Queensland Travel Adventures

The Outback by Train

2012-03-28T16:28:00.002+13:00

The room gradually brightens from the light between the blinds and I become aware that we are moving. A turn of the knob and the outback passes by outside the window. For the past eight hours we have been gently rocked to sleep by the Spirit of the Outback, the train the runs from Brisbane to Longreach. The first part of the 20-hour journey, up the coast from Brisbane to Gladstone saw the

Hayman Island

2012-03-28T16:27:00.003+13:00

We came to Hayman Island, in the Whitsundays, Central Queensland for a laid-back holiday. Not carrying dive gear around adds the diving to the laid-back experience. Carrying that approach to the extreme we check out our first dive site from above. A Coral Air Beaver seaplane service operates from near the Hayman Island Marina and we board it for a scenic flight over the turquoise waters of

Hayman Island Dives

2012-03-28T16:27:00.000+13:00

Our dive site is in one of the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park’s protected areas and the effect below water is obvious. Staghorn corals stretch away like a colourful forest and schools of fusiliers, snappers and other fish cruise all around. Thousands of small blue, yellow and green fish amongst the corals vanish instantly if I make a sudden move, then just as suddenly reappear. We follow

George the Queensland Grouper

2012-03-28T14:54:00.001+13:00

“That’s George,” said the words on the dive slate. Mal our guide grins and points at the massive shape hanging under the hull. The fish has to be three metres long and we can only guess how heavy. We look back at the slate - 350kg! Mal had anticipated our thoughts. George the Queensland groper, lives underneath the Fantasea Reef Sleep barge in the channel that runs like a river through the

Waltzing Matilda Centre

2012-03-28T14:53:00.003+13:00

“Once a jolly swagman . . .” the words ring out around us, but no one looks like standing to attention. Maybe it’s not Australia’s national anthem. “. . . camped by a billabong . . .” the words continue around us. The story comes to life at Winton’s Waltzing Matilda Centre, the only museum dedicated to a song. Just inside the foyer the scene is played out with the swagman, the squatter and

Winton

2012-03-28T14:52:00.002+13:00

Just off Winton's main street we find Arno’s Wall, a rock and concrete wall, handmade by an eccentric creator. The wall has the addition of motorcycles, washing machines and almost every household item you can think of - including a kitchen sink. Once around the block and we’re next to the North Gregory Hotel under a sign, Royal Theatre. “This is probably one of the few open air theatres

Opals

2012-03-28T14:51:00.005+13:00

We didn’t realise that Queensland had opals but on a trip out with longtime Winton tour guide Charlie Philpott we head across the red dirt into the remnants of the Gonnaway Range. The peaks are only 60m above the surrounding flat land. At a spot known as Old Tom’s opal mine there are heaps of rock and dirt. A lizard, a little less impressive than its prehistoric ancestors, races away from

Spa in the Outback

2012-03-28T14:51:00.002+13:00

At Nardoo Station, our guide asks “Want a close look at a bore?” He stops beside a large curved pipe with a valve protruding from the ground. He turns the valve and with a roar, a jet of water gushes five metres out from the pipe. “That’s hot water gushing out. It comes from the Great Artesian Basin, a huge reservoir that sits about 1000 metres below us. The water temperature is around

Stars

2012-03-28T14:50:00.004+13:00

The Cosmos Centre at Charleville is pretty impressive with an array of telescopes and a bunch of keen people ready to take us on a tour of space. We just need the sun to go down. We fill in time with the impressive audio-visuals and over an hour get an understanding of ancient star-gazers, meteors and space rocks. The elaborate 3D models bring the stories to life and the Dreamtime legends

Dinosaur stampede

2012-03-28T14:50:00.000+13:00

The foot prints below us look almost fresh and could have been made by birds. They go every which way across the red slab of hardened clay. A much larger set of tracks runs through the middle of them. The big ones are deeply imprinted and obviously created by something huge. “These tracks are 95 million years old,” Alan our guide says. “The big guy was a predatory meat-eating dinosaur,

The Age of Dinosaurs Museum

2012-03-28T14:48:00.000+13:00

At Winton, my imagination gains a little insight into the dinosaur footprints at Lark Quarry. A model of the big dinosaur towers over the smaller ones it hunted . . . and us. Yet the size of that animal pales against the bones of another of Winton’s prehistoric populace. A bone about the size of a person from a

Yongala

2010-03-07T14:51:00.004+13:00

We travel overnight, waking at 6.30am at the Yongala wreck site. Time for our first dive! Wow - what a way to start the day, giant trevally, batfish, Maori wrasse and Spanish mackerel all swimming through thousands of small fish. The Yongala’s hull is covered with pink soft corals, dimming to a dull purple in the early morning light. Visibility is 20m and our dive coincides with slack water. In

Singers of the Great Barrier Reef

2010-03-07T14:50:00.004+13:00

I can feel the sound - not just hear it - maybe it is narcosis, or just my imagination. Beside me, my dive buddy Jenny, stops and listens too. The sound isn’t our imagination - it is real - the song of a humpback whale somewhere out in the blue water. While our encounter doesn’t include eyeballing a whale, it is still mind blowing. Between June and September along the central and southern Great

