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After our Nullarbor DVD trip last year, we just had to hit the road again and do another DVD. This time were going from Brissy to the Top. Here’s part one of our little adventure from Brisbane to Blackall.

Words by John Rooth
Photography by Robb Cox

Having survived the Nullarbor trip last year we figured that Editor Gil would pull an easy one out of the hat for our second DVD trip. You know, Brisbane to the Sunshine Coast via the Glasshouse Mountains or maybe Sydney to Nowra. The last thing anyone expected was another long distance outback haul – for a while anyway.

Wrong! The overall plan behind our DVD efforts is to eventually circumnavigate Australia and travel the major inland routes too. So in keeping with that, Editor Gil decided that the second trip would be one of the great ‘around the block’ segments too – Brisbane to Darwin this time.

Now the first thought many people have of a trip like that is the sheer inescapable tyranny of distance that is our lot in this great land. A look at the map might suggest that apart from setting off and arriving, the big bit in between is going to be nothing but dust, flies and distance. Certainly that was the reaction I copped over the phone from a couple of the lads once Gil had blown his Editor’s whistle but I guess being a Queenslander, and having spent a lot of time outback around here, I couldn’t help but look forward to it myself.

No, not just because it meant a couple of weeks away from home either. The thing is that Queensland’s outback is peppered with fascinating stuff. It is home to some of the most conservative folk on earth yet houses weird behaviour of epic proportions. A bolt up the highway won’t see you do much more than scratch the surface of the underlying interest along this road but stop, look, feel and talk and suddenly a whole new world opens up. The little towns along the Matilda and north west to Camooweal – often not much more than a pub and a petrol bowser – have developed a strength of individualism and character that’s a direct reflection of the people who choose to live in these out of the way places.

And unlike the city folk, the locals out there don’t mind taking time out for a chat or to lend a hand. This is a timeless land after all, life doesn’t get rushed out here, it unfolds slowly.

Apart from Gil Schott and myself, we had stills photographer Robb Cox along again but a couple of new blokes handling the DVD work – camera man Peter Hardin and sound dude Mark Armstrong. I know Mark’s a dude, I’m listening to an old blue’s recording he lent me while I write this! Being Sydney born and bred, Mark put his hand up for this job because he wanted to see some outback for himself. I’d thought the debonair Pete Hardin had much the same thing in mind but as citified as he seemed, Pete I soon found out had been raised in Augathella and hadn’t been back to ‘Meat Ant’ country since primary school. It looked like he had an ulterior motive for choosing this assignment too because he knew we’d be passing right through his old town!

A surprise addition to the pack was Roy Wyss, the man behind Sunland Caravans, who’d decided at the last moment that a couple of weeks away from the factory and the yard out ‘tow testing’ his new model could be just the ticket.

Roy had a hidden agenda too it turned out. Despite being exceptionally well travelled, he’d never ‘done’ the Queensland outback or driven through to Darwin. This was a chance for him to shade in some new roads on his map.

Not so surprising was the addition of advertising executive Alan Goldby and his wife Lisa who’d taken holidays from work to accompany us ‘workers’ on our jaunt. Al, who’d been brought up around Roma and educated in Toowoomba before heading south to the ‘big smoke’ often mentioned his old stomping ground during our conversations over the years. He hadn’t been back for decades and his wife had never seen the places he kept mentioning. For Alan this was a chance to reminisce, to remember his youth and feel ‘at home’ again.

So there were eight of us gathered at Sunland HQ for an early leave. Wait on, there’s only six of us, where are Lisa and Alan?

Just as Gil began looking for his phone a KEA six berth Deluxe motorhome pulled up outside the Car Mart gates and out stepped our missing pair. They’d been over to pick up the motorhome first and called in to do some shopping along the way. All that was left was to hook up our caravans and we’d be off on one of the great road trips of all time – Brisbane to Darwin stopping at all ports in between!

Which certainly suited Roy because of the two Sunland vans he’d selected to take, both were named after towns along our route. The tandem Winton, a truly luxurious caravan, and his new semi off-road tourer, the Blue Heeler named after the hotel in Kynuna. Actually that’s not quite right. While ruminating on what to call the new prototype van the week before Roy had called Gil for an opinion. It was Gil who suggested the Blue Heeler after listening to Roy’s description of the van, no doubt picking up on the theme of a man’s best mate, his faithful companion and the inherent suggestion that this single axle van would follow on the heels of any tow vehicle just like a good cattle dog should. Then and there Roy liked the name and the pair decided to christen the new van when we got to – wait for it – the Blue Heeler Hotel in Kynuna.

