HIT THE ROAD AGAIN AFTER A LONG BREAK

It has been a long time since we have done a road trip or any trip thanks to Covid and getting older and lazier by the day. However, we made arrangement with friends, Peter and Val, to go to Tenterfield for a short break and hopefully to enjoy some Autumn colours. We decided to stop overnight on the way at Stanthorpe and have dinner at Anna's Italian Restaurant.

Stanthorpe is a small town in SE Queensland close to the NSW border. It is in the Southern Downs Region and is 690m/2,260ft above sea level. It is Kanbuwai Country of indigenous people but in 1860's  the local Catholic priest encouraged grape growing to produce altar wine. There were plenty of Italian settlers who found wine making a pleasant pastime as well as growing fruit and vegetables.

In 1870's tin was discovered and with the influx of miners the township grew and was named Stanthorpe which means 'tintown'. When the tin prices fell the miners turned to growing fruit and vegetables. Today, Stanthorpe is known for its apples and wines. It is also popular with coastal dwellers to holiday in the cool climate.

Driving towards the highlands through the pretty Scenic Rim region. 

We stopped for lunch in Warwick at a cafe in a nursery. It had a funny sign outside.

Our friend Peter enjoyed a burger for lunch.

Then we drove onto Stanthorpe. We had a bit of excitement when we arrived at our Motel accommodation where we had booked. The owner told us their hot water heater had broken down and he had booked us into a different Motel. This one had hot water but no breakfast. Anyway we settled in and then went for a walk to the pretty park.

Not so pretty bats/flying foxes hanging upside down asleep waiting for nightfall.

Dinner at Anna's Restaurant. I had lasagna.

HELPING HAND

As most people know parts of Australia are experiencing a dreadful drought. The stock farmers and crop farmers are suffering badly. There is not enough water and feed for the animals, there is not enough water to plant crops, and country towns are running out of water.
Many city folk on the coastal areas are trying to help the people suffering from the drought. Some time ago our village raised money to buy bales of hay and send them to the cattle farmers in the country town of Quilpie.
This week a tour company, "Fun Over 50" invited villagers for a free trip to Stanthorpe in their newest Diamond Class coach. The idea is for us to go to Stanthorpe, a rural town on the Southern Downs of Queensland, to spend money in businesses there. Town businesses are suffering because the farmers don't have money to spend in the towns anymore. So city people are encouraged to go to the country shops to do Christmas shopping.
Besides taking groups of city people to Stanthorpe to spend up, "Fun Over 50" also paid for 10 tankers of water to be sent to the farmers in the area, especially to the vineyards to keep the vines alive.

 So we set off at 6:30am for the 220k/140m trip up the ranges to Stanthorpe. The main road was closed due to bushfires so we had to take a back road. The scorched, parched land was a sad site.

A dry brown land, no cattle, no crops and a thirsty town on the hill.

Some farmers are diversifying into solar farms.
These are banks of solar panels a poor phone photo from the bus.

We enjoyed the wine tasting and we bought lots of wine.

We were taken to 'Jamworks' where we tasted and bought jams.

We bought Christmas gifts 

Then we walked the main street and this message on a shop window says it all. We found an air conditioned hotel where we ordered a big lunch. The temperature was 40°C/104°F. We didn't have a lot of time left to spend in other shops unfortunately, because we had to get back to the coach for the long drive home. We hope our little bit helped the poor people of Stanthorpe. This is only one country town out of hundreds that are suffering.

Main street of Stanthorpe

STRAWBERRY FIELDS

While we were in Stanthorpe we visited Strawberry Fields, a farm where you could pick your own.

Diana was keen to do that.

First the flower

Then the fruit

Rows and rows of them

Now the eating, yum yum. We bought ours from the shop at the same price as PYO. I am not keen on bending over for long time due to a prolapsed disc. Since we have been home we have made a strawberry pie and a strawberry crumble.

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Location:Stanthorpe Qld Australia

THE ITALIAN CONNECTION AND LAW DOGS

 As mentioned in the last post, we spent  two days at Stanthorpe a beautiful town in the ranges. It was settled by Italians and their heritage is still very obvious in the district. Vineyards and orchards are everywhere. There are also Italian stores. The first night we had our Judo Club Reunion dinner at Anna's Italian Restaurant and it was delicious.

