Dear Friends and Family.
Ken reminded me of another camp site that I neglected to include. It was a place called "Duaringa" and we came on it by accident and surprisingly no one had yet told us about it. We turned off the main road at Duaringa to have afternoon tea and drove to where Ken thought would be a short stop parking area but it turned out to be a place where you could stay officially for 24 hours. At about 3.30pm there was already about 25 vans set up for the night so when we were told there was both water, free hot showers and BBQ vailable we decided to stay for the night. We spotted a tap that no one was using and pulled up beside it and within 15 minutes I had some washing on the go and we were sitting down to have our cuppa's. The showers were free but they asked for a gold coin donation for their upkeep and anyone and every one is happy to pay that.
Duaringa is the welcoming gateway to the Central Highlands and is the oldest township dating back to 1860. The park we stayed at has many fine examples of the Budgeroo or the Duaringa stringy bark tree
Yesterday was shopping day and so all of us except Sharon went into Emerald to do some shopping. Ricki picked up a lady who needed to go into Emerald for the night and she took her in and Barry, Ken and I went in in Barry's car. It's about 70klms to Emerald so it's not too far except for those times you get home and find you find you've missed something essential. Ken and I have to go in again today as we need to see a doctor from some new scripts. last night Sharon blew the lightbulb in her bedroom so as she had no spares we will pick up one for her today. There are a total of eighty residents in Willows and I gather that when something is needed urgently there's usually always someone going into town who are happy to help out.
Ken, Barry and Sharon have just walked down to the towns small dam. It's the water they use for watering garden's and what ever, not for drinking. The dogs George, Groovey Puppet and Squirts swim in it at least once a day and yesterday they put a few nets in to try and catch the red claw. So it will be interesting to see if they have caught anything.
Yesterday, when we were about to head into town Sharon told us of a place that she thought we might like to see. It has two names. One is Fairbairn Dam. The other name it goes by is Lake Maraboon which means 'Where the black ducks fly' in aboriginal. Fairbairn Dam is the name of the dam wall and the spillway. Whilst we didn't see them the huge expanse of water and surrounding bush is home to birds such as rainbow Lorrikeets, pelicans and black swans.
This enormous dam is said to be over three times the size of Sydney Harbour and like any volume of water it is an ideal spot for recreational sports. The building of this dam provided the Emerald shire with an ongoing water supply and created new industries such as cotton (the Emerald area produces over 25%of QLD's cotton), coal mining, vineyards and citrus orchards. The girls tell us that less than two years ago the Lake was almost empty and if it wasn't for the floods in 2007/ 2008 it would be now. It is an awesome Lake out in the middle of nowhere and the last thing you would expect to see this far west.
The photos tell their own story.
As I said today we are going back into Emerald and tomorrow we are going on a picnic to Bogantungan. In years gone by this little place had a population of 10,000 but now there is only three residents remaining. It's about half an hour from here heading west. Tell you more next time.
Time to go. Love to all.
Ken and Lyn
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