Wheeler Reef

2010-03-07T14:50:00.003+13:00

Wheeler Reef is our first dive site off Townsville. Getting used to 30m visibility and 25degC temperature is achieved instantly. That’s what tropical diving is all about, plus corals, colourful fishes and giant clams. The bommies are surrounded by thousands of fish and covered in corals. A bonus on our dive is an encounter with cuttlefish. As we watch they change colour and display an amazing

Paronella Park

2010-03-07T14:49:00.005+13:00

A 90 minute drive from Cairns we reach the turnoff to Paronella Park. It’s off the beaten track but driving through lush tropical bush and sugar cane fields along the back roads makes a change. We turn into the car park where an attendant, resplendent in Aussie slouch hat, directs us to a shady spot. Above us the ramparts of a castle stand out against the clear blue sky. We step back in time a

Undara Facts

2010-03-07T14:49:00.004+13:00

Undara is off the beaten track but makes an interesting detour inland between Cairns and Townsville. The landscape can only be described as “out of this world.” Undara is 275km inland from Cairns, about 4 hours drive on a sealed road. The Undara Lava Lodge can accommodate up to 300 people in restored railway carriages, swag tents, bunks in the Wilderness Lodge or camp or van sites. Undara

Undara Lava Lodge

2010-03-07T14:48:00.004+13:00

We sit on a granite outcrop above the Undara Lave Lodge as the light dims. Flocks of screeching rainbow lorikeets flit through the gum trees. Their larger relatives, white sulphur-crested cockatoos and grey and pink galahs call from higher up. Wallabies become more active as night falls, moving silently around us along with bandicoots, little marsupials that look like giant rats. Below us, the

Breakfast at Undara

2010-03-07T14:48:00.003+13:00

Daybreak is announced by wake-up calls from kookaburras in the gum trees. Their serenade continues as we follow the aroma of food to a camp breakfast a few hundred metres from the lodge. The camp fire with its steaming pots adds to the early morning mist. Tropical fruit, bacon, beans, eggs, tea and coffee are waiting for us to help ourselves. A slice of bread held briefly above the flames

Undara Volcano

2010-03-07T14:47:00.004+13:00

The Undara volcano created huge amounts of lava that formed rivers of molten rock. As the outer layer cooled the molten inner layer continued to flow. It ended its fiery period about 190,000 years ago. Others in this area were active as recent as 10,000 years ago. The Aboriginal word Undara means “long way,” perhaps a reference to the long rivers of rock. Undara has the world’s longest known

Undara's Lunar Landscape

2010-03-07T14:47:00.003+13:00

Dampness replaces the dry Queensland air and the darkness of the cave engulfs us. Only a few shafts of light from the topside world extend this far. The cave is more than 20m across and nearly as high. Tree roots hang like the fingers of some prehistoric cave dweller and the darkness prompts imaginations further. A series of gasps from those around us creates a little movement in the still air.

Reef Platform

2010-03-07T14:46:00.007+13:00

Fish of every shape, colour and pattern swarm around us as we snorkel off the reef platform. Large snapper and reef cod show no fear, maybe the protection afforded by the green zone influences them. Every so often a turtle spurts away over the top of the reef or down into the depths. Turtle numbers have increased with five species of these endangered animals feeding around the reefs. The bright

Reef Sleep

2010-03-07T14:46:00.006+13:00

Our accommodation, amongst the reef, is on a large moored platform. During the day we enjoy the diving and snorkelling. By night just a few lucky visitors are left behind to stay the night with the fish and the sea birds. From the warmth of the underwater viewing area we watch thousands of small silvery fish twist and turn as the larger predators flash through. A shape like a submarine looms

Heart Reef

2010-03-07T14:46:00.005+13:00

Flying in a seaplane over the reefs of the Whitsunday Island, in an ancient Beaver aircraft is the perfect platform for aerial views of the Great Barrier Reef. The deep blue of the ocean gradually changes to the turquoise shapes and patterns of the reefs, that stretch a thousand kilometres north and almost as far south. Below us a deep blue channel cuts a sinuous path through one of the larger

Kuranda Scenic Rail

2010-03-07T14:45:00.004+13:00

We travelled to Kuranda via the Scenic Rail that winds around the hillsides and through tunnels cut into the rock. The echoing rumble of steel against steel reverberates as we cross viaducts high above rivers and waterfalls of the Barron River Gorge. Building the railway line was a major engineering feat that started in 1886. Five years later the Cairns to Kuranda passenger service began along

Cane Cutters' Cottage

2010-03-07T14:45:00.003+13:00

The light outside begins to fade, the sun casting long shadows and beams of light through the gum trees. Rainbow lorikeets swoop through the branches calling and the occasional squawk of a cockatoo clashes with their screeches. The bugs and frogs begin their nightly songs and dark shapes flit silently through the trees. After a week travelling through the Whitsunday Islands and the bustle of