Meandering in the Great Dividing Range

26/08/2012

When we got up this morning we were still undecided whether to go north or south so we compromised and went west. Obviously we don’t want to venture too far away as we have to be back in Brisbane this time next week. So it was a case of more motorway driving to Ipswich, a city that is virtually linked to Brisbane by ribbon development. We continued on through Ipswich heading for the next big town of Toowoomba not quite getting there as I was fed up with motorways. My pathfinder navigator after studying the map decided we should head north to the small town of Esk as we had stayed there in 2009 but couldn’t remember a great deal about the place.
 Esk has an alpine feel about it as it is in a valley surrounded by mountains, no snow of course, but very pretty. Tomorrow we will have a good look around then make another plan!…… It’s great when you don’t know from one day to another where the hell you are going.

27/08/2012

Esk, as we thought is a nice country town, so why we didn’t explore it the last time we were here is a mystery. Like many outback towns it is basically one main street with shops, pubs and various businesses either side and houses behind often with just one road in and out. Esk has one way in and two out ,( or the other way round if you want to be pedantic),anyway we chose the Crows Nest road thinking it would lead us up to a lookout on the mountain top….. It turned out to be another town! Our map reading skills haven’t improved.
 Just lately we have spent a lot of time criss-crossing the dividing range (up the mountain,  down the mountain!) and today we were at it again. On the way up, towards Crows Nest, there was a detour down to Lake Cressbrook where we were robbed of $2 -50 to park behind a boom gate. Still it was a lovely spot with no one else there. Over the hill we came across yet another lake called Perseverance Dam, again nobody here and it was free parking.
  Down off the range and we still hadn’t decided where to stay for the night, but we had other priorities, meaning a trip into the big city of Toowoomba to find good old Dan Murphy, our essential supplies bordering on moderately serious.
  Toowoomba is a big place so we drove on after a pit stop at Dans onto the flat country of the Darling Downs. We have come as far as Warwick, a fairly large town that looks like a good base for a couple of days.


28/08/2012

Warwick Queensland has absolutely no connection with Warwick England, we found out today. We were a bit surprised really, the place was actually named by a Scottish pioneer in 18 hundred and something, after a fictional character in a book he had read……… so there you are.
 It’s a very nice town with many fine well preserved buildings, I just wish they wouldn’t  plaster advertising boards on them. The splendid Town Hall had a banner draped all over it proclaiming ‘Mother and Baby Swap Week’ or some such rubbish.
 We walked a 2.5k trail along the side of the Condamine River which runs through the town, that was good as it was flat! Then we went to have a look at the Australian Rodeo Heritage Centre and learned more about rodeos making me even more desperate to see the real thing, one of these days we will be in the right place at the right time.
 Australian country towns are never ones to hold back on the bragging rights but sometimes it doesn’t quite hold true.
 Warwick is famous as the birthplace of world champion sheep shearer Jackie Howe, there is a statue of him here. Now just over 1000ks up the road at Blackall is a statue of world champion shearer Jackie Howe, born here umpteen years ago, I have the photos.
 If the Mayor of Warwick isn’t too busy swapping mothers and babies around at the Town Hall I might ask him to clarify the situation with our Jackie!