CLEAR ROADS AHEAD (WE HOPE) - MITCHELL TO ST GEORGE (22-23 SEPTEMBER 2016)

The computers were on at first light. The latest road information maps and condition descriptions lit up the screens. Had last night's rain again symied our plans to get through to St George? From what we could glean from our varied sources our planned route via Roma and Surat was open. 

Mind you by now we had learnt that things can change throughout these catchments very quickly, and that insignificant looking little creeks (some of which do not even show on the maps) can thwart the best laid plans of mice and men. 

But on the basis of nothing ventured nothing gained, and the fact that we knew we could comfortably backtrack to Roma if things got sticky beyond that, we farewelled Mitchell and

again joined the Warrego Highway for the first leg of today's trip, the 85 kms due east to Roma under blessedly clear blue skies and little wind to speak of.

Not far out of Mitchell we came across something we had not seen for many months....fields of wheat stretching away cross huge paddocks (not well shown here) beyond the roadside fringe of flourishing yellow flowering weeds.

To our great relief, the surface of the dreaded Warrego Highway was still relatively smooth and benign as we continued on through the grazing lands which surround Roma.

And then there was another milestone in our continuing push south....The Western Downs area. We had officially left 'the outback', for the time being at least.











Wide swathes of cereal crops again blanketed the plains in green as we made our descent into the bustling town of Roma.











As we neared the town, this road advisory sign had fallen down badly on the job! We had reached the stage where we were relying heavily on the updated information usually displayed. "Come on, what's going on at Surat?"










We pushed on regardless, into the outskirts of Roma itself,










and just beyond the town boundary, there it was. This is what we had been waiting impatiently to see....'three greens' (as they say in the cockpit when all three sets of landing wheels lock down). In this case we were interested in only one, the top one. The road to Surat was open. At least we could get that far on our quest to reach St George.






As we made our way through the edge of Roma's CBD, and past this quite distinctive old pub, memories flooded back. We spent three days here in 2010, when we were cutting our caravanning teeth in the pop-top Coromal. 




These were pre-blog days, so I cannot provide you with a reference. We did not tarry today, so let me provide a quick snapshot of this important town in the Queensland Maranoa region before moving on. 


Roma is the largest town in this region (thanks to Wikipedia for this aerial). Agriculture and cattle production have always featured in the local economy and continue to do so to this day. In fact Roma can boast of being home to the largest cattle sale yards in Australia, where the movement of over 12,000 head of cattle in a day is not unusual.


Coal seam gas production is widespread in the countryside around the town whilst  many of the approximately 10,000 residents are involved in the local service industries which have grown up in support of primary production operations. 

Roma has an interesting history, with a couple of 'firsts' to its credit, which could not be more diverse. This town is the location of the first vineyard in Queensland, planted originally in 1863 (it is still here....we stayed but a stone's throw from the Romavilla winery during our last visit). In 1900, a crew drilling for water were more than surprised to find that natural gas was gushing to the surface with the mud and water.........'bore gas' had been discovered and the Australian gas and oil industry was born. In fact, in the early 1900's the streets of Roma were lit by gas lamps. Oil exploration continued in the region, but with only limited success after a promising start.

Another less welcome feature of Roma's history is that of flooding, and this is recent history (and for us as we travelled through today, more than topical). The Bungil Creek flows through parts of the lower lying areas of the town, and for three years in a row, 2010, 2011 and 2012, this normally benign and picturesque little waterway had a complete change of character when it broke its banks and inundated parts of the town.




The flood of 2012 was the worst. As this shot, courtesy of the Courier Mail, so clearly demonstrates, much of Roma went under....over 400 homes in fact. 




Needless to say, as a result of this extraordinary sequence of floods, the regional authorities have now embarked on a much needed, and obviously badly delayed, flood mitigation programme.




Well, so much for Roma. At least today the waters were well contained and we progressed through the town without let or hindrance until, on its eastern outskirts, we came to our next 'way point', the junction of the Warrego and Carnarvon Highways.








Here we left the Warrego for the last time, turned our heads to the south, and began the 80 kilometre leg to Surat.

We soon discovered that the reports of road closures due to flooding, and our concerns about the ability to get through, had not been without foundation.

We had been told that another 5-10 mils of rain would see this road closed yet again. As we crossed this floodway and looked to the left








and to the right of us, the residual sheets of water left little to the imagination and we had no difficulty accepting the truth of what we had been told.











For kilometre after kilometre, even on the higher ground, water was lying everywhere along the roadside. This whole area was utterly saturated.












Despite the reassuring 'road open' signs we had seen, we were more than relieved to find ourselves climbing out of the Balonne River valley and into the Surat CBD





where we passed the quaint and colourful Shire Hall building and made our way out of this small, attractive looking town. We have promised ourselves a stopover here at some point in the future. There is a marvellous free camp on the banks of the river which, in different conditions, presents as an ideal spot to spend a couple of days (this list just keeps getting longer and longer), but for now, after a short break we continued on our way to St George.


We had barely left Surat when we were given another stark reminder of what had been dealing with over the past two weeks or so. Here the floodway over the Donga Creek (another waterway which does not appear on the maps, but which can be more than significant) showed clear signs of what had been going on in the past few days....another impassable highway.







But obviously we had no difficulties today and after another 100 kms or so we passed the Dalby turn-off

and shortly thereafter another highway sign which was all good news. Dirranbandi was on our (still at this stage) proposed route through to Lightning Ridge.










And so it was that without any further ado we completed the last few of the 280 kms of today's run into St George where we dropped anchor at the Pelican Rest Caravan Park. This was an old stamping ground. We had spent five days here back in May 2013 (refer to blog September 2013) when we had a very good look around the town and all it has to offer (and both recovered from a shared nasty chest infection!). In fact, on this occasion we were given exactly the same site, which was one of the few grassed drive-thu's which was not waterlogged! Needless to say we settled in quickly.

For obvious reasons I'll not be including any photos of this park or the town.....been there, done that. 

In my next we move on to somewhere new and completely different......the tiny border town of Hebel, via Dirranbandi, a place with which I have a connection, albeit of a somewhat vicarious nature.