Any excuse for a pub stop eh? But I’m getting ahead of myself…

For tow vehicles we had Gil’s faithful old 79 Series Troop Carrier – it’s not that old, it’s just never been washed – a straight diesel that he often uses for tow testing and knows inside out. The Troopy would be pulling the single axle Blue Heeler while hitched to the front of 23ft of Winton luxury was Roy’s tow vehicle, a petrol Nissan Patrol GU. Roy had bought the vehicle a couple of weeks before second-hand to use as a yard truck but after driving it a couple of times himself he decided it would be just the ticket for a trip like this where comfort and power are worth the petrol premium.

As any experienced vanner knows, ‘hitching up’ isn’t always simple when you’re looking at new configurations because there are hitch heights and load sharers to adjust and always a gremlin or two popping up for a last hour delay. So it was lunchtime before we left, no problem given that Roy’s Car Mart staff were cooking up a complimentary barby for their customers and it wasn’t too hard to join the line!

As Morayfield is well to the north of Brisbane’s CBD and knowing the local habits we knew that any trip back through town would start out with traffic frustrations and delays. So for that reason we decided to head north to Caboolture and then turn south at Kilcoy, taking the route past Sommerset Dam to Esk. At Esk we turned west, running up the hills to the little town of Hampton some 30km north of Toowoomba where we figured on joining the Warrego Highway for a smooth run north west.

The best laid plans of men and mice eh? I was travelling with Roy when he pointed to the temperature indicator on the Patrol on a steep set of bends just before Hampton.

“Look at that,” he said, “I think we’ve got a problem.”

Sure enough the Patrol was well in the red and climbing. We stopped to let it cool and tried again. No go, the gauge was soaring again within a kilometre. This time we let it cool enough for Roy to check the coolant level and realise the radiator was almost empty! Hoping no damage had been done he filled it using the kettle and tap in the Winton but by then we were running so late night was about to settle.

Alan did a recce in the motorhome and booked us three sites in a park close to the centre of town. It was Saturday night, the football grand final was on and despite having only travelled 165km we were all feeling exhausted. I guess the excitement and expectations of the trip had worn us out, that and coping with the tight bends and an over-heating truck along the way.

So it was a great night to call for take-away pizzas and set up the flat screen TV outside the Heeler on the concrete pad. Well lubricated, showered and changed into comfies our little party settled down to getting to know each other and getting, well, even more lubricated! As was to be the case almost every night on the trip it wasn’t long before a few fellow caravanners had dropped in to take a look at the Sunlands. Wherever we went people wanted to know about the vans, wanted to look inside and ask Roy questions. Talk about a busman’s holiday but Roy always had time for everybody. As much an anything there’s no escaping his own immense pride in these products of his imagination and he seemed delighted that others showed the interest they did. They had plenty of reason, these Sunlands are very handsome vans from the outside and their interiors are something else!

But Gil wasn’t happy with the prototype Heeler’s towing prowess behind his Troopy and after a fair bit of discussion and a lot of measurements we decided it must be the hitch itself. In a last minute effort the lads at the factory had fitted a Trig off-road full swivel hitch ostensibly to suit the van’s off-road bent. But a swivel hitch meant that we hadn’t been able to fit the load stabilisers. Gil reported that the caravan was swaying more than it should – something we’d noted from behind – and given the distances we had in front of us, now might be a good time to sort out the problem.

Which is how Roy found himself heading back to Brisbane that night to pick up a conventional ball hitch and load levelling equipment. He returned early the next morning and we plucked the Trig equipment and put a ball hitch on in its place. With the levellers hitched up to three links from home Gil noticed the difference straight away – from feeling a bit awkward the Heeler settled down to track straight and true.

Personally I’ve never favoured swivel hitches and this incident just reinforced that opinion. What’s the point of giving your caravan the ability to be towed on its sides or the roof anyway? A serious off-road trailer maybe – and even then it’s not my choice – but on a caravan a swivel hitch is a waste of time, more there for image than anything else. Sorry, but it is. At least on this trip I didn’t have to argue the point!

