South West and Central Queensland 2026

15,16 June – St George – Overnight in Boomi, the number of trucks passing by increased ten fold. From the odd one, we suddenly had a near continual stream of livestock trucks, road trains loaded with baled cotton, general freighters and grain carrying B-doubles. The noise didn’t worry us, but we were concerned that they would be on the road as we drove north to St George. Fortunately, they seemed to be on the Mungindi to Goondiwindi pathway, so we avoided them as we travelled north. This was a good thing, because for 36kms, the road was terrible, extremely bumpy, large potholes and on one lane in some places. Fortunately, we only met a couple of vehicles and we had room to get off the road. Eventually, we turned on to the Barwon Hwy, and things improved a lot.

Our route took us through cotton growing country, and it is on a big scale. There are vast black soil plains, mostly loaded up with plastic wrapped rolls of raw cotton. The ends of the rolls are open to the elements, so when they are transported by truck, the sides of the road become covered in little cotton balls. They are everywhere. The harvest was back in May, so now the fields are ploughed clean ready for the next sowing in September. Cotton demands large amounts of water, and huge irrigation ditches crisscross the country, feeding water down from the Balonne River in Qld.

St George is a very pretty town spread along a couple of streets and small housing developments. The industry is very much agriculture support. Most houses are typical “Queenslanders” built on stilts to manage the frequent flooding conditions. Jacarandas are a common street tree and for the first time, we feel as though we are actually moving to a warmer climate.

We booked into the River Gum Park on the river banks, a park that has some of the best Google Reviews we yet seen. No wonder, the manager greets every guest like a long lost brother. By evening, the place was full. We spent a couple of very relaxing days there, trying a bit of fishing. The area has a huge reputation as a fishing location, with Murray Cod and Yellowbelly being the main targets. However, those in the know say that fishing is poor when the water is muddy after big rains. Needless to say, the water was muddy. I caught nothing. There is a nearby vineyard, totally unexpected this far north and west. We managed to resist sampling.

17 June Warroo Bridge – 50kms north of St George is a free camp at the Warroo Bridge, where the Roma Southern Road crosses one of the many creeks and rivers flowing into the Beardmore Dam.  There are many beautiful campsite along the river, only just accessible now as the muddy conditions from recent rains slowly dry up. The many signs of major boggings in heavy black soil shows why it is not the place to be in rain.

Being camped right on the river bank, there was no excuse not to fish. However, nothing changed. I caught nothing.  The water looked fishy, there was plenty of fallen timber to give cover, I had the time, but still, same result.

18 June, Surat – Another short 70km drive north to the little town of Surat. Here, the local fisherman’s re-stocking cooperative runs a donation-based camp at the bridge over the river, with toilets, potable water and a dump point. It was well patronised, with a few dinghies in evidence, although the only fish I saw caught was a carp. One of the locals told me that things would pick up tomorrow, when the wind gets out of the east. He said, “Wind in east, fish are least.” Fishermen can come up with any excuse.

I mentioned to the local guy about seeing a large number of dead bony bream when camped at Warroo. He said they had come from Surat, there being thousands of stressed fish a couple of weeks back when the river flooded right up to the top of the bridge. The flood water is very low in oxygen and results in fish deaths.

The town was once a major staging post for Cobb and Co, and a wonderful free museum is set up in town. The coach was licenced for 14, and pulled by a team of 7 horses. Amazingly, the last run through Surat was in 1924. Boab trees are also a feature of Surat. They have obviously been planted, because they are not endemic to this area. Still, they seemed to be thriving. (I later found out they are native, but not a true boab like the ones in the Kimberley). Like much of the whole Balonne river area, Surat had horrific floods in 2010,11 and 12. We heard on a radio interview that much of the area is uninsurable, which means houses are unsaleable. I think it is time the Government went back into running an insurance company to service some of these towns.

19 – 22 June, Roma – With rain forecast, we decided to book into a caravan park for a few days, do the washing, get the car serviced and so on. We had been recommended the Roma Gun Club, a couple of kilometres out of town, with a comfortable caravan park at very cheap prices, and a bar and restaurant thrown in. We haven’t been booking ahead, with traffic quite light, but we lucked out at the Gun Club. It was all booked. The lady there suggested the Big Rig Park, so we back tracked. As we drove through town, we noticed that every motel had “No Vacancy” signs up. We managed one of three sites left at the Big Rig and found out was due to “The Rugy Races” a festival that combines Rugby Union with Horse Racing. We have no interest in either sport.

We set up, and with the rain still holding off, walked across the road to the Information Centre and beyond to the “Sculptures in the Park” exhibition, and amazing display of sculptures, mostly created from metal junk, covering a wide range of Aussie topics. The skill and artistry on display was staggering, even better than Cottesloe’s “Sculptures by the Sea.” This was a true highlight, and all free. My personal favourite was a huge goanna, but there were almost too many “wow factor” pieces to make a choice.

