St George - Part 3

The first thing we did when we arrived in St George, after setting up at the caravan park, was to visit the Visitor Information Centre to book a tour.  This is something we were looking at doing last year that didn’t happen.  Until the day before the date, we were the only ones booked, so we really hoped it would go ahead. Fortunately, at the last minute, several people booked in and we had a nice group of twelve.

There are hardly any photos this time, as it wasn’t really the time or place, during the tour.

The tour was the “Cotton Vineyard Farm Tour”.  This would have been ideal a bit earlier in the year, while harvest was happening, but it was still really interesting.  Picking happens from April to early May.  Sadly, the day was wet, so we weren’t able to get out into the cropping paddocks, but they had a good alternative for us.

We were picked up at the caravan park by a small school bus, driven by Harry, who had grown up on his family’s vineyard, but now drives a school bus and does these tours.   He took us for a drive around town and along the river, giving us the local history and information.

We were then joined by Craig, who is a second generation cotton farmer, who told us all about it.

Once the irrigation scheme associated with Beardmore Dam was established in the early 1970s, there were ballots for properties.  Craig’s parents were one of the pioneering land holders.  After clearing the land they were deciding what crop to grow and settled on cotton.  The first years were difficult, learning as they went along.

Now, the cotton growing industry is extremely technical, making the most efficient use of water and other inputs.  The paddocks are 100 metres long and the land has a one metre fall over that space.  Where the water was released from the irrigation channel through water wheels it is now electronically controlled gates.  Craig’s son has developed a new system that is all automated.

As the weather was wet, we went to a farmer’s shed.  It was huge and inside was his collection of vintage tractors and cotton pickers, as well as the modern equivalent.  

The basic system hasn’t changed since the 1940s, but the current pickers are on steroids and very plush……

……. and worth about two million dollars.  The tractors they use are worth about one million dollars.  Big money.

After we had learned all about the cotton growing industry, we were taken to Riversands Vineyard.  Here they grow both table and wine grapes.  We were greeted with a cup of piping hot, delicious pumpkin soup, which was very welcome.  It had stopped raining, so we were able to have a short walk through the vineyard and learn about it all from the owner.

We were amazed at how labour intensive table grape growing is.  Much more so than wine grapes.  It makes you wonder how they make any money when you see the price we often buy them for in the supermarket.

Once we finished our walk it was time for some wine tasting.  There were 13 different wines to taste, followed by sandwiches and slice for lunch.  It turns out that the local doctor, back in 1862, was the first to grow grapes in St George.  He had a fairly poor success rate initially, but eventually established a small vineyard in what is the centre of town these days.

There was a quiz during the wine tasting and we won a bottle of Red Muscat for answering one of the questions.

Of course, we bought a couple of other bottles of wine as well.

Harry and Craig donate their time to run these tours and all profits go to local community groups.  We are so pleased that we went along.

And that was the end of our time in St George.  The next day we started to head south again.  

More soon.

St George Part 2

We packed as much as we could in our time at St George.  After visiting “The Unique Egg” we hopped in Frank Truck and drove 45kms out of town to the Nindigully Pub.  We drove in to have a look last year, but just kept going.  There was no way I was going to miss out on visiting this year.

Nindigully Pub is the oldest continually licensed hotel in Queensland, opening in 1864.

It really has some character.  

From all the hats hanging on the walls.

To the money pinned to the ceiling.

The dining room has plenty of character too.

Food wise, the pub is famous for its huge burgers.  You can order one that will feed 4-6 people.  The patty is 1.5kg and the bun is baked especially. You have to pre-order it and it costs $130.  As you can imagine, we didn’t have one.  Mick had a schnitzel and I had a wrap. Mick’s meal was so big that he couldn’t finish it and mine was a more manageable size.  We sat out in the beer garden in the sunshine.

We went for a wander outside.  The pub is located on the banks of the Moonie River.  You can camp there if you want.  

Opposite the pub there are two metal boomerangs.

It turns out that back in 1999 the movie “Paperback Hero” was filmed here.  This was Hugh Jackman’s first movie.  The plot is that Jack Willis (Hugh Jackman) is a truck driver who has written a romance novel, but used the pen name of Ruby Vale, the owner of the Boomerang Cafe, (who is engaged to the local vet), unbeknownst to her.  Jack convinces her to go along with the ruse and they head off to Sydney to publicise the book.  While there romance blooms, etc, etc. I had never heard of the movie, so once we returned home I found it on YouTube and sat and watched it.  It was a bit of light hearted fun.

