2020 Travels

In to Victoria…

On our way to spend time with friends near Melbourne, we stayed at Korumburra. Their information centre is a hub for community activities e.g. Halloween and literary festivals so lots of local families also use the centre. It is located within the Coal Creek ‘living history museum’ – great to wander around the old buildings and see the influence of the historic coal industry – now superseded by the dairy industry.

We also rode on the Bush Tramway which has been restored, maintained and operated by local volunteers.

Staff from the centre suggested that we drive south to Cape Liptrap and then across to ‘the Prom’ (Wilsons Promotory) to see the many accessible beautiful bays and beaches. All are very popular with families wanting to go bush in the school holidays with a range of accommodation and camping options.

We especially liked walking down into Whisky Bay along the creek which opens out into a lovely sheltered beach with spectacular coloured orange rocks, apparently caused by algae.

We visited Phillip Island, home of the Australian Grand Prix (yep, it was very noisy that day!) and to the National Vietnam Veterans museum. This is described as “an independent Australian museum dedicated to the heritage and legacy of Vietnam veterans”. We spent several hours there and can only praise the achievements of all the volunteers – brilliant. Work continues here to restore more relics for future displays.

Next we will be visiting friends in the Mornington Peninsula and Geelong regions near Melbourne, the capital of Victoria…

Back to the coast…

From Canberra we headed back to the east coast to Batemans Bay in the Eurobodalla region. We stayed in the Big 4 park on the northern edge of the Clyde River where it opens to the Tasman Sea – delightful. The town is on the other side of the river and boasts great seafood. There are several lovely beaches as you drive around the coast – lots of swimming, surfing and fishing – and many national parks to explore.

Visiting the nearby botanic gardens reminded us of the power of volunteers yet again! The original gardens were destroyed by a massive fire in 1994 so the past 20 years has been spent completely rebuilding the beautiful gardens. Such a peaceful place with a sensory garden and a bird hide. We still managed to upset two masked lapwings protecting their nest and got ‘swooped’ – just like magpies! Although we didn’t indulge ourselves the Chef’s Cap Café looked like a great spot for lunch or afternoon tea.

On our way south we bought ‘just out of the oven’ date scones from the delightful village of Mogo to share with friends in Rosedale. There are just so many great coastal places to live in this region and they all seem to have good facilities for their residents.

Meandered slowly south through Moruya and Narooma to the historic town of Central Tilba to wander through galleries and beautiful art and jewellery shops such as Reva at Tilba – yes, we succumbed a little! Then we chose some 3 year old vintage cheddar from the ABC cheese factory and fresh bread from the bakery for a picnic lunch en route to Merimbula on the Sapphire Coast. This was a fun place to stay, even though the weather was windy and wet for most of our 3 days there. We lucked in by having terrific caravan neighbours – thanks Dave & Margaret and Keith & Ann!

We got bad cabin fever one day so went exploring in the rain and found the nearby Wheelers shop and restaurant. Ginny’s dish combined her favourite 3 ingredients (smoked salmon, avocado, macadamias) and Ian’s local oysters were a big hit also as he could order 3 different styles – very civilised. It’s amazing how good food at a reasonable price can drive away the wet day blues!

Left Merimbula heading due south in wet and cold weather still, then crossed the border from NSW into Victoria and turned right so now we are officially “heading west” – we plan to be home in Perth for Christmas – just! Our destination was Lakes Entrance in East Gippsland, a popular spot for Melbournites seeking a cooler climate in summer and water sports galore.

Now, have you ever seen chainsaw sculptures? These came about as a good solution to a BIG problem! An avenue of Monterey Cypress trees was planted along the Esplanade as a tribute to local men who lost their lives in World War 1, but no-one realised just how huge these trees would grow and the damage they would cause. Oops. The hard decision was made to remove them down to stumps. Ugly. Then a bright spark suggested that perhaps chainsaw artist John Brady could transform them into sculptures of WW1 scenes. Brilliant!

We enjoyed exploring the nearby town of Metung and lunch at the local hotel – it has an interesting history from hosting the rich and famous to almost dereliction and back again! There are interesting shops and cafés, and a wide range of accommodation although interestingly there is no caravan park.

Gallery House in Nungurner is set in a beautiful native garden (lovely to see great clumps of kangaroo paws as we grow them in WA). This fine art gallery features local works from jewellery to oil paintings and much in between. A small painting of 3 men and a dog by Arthur Hamlyn intrigued us and reminded us of lovely Broome artist Helen Norton’s style.

