Esk repose

Where are we now?

We are in Esk, a small rural town in the Brisbane Valley. Two hours and 33 minutes from Gympie.

Map data (c) 2023 Google Australia

Burpengary to Woodford

Wednesday 15 March, we left the busy Bruce Highway behind us as we branched west towards the town of Kilcoy. The day before, we had left Gympie at 6 AM to be at the dealer’s workshop in Burpengary, Brisbane, by 8 AM for the caravan to be serviced. Apart from passing the scene of our October ‘22 accident which is always a gut-wrenching reminder of the horror of it all, we had a really good drive. After the van’s service, we made our way to the grassy fields of a low-cost camp just around the corner from the van’s dealer. It was the second time we camped at the lovely off-grid site; a welcome reprieve after an extremely hot, busy day.

So, leaving a little later than planned we headed towards Kilcoy on Thursday morning after breakfast, for our first planned stop 30 mins down the road at the Woodford Showgrounds. We had booked ahead for the night. We had a week to get to Esk and preferred to do it slowly, with short drives. Arriving in the middle of the morning, we were first required to wait for our spot while the grass was being mowed. 

It was well over 30C already. By the time we set up, we were drenched in sweat. We were mightily thankful for a powered site to run the air conditioning unit. Still feeling the exhaustion of the day before, we appreciated a quick homemade meal, a cool shower and a rest for the day. That evening there was a mighty electrical storm. 

Interesting, to be sure, from within a caravan. But we were dry! That was the most important. 😅

 

Kilcoy’s heat

 

The next morning, far more refreshed, we hit the road to Kilcoy Showgrounds (also about 30 mins down the road) where booking ahead was not possible. We wanted to get there by 10 AM to be sure of a spot. There were ample sites available, and we picked one on the furthest end planning to stay 1 night. It too was a powered site and were we grateful once again; the region we were in was enduring a 3 to 4-day heat wave. It was close to 35C outside. We had originally planned to leave after a day to spend the next night at a free camp, to try out our newly installed battery capacity at a site with no power. Looking at the temps expected for the next day, we decided to stay put!  Were we happy with that decision when the next day’s temp hit 36C?!

 

Mural at Kilcoy Showground

Setting up the van in Kilcoy, AJ discovered that one of the bolts holding a stabilizer foot had broken off inside the unit and there was no making it work. After the van was stabilized on the remaining three legs, AJ removed the unit completely to see if he could fix the thing. Upon inspection, he found that the bolt had had a weak spot when it was moulded … perhaps an air bubble or something. No way anyone would’ve spotted it. It turned out to be an engineering feat the next day, after buying spare bits of steel at the local hardware store. The extra day turned out to be a blessing as he was able to fix the leg. 

He worked out of the back of the car, under the shade of a huge eucalyptus tree, creating a new bolt from odd bits he had bought. So resourceful! For once I wasn’t able to tease him about being an engineer… 😆

An all those tools he's collected, that I commented about in my previous post ... um right, they came in very handy. 😅

Too good, Toogoolawah

 

On Saturday 18 March, we made our way from Kilcoy, 40 kilometres down the road, to Toogoolawah. Once known as Cressbrook, after the town in Derbyshire, England, where (in 1841) the new settler David McConnel, was from. Here in the Brisbane Valley he staked out a pocket of land and erected his homestead over the next few years, while farming cattle. The town became Toogoolawah in 1909 as the Railways Department favoured the use of Aboriginal names. It is said that toogalawah in the local tongue meant 'a tree bent into a crescent shape'. The original, heritage-listed homestead of Cressbrook still stands near Toogoolawah and is still an active cattle station, owned and run by a 5^th-generation David McConnel.

 

We arrived at our pre-booked site, again mid-morning, already blistering with heat. By now we had learned -- plug in the power cord, get the air conditioner going and wait inside the van for the cooler afternoon weather to arrive before setting up. Apart from the abundance of flies 😆, we loved Toogoolawah Showground. There were only a couple of vans there, so we had miles of space around us, adjoining a farm with cattle lowing in the fields. Those sunsets!! 

