From Mundubbera it was 202ks to Biloela going through Eidsvold, Monto and Thangool – we have no idea how they get these names so that story will need to wait for another day. 

Along the journey Jo asked how we were off for fuel, I said OK as the Hilux tells you how the fuel consumption is going from the last fill, and using this and the trip meter it is pretty accurate to work out how much is left in the tank. Jo asked for the consumption rate and distance travelled. After doing the calculations she then asked how big is the tank – its 140 litres.  It was then I got the look from the passenger seat….I didn’t need to turn sideways to know the expression! We easily made it into Biloela and filled up. The pic shows that we were fine!

Biloela is another town with both businesses closed and others doing a roaring trade. After filling up and some lunch we kicked on to Moura with the hope of staying at the Apex Park on the other side of town – we pulled in and pulled out. The place was packed with the travellers who look really settled in for 72 days rather than the 72 hours as it should be. Our overnight stop was at the back of the Bauhinia Road House, $20 got a powered site (with one other caravan) clean facilities and free use of the laundry. The next day was huge , getting into Rolleston after travelling the 76ks to get there.

We were too early for the caravan park so we waited around before getting a site before lunch. Its a nice park for out here but for some weird reason and even though we staying for 3 nights, us and another couple of vans were put out the back, in small sites, while others were centred around the camp kitchen and amenities. A stroll to the pub to check the menu saw us strolling back after a quick drink – we get that times are tough but to expect tourists to stump up over $80 for 2 mains is a bit hard to take. You can see by the photo how busy the place was.

We spent Thursday (at least I thought it could be Thursday) heading into Carnarvon Gorge and although we had been before a fair while back it was good to have the reminder of how pleasant it is in the National Park. We did 3 of the easier walks around the park although we did chicken out  walking one of the creek crossings after hearing about a bloke slipping on the rocks and hurting himself. Even saw a platypus in one of the pools. Lunch on the way out was at the WW2 plane (Dakoda) wreck. The plane went down during a storm on its way from Darwin to Brisbane in 1943, there were no survivors from the crash.

Rolleston is next to the Comet River, so named because in 1845 Leichhardt was camped nest to the river  in this area, and on the first night here he saw a comet! The pub here was named the Planet Hotel, and the caravan park is on Meteor Street.

The next outing was to Blackwater, a town about 120 k’s to the north. Heading that way the scenery was fantastic but no photos for you as they don’t show how good it is. Not far out of town you pass Venus Downs, Sunlight Downs and Uranus Downs along with Comet Downs. Getting closer to Blackwater you pass a number of coal mines on both sides of the road, huge workings and infrastructure as we get towards the town. We had coffee at the Mining Centre and we hope they dig holes better than they make coffee, checked out the machinery, fueled up (check out the diner in the servo!), shopped at Woolies and lunch at Red Rooster – what a day out!

From Blackwater we drove the 30 k’s to the town of Comet passing the Minions on the way. Comet was originally around 1500 people and is now about 200. The town has setup a very good and simple way of showing you around the town with a mud map and QR codes for info. Mostly a railway town back in the day, today it relies on passing trade, the train passes through but doesn’t stop. Like all towns there is always something unusual, and while Leichardt had a dig tree (still there under cover) one of the more surprising things was the cemetery’s. The “old” cemetery is in the middle of town and looks like an empty house block – the graves remain but the headstones have been relocated to the “new” cemetery – we don’t know why. Related to that is of the 156 known deaths in the district, 52 of them occurred in 1878 – nobody knows why the large number in 1878 and perhaps even more sadly were the number of children in that year.

Stay tuned for the next one!