Dulacca Pub

Where We Left Off

In part two, we left Elke and Tony at Carnarvon Gorge National Park after a series of mishaps. Follow along in the final instalment of this three-part series to find out what happened afterwards in their RV adventure in ‘The Boat’.

Starlink Saves the Day at Carnarvon Gorge

The next day, I had a bit of work to do. The internet was unusable at camp. The campground manager allowed me to set up a table and chair with my laptop and tap into their Starlink – woosh – so good! The managers, Carmel and Phil, were finishing their three-month contract. We met John and his wife, who would be taking over the management of the campground for the next five months until the gorge and campground closes next year in March. We purchased another two jerry cans of water at 25 cents per litre. We had done this three times in our 13 days at the site. Tony cooked a tuna pasta bake for late lunch. We watched a spectacular sunset.

Our last day at Sandstone Park campground at Carnarvon Gorge – so we started to pack. There was a huge spider, as large as my hand, on the awning as Tony was rolling it in. He caught the spider on a stick and took it away from our site. I was very much looking forward to a nice long hot shower. We drove to the Breeze caravan park, for showers ($10 each) and then a drink at the bar. We lit a fire using up the last of our collected wood. To keep our power topped up, we did have the generator on for a couple of hours each day.

 Mishap No. 13 – A Cracked Benchtop and Scenic Stops

The next morning, we were sitting inside enjoying our tea and coffee, when we heard a loud pop. It sounded like a rock had landed on our ceiling hatch. It happened again but we could not find where it came from, or where we thought it landed on the hatch. I started clearing the kitchen bench, and lifted up Tony’s coffee perculator on the benchtop and saw what had caused the popping. Tony had put the perculator directly from the gas hotplate onto the benchtop. The benchtop popped and cracked. We now have a circular and cracked area on our benchtop. Not happy, Jan!

We left Carnarvon Gorge and Sandstone Park campground before 9.00am, nice and early. On the way out we stopped at an airplane wreck memorial at Rewan. In November 1943 an airplane carrying 13 Australian troops and two American troops was flying from Darwin to Brisbane. It was caught in an electrical storm and crashed, killing all on board.

Heading south, there was a continual stream of caravans heading north passing us. The road to Injune was a bit bumpy in some parts, bad in others, but you could see that they repair strips of road. We stopped in Injune for a coffee and a pie. The little town has just about everything you need – a pool, hospital, golf course, cafes; and a pub of course.

We bought a new water filter in Roma. We almost forgot to top up fuel when we drove out of Roma; we turned around and topped up the tank. It was only half an hour from Roma heading west to the Mucka Pub – our home for the next two nights because I had a day of work to do the following day. $25 per night with power and water, toilet and shower. We passed road trains with four trailers. We arrived at the Mucka Pub in Muckadilla mid-afternoon. I saw that the washing machine was free, with a donation to the Royal Flying Doctor Service (RFDS); and the dryer was $4. So I did a couple of loads of washing.

Kingsley Grove Winery Kingaroy

Exploring Queensland’s Iconic Pubs and Spas

Tonight was State of Origin night. The Mucka Pub is a newly built pub, but it has been built to look like an old, typical, country pub – and it does. It still has the feel of an old pub. I ordered a steakburger – something I rarely order – and Tony ordered a seafood basket – something he does not usually order. A couple of bottles of wine disappeared while we watched the footy match. Queensland won. We found the people next to us knew some of our family in Canberra; it is a small world out in the Outback.

Muckadilla was popular at the turn of the 20th century. In 1889 the government put down a bore to test for supply of artesian water. They soon found that the water had healing elements for rheumatism. People flocked from all over the country. The Victorian Premier at the time, William Irvine, promoted Muckadilla as he travelled here when he was in ill-health. A month later, he travelled back to his home in Victoria much healthier. A larger pub was built to cater for the influx of visitors. Over the years, the bore tourist facilities fell into disrepair; until the 1970s when the tourist facilities were covered over. Now all that remains is the actual bore pump.

The second night at the Mucka Pub we enjoyed a large pizza ($25 plus $5 for mushrooms).

We continued west to Mitchell to the Great Artesian Spa, less than an hour’s drive. We spent over an hour in the spa chatting to other travellers. The hot pool is around 40 degrees and the cooler pool is 20 degrees. The process to follow is 15 minutes in the hot pool, have a drink of water, then a quick dip in the cooler pool, and then back again to the hot pool. It was so therapeutic. The fee is only $8 for pensioners, $10 for adults – very good value. After the spa, we enjoyed a warm pumpkin soup in the café at the spa. We then headed back east through Roma and stopped for the night at the Dulacca Hotel and tourist park.