 

AJ was especially entertained … a celebrated sky-diving site was nearby. All of Saturday there was a Skydiving competition going and on Sunday there were still a few parachutists active. Small aircraft came and went. Their landing strip began just beyond our van so it felt as if they were making straight for us each time, much to his delight! I must say, watching 12 to 13 parachutists descend each time was quite entertaining.

On Sunday morning we drove 15 mins to Esk to meet the homeowners of the house we were due to begin minding from the next day. They had organised a morning tea with neighbours, so we had the opportunity to meet everyone. What a pleasant experience.  Everyone was friendly and welcoming. The next morning, we took to the road, arriving in Esk at around 10 AM for our 3-month long stay.

Esk repose 

 

Esk is the centre of the Somerset Region, situated on the Brisbane Valley Highway, beneath an outcrop called Mount Glen Rock and Mount Esk. Everything named ‘Somerset’ took its name from an early pastoralist and pioneer in the region, Henry Plantagenet (no less!) Somerset, whose family claimed descent from John of Gaunt, King Henry IV’s father. Among many of his accomplishments, this early settler canvassed for and achieved success in ensuring the Brisbane Valley Railway ran through the region.

 

The region is recorded as being first explored in 1829 by Alan Cunningham, an English botanist and explorer, and again in 1830 by a British officer, the unsavoury Captain Patrick Logan, known as the cruel commandant of the Moreton Bay Penal Colony (now known as the magnificent city of Brisbane!). Capt. Logan was murdered during one of his explorational outings in the same year while on a quest to chart the Brisbane River headwaters. This didn’t stop many of Brisbane’s landmarks from being named after him. But that’s a story for another day. 😏 (Ironically, the greater Logan metro area is now known for its antisocial and unsavoury occupants.)

 

First settled in the 1840s, the Brisbane Valley was home to prospectors in the gold and copper mines that sprang up in the area. By the mid-1870s the area became more settled. The European settlement around Sandy Creek was at the Travellers' Home Hotel, with the town of Esk surveyed nearby and first named Sandy Creek. According to queenslandplaces.com.au, it was also known as Gallanani until the 1881 census when it was named Esk after the River Esk in Scotland. According to one site I found, Gallanani is a creek four kilometres to the north which flows into the Esk Creek. The name means 'Eastern Swamp Hen' in the local Aboriginal language. 

 

The first school in Esk began in 1875. By the end of the 1880s, there were several churches in the town. The Brisbane Valley Railway reached Esk in 1886. Benefiting from the rail line, a butter factory opened in 1903, and the first agricultural and pastoral show took place around the same period. (This is still an annual event.) Sawmills operated in the area, also benefiting from the rail line, but this industry died in the 1920s. By 1900 the cedars in the area were all wiped out. 😣

 

There were several condensed milk factories in the area, with dairy farming a vital sector. The invention of refrigeration resulted in a decrease in demand for preserved milk, but the butter factory continued profitably until the 1950s, finally closing in 1973 after a gradual decline of dairy farms in the area due to various factors such as competition from imports (then already! 😣) and drought. In 1993 the railway line to Esk was closed.

Esk Railway Station, from the Brisbane Rail Trail

While mining and the timber industry were short-lived in the area, pastoral farming was profitable. Even today, agriculture continues as the main occupation around the region.

 

Esk is known for its heritage-listed sites, many situated on Ipswich Street, the main street through town. Esk is a welcome stop for people travelling the Brisbane Valley Highway. There are quaint coffee shops and antique shops to stop at. One of these is Nash Gallery and Cafe, known locally as the Lars Andersen house, the original home of one of the first settlers in the area. Lars was a builder who built his own home and many of the other heritage-listed sites in town.

Lakes Wivenhoe (completed in 1984) and Somerset (completed in 1959) are nearby; they are popular picnic, holiday and camping destinations. Both lakes are a direct result of dams being constructed across the Brisbane and Stanley rivers respectively.

 

So far, we have only driven through town and walked a small section of the Brisbane Valley Rail Trail. This is the site of the original rail trail where the tracks have been removed, leaving a pathway for walkers, horse riders and cyclists. We took a daytrip to Ipswich, the largest nearby town, and this took us past Lake Wivenhoe. 

We’ve also taken a drive to attempt a peek at Mount Esk, but it had rained heavily the night before and we were rather intrepid about crossing this ...

 

The slogan "If it's flooded forget it" is never far from our minds.