The movie featured the pub renamed as the “Lucktown Hotel” as well as the “Boomerang Cafe”.  This building was built especially for the film and the boomerangs on display now were on the roof of the cafe.  The boomerangs ware refurbished in much brighter colours in 2019 to commemorate 20 years since the movie’s release.

Back in town, we had considered doing the sunset river cruise on the Balonne River like we did last year.  However, the weather was forecast to change, so we didn’t bother.  As it turned out, the afternoon turned cloudy, so it wouldn’t have been as impressive as last time, so a good choice.

More soon.

St George Part 1

We visited St George in May last year.  You can read my two posts here and here.  Sadly, while there we received the news that Mick’s mum had passed away and we had to cut our trip short.  We were determined to return to the area and continue having a look around.  I didn’t take as many photos of the town this time as the previous posts show a lot.

The first day that we were there was perfect weather for catching up on the washing.  After it was hung, we went for a drive to Beardmore Dam, upstream of St George.

Beardmore Dam was constructed from 1968 to 1972.  This new water storage enabled an irrigation scheme to be established, which in turn allowed the cotton industry to be born, as well as much other produce to be grown, such as grapes and carrots.

When we returned to town we then just had a nice walk around, covering much of the areas we visited last year.  

What we did visit, that we missed out on last time around, was “The Unique Egg”.  

This is an extraordinary exhibition in an unassuming shop front.  

It is a collection of hand carved emu eggs, created by Steve (“Stavros”) Margaritis.  Steve came out from Greece as a young man and had some wood carving skills, which he transferred to emu eggs.

You cannot gather the eggs from the wild, only from emu farms.

He had carved eggs with various geometric designs as well as series to commemorate various events or people.  He has even gifted an egg to Barack Obama when he was president.

The eggs have a hole cut in the bottom, so that they can sit on a small plinth with a light bulb inside the egg to illuminate it. Many have mirrors positioned behind them to show the back and enhance the effect.

Note the different shades in the circle in the above egg.  That has been created by digging deeper into the egg shell.  Such intricate work.  It must be so hard not to penetrate the shell.

Now his daughter is also carving incredible eggs.

It was rather wonderful to visit.

More soon.

Carnarvon Gorge to St George

Back to our travels once again.

After leaving Carnarvon Gorge we continued to head south.  It didn’t take long for the landscape to open up again, revealing wide open spaces.

The first town we came to was Injune.  This is only a small settlement but has a very good information centre with coffee shop and library.  I suppose this is because it is the main settlement heading north close to Carnarvon Gorge.  We partook of morning tea, as you do.

There was a small gallery space in the building as well with a nice display.

Outside we found a stunning sculpture of an eagle.

Behind the building was a museum, however it was closed when we were there.

Over the road an old building had been painted up like an old time shop.

From here there were no further settlements until we returned to Roma, where we had spent a few days on our way north.  As we had seen all we wanted to see there all we did was have some lunch and visit the supermarket to top up our groceries.

After Roma, for the first time this trip, we travelled on the same road we traversed on our way up, ending up in Surat. Remember we had lunch here on Mick’s birthday and had a good wander around.

This time we set up camp at the “Fisherman’s Park” on the banks of the Balonne River on the northern outskirts of town.  

It was a very popular spot and we were glad we arrived in the early afternoon and were able to nab a nice spot near the river.  

This is a donation camp with funds going to the local fishing club who use the money to restock the river with fingerlings.  A very worthy cause.

We just had a lazy afternoon at the camp and had to check out the bridge.  There is a pathway into town but we didn’t worry about going for a walk.

In the morning we went and had a look at the weir just downstream from town.

Then it was back on the road to St George.  We did encounter a large mob of cattle on the way.

Surprisingly, in amongst the cattle there was one sheep, a few horses, a donkey and a mule.  It looked like the working dogs were having a bit of a break.

When we reached St George this mural reminded us that we were in the heart of cotton country. We would spend a couple of days here, so more soon.