Next stop will see us edging closer to Melbourne…

Australian War Memorial, Canberra and Bungendore

Our capital city of Canberra is located in the Australian Capital Territory and is completely surrounded by the state of New South Wales. That’s how we found ourselves 10 minutes from the city but staying at Queanbeyan caravan park in NSW! It reminded us of Washington DC in the USA, where we were surprised to hear that the locals there have no representation in parliament but still have to pay taxes…

One reason for our return visit to Canberra was to revisit the Australian War Memorial. A bonus was catching up with Ian’s army colleague Adrian Roberts at the lovely Southern Cross Yacht Club in Yarralumla, as well as our Perth friends Jude and Bob. Ian was able to give Bob an insider’s view of the Vietnam War displays at the museum, and had been anticipating viewing the new World War 1 dioramas. This is the period of history that he is most interested in (watch our for a future blog on his two trips to the Western Front and his hero Monash!) Unfortunately these displays will not be completed until 2015.

The Last Post Ceremony is held at 4.55 pm daily to honour the dead. We first experienced this concept at the Menin Gate in Ypres, Belgium where a very moving service is held every evening at 8 pm to honour the soldiers from the many countries who lost their lives on the Western Front. We weren’t sure what to expect in Canberra, but also found this an emotional experience.

Mobs of school children – all very well behaved – and clockwork precision proceeded for 25 minutes. Each day the story behind just one of the 100,000+ names on the Roll of Honour is told – such a great way to show the scale of death and the impact of war. Then the Ode of Remembrance is read:

“They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old;

Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.

At the going down of the sun and in the morning

We will remember them.”

And, joy of joys, a bugler who can bugle as no other then gives a beautiful rendition of ‘The Last Post’. Click here to see if you agree!

Ginny visited the Floriade, walking through this amazing and free ‘celebration of spring’. One million flowers come into bloom for four weeks each year in the Commonwealth Park, along with many gardening workshops and displays. Check out the photo gallery!

We fell in love with the Canton restaurant in Queanbeyan once we scored a table in this tiny restaurant specialising in Chinese/Malaysian cuisine. Everything we ordered on our first visit was superb (rocksalt and chilli squid was the standout dish), so a return visit was in order. Yum, fresh asparagus wok-fried with chicken and spicy plum sauce, plus lemongrass and chilli pork ribs with snow peas washed down with a BYO bottle of Oomoo Shiraz. Hmmm, I wonder if they will deliver takeaways to Perth?!

Bungendore is a historic country town (built in 1837) nestled in a pretty green valley about 30 minutes from Canberra. There are several cafes and galleries to browse but our favourite was the Wood Works Gallery, a magnificent display of Australian made wood furniture, craft and sculptures. Check out the famous Hannah cabinet – what a work of art – and these other two beautiful pieces below.

We think Canberra is an under-rated destination. In addition to the many outstanding attractions – for example our old Parliament House fairly echoes with history – there are many beautiful parks and gardens to relax in, and great food to be eaten! Go there, you won’t be sorry…. or better still, tell us about your favourite thing to do in Canberra?!

The Blue Mountains in spring

As Sydney is familiar to us both, we side-stepped this lovely city to head west to the Blue Mountains – and October was a great time to visit as spring had well and truly sprung!

We made our base at the Katoomba Falls caravan park which also has cabins, camping sites etc. A great location as the hop on/hop off Trolley Tour (cunningly disguised as a bus?!) stops here regularly and is good value at $25 each for 3 days. We checked out all 29 sites to decide on our favourite spots for photos, food and fun (our Nomad171 motto after all!)

The magic BLUE of the Blue Mountains has inspired many painters and photographers and the way in which the light changes in the late afternoon is especially beautiful. We enjoyed walking several trails in this area to view the iconic 3 Sisters and the Jamison Valley.

Local artist John Wilson captures these amazing landscapes beautifully in his oil paintings – visiting his Fine Art Gallery is a must.

Just walking the streets of Katoomba and neighbouring Leura was fun to experience the mixture of historical shops, new home and living ideas, terrific art and great food.

Visiting the Everglades Historic Home and Gardens was a happy trip back through the Art Deco era as this beautiful home was built in the 1930s and is now a National Trust building.

Next on the list was Scenic World which gives you 4 impressive ways to experience the vertical scenery – four in fact!

1. The Scenic Skyway – great views of Katoomba Falls, the Three Sisters, and the Jamison Valley

2. The Scenic Railway – the steepest passenger railway in the world with a 52 degree incline – a short but white knuckle experience!

