Submitted: Monday, Apr 21, 2008 at 17:26

Just a brief summary of our recent trip to Queensland follows. Price per litre of unleaded fuel included for recent prices between 5th and 21st April 2008.
We travelled from Hampstead Gardens in South Australia through Barmera (141.5cpl) to Mildura, Vic (144.9) where we watched sunset, then sunrise, over the Murray River. Then it was on to Balranald on the Murrumbidgee R in NSW (151.0) and the trees on the river were magnificent. We then lunched at Hay, en-route to West Wyalong where we refuelled (151.9), but passed other travellers who were stranded due to a lack of fuel. Apparently there are places in NSW (like Goolgowi, Rankin Springs, etc) who are not geared up for travellers on weekends. We camped at the beautiful Big $ caravan park at Forbes, then headed north through Dubbo (147.9) and Narrabri (149.9) before spending the night at Moree (very ordinary accommodation). We then travelled up the Newell Highway through Goondiwindi, Qld (took photos of the Gunsynd monument) and headed up the Leichardt Highway to Moonie (145.9), a welcome site at the intersection of the Moonie, Leichardt and Newell Highways before veering north east to Dalby. We then arrived at our destination Oakey (136.9 - how good it felt to get such cheap fuel!), a small town approximately 25kms west of Toowoomba, and the birth place of the racing legend Bernborough. Oakey has a full size bronze replica of Bernborough, with a facility that explains a bit about his history and then plays recordings of some of his awesome victories. The Bernborough Tavern, opposite the statue, was a very friendly venue, with good meals.

We holidayed in the area for a week, and really recommend a visit to the Bunya Mountains for travellers in the region. When it was time to leave, we refuelled at Toowoomba (136.9), but with the aid of a Woolies gold card we loaded 67 litres into the Pajero at $126.9cpl.

We travelled west through Dalby, Miles, Roma (142.9), Mitchell and Morven to Charleville (151.9), where we stayed in the TOP caravan park which vied with Forbes for our favourite stopover. We then travelled south through Cunnamulla (146.9) and took several photos of the Cunnamulla Fella, made famous by the late Slim Dusty. Our journey took us further south through Bourke (152.9) to Cobar (152.9) where we came across another excellent caravan park, on the Barrier Highway at the edge of town. Perhaps this ended up as our favourite stopover! We were amazed by the vegetation all the way from Oakey, through Charleville to Cobar, and could not believe the number of emus and goats we saw.

Then it was out of the Copper City and on to the Silver City. We refuelled at Emmdale (153.9), and while this was the dearest fuel for our holiday, it was also where we bought our best coffee. We passed through Wilcannia then had a stopover at Broken Hill (145.9). While in the "Hill" we sussed out the site of the ambush of the picnic train to Silverton by Turkish sympathisers during World War I and saw where the shoot-out between police and the ambushers took place at White Rocks on Schlapp Street, right on the outskirts of town. We also visited Mutawintji National Park, approximately 135kms north east of Broken Hill, and once again we were amazed by the number of goats we saw.

We headed home to Adelaide via Yunta (145.9), Terowie, Jamestown and Moonta (145.9).

While we saw some spectacular sights, we could not believe the poor quality of the bitumen roads in Queensland. The dirt track between Terowie and Jamestown was a better surface than the vast majority of the bitumen "tracks" offerred to tourists in Queensland. No wonder truckies are always on about the roads!!!

Tags: 4WD, Caravans, Fuel
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