Despite the fact that we were confronted by another very short travelling day....Hervey Bay to Childers via Torbanlea....only 85 kms, force of habit saw your scribe up and about,
scurrying around hitching up in the heavy dew of an early Hervey Bay morning.
scurrying around hitching up in the heavy dew of an early Hervey Bay morning.
One great advantage of an early start in a large town is the absence of morning traffic. We were on our way out of Hervey Bay in no time on the hilly road secondary road to Torbanlea, the quickest way to rejoin the Bruce Highway.
This small town soon came and went
and we were back playing with the big boys on The Bruce again.
We both recalled Childers as being set in green, rolling hills where cane fields and orchards of all kinds are a real feature of the landscape. As we made our approach to the town, we could see that our memories had not let us down.
Before leaving Hervey Bay, we had investigated the caravan park options in Childers and had taken a punt. On the basis that the park closest to the CBD was right on the Bruce Highway (noisy) and made the point of offering back-packer accommodation and employment opportunities in the local agriculture industry (again noisy for a different reason), we chose the alternative, the Childers Tourist Park and Camp in which to make a booking.
This park is some six kilometres out of town, but given that we had allowed ourselves only one day in which to wander around the Childers CBD, the drive in did not seem to present a major obstacle. Before we reached the main drag, a set of traffic lights (traffic lights in Childers??) heralded our right turn off the highway onto Goodwood Road.
Did I mention cane and orchards? No sooner had we begun to travel along this reminder of Adelaide and we were passing huge stands of cane, ripe for cutting. The cane growing season this year had been a good one. We have never seen it looking as tall.
As for the orchards, of mangoes in this case, we passed both well established plantations,
and this massive new planting, a sure sign that things are travelling well in the mango industry here in Childers.
This really is pretty country, and highly productive.
As we neared our turn off Goodwood Road to our camp, we were already congratulating ourselves on our choice.
Initially this side road presented no problems
but within a very short distance we found ourselves on a very narrow strip of blacktop. But let's face it, this was a doddle for folk who have travelled major distances on this type of road in outback Queensland and the NT. The only thing which did confound me, and it is typical Queensland, was the fact that the speed limit remained at 100 kph!
In no time at all, and without incident, we found ourselves on the approach to our chosen park.
As we turned down the long, divided entrance roadway, we were gaining even more confidence that our choice had been a sound one.
When I had made our booking, I had been promised a large, drive-thu site in leafy surrounds. As we pulled up at the office, it was clear that the 'leafy bit' was right.
Soraya Lacey, who with her husband Ian, owns this park, greeted effusively. We left the office to follow her down the roadway to our site feeling as though we had done her the largest favour possible by booking in here. This was certainly something we had rarely experienced!
This road took us past a row of long term residents
to the open expanses of some of the largest sites we had ever seen. "Take you pick", was the offer from Soraya. "Park anyway you like". We did. What an absolute treat it was to have all this manoeuvring room. It was no wonder my insistence on having our overall length confirmed when I booked had been greeted with a kind chuckle and the reassurance that this would not be a problem! I could have driven a road train onto these sites. We were set up in no time.
The lack of shade trees here was but a minor drawback when all this room is on offer. And here, when our neighbour arrived on our second day, we had another of those 'guess who we met' experiences.
I had been off photographing the park and when I returned I found this latest arrival, a chap travelling on his own, chatting away to Liz. We had already noted that his number plates indicated he was a fellow South Australian, but, as you have already guessed I'm sure, it gets better than that.
As Liz later explained, in the course of their conversation about the old home town, she mentioned that she had worked in North Adelaide. Damien asked where. "The Memorial Hospital". Sure enough.....his now estranged wife also nurses there.....Liz not only knows her well, she was her boss for some years. In addition to that, we later discovered that he had designed the beautiful riverside gardens we had admired in Mackay when travelling through last year. It was a pleasure to pass on our compliments.
Apart from this extraordinary personal encounter, our site provided us with wonderful views across the timbered areas of the park camping areas.
As the name suggests, this is a park which caters for campers, in a real bush setting.
At least one has set up here amongst the trees, for the long haul if the surrounds of his site were any indication.
Although the park owners have been here now for sixteen years, this is still a work in progress. We were told that they are in the process of major clearances to make tracks through the back blocks of their staggering 67 acres of land. Bush rambles will soon be on the visitor agenda.
But view and space are one thing...what about the necessary park infrastructure?Well, at first blush the heads look interesting to say the least,
particularly the laundry area.
As we have now learnt, looks can be deceiving, and this was yet another example. Inside this rustic exterior were very good sized and efficient shower cubicles, and the laundry facilities were excellent.
The same could be said about the nearby park BBQ area. Although we had no need on this occasion (yes, we shall return!) to sizzle a snag or char a chop, there would be no problems doing so here.
Whilst we of a transient nature were relatively few during our two night stay, this park is home to many who are obviously much longer term residents. Some lined one side of the exit roadway
and others were set up behind them. Again, open space is a feature of the outlook from these sites.
For one permanent, to whom we chatted quite a bit (he loved Max) home here at the Childers Tourist Park and Camp is anything but a van or a tent.....he is beautifully set up in this charming little cottage. As we have learnt, a group of well behaved permanent residents can be the making of a park (some can actually create a rod for the owners' back as we have also found). They are the course of a steady income through the year, whilst we fly-by-nights provide the cream on the financial cake.
One thing which did amaze us here was he fact that things were so quiet, relatively speaking. The Victorians were well and truly on the move north by now, in their thousands, as were grey nomads from other southern climes. Why they were not flocking to this bush idyll in grater number remains a mystery to us both....but then we really didn't care. We had found a gem and were selfishly content to be sharing it with very few!
In my next we sortie forth from this wonderful base to explore the fascinating CBD of Childers. This place is much more than the scene of one of Australia's worst mass murders.
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