3. The Scenic Walkway – a pretty 2.4km boardwalk

4. the Scenic Cableway down into the Jamison Valley and back up to the escarpment

Overall a great experience but make an early start to beat the crowds and get full value for your day trip. Then top it off with a drink at one of the 4 bars at the Carrington Hotel – originally opened in 1883 as a mountain retreat, and still going strong.

Just as an aside, we would like to thank the marvellous informants at the Information Centres around this country. We do our own research but it is always good to get a local perspective on the ‘top spots’, and the staff and volunteers always have interesting ideas on where to go next – and the map you need to get there!

Moving further south in New South Wales

Before leaving Queensland to travel south through New South Wales , we drove about 1.5 hours west through Nerang and on to Canungra. That gave Ian a few shivers down his spine as he recalled his jungle training there in preparation for Vietnam. Hard to believe it is 50 years since conscription was legislated, and his birth date was on one of the marbles pulled out of the ballot box – a life-changing moment for Ian and our many veteran friends. That was the fourth National Service scheme in Australia – will it ever happen again, we wonder?

Onwards to visit our friends Bob and Noreen in Beaudesert; a pleasant drive, and great to see them settled happily into their new home and Bob toiling away building a rock garden.

We also visited Byron Bay, famous for being hippy, happy and a bit alternative. It was all of that, and we enjoyed wandering the streets and having lunch on the beach alongside surfers, whale watchers and the many other tourists.

So it was decision-making time – what route would be best to get us to the Blue Mountains? Sounds simple BUT the difficult thing about our first caravanning visit to this coast is choosing where to stay! We have been to so many well located, beautiful places with friendly locals and services but we could return next year and stay in completely different locations and have just as good a time. Quite a novel experience for us as our less populated home state of WA often has long stretches between great spots to stay.

Our first choice was Evans Head. We completed our normal ‘settling in’ process in record time having spotted the local Illawong Hotel beer garden less than 50 metres away – a nice shady spot on a hot day!

It was school holidays here in New South Wales so lots of families were camping to enjoy the sun, surf and fishing. We planned a successful one day circuit following back roads up to Ballina for lunch and then west to Alstonville and south through Woodburn back to Evans Head. Overall this whole area was great to explore although we could have done without the marauding midges that attacked Ian and made life very miserable.

Next basecamp was Urunga on the Coffs Coast, where our favourite walk quickly became the boardwalk from the river right out to the sea.

We decided to brave Sunday in Coffs Harbour and it was frenetic but fun! The Sealy Lookout, about 8 kms past the Big Banana (don’t ask) explained their marketing slogan ‘where the mountains meet the sea’.

Headed down to the marina for a coffee. Considered trawling the hundreds of stalls at the local markets but decided we were a bit over them, so we walked across to Muttonbird Island to see the sanctuary developed to protect the shearwaters from their animal and human predators.

We had intended to eat fish and chips at the Fisherman’s Co-op but the queue was soooo long that we headed over to the Fishing Club where we had a late and very mediocre lunch (and still queued). That’ll teach us to change our minds! However the view was to die for, the sun was warm and the wine was cool so all was not lost.

Next stop was Tuncurry and the neighbouring town of Forster where our van park opened onto the beach. Great spot for following the foreshore to the rockpool and then walking back into town to pick up prawns fresh off the trawler for lunch!

Then it was down to the Central Coast, travelling through bushland and hills to The Entrance, famous for its many pelicans. Cool and windy, but we wandered along the beach happily and found the original swimming baths.

Next stop the Blue Mountains – Ian was last here when he was 16 and Ginny has never seen this beautiful region, so we’re excited!

Exploring the Gold Coast

We were fascinated to discover that the Gold Coast is the 6th biggest city in Australia, stretched out along 57 kms of coastline and hinterland, with a resident population of 535,000 and a mere 12 million visitors every year!

Our sightseeing started with a 30 minute drive up the beautiful beaches – special mentions for Coolongatta and Currumbin – to Broadwater, where Ginny’s cousin Alan manages Jubilee Views (reasonable priced, well located accommodation for anyone visiting). We therefore scored a personalised walking tour and lunch (thanks cuz!) of this lovely area with its great shopping, cafes, beaches and boulevards. Very impressive.

From there we simply walked one block to use “the G“, the recently installed light rail system which travels to 16 key places over a 13 km route and links in with all other public transport. We were keen to experience this mode of transport as both West Australian political parties promised a light rail system for Perth in our latest election to address the public transport nightmare.

Perth readers, please tell us if there has been progress on those promises?! It is so quick, so clean, so easy to use… and economical – 6 hours of hopping on and off countless times cost under $5. Of course the other side of the story is that it took years to build and caused several businesses to close due to land reclamation.