With a population of 84,000 Toowoomba is on top of the range, is always a bit cooler than the coast and inland regions and is well known as the ‘Garden City’. Although we were a bit late for the Festival of Flowers most of the town was still in full bloom and with such magnificent parks and gardens the camera crew was compelled to go to work first thing next morning. Meanwhile the rest of us did a bit of shopping, knowing full well that this’d be our last chance for a while.

With the Heeler back on track and the roads running straight and flat we made good time to Dalby and on to Chinchilla and Miles. These are prosperous towns, offering all the services required in an area rich in grain growing, cattle and sheep. Depending on the time of year there’s always something to see out here, from ripe fields of wheat waving in the wind to cotton lined road when the picking is on. The road might run straight but it’s got a well dimpled surface thanks to plenty of heavy traffic and as always there were plenty of road works to dodge too.

Despite that we made good time and got to Roma with a few hours to spare before The Big Rig tourist centre was due to close for the day. Not many people know that Roma was the centre for oil and gas exploration and The Big Rig enshrines this history along with plenty of other artefacts and remnants of the area’s history. Nowadays the centre is operated by the Keegan family – themselves fifth generation locals – and to pass through Roma without dropping in is to miss out on something very special.

They put on a massive show at night too with pyrotechnics and computer controlled lighting but with deadlines to meet we couldn’t hang around. Forty minutes later I was hoping we’d stay in the free camping paddock behind the Amby Hotel but Gil had something else in mind – the Major Mitchell Caravan Park on the banks of the Maranoa River.

It was a great choice too, even if we did arrive just as the sun went down. Landscaped gardens, plenty of space, drive through sites with separate ensuites and a terrific barbecue area that we took full advantage of! Mitchell has really opened up to tourists in recent years and with activities like a soak in the artesian spa complex or a cruise up the Maranoa, there’s plenty more to see and do around here than just take a photo of the bottle trees!

Next morning Gil called for another early start and this time we actually managed to get on the road pretty quickly. It wasn’t that hard to keep us moving, Gil planned breakfast for Augathella – some 179km up the road.

Pete Hardin was keen to have a look at his old town, especially since the highway passes by these days. He was soon remembering things from his childhood but like all of us in those situations, suddenly everything seemed a lot smaller than he’d remembered. Growing up will do that won’t it? Yet Augathella, with a grand total of around 450 people, is typical of a small outback Queensland town. Tidy, interesting, loaded with character and the sort of history you feel when there’s enough space to never have to knock an old building down.

So with most of us humming ‘The Augathella Fella’ and the rest screaming at us to stop we drove on towards Tambo. Tambo’s one of the oldest towns in outback Queensland but with 60 or so less people than Augathella, it’s not exactly massive. One wonders how the Tambo Teddies shop – specialising in Teddy Bears – manages to survive but then it’s a legend amongst travellers so perhaps that’s enough.

We managed the outskirts of Blackall sometime after lunch and took the short drive out of town to the historic wool scour. Apart from being the home of legendary gun shearer Jackie Howe, Blackall is the centre of one of the richest merino wool growing regions in the world. The wool scour, the last steam operated plant of its kind in the country, is a very impressive example of Blackall’s strength and along with its twenty stand shearing shed is well worth a visit.

So we did. There’s plenty of room in the car park paddock to pull up with a long rig and more than a few shade trees too. We waited a few minutes for a guided tour and it was well worth the wait – there’s nothing like having a place explained by someone who’s intimate with every facet of it is there? But despite the efforts at ventilation and the high roof itself, it was easy to imagine what working here would have been like. In summer, with hot greasy wool being pulverised in the tanks and floating through the air, with the heat from the washes and the steam plant adding to the outback sun and nothing but back breaking labour for all except the management, it was easy to imagine how this region had been responsible for Australia’s union movement kicking off in the 1890s.

Ah, but that started in the next town down the line, Barcaldine, didn’t it? Right, well we’d better leave that for next month then. But before we retire to those glorious artesian pools – yep, they’ve got them in Blackall too – for an invigorating spa, let me make one thing very clear. In this story – indeed on this trip – we’ve only scratched the surface of tourist possibilities. Every one of these towns has plenty of unique attractions, characters and places of interest that no article can do them all justice. Nope, you could spend twelve months touring the Warrego and still find new things to do.

So much for the outback being boring! See you in Barcaldine!

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