Goondiwindi, Queensland

We left Tenterfield on Thursday and it was 2 degrees overnight. A bit of fog and a very light frost on the ground.
We arrived in Goondiwindi and it was 30 degrees, blazing sun and no wind.

We had an interesting trip. We stopped at Texas for an early lunch and had a walk down the main street. We will probably go back there in the future and stay for a few days. Lots of history and a very nice place. Real friendly locals, though no 10 gallon hats or big loud booming voices. No wait that is Texas in the US.

Wildflowers deep in the heart of Texas

Just about 20km after leaving Texas we came across a Winnebago stranded right in the middle of the road. My Good Samaritan Ray pulled over and stopped to see if he could help. Apparently the Winnie just stopped, no steering no nothing. Luckily there was quite good vision and other vehicles could see him and he had his hazards on. This problem had happened to him before and it cost $5000 to fix but apparently it is not right yet. They pulled into Texas but the mechanic there couldn't look at until the week after next so they decided to try for Goondiwindi but didn't make it. He had a little car on the back so his wife was driving that in to Goondiwindi to see if she could get a heavy tow truck to come back and get him. He said he was OK so we left him. If he had steering Ray would have come into town, unhitched us and gone back to tow him into town.

Next thing we come across a hand written sign on the road, HUMP. We were unsure if it was an instruction or a warning. About 500metres further on we realised it was a warning and we hit the hump. We were OK as we weren't travelling very fast.

Also along the side of the road, heaps of cotton which had spilled from vehicles. The birds would have no trouble up here looking for nest building material.

We arrived in Goondiwindi about 2pm and set up and relaxed in the nearest shade with a beer.

 It is very warm. Goondiwindi is built on the northern side of the Macintyre River. The Queensland/NSW border runs down the middle of the river.It is a lovely town with very wide streets and lots of trees.

The dam beside the caravan park

Sunset over the dam

Gunsynd, the Goondiwindi Grey, well known as the only horse to win at every track along the eastern seaboard was from Goondiwindi. A statue stands in the Apex park as a tribute to his amazing feats.

The tribute statue to Gunsynd

The old bridge over the Macintyre River which linked NSW and Queensland.

There is a beautiful Natural Heritage Water Park purpose built for all water sports including skiing and triathlons.

Old River Red Gum on the bank of the Natural Heritage Water Park

We met a lovely couple in the van next door John and Julie Birch and their dog Daffy. John is retired and only works part time and Julie is a nurse at Bilaluna Community in the Tanami desert. He is originally from Wyndham in WA and his mother is a full blood aboriginal and his father was a direct descendant of the Afghan traders from the Kimberley. He was an aboriginal liaison policeman in WA for 30 years and was involved in the Halls Creek riots in 1996. He has worked all over WA, the Kimberley, Kununurra, Halls Creek, Broome. They are a lovely couple and we will catch up again in Wyndham next year as he will be back there.
Then I saw another fellow in the park and I thought I recognised him so I asked him where he was from. It turned out he had worked at Boral Asphalt at Dubbo until 2 years ago when it closed. Steve Bruce was his name and he comes from Narromine and was on his way with his wife to 1770. A very small world.

The windmill in the caravan park

We are relaxing for a few days before heading out tomorrow to Nindigully to free camp along the river for a few days. If you want to know more about Nindigully, this is the link to the web site www.nindigully.com

Brunswick Heads then on to Tenterfield

Our remaining time at Brunswick Heads has been great. We had lovely weather every day. We had a couple of showers on the morning we were packing up to leave but still managed to get packed up dry.
Sue and Terry stayed until Sunday 25th August and the boys went fishing every day. They didn't do too good though but everyone else was in the same boat. There just weren't many legal size fish to be caught. They did catch another crab though even though it had thrown its nippers.

Terry and Ray fishing

Terry and Ray had crab for afternoon tea

There was a beautiful full moon on 21st August which looked great over the river

Full moon rising

Each afternoon we enjoyed afternoon refreshments sitting on the "poop deck", which is really the cement slab on top of the storm water pit

Ray, Maura, Sue and Terry

Terry, Ray, Maura and Sue on the poop deck

We enjoyed a flathead and bream lunch on the day before Sue and Terry left. It was a combination of all of the fish caught so at least we got one meal out of it.

Meagan(my niece) came down from Brisbane for lunch on the Tuesday. She brought some lovely salads and sour dough bread. Ray went and got some prawns and we had a veritable feast for lunch. Lee was there too so I got some photos of all of us together.

Maura, Ray, Lee and Meagan

Lee and Meagan

 

Visiting turtle

While she was there the turtle came for a visit so Meagan was able to get some good photos.

We have had a few great lunches out. A couple of meals at Billinudgel pub, lunch at Ocean Shores Country Club and lunch at Brunswick Hotel.

The view coming out the front door of Ocean Shores Country Club

We left Brunswick Heads for Tenterfield on Tuesday 3rd September, stopping at Drake Hotel for lunch on Lee's recommendation. Lovely meal and a great old pub with lots of historic paraphernalia on the walls from the days when Drake had a gold mine.

Arrived in Tenterfield about 2pm and it is quite a bit cooler on this side of the Great Dividing Range. It is supposed to get down to 2 degrees overnight. Thank God for the diesel heater.

Today we went for a drive up to Mount Mackenzie where you can see over the town of Tenterfield and also over the northern ranges.

Overlooking Tenterfield from Mount Mackenzie Lookout

Maura at Lookout

Ray at Lookout

 

Tenterfield is in the New England region of NSW at the intersection of the New England and Bruxner Highways. The town was gazetted in 1851 and gold was discovered nearby in Drake in 1858. The main industries are beef cattle breeding and superfine wool production.

Entertainer Peter Allen was born and raised in Tenterfield where he lived with his grandfather George Woolnough who was a saddler and owned the Tenterfield Saddlery, the subject of Allen's song "Tenterfield Saddler". Next we move on to Goondiwindi so see you next blog.