Outback Queensland Trip itinerary- feedback requested

I'm not really one for towns either to be honest- usually a quick stop in at the bakery/petrol station/etc does me okay and then it's onto the fun stuff!

I think we will be okay provided the roads have been graded and the weather is good. We are open to changing our plans along the way- need to be I think or it's just asking for trouble. We figure we can always go back to nice places again later on if we want to spend some more time there- I'm counting on around 35 years until I retire so time is on my side!

Thanks for your feedback- A couple of questions-

- How many hours would you recommend for Lark Quarry? It seems they have tours three times a day and I can't imagine we would spend more than a few hours there?
- Other than Matilda Centre, what are the highlights of Winton? In the current itinerary we have probably half a day free, but the only thing I really thought worthwhile in the town itself was the museum... please enlighten me!
- I think two days in Longreach is sufficient for the two museums and some grocery shopping and laundry if necessary- do you think it's worthwhile spending more time there?

I don't think the distances are excessive at all, but people have different touring styles I guess. We are limited for time off of work so need to find the balance between seeing what we want to see and having enough days off to relax/go walking as well.

Amy , each to their own and time frame , thing is out in the middle of Qld to really appreciate the areas time needs to be spent intereacting with some locals , You could shift the Matilda Centre to the Gold Coast and it would still be an attraction of note , but in Winton it has an atmosphere that cannot be replicated elsewhere , 2/3 hrs then a slow walk down the main street and into Searles emporium and then to Tattersalls pub for a soothing ale in the bar with the locals , dinner of the finest kind on the footpath , these things take time , same thing in Longreach , some people 'do' the hall of fame in 2 or so hrs , others spent 4/5 days and still wish for more time ; The Wellshot hotel at Illfracomb takes time , an hr or 2 just to see all the hats ,famous and not so famous adorning the walls and ceiling , history takes time ,,,, stop and smell the outback ,not just drive through it.

I would allow at least 2/3 hrs. at Lark Quarry
If time permits go to the end of the track in Bladnesburg to Scrammys Look Out, for the night, have a look where the creek flows over the drop off,
Lots of blue claws in the water holes.
Stop at the site of the shearers strike camp and then learn the rest of the history in Winton.
Understand the reason behind "Waltzing Matilda"
I have been to Winton 3 times now and still want to go back again.
Yeah you will have to buy a hat at Searles of course.
Illfracomb, that is another day gone.
Damn I will have to pass that way again.

All good advice, thanks :)

I second the sentiments of Winton, It is a charming town full of character!

Cheers

Brian

Remember to attend at LEAST one Bush Poet evening in Long Reach or Winton. They work by donation at the end of their hour plus (more like 2 hours) of absolute great entertainment.
Mobi

MobiCondo reminds me that I forgot to mention the poets. We were entertained at Winton Caravan Park by Milton Taylor. What an awesome talent. We were enthralled with his tales and yarns, from stories that moved us to near tears, to others that brought tears from laughter!

We bought his Duck Huntin' CD, and our two boys quickly adopted the language into their vocabulary. I could keep up with them for short amounts of time, but then it would do my head in and they'd lose me. Every now and then, we get our youngest to recite it for our entertainment...... always brings a laugh!

Definitely catch up with the bush poets!

Cheers

Brian

An example of Milton's work...... very clever!





Cheers

Brian

Glad you also enjoyed the works & presentations Brian.
We went to two of Miltons peresntations in Long Reach and three of Melanie Hall's presentation in Winton. Melanie had us in fits of laughter with such 'serious' stuff as why signle ladies are so trim. There was a 3rd poet in Barcladine which we missed due to ignorance.
I was NEVER a poet session fan until we heard these folks last year!
They are astute observers of human behavours and can take the mickey out of the best of us with a poem/story and then with the very next rendition have us in tears with the depth of emotions of our history & culture.
Will certainly attend more when we can!
Ian

You blokes have convinced me, I'll add a night of bush poetry to the itinerary. Looks like a good laugh!!!

Great advice, thanks very much :)

Thanks Enzo,

We have been tossing up between Salvator Rosa and Mt Moffatt! It's too hard to decide sometimes- I wish we had another two weeks off of work and then we could go to all of the places that we want to, especially on the Diamantina side (and maybe another two weeks on top of that to visit the Simpson too). Our bosses might need some convincing!

The days are okay for us- as long as we have a couple in there with which we can rest we generally feel fine. It helps that setting up camp takes all of two minutes... trying to get Troy out of bed is another matter ;)

We might have a chat to you about it at the next meeting- see you in a couple of weeks time.

Moose, Mt Moffat is better but is also a very long detour from the itinerary. I am not so sure about the close proximitary bit. Maybe only if your a crow not if you are driving.

How long do you think a drive from Blackall to Mt Moffatt might take.