 

On Sunday last week we searched for the nearest Baptist church, and found that it is in Toogoolawah. We drove the 20 mins and joined about 15-20 people in worship the local school building. It was wonderfully heart-warming. Exciting too, to know that the quaint old Catholic church (no longer used) has just been purchased by this small community after having been without their own place of worship for many years. They are looking forward to getting busy in the church and garden to spruce it up in about 30 days from now. It was completed in 1915. It has gorgeous stained glass windows. Can't wait to see it inside. 😀

Image from churchesaustralia.org

Lots to do these 3 months

We look forward to our stay in Esk. Between teaching online and prepping for courses, AJ looks forward to the golf course, neatly created in the centre of the showground/racecourse right over the road from us. He also has loads of lawn to mow! 😅

I look forward to browsing the history of the area and getting some online work done. We may not explore too much as fuel is dear. 

 

We are fortunate enough to be flanked by pastoral land, and so our neighbours out the back are cows, horses and kangaroos. A very calming, sometimes entertaining, sight. 😍

 

Until next time, thanks for stopping by. As always, we appreciate you and your messages of support.

 

Blessings. 🌼

Peanuts, peanuts and more peanuts

Where are we? In KINGAROY, the peanut capital!

(c) Seen in the Heritage Museum

We drove southwest along country roads for one and a half hours from Gympie to the not-so-small town of Kingaroy. Its name is derived from the language of the local Wakka-Wakka aboriginal people and means ‘small red ant’ for a specific type of red ant which is found in the area. 

But instead of ants, think peanuts! Tons and tons of peanuts. Apparently, 40,000+ tons per annum make their way via this peanut capital! 😊

We will forever remember Kingaroy with fondness, as here we stayed in our first caravan park – Kingaroy Showgrounds Caravan Park – for one night with our new van! Luckily it was a pull-through site. 😅

We had an amazing peaceful night's sleep.

We began housesitting the next day, looking after two doggies ... a geriatric (foxy?), 18 yrs old and a 3-year old dachshund. 😍😍 Two cuties ... 

Kingaroy info

The Heritage-listed Peanut Silos are smack bang in the middle of town. We use them as a beacon to navigate our way around. 😊

Peanut Silos of Kingaroy taken from a town Brochure

History has it that two French drovers, brothers Charles and William Haly, trekked (with sheep) across country from New South Wales, and chose to settle nearby on land that they staked out. They built a homestead (Taabinga Homestead) somewhere between 1842 and 1846 and developed a sheep-farming station. The conditions were too severe for sheep farming and they soon switched to cattle. The brothers eventually sold their cattle station, and the second time it changed hands was in 1848 or thereabouts to the ancestors of Ms Libby Leu who lives there today. It is still a working cattle station, and the homestead is the oldest continually lived-in homestead in Queensland. Today they open their home to guided tours and operate a B&B for those who wish to stay overnight or longer.

In 1878 the valley, nestled between the Booi Range and the Bunya Mountains, became home to the brothers Markwell, among others, who set up a homestead known as ‘Kingaroy paddock’. By 1904 the Kilkivan railway line passed through the valley and a station was erected. This drew more activity and ‘Kingaroy Paddock’ grew into a small town. By 1907 the hamlet that had formed around Taabinga Homestead decided to pick up sticks (literally … since houses were made of timber), and they moved closer to the ‘town’ now known as Kingaroy. Kingaroy was declared a ‘shire’ in 1912.

Example of early wooden homes

Soon folk discovered that the rich fertile soil of the floodplain was good for a variety of crops, especially peanuts and navy beans (aka baked beans). The latter were planted during WW2 when large numbers of US Army personnel stayed in Kingaroy. Seeds from the USA were introduced, and vast amounts were harvested to feed the troops. As for peanuts, according to the QueenslandGovernment Heritage Register (2023), “Peanuts have been grown in Queensland since Chinese cultivators planted them on the Palmer River goldfield in the 1870s. Small acreages were grown by several farmers in the South Burnett from about 1901 and these peanuts were sold to confectioners and shops in Brisbane, Maryborough and Rockhampton. From circa 1920 significant acreages in the South Burnett became devoted to peanut growing.” A visit to the Heritage Museum shows you just how innovative these farmers were.