By the time we had done the shopping at Woolworths, the rain had started, which kept us in for the afternoon. What else was there but to have a kip?

Our time in Roma was entertaining, often watching the comings and goings of all the young people who had descended on the town for the Rugby Races. There are lots of 4WD utes around bearing P Plates and cowboy hats and boots are very much the fashion statement. Quite a few young groups were housed in swags, pup-tents and maybe a gazebo. We had to laugh at one group of girls who had a cabin opposite us. They spent over half an hour adjusting details and taking selfies, followed by more adjustment and more selfies. What do they do with all these photos of themselves?

We are within walking distance of the main shopping areas so we took a walk down the street. The main street is lined with “bottle trees”, a local species that look almost exactly the same as the Boabs of the Kimberley area, but are a separate species altogether. Along with the beautiful “Queenslander” houses and the lush green lawns, the bottle trees made for a very pretty town.

On Sunday morning, a miniature railway runs in the park across the road from us, running a 1.5km ride across the river and around the reserve. It was a beautiful morning, fine and warm, so the park was full, with two kiddies birthday parties running and the trains running. It was a very heart warming scene.

We also inspected an old slab hut, built in the early 1900s. It was made fronm a frame and walls of Australian Cedar hand cut with an adze. The cedar is termite proof and so the building survived the rigours of the bush to be relocated in Roma in 1980. The family had nine children, although where they all slept is a mystery, with only one bedroom in evidence.

We got the car serviced, thankfully with no major nasty surprises, giving us a good clear run for the rest of Queensland.

23,24 June Carnarvon Gorge – I have always wanted to visit the iconic Carnarvon Gorge and National Park because of the spectacular photographs that have been published. It managed to live up to the hype.

Camping in the National Park itself is only permitted during school holiday periods, but there is an excellent caravan and camping area right on the edge of the national park. As soon as we drove in, across a flowing crystal clear creek, we found the place enchanting. The camp ground is huge, yet still packed out. There are a lot of activities for children scattered around, a nice bar and café, and a very basic little shop at reception. The camp kitchen and communal areas are excellent, the first time we have seen gas fired pizza ovens supplied.

Over the two days, we took three different walks, none too strenuous. The main gorge walk is a bit beyond us, at over 20km, but the shorter walks were sufficient to appreciate the beauty of the gorge. The gorge walls are sandstone, towering high above the creeks that have carved them out. At times, it is hard to make out the walls, so thick is the tree canopy. There are massive towering Sydney Blue Gums and lots of livingstonia palms and cycads. The creeks are very clear and flowing well, despite the otherwise dry conditions in the surrounding countryside. This area is one of the few parts of Queensland to have experienced a dry autumn.

Within the camp grounds, the creek is home to a few platypus, but we failed to spot one. It remains on our list of unsighted native wildlife, along with cassowaries and lyrebirds. There are quite a few kangaroos and wallabies around, the wallaby being the pretty faced wallaby with a beautifully marked face and a tail longer than the rest of its body. They have no fear of humans at all and hardly move as you walk by.

The reputation of Carnarvon Gorge is well deserved and is a must visit for people in the area.

25 June, Springsure – With reluctance, we left Carnarvon Gorge. It would have been easy to stay on although the sore legs probably needed a rest from the hiking. We drove on north, across some really terrible roads. If this is an “A” road, I’d hate to see the “C” roads. We have gotten pretty good at securing everything in the van by now but we still get surprises after roads like this. We stopped at the little town of Rolleston to refuel, and found a lovely coffee van set in a beautiful park. Caravans were crowded around, so the owner was doing well, with good reason because the coffee and apple cake were both excellent.

The road skirts the western edge of the Great Divide, and occasionally crossing a spur of the ranges, meaning a climb and a winding road down. It also means that there is no shortage of interesting scenery. .

We reached Springsure, and settled at a free camp spot 3kms north called the Virgin Rock. Here, a huge rock outcrop on the escarpment has a natural grotto containing a formation that has been likened to the Virgin Mary holding baby Jesus. We could see the likeness. At night, the rock is lit with some floodlights, producing a beautiful display

26 -27June, Sapphire – Queensland roads are really starting to get to us. It is not enjoyable to drive while being thrown around over the most appalling surfaces and peppering the highways with “Rough Surface” signs is hardly a fix. We even drove across a newly resurfaced road today that still tossed us all over the place. I will never complain about WA roads again.

We drove through Emerald, stopping to go to Woolworths. Emerald is quite a big place, and is a hub for vibrant agricultural and coal mining industries. It is the gateway to the gem field areas where precious stones are found in the creek beds in abundance. Howver, Emerald does not get its name from the green gem, but rather from the colour of the pasture in the rich ground surrounding the town. It certainly is rich, and we saw huge areas of hay crops, and sorghum for cattle feed.

