Tannum Sands/Childers/Torbanlea

Leaving Mount Morgan we headed back out to the coast and down to Tannum Sands to once again catch up with the family for a few days. Baz was quickly into cleaning the van as we had bat droppings on the roof from being parked under trees in Cairns, also we were quiet grimy all over.  I thought I would lend him a hand by taking the Pajero through the car wash then leaving him to clean the inside. I did manage to do a good clean inside the van and made good use of Anita’s washing machine. All nice a squeaky clean ready for our next couple of months.

We left Tannum Sands Sunday afternoon travelling south for a couple of hours, we ended up pulling into Childers and stopping at their free RV area that is situated in the street behind the Post Office. It was nice to walk the main street of Childers and admire some of their very old buildings, being late on a Sunday afternoon the main street was very quiet compared to the usual congested daytime activity. We were walking past the local RSL and we were coaxed in by one of their members to enjoy happy hour drinks. It was an entertaining half hour spent listening to a couple of patrons talking crap after they had consumed a few too many whiskeys. We also met a solo traveller there and ended up at the Federal Hotel enjoying good company and a Sunday Roast.

Today we travelled a little further south only 38 klms to the Torbanlea Racecourse, they offer camping sites powered and unpowered and is only about 16 minutes out of Hervey Bay. We will stay here tonight before we move into Burrum Heads where we are booked for the next three weeks, hopefully Baz will have more success this year with his fishing off the river bank.

Morning tea at Childers

Unpowered area at Torbanlea Racecourse 

Mount Morgan

We had an overnight stop at Dululu, only about half a dozen houses and an abandoned pub with a good area for overnight camping. Hot shower and power if required, hopefully all who stay leave their donation to keep this area going.

We then moved onto Mount Morgan staying at the Silver Wattle Caravan Park for three nights. The park has new owners Debbie and Dave who are great hosts keeping up the previous owners tradition of supplying 4 eggs on arrival and a Happy Hour by the fire every night. This must be our fourth time we have stayed at Mount Morgan, and finally got around to doing the Gold Mine Tour.  I think I only got Baz on the tour as he now has some shares in the mine and he wanted to see if there was

any progress in it’s revival, with the hope of at least getting his money back. Trouble is QLD government is making things very difficult with environmental issues that need to be addressed.

 This quaint little mining town once was thriving back when the gold mine was in operation, with 27 pubs and 4 suburbs. As the population declines there are only 4 pubs left in the town of Mount Morgan, the Golden Nugget did close last year to then be bought by a group of locals who didn’t want to see it’s demise.

Dululu Hotel a little beyond renovating

Mine Office Mount Morgan

Chimney Stack 

Market Main St Mount Morgan