Back to the Bush

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.