A Big Country! Part 1

I have just returned from a short trip out to south-west Queensland and will post about it over the next few days. This is the first time I have been out that way and I had a great time. Thanks to all who commented while I have been away. I have a lot of reading to catch up with!

The title of this post may be trite and over-used but this was the overall impression of the trip - huge spaces and the further west we got the more empty it was!

We started by climbing up the range to Toowoomba and then heading up towards Dalby. (I am including a screen capture from Google maps with the route marked on it. I got road maps from the RACQ before we left but details were better on the Google maps which I also printed out.) Click on all picture files to enlarge them.

These next few photos were taken through the car window as we traveled along. We knew we had a long way to go and didn't want to keep stopping.

This area is used for growing grain and some paddocks were fallow with just stubble left from the previous crop but some others were very green with new crops.

Many years ago my father told us about the way the Prickly Pear cactus had invaded much of Queensland and New South Wales. The problem was huge - 24 million hectares of land infested by 1920. The solution was to bring in eggs of the cactoblastis moth from Argentina and by 1936 the cactus was controlled. This community hall was built to commemorate that and is on the highway at Boonarga. There are still some bushes of cactus growing along the roadside but it is no longer infesting good land.

Another interesting place was in the town of Roma. There are several roads lined with Bottle Trees which were planted to remember the soldiers who were killed in the war. Some of these trees are now huge! Each tree had a small plaque remembering one of the soldiers that died.

Part 2 coming soon!