1 November 2016 - Texas to Goondiwindi

Today dawned sunny, with a cloudless sky.  Perfect for saying goodbye to Texas and heading to Goondiwindi via Yelarbon. Our hosts at the caravan park in Texas had been excellent. We had happy hour with them on our first night and then they cooked a bar-b-que last night.

We avoided the Bruxner Highway by heading north to Yelarbon.  On the way we came across Cunningham Weir, on the Dumaresque River.  The weir was at the point where the explorer, Allan Cunningham, crossed the river back in May, 1827.  Allan Cunningham was an English botanist and explorer, primarily known for his travels in Australia to collect plants. His discovery of the rich agricultural area of the Darling Downs and the gap leading to them, was of such importance in itself as to justify all his journeys. His botanic work has been honoured by the giving of his name to a number of Australian trees. We photographed the weir and its surrounds, and have included a video as well.

011116 That's us in the bush alongside the river

011116 A good spot for morning tea
before exploring the weir

011116 The plaque at the Cunningham Weir

011116 Closeup of the plaque

011116 Cunningham Weir downstream of the causeway

011116 Cunningham Weir upstream of the causeway

011116 Plenty of water flow

011116 The Cunningham Weir up close

011116 Queensland NSW border looking into NSW

011116 Queensland NSW border looking into Queensland

011116 The causeway over the Dumaresque River
at Cunningham Weir

Video of Cunningham Weir

                                     

We lunched at Yelarbon, another Queensland tidy town. It is a receiving centre for grain.  It was a beehive of activity as evidenced by the number of wheat carrying road-trains buzzing around.  We were lucky enough to see some harvesting close to the road.  

011116 Harvesting alongside the highway

The Cunningham Highway joins Yelarbon to Goondiwindi. There were wheat farms on both sides of the highway and the Dumaresque River was never too far away.

The Cunningham Highway is the main highway to Brisbane for trucks coming from the south along the Newell Highway.  In the time we were driving to Goondiwindi from Yelarbon we counted 20 cars and 25 articulated trucks, including road trains - busy, busy

We arrived in Goondiwindi in time to set up camp, have lunch and watch the Melbourne Cup.

011116 Lunch - nothing like choice

31 October 2016 - Texas and Surrounds

311016 Introduction to Texas

We awoke this morning to rain but by 10am the rain had ceased.  The cool morning turned quickly to warm so, off we toddled to take in Texas.

Texas is a small town, with a population of about 500.  It could be described as a tidy town. The streets are wide and jasmine, in full blossom, is growing down the centre of the the full length of the main street.  The town centre features a sculpture of a Phoenix Bird rising, symbolising Texas's recovery from the disastrous floods which devastated the area in 2011.

311016 Wide street in Texas near the caravan park

311016 Main Street in Texas looking east

311016 Main Street in Texas looking west

311016 The Phoenix sculpture symbolising Texas's rise
from the devastating floods of 2011

311016 Phoenix sculpture and plaque

311016 The Phoenix plaque

We searched valiantly for signs of the old town of Texas, without luck .  However, we did come across two old tobacco curing barns.  Tobacco was a highly prized crop and was grown extensively near Texas.

311016 Historic tobacco curing barns near Texas

The people of Texas USA provided pecan nut trees to Texas Queensland.  The Pecan is the state tree of Texas USA.  The trees are planted in a park near town.

311016 Plaque in Pecan Park

311016 Plaque and two of the three pecan nut
trees provided by Texas USA

Texas is on the Dumaresque River and we passed over it several times during our explorations.  It was flowing well, no doubt assisted by the overnight rain.

311016 Dumaresque River - downstream of the bridge

311016 Dumaresque River - upstream of the bridge

Our last target for today was Goat Rock, about 20km out of town.  It is a run down, farm camping spot but there were the compulsory granite rocks in abundance.  It took quite some imagination to work out why it was called Goat Rock. Balancing Rock was a little less demanding.  We were lucky enough to have one of the resident male peacocks spread its tail feathers for us, while its mate, another male, criticised our presence with his awful, moanful cry.

311016 Goat Rock

311016 Goat Rock and kid - a mini Bald Rock?

311016 Noel on Goat Rock - no further comments necessary

3131016 Balancing rock near Goat Rock

311016 A giant Prickly Pear tree near Goat Rock

311016 One member of the menagerie at Goat Rock

We were very taken with the number and size of silky oak trees in the area.  They are in full bloom.  Another large shrub, caught our eyes with its striking abundance of white blossoms.

