Lea and Rick's Travels - Life on the Wallaby: 6 Aug to 16 Aug 2012

I have to confess that I was very apprehensive as we drove from Mundubbera to Eidsvold. Not a long distance at all – 37km – but the possibility of the mail and new Navigator not arriving today would have meant hanging around the area until they did.
But, as it turned out, both Australia Post and Australian Air Express did their jobs, and both articles arrived today. Yay!!

We stayed overnight at the Tolderrodden Conservation Park Campground on the banks of the Burnett River. Interesting spot, but just for one night.

View Driving directions to Theodore, Queensland in a larger map

Leaving Eidsvold, we drove onwards to Theodore and the Junction Park free camp area. The park is in the junction of the Dawson River and Castle Creek on a spit of land. It’s a nice place, well looked after with toilets, showers and rubbish bins. All that is asked is a that donation be made and stays restricted to 48 hours. Sadly most people just completely ignore these requests. There is a group of people who arrive from southern parts and set up camp for the six months of winter. They don’t pay anything, and are quite proud of the fact that they are buggering the system. If the park ends up being closed, it will upon their own heads. We got a lot of this information from the person responsible for looking after the park who unfortunately is his own worst enemy – he lets the ‘residents’ rule the roost.

JUNCTION PARK – Theodore

Theodore was flooded, like so many other QLD towns in the rains of 2010-2011. We spoke to several town residents who were here at the time, some of whom actually were evacuated. The water came up to about waist level in the main area of town, although apparently the term water is overly favourable for the gunk that actually washed through. It’s been described as slime, mush and toxic stew! Caused many infections in people trying to clean up the town.

Theodore Flooding

Theodore Showgrounds - this is where we are staying now!!!@

Theodore Main Street - The Boulevard

For all of that, Theodore is a very nice, friendly little town. When we found the show-grounds, we moved there from Junction Park. At $15 per night or $75 per week, it’s an economical place to stay. We booked for a week to give ourselves time to check out the van batteries which have been a bit iffy.

So far, we have driven out to Flagstaff Hill in Isla Gorge, taken a run up to Banana and driven the tourist road on Malakoff Hill. Of the three, Flagstaff Hill was by far the most interesting. I don’t know if we missed something with Banana, but it seemed to consist of a Choice service station, and a pub!!! On the way back from Banana, we had a look at the Dawson Coal Mine. Very interesting! Huge pit and lots of work going on.