Blackall to Moffatt will take a day from the looks of it, so we'd need to adjust the itinerary, but that's what this is all about- it's still in planning stages!

To be honest Amy, given you are spending a few days at Carnarvon I don't see the value in the extra day's drive to Mt Moffatt and the then longer trip to Carnarvon Gorge (unless there is a short cut open now)

I would invest that time at Blackdown Tableland.

It may well happen yet- will have to consult the other half when he arrives home!

It's funny I haven't heard much feedback about Salvator Rosa- from the internet recce I did before making the itinerary, it was the place that was raved about as being better than Carnarvon. Perhaps not...

Carnovorn: very touristy, only hiking to see things
Mt moffat we spent 3 days there and no where near enough. great bush camping spots. Long to get into hence it not being as popular but HEAPS better! Do not stay at dargonelly head for moffat tops.
Salvator rosa niceish worth an overnight look watch for the ticks near the river bank our toddlers found all of them!

Agree Carlin, Carnarvon George is touristy and it really wouldn't matter if you went there and stayed at a five star resort or in a swag at the caravan park. The gorge is mostly enjoyed by day trips in and out. I would compare this with Uluru. Even when the NP camp ground was open (has it been re-opened at all?) is was still really only a place to stay. I have been to the van park, the resort and the camp ground and at the end of the day did not matter because the walks through the gorge were what made this a magical place to visit and I for one have been back six times. The "camping experience" is not really a large part unless you are planning the hike and overnite camp within the gorge which I have not done.

Mt Moffat on the other hand is a place you can immerse yourself in the environment and is very much the camping experience. Blackdown and Mt Moffat are similar in that respect.

Thanks Trevor, I'll check out your blog. I didn't realise how popular Winton was- the Places entry on this site really does not do it justice from the sound of things!

You might be right about the way home, though we often put in a 900 km day when doing the Brisbane-Adelaide trek- it's actually not too bad if you're feeling well, but for safety's sake I wouldn't be against a stopover on the way home if either of us is a bit sleepy. Straight back to work the next day- no rest for the wicked! :)

G'day Brian,

We're both scientists and definitely into rocks and dinosaurs- I am really looking forward to that part of the trip! I really can't just wait to see the country, the landscapes, the vegetation and the rock formations- that gets me much more enthused than going to towns.

Good advice on the roos- like you, I'm not into driving at night. We're not leaving for another couple of months (end July) but will definitely report back on our return to regular life!

"Member - Amy G (QLD) posted:
>snipsnip<

Oh, you will love it out there then. I can't explain it, but there is a charm about the outback that people either "get" or don't "get". I don't believe it is something that is.... um... "quantifiable" (I may have made that word up... LOL)
Standing at Lark Quarry and listening to the ranger explaining what it all means, I could see, hear and almost smell the dinosaurs. Magical! But outside there is a short walk up to a viewing platform of the surrounding area and I could not stop looking at it. (The view, not the platform!) I found it mesmerizing!

Winton is a place that is in the top 3 of our "Places-To-See-Again" list!


Cheers

Brian

We may have similar blood Brian, I felt very similar to how you describe it at Lark Quarry. As you say Winton is a top spot with heaps of dinosaur heritage and plenty of "must sees". I am one of those people that do "get it" when it comes to how people feel when they talk of their love of the outback. Even starting to drag my work comittments further west with each opportunity. The pay may not be as good but the rewards of wide open space helps ease that a little for me.

Amy, the last day of 850km is not a problem in distance but the time it will take to get down off the tablelands will really add to the hours needed to drive these k's. Only 2 days on our Winton trip saw us driving at night but both these days had been planned like that and it is something I am very used to doing (hence the 6 spotlights on my rig). Even so, I come very close to knocking a big eastern grey into the next life on night one of our trip.....it would have changed the rest of the trip for us had I hit it that's for sure. The roos are big and plentiful out that way, we saw plenty during daylight hours at Welford NP and the run sth from Winton to Jundah and I expect you will too.

I hope you enjoy wherever you end up.
Trevor.

Thanks, we have looked into them but it's just too far for the amount of time we have off of work- we'll do another trip sometime in coming years, hopefully with a couple more weeks- we've looked at doing a combined Simpson/Channel Country loop for one trip, and are contemplating returning from NT via Mt Isa way on another. The main objective of this trip was to see Carnarvon (as you can see from the amount of time there), and Troy wanted to take me to Gemfest, but I was itching for some red dirt so we've added the jaunt west... we really need more time, more money and more leave to do it properly, so we'll put it aside for a couple of years until we're in a better position to spend more time on the road!

Excellent, thanks for your suggestions.

