Welcome to Queensland!

Carmen Friend
May 1, 2018
2 min read

After driving through many areas where red dirt, cotton fields, sand or dusty paddocks are the norm, we crossed the great dividing range into green lush pastures and rain forest. The change is really dramatic!! We had crossed through the Darling Downs - significant for us given we did the Darling River run 3 years ago from Mildura up to Lightening Ridge. This area is the main catchment for the Darling River although it is seeing less and less water flowing from this area down into the Darling River almost killing off the ecosystem that once was flourishing.

We stayed at Kilcoy then onto beautiful Maleny. Kilcoy was a free camp with toilets and free showers. Maleny was the Showgrounds - 20 per night powered or unpowered. There is a great walk along the Obi Obi Creek into Maleny town centre. Very cute wee town with lots of funky shops. We would have stayed here for a few extra days had we known it was such a nice place.

We spent a few days in Coolum next - what a few days it was!! We had friends (Mark, Shirl and Simon) and family (Kylie) fly in from Sydney and drive up from Brisbane to visit us. Little did anyone apart from Trent know this is where we would get engaged - standing under the moon overlooking the ocean. Trent climbed up Mount Coolum whilst we were there with Simon - thanks for making the trip up Simon! Mark, Shirl thanks for celebrating our news and keeping our secret for a few days. We loved having you join us on our trip. Shirl, Georgia misses you!!

Leaving Coolum we headed north to Childers - claimed to have the best ice cream here - sorry but I still think NZ ice cream is the best!! Was a small free camp in the town centre. Nice town to walk around with some interesting names on parks and buildings oh not to mention the highway - ISIS Highway!!

Leaving Childers we headed for Agnes Waters and 1770. This is where we start to see sugar cane crops and the old Queenslander pubs. 1770 is the only town in Australia named with numerals. This is where Captain Cook landed on 24 May 1770! Great low cost camping with toilets and cold showers just on the outskirts of Agnes Waters. About 35 spots here which are full so if coming here be in early as you will not get a spot otherwise!