Images taken in the Heritage Museum

Without access to complex machinery, they designed their own planters, harvesters, sorters, etc. An incredible testament to man’s ingenuity when there is a dire need. Some of these machines are huge wood and metal structures. RESPECT to the farmers of yesteryear!

Examples of early machines designed and built by local peanut farmers.

One of the earliest inventions, which paved the way for future designs.

 

Since then people have tried their hand at an even larger variety of crops leading to wine farming. This success for specific varieties has resulted in cellars dotted about the region. We hope to visit at least one not far from town, in the 10 days that we are here.  

Image by Brigitte Werner from Pixabay 

Kingaroy is considered the capital of the South Burnett Region, comprising settlements within the Nanango, Kingaroy, Murgon, Wondai and various other districts. Clearly, the town is thriving. A newly built hospital is just opposite the house that we are caring for. Much to AJ’s delight, the AW139 Helicopter (his speciality) regularly arrives to pick up a patient for transferral to one of the Brisbane hospitals, and it feels as though it will land on the lawn behind the house. We have heard that the hospital is not fully staffed as yet, with certain cases referred to doctors in the city.

(c) SB

Touristy stuff

Kingaroy boasts some interesting tourist attractions:

There is Kingaroy Holiday Park (this would be called a ‘resort’ in South Africa 😊) just outside the town. Fun for the whole family, with cabins and camping.

The humble Peanut Shack on Kingaroy Street/D’Aguilar Highway/Route 96, has offered tasting and sale of many different flavours of peanuts since the 60s. It is a famous stop for everyone driving through, and so contributed substantially to the rise in tourism to Kingaroy. 

Which flavour did we fancy? The BBQ Pork Ribs! 😀

There is a big peanut sculpture in town, although it is not THE Big Peanut (one of Australia’s Big Things), which is further north in Tolga. 😊 It is constructed from scrap metal.

One can take a drive (or a walk if you’re fit enough, up to Mt Wooroolin, to view Kingaroy from the lookout point at the top. 

Mt Wooroolin, seen from the garden where we are housesitting

We drove! 😅

Kingaroy from Mt Wooroolin

Kingaroy’s Observatory welcomes visitors. On a cloudless night the sky is lit up with stars as there is little interference from city lights; the Milky Way is clearly visible.

Image by Bapsae from Pixabay 

Kingaroy Heritage Museum walks one back through time to the early days of peanut farming, cattle stations and brave, innovative farm folk who needed to design their own machinery due to a lack of local availability. Lovingly overseen by volunteers, this museum is a must-see. A gentle reminder to appreciate the history associated with today's agricultural and mechanical development.

Kingaroy Regional Art Gallery is another must-visit for all, not only for the art lover. It is run by the not-for-profit Kingaroy Arts Team, seeking to develop regional public art.

Queensland’s ’Rail Trails’ are old abandoned railway corridors that have been converted into cycling or walking tracks. One of these stretches along 89 km from Kingaroy to Kilkivan. You can walk as long or as short as you like while taking in the fascinating country scenery and historical viewing spots associated with the old rail tracks.

The Bunya Mountains are about 60 km from Kingaroy. There you can find an array of walking trails among the pristine forest and tall Bunya pines. There is a gorgeous café for refreshment and a variety of accommodation options for those who want to keep exploring or soak up the peaceful surroundings. We hope to get to visit this area on another trip.

Wrapping up:

We are immensely grateful for the opportunities on offer to discover this beautiful land and its people. In another week we move back to Gympie and ready ourselves for a week-long housesitting near the town; this will be quite a different stint, taking care of three cats and two horses. 😅

Soon I hope to post a ‘catch-up’ blog on the challenges we have faced and how we view things going forward. We have met some amazing folk, and we have had so many meaningful encounters in just 4 months of being in Australia. So much to be grateful for. However, housesitting has its challenges; settling into a foreign country has not been a walk in the park; getting our heads around van life is a work in progress;😣😅 and following a new (often punishing) work routine (AJ’s) has not been easy. We often find ourselves emotionally and physically stretched. We have had mishaps, misunderstandings, and have made mistakes. But we remain hopeful and positive.🙏 

Thanks for stopping by. We wish you all a Happy New Year! May you experience countless blessings coming your way in 2023.

