We are having so much fun that we haven't been able to keep the blog up to date so this entry will be in segments so that we don't miss any of the exciting places we have been. Yeppoon We didn't stay in Rockhampton but chose to go out to the coast and stay at Yeppoon which is on the beach. We stayed in a caravan park that allowed us access to go to the beach, into town and also to travel down the coast a little bit to see some more of the beach. Yeppoon is cer...

Queensland has a wealth of natural resources and this was very evident as we travelled inland from Mackay. The highway out to the gemfields took us through vast areas of coal mining. We visited the town of Moranbah, Queensland's newest town which services the BHP Peak Downs coal mine. They produce over 9 million tonnes of coal a year. There were over 8000 people in Moranbah at the 2011 census and the town is very fortunate to have the retail and professional se...

Charters Towers is a real 'must see' place with its fantastic architecture and old buildings. Charters towers in its heyday had nearly 30 000 people living and working in the town. This was in the late 1800s when they had discovered gold. As with any gold mining town, there were 37 pubs but only a few remain and fortunately the facades and buildings have been retained. The first Australian stock exchange operated out of Charters Towers which was connected to ...

After leaving Tully we spent 3 days at the free camping spot at Bilyana. We were able to network with other campers and find out the best free camping spots down south. The day we broke camp we headed up to Murray Falls, an easy walk along the boardwalk to another spectacular waterfall. We headed down through Cardwell, an oceanside town with views of Hinchinbrook Island. We had morning tea looking out to sea. Since the cyclone that ripped through Ingham a co...

I know that this special blog is a little behind when we visited but I wanted to give it the attention it deserved and as we are relaxing in Townsville I am taking the time to share the 'Paronella Experience' Paronella Park is Jose Paronella's dream. Jose came out to Australia from Spain in the 1920s and worked as a cane cutter. He was an entreprenuer and bought up cane farms and sold them to acquire his fortune. He was here for about 10 years and then decided...