Sun, 19th May, 2024 Girard State Forest Rest Area, east of Tenterfield, NSW to Dumaresq River Rest Area, Texas, Qld (exploring)

6.8 degrees in the camper at 6.30am - ouch. Took a long while for the heater to warm us back up to an acceptable temperature!! Will need warmer Pjs from now on. Clear sky.

Back out onto the main road and continued through the state forest. Across Crooked Creek as we wound our way around the edge of the hills, slowly descending to 570m. Out of the forest and along the side of Sandy Creek. Across it and then up again. Up and down the hills and along ridges (780m) then another climb up to 892m. Dropped down a bit to a sign - Historical Township of Black Swan, but no other information. Only a farm and grazing land here now.

Climbed up and down the hills through grazing land. Another climb up to 916m (10km from Tenterfield) then we passed a sign, Great Dividing Range, 888m - our Hema says 896 so we are a bit out!

As we passed I got a couple of photos of a lovely old home as we near Tenterfield - looks old worldy but no signs about it.

Forgot to look at what the elevation was on the Hema so Googled it - 850m.

Sadly we are too late for the beautiful autumn tree display as I saw on their Facebook page.

Turned off to check out a Cork Tree marked on Wikicamps. Found a tree that hasn’t lost it leaves.

The Cork Tree is amazing. A chap was raking up the seed pods and Steve joked about people stopping to cut off some cork for their fishing lines - he said ‘not if he catches them!’ He explained that where they are grown commercially they cut slabs of the cork bark off then leave it regenerate then harvest again another time. Never really thought about where cork came from - now we know. He also said it has a shallow root system but puts out the limbs evening to balance it. According to the info on the Tenterfield Cork Tree site these trees are also known as Wishing Trees.

Headed into town - lots of old world homes here which I like better than modern homes. The Royal Hotel looks grand.

Parked near the Information Centre but it is now permanently closed. Lots of motorbikes driving around the district too. There was a display in the window about Mingoola and all the different immigrants that worked and lived there. We will be going past it.

Headed down the main street. Nice bit of art work.

Lovely entrance for the war memorial. There was a board inside the window about the different wars etc.

The School of Arts building was where Henry Parkes delivered his speech that started the creation of Australia’s Federation. Therefore Tenterfield is known as the Birthplace of our nation.

The Post Office is impressive.

More history. Edward Whereat achieved a lot in his 54 years of living. Married 3 times, 10 children, various business interests etc.

On the opposite corner is another section of the School of Arts building. The main front faces the main street.

On the other two corners were Reid’s Store (1889), sadly covered now with Mitre 10 sign and the Exchange Hotel (1892). Very interesting section about why the verandah posts were removed - crazy car drivers in the early days.

I walked across the road for a photo like the one in the poster. I couldn’t stand in the middle of the street like how the old one was taken. Though when I looked down the street it looks just the same with the hill in the background with a leafy area in the middle where a brook runs.

Continued along to a nice park and information. Now I know where Bruxner Highway etc got it’s name from - a Deputy Premier of NSW.

Great map of the area. We are going to follow the road to Mingoola than around the Qld/NSW border and back into Qld at Texas.

In the trees outside the Exchange Hotel we found another history board about a soldier who was a lawyer and defended soldiers that the movie Breaker Morant was made about.

Diagonally opposite is the School of Arts building - better angle of the whole building. It takes up a lot of area on the corner.

Continued our walk down the slope towards the creek. Lovely old building. A bit further on was information about it, Reid’s Cottage, 1865 (which is beside Reid’s Store of course) and the Flour Mill (1871) down the road a bit.

Churches are always made to make a statement. I wonder how many bricks where used to make this one.

A bit of colour on the trees in the park. Found a perfect one. I am happy now I found some autumn colour.

There is another walk to do but we will skip it this time.

Bit of old channelling as we make our way back to the truck.

Drove south out to the reservoir for a cuppa and so I could upload my blog etc as we didn’t have any phone reception last night.

Back through town and onto the New England Highway heading north for a bit then we turned onto Bruxner Way and headed westward through grazing land.

Across Saltwater Creek - no seas here but I suppose it might get salty from the ground. Spotted some sheep and donkeys together.

Past a farm growing boulders, haha - they were all over his paddock then they just disappeared.

Nice views across the rolling cream coloured grassy hills as we roll up and down the hills.

Lovely view as we go over Mount Pleasant too.

Through historical area of Mingoola - that I read about in the Info Centre window. A bit further over is the Queensland border. On the other side are hills covered in wild Cypress Pine.

The road turns and we are now travelling beside the Dumaresq River which is the Qld/NSW border. It flows to Goondiwindi. We turned off and went over a bridge to have lunch by what I thought was Mole River as it showed on Wikicamps but later I found out it was the Dumaresq. So we were actually back in Queensland and didn’t realise it at the time. It was lovely to see out in the sunshine watching the water flow. Lots of little wrens flittering about.

Back into NSW again and we continued on. Nice view across the hills on the left and the river and Qld on the right.

Through a big area of planted trees but no sign as to what they are growing. Reading the Mingoola information I had photographed it said they are Pecan Nut trees.

More sheep grazing then we crossed Beardy River. Up the other side of the ‘peninsula’, which it looks like on the map.

Cotton is grown here - that’s easy to spot in the field and with all the bits by the roadside.

Interesting old sheds - worked out later they were old tobacco drying sheds.

Turned off as we entered small township of Bonshaw and down Sawmill Road. Passed a property with two dogs that wanted to race around our truck but luckily we didn’t hit them. We continued down the track till it became a narrow dirt track. Got out and walked the rest of the way to the Dumaresq River. Looks like it is a crossing too.

Lots of prickly pear growing too.

One traveller parked at the rest area near the school (est 1914). A few houses this side of the main road - the rest appear to be on the other. We continued down the main road heading northward.

5km along we turned off to Bonshaw Weir. A few more travellers have chosen this spot for the night. Bit boggy from the storm last night one couple said.

We continued on then turned off to stay the night in Texas - Queensland that is, not the USA.

Across the Dumaresq River and into sunny Queensland - haha. Haven’t been able to say that for a long time with all the rain it has had in the last 6 months.

Lots of travellers in the camping area by the river. We will come back later and stay.

Into town and up the main street.

Parked and walked up and down reading the history signs etc.

Drove down to the Rabbit Factory but sadly it isn’t open till Tues.

The Historical and Tobacco Museum only opens on Sat so we will have to visit Texas again. The old police station.

Cheaper fuel in Qld too - 192.9c/l so we topped up.

Down to the free camp and chose a spot. Sat in the sunshine while we had our cuppas.

Walked down across the old bridge - don’t think it’s the original one as per the sign.

Obviously this got washed away in the flood.

Chatted with a couple of ladies from Bundaberg!

Lovely tree and water tank photo.

Walked back up through the other travellers to the new bridge. Found a bit of info in the shelter shed, though a bit hard to read behind the perspex.

Down another track to the river. Someone had a line and pot in trying their luck for some dinner as it is a bit deeper here.

4pm and the sun is disappearing behind the trees and so is the temperature. No fire tonight so we had drinks inside and played some cards.

Dug out our winter boots, coats and thermal underwear - might put them under our pjs as forecast is for 3 degrees tomorrow morning.

Dinner and movie with the heater keeping us warm. I had the window open a bit and the breeze coming in was freezing. Need to keep the top windows open or we get a lot of condensation on the aluminium frame around the roof.