Cheers. 🌼 

Hello Gympie!

Where are we? We have arrived in Gympie.

Image: Alexas Fotos from Pixabay

A quick update

Hi everyone … it was a sad moment, bidding our loved ones in Doha farewell. All went relatively well with our last few days in Doha. We managed to do all we needed to for Andries to get that all-important ‘I’m-exiting-Doha-for-good’ stamp. Returning our Qatar ID cards brought home the finality of it all. Once those were returned we had 1 month to exit the country, so we prayed that all would proceed without a hitch. And it did! In July all Covid requirements for international travellers were lifted by the Australian government. We were relieved that we did not have to go through the DPD App's immigration process again, nor did we need a PCR test before or after the flight. 

We are so thankful to Father God for journey mercies. We arrived in Brisbane on a Friday evening after a great flight, and slept over for one night so that our family could take the 2-hour trip on a Saturday, pressure free. We managed to visited our caravan manufacturer en route to select interior colours for the van! 😀😍 Great excitement. It felt unreal. We also stopped by a store to get SIM cards for our phones before continuing the journey to Gympie. Once in Gympie we stopped off at our son-in-law's parents' place to say hello and pick up the grandkids. There was great excitement meeting up with them. Pure joy! There is no other way of describing that moment.

We have hooked up with a bank, applied for Medicare, and managed to get Andries' phone working, but I'm having difficulties with a SIM that won't work and getting it replaced is proving even harder. This has ticked me off to no end ... I hate not having comms. 😑🙄 

The next step in the process of remaining here as permanent residents is to apply for the next stage of our visa, which is the permanent one. It's a major process, and almost ready to lodge. It will place us back into a queue for annual immigration quotas. Our current visa expires in about 18 months, so we're praying it'll be finalised before then. If not we would need to go onto a bridging visa.

We have managed to get Andries set up for work, as he starts a course on 18 September. So kind of our kids to stand off their main bedroom for these 3 weeks, so that we can have our own space, big enough for Andries to have a desk to teach from in a peaceful room, away from kiddy noise. 😁 His birthday was also celebrated on the 7^th with great fanfare, much to the kiddies' delight. His greatest gift was meeting his Ute for the first time! Since then he's found a daily excuse to go for a drive, even if he needed to make up a reason to do so. 😄 

Now, on to the topic of today’s post: Gympie! 

Where is Gympie?

Gympie is in south-eastern Queensland, lying on the Gympie Creek and the Mary River. It is a rural town, 2 hours north of Brisbane by car.

Map data: Google, ©2022 Qatar

Map data: Google, ©2022 CNES/Airbus, Landsat/Copernicus, Maxar Tech. 

History

Early European settler-graziers (today activists are calling them invaders 🙄) were already in the area when, in October 1867, James Nash, an English farm worker who migrated to Queensland in 1863, put Gympie on the map with a discovery of gold. A gold rush of an estimated 60,000 miners ensued. Nash’s Gully – a double line of prospectors’ tents along the sides of the digging bank – sprang up which is now the historic Mary Street.

This discovery came at a time when Queensland was going through a severe economic depression. (Sure wish I could find a little nugget! 😄) It is said to have saved Queensland from bankruptcy.

Gympie became a thriving mining town. A Post Office opened in December 1867, a small hut was erected in 1868 to be shared as a church by three denominations, with the Methodists raising the first church in July the same year. Seems they needed a church, as a series of hotels were opened within weeks of the gold rush. Twelve licences were granted in December 1867. 😄 Here is an ad from the period ... 

 The Nashville Times was operating by February 1868, which became The Gympie Times and Mary River Mining Gazette in October 1868.

The Tattersalls Hotel, Gympie. 1868

A railway from Maryborough along the coast was completed by 1881. (The Historic station is still in use by the delightful Mary Valley Rattler.) 

Gympie Hospital, 1891

In 1981 the Town Hall was built on the site where Nash found the first gold nugget (worth a whopping £1.6 million in today’s currency). They had a fire brigade by 1900. And finally in 1903, the Queensland state declared Gympie a town, but by January 1905 it was proclaimed to be a city by the Governor of Queensland.

The Tattersalls Hotel, Gympie 1900

Why "Gympie"?