Everyone keeps telling me about the Roos out that way- are they that much more numerous than the rest of the country? I reckon saw more Roos in Deep Creek NP than I have in numerous drives from Adelaide to Brisbane on various routes. Troy has hit one before in the work Hilux but they drive into the night. Stupid IMO...

The Carnarvon sunrise sounds quite amazing- will definitely bring that up as an option. I like the idea of spending more time at Blackdown too. Troy's home on Monday to have a look at the itinerary and offer his suggestions- some crazy things a woman gets up to when the man leaves the house!!

The simple answer to your question is YES. Ignore the warnings about wildlife strike at your risk.

The further you go west the wildlife not only get more numerous they get bigger. Most of the marsupials towards the East of Qld are wallabies. Wallabies are generally smaller, they are usually solitary, they hop with a low profile and rarely jump out in front of you (they usually hop the other way). Kangaroos on the other hand are very unpredicatable. They can be very large, hop with a high bound, gather in numbers and tend to be quite suicidal and sometimes commit mass suicide.
If you can tell the difference between roos and wallabies at 90 kph at night will be very helpful. Another thing about roos is if you see a mob on both sides of the road they all tend to take off in the same direction hence crossing your path or simply hopping straight into your side.

If you try to compare driving on outback byways and highways to the well used highways of NSW, Vic and SA there is no comparison.

I have just completed a return journey from Bris to Quilpie over a thousand kms each way. I have done this journey maybe 100 times over the last 10 years. Driving at night there are few worries between Bris and Roma sit on 110 kph fine if you have a roo bar. From Roma onward you need to start slowing down. Doing 90kph I hit the skids three times to Charleville which is a very good trip and may have only seen 20 roos and wallabies. Between Charleville and Quilpie slowed to 80kph and breaked numerous times. I expect this trip to get worse through as winter progresses.

Remember the Warrego is a well used highway. Head north from Charleville or Roma and night driving is all care required. During the day the main highways are fine but make sure you slow for wedge tail eagles, hawkes, emus and young cattle that are very close to the road. Goats and pigs will generally run the other way. You will see wildlife on and near the road during the day on bush tracks. If the road is lined by scrub you really have to slow down.

The worst I have been through was a trip from Tambo to Cunnamulla. Left Tambo in the afternoon and got to Augathella at dusk. The drive from Augathella to Charleville took over two hours. There were more roos than guide posts. Stayed at Charleville and kept going to Cunnammulla at dawn. Sitting on abou 60kph I started counting in mobs of ten and soon got up to 500 and gave up.

I have heard lots of strategies from sitting on 150kph (I tried this strategy only one), turn your lights off, tailgating a truck. The only thing that works is drive slowly enough and keep a close eye out so when you have to break you can avoid.

Good luck

Thanks again- we will do our best to avoid night driving (night time is really not my forte and I try not to drive in the dark, + no driving lights) and from the sounds of it, dawn as well. Both dusk and dawn are fine times to be eating breakfast or having beer o clock, hopefully the right way around :)

The other half is home now so I'll show him this thread. It has been a fantastic way to get some feedback and ideas- we really appreciate everyone's input!

G'day John!

A big hello to you and Heather- how is your year going? Dad tells me you are off on an adventure soon- hope your trip is fantastic!

Yes, Troy is away in whoop whoop again. He is back on Monday for the week so I'm sure we will do further trip planning then. I'm hoping he's been saving for Gemfest... nudge nudge. He's been planning on taking me there for the last year so I might own some diamonds by the time I return from this trip, we will see what happens! I hope I didn't just get myself into too much trouble ;) Hi Troy!

That's a bit rough about the toast and also the weather. I'm expecting the trip to be very cold at night (hopefully no worse than the Flinders Ranges at the same time of year). We are actually off to Sundown NP near Stanthorpe next weekend and I just saw on the news that it's been -3 overnight- yuck! Where is my camp fire?!

G'day again, I was talkin with yur Dad on Skype this arvo but I think the video overloaded the bandwidth on us. Have plenty for sound but I think mobiles must tax Next G broadband locally during the day and evening.

You will have to just detour to Argyle from Gemfest for the diamonds I think, but they have some nice coloured ones that can make a trip worthwhile, even from Queensland. I was surprised to see rings priced at just under $200k at Gemfest though, I did wonder what discount Troy may achieve on that ;-))

The year here is nice with above average rain for most of the months so far. Hope that doesn't change and it moves inland so I can get back to my old sport of white water kayaking. Probably our best autumn since 1973 which was similar for us.

I see you have met with friend Enzo too, please pass him our regards when you see him next. There could be a vet student position for his l'il gal locally when she is to that stage and showing interest in large animals. Be a year or two yet I imagine. Hope the Moose family would come down and visit this way then. Met them at Cooper Creek, Victoria.

Thanks Carlin- we have a few hours of thinking to do!!