311016 Silky Oak trees are plentiful around Texas

311016 Blossoms on a Silky Oak

311016 Nature's beauty in a Texas back yard

There really is not a lot to see in Texas of any substance, but we spent most of the day seeing it.

30 October 2016 - Stanthorpe to Texas

A beautiful day dawned to help us on our way to Texas, about 100km west of Stanthorpe.

We passed through kilometre after kilometre of undulating countryside with occasional steep climbs up and down rocky hills.  The road was excellent. 

The countryside looked in good condition although our hosts at the Texas Caravan Park bemoaned the fact they have not had any rain lately.  This is sheep and cattle country.

301016 The countryside near Texas

On the way, we deviated to visit the Glenlyon Dam.  Not a lot has changed since we last visited there in 2013.  It is a mecca for freshwater fishermen and there were plenty of vans and tents in the camping area.  The dam wall itself is quite sizeable.

301016 Glenlyon Dam - the 445 m long causeway

301016 Glenlyon Dam - downstream

301016 Glenlyon Dam - upstream

Silver was mined at mines near Texas, the Silverspur and Twin Hills mines. The former has not operated for many years although some of the tailings remain visible. It originally supported a town of 511 people in 1911 but there is no evidence of a town near the mine site now. The Twin Hills mine is not operating although it's owners are considering reopening it, subject to receiving the necessary approvals.  It has several serious environmental problems, particularly if the tailings dams overflow and heavy metal contaminants enter the Dumaresque River.

301016 Twin Hills silver mine

Texas is a delightful, small and well maintained country town - very country.  The name "Texas" was derived from the original farming property which was so named because the owners, the McDougall brothers, in 1840, had a tremendous battle with some interlopers who tried to take over the property.  It reminded them of the battle for Texas' independence, when Texas USA was at war with Mexico in 1836. 

 

29 October 2016 - Girraween National Park

Today we visited Girraween National Park but on the way were momentarily sidetracked by "Heavenly Chocolate".

291016 On the road to Girraween NP - yes we stopped

Girraween National Park is about 40 km south of Stanthorpe. It contains a number of granite rock features, typical of the area and not at all dissimilar to Bald Rock.

"The Pyramid" is the feature attraction but this looked to be even steeper than Bald Rock, so we opted to visit "Granite Arch" and take the walk along Bald Creek.  While we did not walk to or climb The Pyramid, it was visible along the walk and from the Ranger's Office. Only 7500 steps today for 5km and 13 floors according to the Fitbit.

 Our introduction to the park was in the form of some furry friends in the Ranger's Office.

291016 Echidna in the Ranger's Office at Girraween

291016 Platypus in the Ranger's Office at Girraween

291016 Wombat and Quoll in the Ranger's Office at Girraween

Our first rock structure of note was Granite Arch.  However there were many and varied unnamed structures, just huge granite rocks dotted haphazardly across the countryside and on each other, with Bald Rock Creek meandering across and through them.

291016 Girraween's "Granite Arch"

291016 Bald Rock Creek at the start of our Girraween walk

291016 Bald Rock Creek.  How could you fall in here?

291016 Typical of the rocks in the park

291016 Typical of the rocks in the park

291016 More rocks in the park

We were rained upon during our walk so we sheltered in a cozy pocket in some rocks.  The lightning and thunder were accompanied by some small hail. Over time, the water ran down the rocks and was about to wet us when the rain eased. Phew! How lucky can you be. 

291016 Rain and small hail bouncing off rocks

The luck in keeping dry, from Noel's position, was short lived because he slipped crossing Bald Rock Creek and, yes, fell in.

The highlight of the walk was the excitement generated in a number of children by a male kangaroo..... oh heck, the picture tells it all.  

291016 Is there no privacy?

During the walk we had excellent views of "The Pyramid" but from a distance.  We could just make out some hearty souls walking up the rock.

291016 Girraween's "The Pyramid"

There were many native flowers in bloom by the wayside, which will be included in our native flower blog in due course.

We managed to get back safely to the car, where we lunched, out of the occasional shower.

Our trip back to Stanthorpe was along one of the backroads and the runoff from the rain was visible across the fields and in several creek crossings as well.  We drove along the very beautiful Storm King Dam for about six kilometres.

291016 Water over the causeway on Pyramid Road

291016 Storm King Dam

The rain dampened our day a bit but we were happy with what we saw.  Maybe we will climb The Pyramid next time.