With discovery of gold the town was quickly known as “Nashville”, after James Nash, that lucky prospector. A year later, however, it was renamed “Gympie”, a word derived from the local Kabi-Kabi people’s language referring to the ‘stinging tree’ or gimpi-gimpi. This plant, the Dendrocnide moroides, delivers a painful punch … I mean, sting. 😖 Deceptively harmless in appearance with a lovely heart-shaped leaf, inviting you to inspect it more closely, it delivers a sensation that has been described as “being burnt with acid and electrocuted all at once” (Hurley, 2018.)  😫🤯

gimpi-gimpi plant

It grows in light-filled gaps in the ‘understory’ of a rainforest – yep, you guessed it, that’s the space you and I would be walking around in. 😬 The stinging hairs can remain in the skin for up to 6 months, and re-sting every time they are touched. I imagine a host of miners coming into contact with this plant and living in pure agony, so to alert everyone of the existence of the plant they took desperate measures and named a town after it!  😅  (This is just my imagination running free.) However, one of Australia’s strange marsupial creatures, the pademelon, part of the sub-family of kangaroos and wallabies, munches with delight on this plant. Lol. 🥴 🥴

Pademelon

Gympie Today

The GympieRegional Council area covers almost 7,000 sq. km and has an estimated population of around 50,000. This is currently mushrooming due to various reasons, some to do with Covid-19, others because of existing residents not moving elsewhere, and also due to new interstate arrivals in the region. This has brought about severe housing stress for many, with rental increases and a serious shortage of available rentals. 

The area includes the small towns of Amamoor, Cooloola Cove, Curra, Goomeri, Gunalda, Imbil, Kandanga, Kilkivan, Rainbow Beach, Tin Can Bay, Traveston and Woolooga. There is a thriving agricultural industry with beef, dairy, livestock; horticulture  including mangoes, macadamias, corn and pineapples; last but not least is forestry. 

Gympie attractions

There are many – farms to visit where you can pick your own seasonal produce; restaurants, wineries, distilleries, and a brewery; nature trails galore for walkers; picturesque sites to enjoy picnics, some with gorgeous swimming spots; canoe and kayak trails; 4WD tours; abundant cultural and themed tours; customised tours; museums; heritage walks through the city; music festivals; beautifully maintained parklands and much more.

One icon is the MaryValley Rattler, a Heritage Steam Train, operated solely by volunteers, which runs to the small town of Amamoor and back. In 2019 we experienced the thrill of taking this outing. It comes highly recommended and didn’t disappoint. 😀

Images: (c) S Brandt 2019

The Gold Mining and Historical Museum makes for an interesting outing too. Also run solely by volunteers, it offers an impressive array of objects with information about the area’s early days as a gold mining hub. One can go fossicking at Deep Creek, nearby. (Yes, a licence is required from the Lake Alford Visitor Information Centre.)

The Woodworks Museum is well-known, highlighting the timber industry in the region, from its early days until now. Timber was in high demand for the mining industry, so the industry's rise followed hot-on-the-heels of the gold rush. Today the timber industry is constantly a hot topic because of deforestation and logging practices. Be it as it may, it provides employment to many in the region.

Loggers in earlier times, Gympie.

One of the art galleries in the region is the Regional Art Gallery, housed in the Gympie School of Arts Building of 1905. 

Mary Street, the historic centre of the city, is a must to stroll up and down. Sadly, it was recently inundated by severe flooding; some businesses are still reeling and struggling to get back on their feet. The Lady Mary statue is a local icon. She was the wife of Governor Fitzroy who toured Queensland in 1848 after her accidental death. The Governor named various landmarks in memory of his wife. The statue recognises the struggle with flooding in the area. She appears to bare her dainty bare feet as she crosses the Mary River, also named in her honour. 😄😀 

Image: Lady Mary

The local parks are wonderful. Memorial Park with its old pavilion (also recently inundated up to its roof by the flooded Mary River) is a peaceful place to rest and enjoy some contemplation. 

Lake Alford Park provides space for families to spend time picnicking, playing, feeding ducks and bird watching. 

Hopefully we’ll get to visit many of the attractions in the area soon, to highlight them in more detail.

Until next time, blessings, and thanks as always, for stopping by. 

Cheers. 🌼