Another Adventure Down South

Late last year I went on another adventure - this time I stayed in Brisbane a few days, joined my friend Sally in Toowoomba to drive down to Tasmania from Queensland, then I stayed another almost three weeks in Tassie.

From Queensland to Tasmania

When I left home in late October, I took a train down to Brisbane. I stayed there with my great-aunt for a few days and had a very enjoyable time visiting her and doing a bit of exploring in the city of Brisbane.

A view of Brisbane city and river from the 23rd floor of a building!

From Brisbane I took a coach over to Toowoomba, where I met up with Sally and we embarked on our journey. We drove from Toowoomba to Geelong over six days, sailing across the Bass Strait on the Spirit of Tasmania on the seventh night.

My travels from home in QLD through NSW and VIC to Tasmania

It was so much fun to see so many different kinds of landscapes as we drove - from the mountains around Toowoomba to rolling hills to the very flat plains in southern central NSW. I took quite a few photos even while Sally was driving - come with me to see a few photos from our travels!

• Day One - Toowoomba QLD to Wellington NSW

These birds are red-rumped parrots - they were at our camp on the first night. The males are brightly coloured while the females are more muted tones.

This male blue fairy wren is very cute!

• Day Two - Wellington NSW to Maude NSW

The sunrise was very beautiful!

There were sheep grazing in the paddock near our campsite....

We wanted to go to the Wellington caves in the morning, but even though we were there only a few minutes after they opened, they were already booked out! We looked in the little museum they had there instead - the Wellington caves and surrounding areas are rich in fossils.

This fossil is of a megafauna called a diprotodon. According to the scientists, it was the world's largest marsupial (look at the size of a wombat next to it!) that grazed on grass. Other examples of extinct Australian megafauna include the thylacine (Tasmanian "tiger"), the thylaceo (marsupial lion), and the procoptodon goliah (the largest-known short-faced kangaroo).

The greenish rolling hills in the area between Dubbo and Forbes were very lovely! I took this photo as we were driving.

After leaving Forbes and all the way to Hay the landscape changed to the very flat plains - just mile after mile of nothing but flat open land to look at (except for the occasional emu!).... Personally I prefer hills and mountains and trees - this is too exposed and open for me!

Even with the flat open mostly-treeless plains there are still trees along the river. This was our campsite for the second night - right next to the Murrumbidgee River near Maude!

• Day Three - Maude NSW to Cherrypool VIC

We drove west to Mildura to pick up some bulk sultanas, then further south to our campsite for the night at Cherrypool.

Mildura has lots of viticulture, growing grapes for wine, for table grapes, and for drying into sultanas, raisins or currants.

This vineyard was completely abandoned by the owner who went back to his home in China (according to the farmer next door), but had heaps of perfectly good, huge, sun-dried sultanas still on the vines!

We stopped by Lake Tyrrell, Victoria's largest salt lake (and Australia's largest inland seagull breeding ground), where they have been commercially harvesting and refining salt since 1896.

You can still see old parts of buildings and rusty pieces of machinery here from the early saltworks. In the 1980s the saltworks were moved around to the other side of the lake from where this photo was taken.

Our campsite at Cherrypool, next to the Glenelg River.

The moon was very beautiful!

• Day Four - Cherrypool VIC to Smythesdale VIC

We woke very early due to rain during the night and drove down to Portland. After exploring a little in that area, we headed northeast to Smythesdale - there was a very good campground there.

Early morning sunrise at Portland - very beautiful!

The town of Portland played a crucial role in rescuing survivors from the shipwreck of the steamer Admella in 1859. The Admella crashed into a cliff off the coast of South Australia that looks similar to this one at Cape Nelson. Help came from Portland and Adelaide to get survivors off the wreck.

The Cape Nelson lighthouse

A beautiful view overlooking Cape Nelson, near Portland

This is Mount Elephant, near Derrinallum - it was formed by a dormant volcano.

• Day Five - Exploring Smythesdale & Ballarat VIC

Smythesdale was a lovely little town, and Ballarat is also a very historic little city with lots of nice old architecture. We also visited the Eureka Centre - very fascinating, as I hadn't known much about the Eureka Stockade before that!

These gallows in Smythesdale are from the Ballarat Gaol. Thirteen people were executed on these gallows by hanging, the first in 1864 and the last in 1908. Did you know that the last legal execution by hanging in Australia happened in 1967? I hadn't realised it was so recent....

Ballarat has lots of well-kept old buildings like this one....

The original Eureka flag. It is kept in a dark environment to prevent it from spoiling and fading, which doesn't lend to very good photos.... The reason much of it is missing is because for many decades little pieces of it would be given to visiting dignitaries as a little souvenir of Australian history!

• Day Six - Sovereign Hill & Geelong VIC

I really wanted to go to Sovereign Hill, a living replica of a historic Australian town during the Gold Rush in the 1850s, as I'd been there when I was very young but didn't remember much of it. I also really love history, and that's what Sovereign Hill is all about, so it was a really fun experience!

The workers and volunteers at Sovereign Hill dress up in historical costumes. Unfortunately, visitors are not allowed to dress up like that!

The town nurse....

The general store was really fun to look around - and you can buy some products there too!

This brilliant invention that was actually used in eras gone by is where the expression "dead ringer" comes from!

In one of the workshops they were building wagons - here is the body of one that's just been painted with some kind of undercoat.

More wagon-making bits and pieces laying ready for assembly....

We left Sovereign Hill just on their closing time, then we drove down to Geelong where we boarded the Spirit of Tasmania ready for our 10pm departure. We had great fun exploring the ship before settling down for the night!

• Day Seven: Arrival in Devonport TAS

Finally after a very calm voyage across the Bass Strait, we arrived in Devonport, where it was very wet and drizzly!

Look out for another blog post about my three weeks of travels in Tassie back in November!