A delayed start to the morning to get a crack on the windscreen repaired – this masked woodswallow was outside the glass repair business. Cotton and mining are the main industries around Narrabri. Mount Kaputar National Park from the Boggabri Road. Cooloobindi – a rock outcrop towering over the Kamilaroi Highway outside Boggabri. Gum blossom … More Northern NSW – Winter 2018 – Day 3 – Back to New England Tableland

The main section of Mount Kaputar National Park is 53km east of Narrabri. Its road rises from an altitude of 200m in Narrabri to 1510m at the summit of Mount Kaputar providing spectacular views of the volcanic Nandewar Range. A kangaroo at Bark Hut camping area A track leads to Euglah Rock Lookout Further up … More Northern NSW – Winter 2018 – Day 2 – Mount Kaputar

Another short vacation this winter to northern New South Wales. We have driven past some our favourite national parks in the last few years of travel so decided to take a shorter trip and catch up. We travelled out through Toowoomba and along the Gore Highway through Pittsworth and Milmerran to Goondiwindi. A black-shouldered kite … More Northern NSW – Winter 2018 – Day 1 – Sawn Rocks

A sleep in – a great bed – best of the trip. Then a drive around the range to Picnic Point. This is Tabletop looking east from the Great Divide. A rock felt fern on a hoop pine trunk The New England Highway at Highfields north of Toowoomba. Go to the next picture if you … More South Western Qld – Winter 2018 – Day 6 – Toowoomba to home

The water tank in Yuleba looks like salvage from a satellite In a short space of time, I found not one, not two but three dates in town. Judds Lagoon outside Yuleba. Not many grey nomads here, it was too pretty and had facilities. The local caretaker. Cockatiels were nesting in a tree near the … More South Western Qld – Winter 2018 – Day 5 – Western Downs to Toowoomba

Young Willow at the Charleville Bilby Experience. Bilbies in the viewing enclosure Willow the bilby Sarah the Bilby Mulga lands around Charleville Emus near Morven – fencing keeping them off the highway. Mulga gives way to cypress forests east of Mitchell Two (very big) lovebirds danced and paraded for us. This guy found us very … More South Western Qld – Winter 2018 – Day 4 – Bilbies, Big Birds and Bush

The main street came alive in the morning – plenty of locals and tourists out and about. Lots of locals saying g’day – nice change from the city. And I thought the mascots of Kilcoy and Moore from Day 1 couldn’t be topped – I was wrong. Forget the Bilby Experience and Cosmos Centre in … More South Western Qld – Winter 2018 – Day 3 – Charleville

Silos at Drillham heading west from Miles Roadside droving east of Roma The Roma salesyard is the largest livestock selling centre in Australia with two sales every week on Tuesdays and Thursdays. There was over 4500 head of cattle auctioned on this day (the maximum being around 12000 per day). Bidding was fast and then … More South Western Qld – Winter 2018 – Day 2 – The Maranoa

Off again  – this time west on a partially planned trip. Mount Beerwah from the Beerwah-Woodford Road. Battle of the mascots on the D’Aguilar Highway – Kilcoy has the Yowie while further up the road, Moore has the Firefighter with a keen sense of smell. Tourism win all round. Magnificent bottle tree outside Cooyar It … More South Western Qld – Winter 2018 – Day 1 – Miles and Miles to Miles

Across the road from our accommodation, daylight reveals the enormity of the Big Merino – they come in all sheeps and sizes but this is the biggest! Inside the belly of the beast. We could only see out through the nostrils – they had pulled the wool over his eyes. Morton National Park Mountain devil … More The Australian High Country 2018 – Day 12 – The Illawarra

The road from Cooma to Canberra – the poplars were turning gold. White-backed magpie at its northern most part of its range south of Canberra Liquid amber near Bredbo Time for a visit to New Parliament House – no Prime Minister seen but a few mal-content public servants House of Representatives chamber Senate chamber The … More The Australian High Country 2018 – Day 11 – The Nation’s Capital