Surfers Paradise has a fun vibe; the beaches are spectacular and the surfing culture is justifiably famous. The malls are many and the shops immense, and of course they are gearing up for the Commonwealth Games in 2018 – we loved the 4 metre high surfboard clock counting down!

Robina Town Centre is the largest shopping complex on the Gold Coast – 350 shops at last count – and has free buses to and from other suburbs. We spent many happy hours meandering there and especially love our new best friends at the Apple Shop (yes, Ian has crossed to the dark side and bought a Mac Pro!) Also impressed with the free parking system which has a large LED sensor above each park to show if it is empty (Green) or taken (Red)… now isn’t that sensible?

So all in all, we found this region great fun even though we are not theme park addicts. The variety of them is astonishing, and they are obviously loved by the tourists so good on them for contributing to Queensland’s economy – they need it. You may like to also read fellow West Australian Amanda Kendle’s blog on her most recent trip to the Gold Coast – after beating up on it last year, she had a very different experience this year AND she won 500,000 frequent flyer points into the bargain! Only a little jealous…

The Gold Coast region

The Boyd Bay caravan park at Tweed Heads was a great base to meet up with friends and family around the Gold Coast region. This city straddles the 2 states of Queensland and New South Wales and 2 different local government areas which of course leads to some odd situations – not least when daylight saving kicks in. Our friends Doug and Bruce found a novel way to always know what the time is where by setting two clocks, one upstairs on Qld time and the downstairs one on NSW time!

There are LOTS AND LOTS of people in this region so we tried to balance some frenzied days of glitz and huge shopping centres out with some more gentle jaunts into the country. One day trip to the southwest started at Murwillumbah, a lovely country town and home to the Tweed Regional Gallery which includes the recently opened Margaret Olley Art Centre. An absolutely magic tribute! We particularly like the paintings where she repeated the same scene at different times of the day – such a beautiful way to show how light changes the way things look and feel.

The current exhibition is a recreation of the ‘Yellow Room‘, her favourite room in her Sydney home full of her treasures and nicknacks.

The display is so well done and includes many personal insights. We loved the story of photographer Greg Weight. He was helping Margaret prepare the catalogue for what was to be her final auction at the age of 92. Each day she would finalise several canvases until there was only one left and she told him “See you tomorrow at 2!” That never happened as she died the next morning. As a tribute, Greg prepared a marvellous series of commemorative photos entitled See you tomorrow at 2 including this one of the artist below.

Another popular feature was an interactive digital painting program to create your own artwork by mixing colours on the screen. Although we picked up some grumbles from locals about the increasing rates required to support the gallery, it really is a marvellous FREE drawcard and has several other permanent and temporary exhibitions. e.g. Deb Mostert‘s exhibition looks at how birds interact with manmade objects, especially those keen on ‘collecting’ like bower birds. It made us wonder about our own collection of ‘stuff’ and how we justify our own decorating habits! Plus the coffee and cake was A1 as well.

We continued our scenic drive out through Tyalgum and Chillingham to arrive at Tumbulgum, a village once famous for its cedar timber industry but which now appears to be Sugarcane Central.

They have a great tavern on the edge of the Tweed river – perfect for a late lunch – and wonderful fresh local vegetables, fruit and eggs. (No, we’re not fixated on food totally but the quality and prices here on the east coast so far have been exceptional)…

The Sunshine Coast & Brisbane area

Our base camp at Mooloolaba Beach Holiday Park was great for exploring the Sunshine Coast…. walking distance to excellent shops – loved Think Pinq! plus the beach, marina and the Surf Life Saving Club for sundowners or lunch with friends Shauna and Allan.

Two great day trips stand out; firstly our drive north along the coast to explore the many beautiful beaches. We stopped in Noosa Heads to window-shop along the pretty streets, listen to live jazz in the mall, drool over amazing restaurant menus and finally settled on a gelato – too much choice! We returned south via the inland route and visited some sadly disappointing tourist spots (think overpriced and underwhelming).

Another fun trip was travelling west into the Hinterland, a big change from the coastal sun and surf, and we could easily have spent a week exploring this beautiful region. First stop was the Maleny Botanic Gardens and Bird World for beautiful views of the Glasshouse Mountains. The gardens were delightful, the Devonshire tea was magnificent (truly amazing scones with proper teapot and all!) but our top pick was the tour of the aviary which only opened last year. Our guide managed to impart so much information; survival tips e.g. which bird would pinch your earrings or hearing aids! as well as the history and habits of each bird species.