Somewhere between Mitchell and Roma we turned off at the Western Queensland Distillery for a tasting. It had only been operating for 18 months. We had a tasting for $20 for four tastings – I chose a rum, a gin, orangecello and sticky date liqueur. I enjoyed the gin. They had three varieties of gin. There was a big outdoor fire pit with seating all around it.

You can’t miss the Dulacca Hotel – it is bright pink. We booked prior to arriving thinking that we might need to. However, when we arrived, we were the only campers for the night. There were half a dozen motorbike riders staying in the hotel rooms upstairs. We arrived just in time for happy hour and enjoyed a Cosmopolitan for $10. We ordered chicken wings and Arancini balls for dinner. The Dulacca Hotel is $25 per night with power, shower and a $10 voucher off dinner. It was lovely sitting at the bar with our nibbles and drinks, listening to everyone chatting … the pub owner non-stop chatting to the old locals sitting at the bar.

Mishap No. 14 – A Cold Morning

When I went for a shower just before 8.00 am the following morning, there was no hot water and the lighting was switched off – leaving me in pitch black darkness and freezing. I thought, maybe, as we were the only campers, they may have forgotten to turn on the shower block? The amenities for both males and females are in the same building. Initially, I thought that it was a timer switch – I searched and could not find one. Then I thought it was a sensor light – I wrapped a towel around me and stepped in and out of the doorway (and seeing as we were the only campers, no-one was going to walk in on me). That did not work. I tried other showers, and the same – no hot water.

I redressed and stomped back to The Boat, turned on the gas-hot water, and waited 20 minutes for the water to heat. I saw one of the bar workers from the previous evening walking towards the amenities and called out to her. She explained to me that there was a scheduled power outage from 8.00 am to 1.00 pm. It would have been great to have been notified as we would have had our showers before 8.00 am. The motorbike riders obviously knew about the outage as they were all up and out on their bikes by 8.00 am. Aah – that explains no other campers. Somehow, telling us about the outage had slipped through the cracks.

Kingsley Grove Winery Kingaroy

 Mishap No. 15 – More Accidents and Heading to Chinchilla Weir Free Camp

As we were packing up at Dulacca Hotel, our heavy rear-vision mirror fell off the windscreen again. However, this time it took a chunk of windscreen glass with it – not all the way through fortunately, but a good chunk of glass leaving a dent in the glass and a small crack that will slowly expand down the windscreen at some stage in our travels.

First stop for the day leaving Dulacca Hotel, was the Cactoblastis Memorial Hall near Chinchilla. We thought it might be a museum. However, it is a community hall named after the Cactoblastis Cactorum that saved the area from prickly pear devastation.

We then drove to the Cactoblastis Monument. The drive is a few kilometres out of Chinchilla. The last kilometre is well-graded gravel. The monument is very interesting. A family came out from England in 1909 and bought a parcel of land. The land was completely devasted with prickly pear – nothing could rid the land of this pest. Over 400,000 acres of land was overrun by prickly pear in and around Chinchilla.

In 1923, Alan Dodd, an entomologist, travelled to the USA, Argentina and Uraguay in search of an insect that could attack the prickly pear. He brought back 2,750 eggs (he left 250 for safekeeping just in case the ship did not make it across to Australia). The first prickly pear to be destroyed by Cactoblastis Cactorum was at Chinchilla in September 1926. During the next six years, the number of 2,750 eggs had been released for free distribution to landowners.

We arrived at the Chinchilla Weir free camp in the early afternoon and got the last powered site. It is a very popular spot to stay overnight, especially as there are several powered sites as well as unpowered sites. That evening there was a beautiful sunset over the dam weir. The next day, we drove into Chinchilla for a coffee for Tony, then on to Dalby for a small shop, dump point and water top-up.

Mishap No. 16 – Yet Another Water Top Up!

When we went to connect our hose to the tap in Dalby to top up our water, we found that the tap connector was left on the tap back at the Mucka Pub. Fortunately, Tony keeps a few of these. Although the one he left at the Mucka Pub was a new one and the spare we replaced it with leaks. After filling our water, we took a long time checking that we did not leave anything behind. We have yet to do a water top-up without some sort of mishap – very funny!

We noticed quite a lot of prickly pear, some very large, growing along the road and in paddocks on our way from Chinchilla – maybe they need to do some more feeding of the Cactoblastis Cactorum in the South Burnett Region.

