.
We walked around the site in the late afternoon, looking at the sunset and listening to the sulphur crested cockatoos jockeying for position in the trees. Eventually darkness fell and the bird noises were replaced by frogs. There wasn't much moonlight so the stars were brilliant white jewels in the black sky. These places are the reason we love the bush so much.
In the morning we proceeded south through Injune to Roma. Injune is definitely a mining town. We have heard that a mining company has bought out the caravan park there - perhaps that's why there is such a fantastic free camp site at Boxvale. We arrived in Roma at noon and booked into the Big Rig Caravan Park for 4 nights. Roma is a major centre of the Maranoa Region. It's on the junction of the Great Inland Way (an inland route from Sydney to Cairns) and the Warrego Highway (from Brisbane to Charleville and the Outback) so many road trains pass through. We'll need a few days to see the sights. Roma has a large number of bottle trees, one has a girth over 9m. There is a memorial avenue of 190 bottle trees with each one having a memorial plaque to a serviceman.
There are a number of walks around the town past historic buildings and through gardens and parkland. The Adungadoo Pathway took us along Bungil Creek to Shady Lagoon past river red gums and casuarinas.
On Friday morning we booked a bus trip to a local melon farm. A lot of seed producers from all over the world plant melons here and today was a Field Day. We sampled many different melons - honeydews, rock melons and watermelons (yes the yellow ones are watermelons) - all delicious. We also saw planting and harvesting machinery. We were able to talk to the seed producers/growers and got some tips on how to select the best melons at the markets.
The afternoon saw the festival really get off the ground. Growers wheeled in their melons for the Biggest Melon Competition. The winner weighed in at a massive 86kg, 1.5kg under the record of 87.5kg from a couple of years ago.