Walking around the town of Maleny was a joy, especially when we discovered there were FOUR bookshops (we have been to many towns where there are none – so sad but apparently we are all buying our books online now?) The Pallet Life Gallery and Cafe was fun – our family is very fond of recycling pallets but there were lots of new ideas here, plus good coffee!

Our stay at Brisbane Holiday Village was perfectly located (5 minutes from the city!) for us to catch up with friends. Brisbane is a hilly city, so our first stop was the highest peak Mt Coot-tha to get our bearings. This is a great spot with a botanic garden, a planetarium and many walking and bike trails to explore, plus a cafe for those in need.

Ian was keen to get photos of koalas so off we went to the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary. We sometimes feel ambivalent about going to wildlife parks or zoos as some just don’t measure up – both for the animals and the people visiting. However this sanctuary is not at all glitzy with the animals definitely being the stars, along with many knowledgable staff. Plus there is a waiting list for volunteers to join up (pretty rare these days!)

Of course the koalas were gorgeous, doing what they do best i.e. sleep and eat, and the one above really hammed it up for the camera – don’t you think he is grinning?!

The sanctuary rehabilitates all sorts of animals and birds that have been injured. Unfortunately many can’t return to the wild but here they play an important role in demonstrating their skills to us mere humans. This was very evident in the Birds of Prey display.

The black kite in particular thrilled us with his speedy (scary) flights through the audience.

It must be so rewarding for the staff to see amazing creatures like the sea eagle take to the sky again. Great to see so many families enjoying this place, with many using public transport or combining their visit with a daily launch trip on the Brisbane river.

Next stop… Tweed Heads to visit friends and explore the Gold Coast.

The beautiful Fraser Coast region…

After leaving Hervey Bay for the Fraser Coast region, we made our base at Standown Park, a tranquil van park half way between Tin Can Bay and Gympie. Pam and Rod Elkington have built a mini paradise here and enjoy welcoming veteran visitors along with many other caravanners. Their gardens, kitchen and shared areas are delightful, and sitting around a big fire each evening soon saw us finding new friends! So sad that it was only a short visit this time but we WILL be back.

A short distance away was Maryborough, a beautiful heritage town settled in 1847. As the biggest state port at that time, many 19th century immigrants first entered Australia here. The typical Queenslander homes here are stunning – some are heritage and some modern reinterpretations but all built on leafy streets …. just lovely. There is a huge convention centre and theatre so this town of about 22K people regularly hosts conferences.

Tin Can Bay is a small fishing port and popular tourist spot – so we were sorry to be too early for their annual September seafood festival! However our chat with the local newsagent and one of his lovely customers persuaded us that we must visit Rainbow Beach to see the ‘Carlo sandblow’. After walking through a forest track we found a beautiful white moonscape with dunes leading down to a cliff face with coloured sands below. Many families were expending lots of energy here – a great spot to run, jump, slide and make up your own fun. There were also many paragliders enjoying the strong winds!

Hervey Bay, Fraser Island and the magnificent humpback whales!

No wonder that Hervey Bay is such a popular tourist destination with the magnificent Fraser Island beckoning, and whale tours galore! We were quite amazed by the size of the city – for some reason we had been expecting a small coastal town. Our stay at the Fraser Coast caravan park in in the seaside suburb of Scarness, one street back from the esplanade was lined with lovely shops, cafes and hotels – a great base for exploring.

Fraser Island is simply amazing, an island completely made of sand but it grows beautiful variety of trees and plants! Apparently this happens because of mycorrhizal fungi that naturally occur in the sand and these release nutrients in a way that plants can absorb. We feel really privileged to have seen such a variety of landscapes and ecosystems in one place.

Only 4WD vehicles are allowed on the island and we enjoyed exploring the inland regions while most people seemed to descend on the beach in droves. One interesting site was the Maheno wreck, a steamer which operated on the trans-Tasman route in the early 1900s. Once decommissioned in 1935, it was sold for scrap to a Japanese company. En route, a freak cyclone in July separated it from the tow ship and it was grounded on the eastern coast of Fraser Island. It became a training base for Z force and an artillery target. Such a sad story but she still captures the imagination of more than 250 000 visitors each year!
Seeing a pod of the mighty humpback whales swim and frolic around us rated way up there on our Richter scale of amazing experiences. Freedom Whale Watch guaranteed that we would see whales in Platypus Bay and it was a brilliant showtime as they seemed to be just as interested in us as we were in them. We also now have a greater appreciation of the female humpback’s lot in life… a mere 15 days after giving birth to a gynormous calf, she is ready to conceive the next one so the males are pretty much courting her ALL THE TIME. This causes lots of angst and jostling ‘whale-style’ while mum and her calf just ‘keep on swimming’…