Exploring Kingaroy and Wattle Camp

We arrived at Kingsley Grove Winery just on midday. They have a free camp for self-contained vehicles. There were two caravans already set up in the large, beautiful grassy area. We set up our spot and wandered into the winery for lunch and a free wine tasting.

We tasted all their wines. I ordered the Pinot Grigio to have with lunch, and Tony, enjoying the fact that he could enjoy himself tasting without worrying about having to drive, ordered a bottle of a sweet liqueur for lunch. We enjoyed a fantastic cheese platter that had everything you would want in a cheese platter, and a pizza made in their pizza oven, sitting amongst the barrels. For taking with us, we purchased a three-bottle package which includes the $100 rum port and two liqueurs for $135 – very extravagant for us. The wines ranged from $28 to $35 each. Back at our camp we sat around a fire pit with our new camping friends and enjoyed a night of laughter and conversation, watching a spectacular bright orange and red sunset.

We stayed two nights with family in Wattle Camp near Kingaroy, including an afternoon driving and walking around Kingaroy. We wandered through the large art gallery attached to the information centre. The art gallery was previously the Council Chambers. It was very interesting walking in the Council Chambers in their original state. There were many original documents such as budgets, meeting minutes etc dating back to 1950s and much earlier – on the desks under a sheet of glass. The museum is on the other side of the information centre and it was very interesting. There was an audio that described how peanuts were harvested in the early days.

There is a lookout up on the hill behind the information centre that looks over Kingaroy. Four kilometres out of Kingaroy is the Mt Wooroolin lookout which looks over the land, out to the Bunya Mountains, and all around Kingaroy as well as Kingaroy itself.

We then stayed two nights with family in Pie Creek, near Gympie. Tony fixed the rear-vision mirror by gluing a small rectangle of metal to the windscreen and gluing the mirror to the metal strip. On a short trip down to Noosa, driving back to Pie Creek, we drove beside the old Mary Rattler train. It is now a beautiful old tourist train. We drove into Gympie and walked along the Mary River. There are a few lovely walking trails to choose from.

We then travelled down to the Sunshine Coast and Bribie Island, staying with family over the next week. We both had some work to do. We proceeded to Wondai for the last weekend of our trip where Tony had some work. Wondai got to a chilly -4 degrees overnight – the coldest we had experienced on this trip. Our first night at Wondai we had dinner at the Wondai Hotel, circa 1903. We shared a large nachos with beef, and chicken wings. I always try the nachos if it is on the menu at a pub. And Wondai Hotel did not disappoint.

Dulacca Pub

Mishap No. 17 – Final Stretch and the Last Mishap

Less than two hours from home at Gin Gin, we turned onto the Bundaberg to Gin Gin road. There was a loud rattling sound and then we heard the hubcap from one of the back wheels fall off and roll along the edge of the road. We found and retrieved the dented hubcap and continued on our way home. We finally arrived home an hour before sunset on Sunday 23 June. We had left our home on Wednesday 1 May. 

Reflections on a Seven-Week Queensland Journey

In all the seven weeks I thought we were conservative with our clothes washing. However, I did do the washing five times in seven weeks and had three loads still to wash when we arrived home.

We have travelled a lot around South Australia, New South Wales and Queensland over the last 10 years – and the one thing we have noticed about road repairs between the NSW and QLD States is that in Queensland the road maintenance is generally done in ‘strips’ where sections of road are repaired. This results in a smoother road for driving on. In New South Wales we noticed so many roads are repaired with just the potholes filled with tar – the result of this is generally a very bumpy road. That has been our experience.

This was really a ‘shake-down’ trip for us. We plan to travel to Western Australia next year and would like to make it at least a six-month trip. We will need our own internet though, and we’ve been looking at our options. Although it was only the stop at Carnarvon Gorge that affected my work. The Mucka Pub, west of Roma, had the best internet …even much better than at our home.

It had taken us a long time to decide the method for towing a vehicle. We are happy with the choice we made of towing Suzy on a car trailer. It was easier for parking, as we could reverse with the trailer; and it was beneficial to also have a storage box in the front of the car trailer, that housed our generator. Tony says it is a lot easier to manage weights with a trailer.

Our little trip of about seven weeks had so many mishaps. We count ourselves very fortunate as they were all minor mishaps. Although it did hit the budget a bit – especially fixing little Suzy in Blackwater, which was almost $1,000; having to purchase two water filters; and we will need to purchase a new hubcap. We are fortunate that we can work whilst travelling and that helped our budget and allowed us to do the journey.

Coal loading in Blackwater

Category: Features
Written: Fri 01 Nov 2024
Printed: November, 2024
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