Emerald marks the crossing of the Tropic of Capricorn, and the hope of warmer weather. Some rain was forecast, which we could handle, but the cold starts to the day have gone on a bit long.

The horrible road took us to the gem fields, through Anakie and then to Sapphire, where we booked in to the Blue Gem Caravan park for a couple of nights. It is hard to call Sapphire a town. It is really a scattered collection of shacks and sheds, with a few proper buildings and a public swimming pool. The layout is informal to say the least. Mounds of dirt are everywhere, marking a current or past gem mine. Wrecked caravans are almost more common than cars.

The most common business in the town seems to be gem cutting and gem sales, mostly sapphires, but also zircons, rubies and topaz. There are a lot of gem fossicking parks, where tourists buy a bag of gem bearing dirt, hire a series of sieves and sort through to find the stones of gem quality. For the casual tourist to go onto the land, even in one of the many public fossicking grounds, requires a licence and an accurate knowledge of what is available. Most opt to pay $20-$50 for a bag of dirt at a gem park, where the licence is not required.

We watched several families pour through their sieves, to be rewarded with some good sized dark blue sapphires. The guy camped next to us said that he sends his off to Thailand, where the average stone can be cut for around $10. It is good fun for the kids and fills in the day. At one gem park, they offered coffee, scones with jam and cream and a small bucket of dirt for $20. What a bargain. The gem shops have a huge array of cut gems, both set and unset. There are also fossils in abundance and  whole crates of pieces of petrified wood.

A mere five kilometres down the road is Rubyvale, another gem town. It seems to be better organised and even has a bit of a recognisable main street with a small supermarket.

28 June – Llanarth – Driving north from Sapphire through to rejoin the Gregory Development Road in Clermont, did not bring a better standard of road. In fact, we battled most of the day with truly terrible road surfaces, often being reduced to around 70km/hr to avoid being thrown around too much. Every time we stopped and entered the caravan, we found different things strewn around or broken. We lost a coffee mug, and a ceramic cup that had housed stationery.

We stopped for a break in Clermont, a small town which services both local coal mines and agriculture. We chose to stop at a park with a lagoon. The first thing we noticed was the smell. A couple of Port Jackson fig trees in the park were home to a huge colony of fruit bats. They are called little red fruit bats, but there was nothing “little” about them. According to the sign, they are migratory and due to leave around now. I have never seen so many in one place. The smell was appalling.

The terrible road continued beyond Clermont, occasionally giving relief for 20kms or so with a new road, before returning to the bone jarring surface. We passed through a roadhouse at Belyando Crossing, refuelling with no other options before Charters Towers. Then it was north for another 70kms or so to park up for the night in a gravel pit in the area called Llanarth, along with three other rigs.

29 June, ChartersTowers – In the morning, we heard strange noises outside, and a peek through the blinds revealed a herd of twenty cattle right outside our van, some rummaging through the remains on a campfire looking for goodness knows what. It wasn’t long before some noticed that we were looking at them and the herd galloped off into the bush. The good news was that we had our first morning without a heater on for many months. The tropical air is starting to work.

Once we were sure the surroundings were clear of cattle, we packed up and were on our way, across more bad roads, but some good roads too. It was an easy 135km run into Charters Towers.

We were last here with the kids in 1990 on a around Oz trip. One of the things that fascinated us was the incredible old-world charm of the main street, filled with beautiful buildings from the turn of the Nineteenth Century. One shop stood out in our memories, a drapery shop that had a central system of money collection. When you purchased something in the shop, the assistant would put the money into a little capsule and use a strong elastic device to propel it to the centre of the store on a wire. The money taker would put the change and receipt into the container and shoot it back down. It was wonderful to watch. Finding the drapery to see what it was now was a priority.

The shop proved easy to find. The outside was largely unchanged, all the signage advertising cloth, work clothes, woollens etc. The difference was, it was a K-Mart. Inside, the familiar parts of the old store were retained, except of course for the payment system. The rest was K-Mart. Oh well. Progress is progress.

Many of the other old buildings were empty. The cost of bringing them up to standard while under strict heritage laws is prohibitive. The town retains much of the charm we remembered, and is functional enough, but it must be a struggle. Not everything “old” is worth saving. It is still easy to see signs of what the town was as a bustling goldfields centre in 1890, with 27,000 people and the only city outside of a capital city to have its own stock exchange.

Charters Towers is still worth a visit. Back at the park, we took advantage of the fact that they provided a dedicated gas fired pizza oven in the camp kitchen. Christine prepared a couple of beauties and in a proper pizza oven, they were amazing.

Tomorrow, we head to the coast, to Townsville, mainly chasing a few caravan parts that have failed us. It marks the end of the Southern and Central Queensland part of our journey and the start of the Northern part.