Queensland Heritage Centre, Mt Scoria and Lake Cania Rainbows (Yeppoon Trip)

Monday 12 July 2021 – 312 370

This morning we found one of the car tyres had gone down significantly overnight, so we headed into town to have it repaired.  Turned out it had a nail in it – all sorted and good to go thanks to Biloela Tyre Centre.

https://www.tyreright.com.au/en/Service-Centres/biloela-tyre-centre  

We then went back to Queensland Heritage Park and explored. They have an amazing variety of models of farm equipment and old trucks.

http://www.qldheritagepark.com.au/

Mt Scoria Conservation Park was our picnic lunch location. The walk had some attractive signage regarding the indigenous history of the area and creation stories. From the picnic ground you can see the mountain and its rocky structure. On the ground you could see broken pieces of the basalt columns.

https://parks.des.qld.gov.au/parks/mount-scoria

Tonight, we are camping at Cania Gorge Tourist Retreat. After setting up and doing some much needed washing, we headed out. We drove to the Shamrock Mine area and did some exploring. There are so many holes and heaps from previous gold mining, as well as underground shafts.

https://www.caniagorgeretreat.com.au/

https://parks.des.qld.gov.au/parks/cania-gorge/about

https://www.aussiebushwalking.com/qld/wide-bay-burnett/cania-gorge-np/shamrock-mine-site

Lake Cania and the dam wall were our next stops. While we were here it rained and we asl had the sun on the escarpment providing a very pretty scene. This was one of the brightest rainbows I have ever seen.

https://www.queensland.com/au/en/things-to-do/attractions/p-56b25fcf7b935fbe730df374-lake-cania

Mount Morgan and Biloela (Yeppoon Trip)

Sunday 11 July 2021 – 312 091

After packing down we drove to Yeppoon Lagoon for another beautiful swim. https://www.visitcapricorn.com.au/service/yeppoon-lagoon

Mount Morgan was today’s adventure. We drove up the Razorback Road as the main road was closed for hill sprints. The Mount Morgan Railway Museum provided an informative video on how the rack rail system worked for getting good safely up and down the steep gradient of the razorback.  Apparently, this was one of only two rack rail systems used in Australia.

https://www.mountmorgan.org.au/Home

https://www.visitcapricorn.com.au/10-things-to-do-in-mount-morgan

https://www.mountmorgan.org.au/See-Do/Museum-tours/Mount-Morgan-Railway-Museum-and-Accredited-Visitor-Information-Centre

https://www.rockhamptonregion.qld.gov.au/FacilitiesRecreation/Mount-Morgan-Railway-Museum

We then had a look at the Private Victor Stanley Jones Suspension Bridge – this did not appear to have any point (as in there was a perfectly good bridge quite nearby) and looked relatively new.

https://www.mountmorgan.org.au/See-Do/Historic-Locations/The-Private-Victor-Stanley-Jones-Suspension-Bridge

The main street of Mount Morgan has some beautiful old building and lovely gardens and picnic areas in the central island.

The Arthur Timms Lookout gave good views over the mine.  This also had plenty of room to turn around with the van on which is always a win.

https://www.mountmorgan.org.au/See-Do/Historic-Locations/The-Arthur-Timms-Lookout

On to Biloela, we are staying at the Queensland Heritage Park. After setting up, we drove out to look at Callide Dam, this had a surprising amount of water in it considering it didn’t even read the bottom of the spillway and how dry the surrounding countryside is. It would be great to see it again when near full.  Further up Callide Road we turned up the hill to a pair of lookouts over the Callide Power Plant and Dam.

https://sandstonewonders.com/towns/biloela/

http://www.qldheritagepark.com.au/

https://www.queensland.com/au/en/things-to-do/attractions/p-56b25fae7b935fbe730df0ce-callide-dam

https://www.queensland.com/au/en/things-to-do/attractions/p-5f92581dcb0300ed45db9a41-callide-mine-lookout

Returning to Biloela, we went to the Spirit of the Land Mural. This was excellent with very good descriptions of each scene and the meaning of the artwork.

https://www.queensland.com/us/en/things-to-do/attractions/p-583cf78dacd3fe2e575f5e90-spirit-of-the-land-mural