Riches from the past and present

This musical tractor at Wooroolin can
be played by tapping the tuned
"engine" plates

We slowly made our way north after leaving Kingaroy through Wooroolin and Wondai to Proston where we spent a few days visiting local places of interest like Boondooma Homestead, once part of a huge property established in 1846 and covering all the surrounding district. The homestead is in original condition and restoration work continues on surrounding outbuildings and regular events are held on the grounds and campsites are available.

The locals are friendly in Sapphire

On north with a detour to Sapphire and Rubyvale, famous for sapphire fossicking, where the cattle, camels and goats wander the streets, old diggings dot the area and it seems every business in the townships sells sapphires, fossicking equipment and bags  of “wash” to sift through for gemstones. The biggest percentage of the world’s sapphires come from this area. (We didn’t find any).

Back on the Gregory Hwy, our next stop was Clermont where the attraction is gold fossicking. The entire town of Clermont was moved to its present location on higher ground in 1916 after a flash flood took out most of the township with the loss of around 65 lives.

Flood level markers at Burdekin R.,from
13.7m to 21.79m ,all above the present
bridge level (13.4m)

The countryside changes as we travel, sometimes through flat areas or low hills and sometimes crossing ranges of sparse timber with high rocky faces towering over us. The cattle are all looking well fed and sweet little floppy eared calves watch us drive by. There are lots of coal mines in this area but they are usually way back off the main road out of sight behind the hills.

The next town of any size was Charters Towers , a gold rush area in the 1880s with mine shafts underneath much of the town. Lots of lovely old historic buildings and boom and bust tales from the past. Tower Hill overlooks the district and has many old ammunition storage bunkers left from WWII. An old chimney stood 167 metres above the hill but it was demolished in 1943 as it was a hazard to aircraft.

Imperial Hotel, Ravenswood

We spent several days at Ravenswood, once again an old gold mining town with plenty of evidence of the mining activity in the form of rusted equipment and tall brick chimneys, round, square and octagonal, depending on the nationality of the builders. Notice boards round the area have historic facts plus tales of old events from murders to practical jokes .