Year 2 – 2 March 2025 -Brisbane – Trip outside
If anyone reading this and is free in all or some of April to mid July 2025 to come to Australia then do contact me as I am short of crew during this period at present.
Despite the weather offshore it was a pleasant sunny morning with more cloud. We had breakfast and checked the weather again and the models suggest different routes for Alfred with some suggesting it will disappear offshore and others that it will hit the coast somewhere toward the end of this week. More waiting for us and frustrating as we would like to move on but this is not sensible.
We got in the car and thought of North Stradbroke Island but we would have to get a ferry and that would be it for the day and the weather was not going to be great so having consulted the guide we decided to go to Toowoomba. This is nicknamed 'The Garden City' (as it has many parks) and 'T-Bar', is a city on the border of South East Queensland and Darling Downs regions of Queensland, Australia. It is located 132 km (82 mi) west of Brisbane. The urban population of Toowoomba as of the 2022 census was 180,00 odd, having grown at an average annual rate of 1.45% over the previous two decades. Toowoomba is the second-most-populous inland city in Australia after the nation's capital, Canberra. It is also the second-largest regional centre in Queensland and is often referred to as the capital of the Darling Downs, or the 4th biggest city in South East Queensland after Brisbane, Gold Coast, & the Sunshine Coast. The city serves as the council seat of the Toowoomba Region.
Toowoomba, one of Australia's oldest inland cities, was founded in 1849. The city's central streets were named after the history of the House of Stuart. The city became the viceregal summer retreat of Queensland's governors. The city witnessed several significant events during Australia's Victorian period, including the War of Southern Queensland and Battle of One Tree Hill. During the Federation period, Toowoomba emerged as a major artistic and cultural centre with the establishment of the Austral Society.
Toowoomba, a city renowned for its cathedrals and universities, is celebrated for its preserved Victorian-era and traditional Queenslander architecture, historic churches and gardens, and vibrant food, and coffee culture. The city boasts street art, laneways, and numerous nature trails. The city experiences a distinct four seasons and is home to festivals including the Carnival of Flowers.
It took us about an hour and a half to get there. For the first 45 minutes we were going through urban sprawl with massive warehouses and industrial areas. For the next 45 we began to get into some more rural areas and large flat valleys with hills surrounding them with a lot of trees. Most seem to be planted pines and the remainder being Eucalyptus. We were getting into farming country with large farms with cattle and sheep and horses out in the fields. There was so much space and everything is vast. We eventually came to the town and parked in the centre which was mostly shut. However, we could see some old historical buildings and churches amongst the modern buildings. We stopped and had a coffee and then went to the Cobb & Co Museum which was recommended in our guide. Luckily it was open and it told a bit of the story of the city and how it was founded in about 1850 and then became more established in the 1870-1880’s and then it became a city in about 1910. Cobb & Co was a company which made horse drawn carts and transported passengers and mail throughout Queensland in the 1850’s onwards. This museum had the most excellent and largest collection of horse drawn carts that I have ever seen and I defy anywhere else in the world to have a better collection. Coaches were used as the form of travel until the motor vehicle replaced them from about 1911. It was a large traditional industry.
The picture of the day is one of those coaches namely no 48. This was made in about 1900 and was a thoroughbrace passenger coach. It could take 14 passengers -9 inside, 3 on the roof and 2 beside the driver. This was a passenger and mail coach and typical of the period 1850’s -1900’s. For those who could afford it coach travel as it was called would cost about Aus $ 1,200 (£600 in today’s money) for an 80km journey which would typically be a day’s travel. In a day they would use about 40 horses, about 5 at a time and change them several times a day. In their heyday the company were using 9,000 horses and travelling 31,000 km each week with their fleet of carriages. In 1963 to raise money for flying Doctors they took carriage 100 with horses to go from Darwin to Melbourne through central Australia – about 3,000miles. It took them just under 3 months. The picture of the day is coach 48.
After the museum we went to the Picnic Spot Cafe/restaurant. Toowoomba is on a hill and from here we could look down over the Great Dividing Range. Toowoomba sits about 700m above sea level. It looks towards the Ravenscourt National Park with its Redwood trees. We could look over a vast valley with hills in the distance. We had a nice lunch at the restaurant there overlooking the trees on the hills and the plains below.
We then drove around the town on a route the visitor centre gave us (yes it was open on a Sunday and no graffiti – neither would be the case in the UK). We drove through affluent and not so affluent suburbs and then came to the Queensland University which had a large Japanese garden as part of its grounds which was very nice with water and red bridges and the odd pagoda.
We then decided to drive back a different route via Hampton and Esk which went right through the Ravenscourt National Park. It was beautiful bush and open land scenery with large farms, trees and large open fields with termite bumps randomly decorating it. I expected to see Koalas and Kangaroo’s but no such luck. It was lovely countryside to drive through and we were seeing a different side to Australia than the coast. We were the stopped randomly by the Police and Trevor who was driving was breathalysed. It was negative and we were released and he had not had a drink all day.
We drove back to Brisbane with the urban sprawl returning and then we were in the suburbs. We returned the car and got an uber back. We had a prawn salad supper which was nice. We felt we had had a good few day’s sightseeing.
We have looked at the weather and the reports are suggesting that Storm Alfred (a category 2 hurricane) will now hit the Queensland coast somewhere and it could be Brisbane. We therefore need to prepare further and it is thought that may get 12cm of rain over next few days.
Need/Opportunity Year Two
I am in need of more crew from late April to Mid-July so if of interest do email me at hine.nick9@gmail.com
In year two I will be going from New Zealand to Sydney and hen up the Eastern Australian Coast, Indonesia and then through Bali, Singapore and on to Thailand to end year two about the end of November 2025.
The blog will continue as we continue the journey. If you have any comments or suggestions about the blog then do email me on hine.nick9@gmail.com