The next day we stopped by "Vincenzo"s" store and cafe for morning tea coffee. Can you believe this motley bunch of wrinklies used to do Judo. 

  

 All the tables had beautiful fresh roses another thing that grows well up there.

 The store was full of Italian delicacies like these sausages.

Lots of wine and liqueurs.

After morning tea we drove to an attraction called "Law Dogs Australia"

 It is where dogs, mostly German Shepherds are trained to be  protection dogs and detection dogs. This one is big Kye. He had powerful jaws and could knock a man down in a flash.

This is another one (I can't remember his name), in fact the trainer's favourite. Very intelligent and easy to train.

They start real training at 18 months but puppies are introduced to the idea early by giving them social skills . It was an informative show. I love German Shepherds, we used to have one years ago. He had loads of personality and was protective of our girls.

STANTHORPE'S AUTUMN COLOURS

Stanthorpe is a lovely country town in the area called the Granite Belt. It is a 3 hour drive south west from Brisbane up into the highlands. It is the coldest town in Queensland and therefore can show off some autumn colours, which we don't get in many other areas of Qld.

We went to Stanthorpe for a reunion of a few members of the Port Moresby Judo Club. 50 years ago we all belonged to the club in P/NG. We stayed for 2 nights in a motel which was on the banks of Quart Pot Creek. I went for a walk along the creek, I was enthralled with the beauty.

 The Granite Belt area is famous for its wine. The grape vine is showing off its colours.

This house is called a Queenslander as the architecture is what was used in the early days of settlement. The houses were built up off the ground and with  big wrap around verandas to keep them cool.

I mistakenly grabbed the wrong lens for my DSLR camera when I left home. I was mad with myself and so I had to make do with my phone and the macro lens which I had brought by mistake

STANTHORPE

We went to Stanthorpe for a few days. It is a small country town up in the ranges 223 km south west of Brisbane. It was settled by Italian immigrants. It is famous for its wineries and fruit growing, especially apples. It is often cooler up there compared to steamy Brisbane, so it is a good place to visit when it is hot. It also rains a lot there like it did for the 2 days that we visited.

On the way over the ranges at Cunninghams Gap we were held up for 30 mins just standing still and then moved at a snails pace for ages, just as well we weren't in a hurry. Later we passed a huge wide load that took up both sides of the road. It looked like mining machinery. There were 3 prime movers pulling it and 3 more pushing it over the mountain.There was a police escort. It started to rain.

The view from our Motel.

When there was a lull in the rain I went for a walk along the river while Bill stayed in the dry room and read his book.

There were quiet calm spots in the backwaters and raging torrents over the rocky parts.

It had been raining a lot and the water was rising close to this bridge. It was a bit scary in the middle.

Stanthorpe is a pretty place surrounded by National Parks, granite outcrops and vineyards. It also has one of the best Italian restaurants in Queensland, where we enjoyed dinner on the first night.

Road Trip to Sydney

Monday 16 March After having the house sprayed for insects, spiders and checked for white ants we headed off to Stanthorpe for the night before continuing on to Armidale, Windella and Sydney.

Stanthorpe is a three hour drive up through the ranges and into the Granite Belt. The sky turned dark and we went through a storm.

The sky was changing all the time and we were hoping it wouldn't be a bad storm or a hail storm. We were lucky to have escaped with heavy rain, which had stopped by the time we arrived. We booked into a motel and walked next door to Anna's Restaurant. It is a very popular Italian Restaurant. Lucky we had made a booking from home. We had stuffed mushrooms followed by cannelloni. It was delicious but I felt guilty eating so much as I'm putting on weight.

Tuesday 17 March

The next day we had a walk around Stanthorpe. We loved the park. Bill has an idea for a movie. Up here in the ranges it is cooler and some of the trees change colour in Autumn but we are still having warm weather and not many trees have turned yet. Old hotel and post office buildings in Stanthorpe. The Stanthorpe area is renowned for its wineries, but as we have visited them quite a few times in the past we didn't bother this time. Then we drove for two and a half hours down the New England Highway to Armidale crossing the border from Queensland into New South Wales on the way.

We stayed in a little cabin in a tourist park.

We walked through the parks and town of Armidale and I was disappointed that the trees have not got their Autumn colours yet. There are many old historic buildings. Armidale is a University town and there are boarding schools for the outlying farmer's and station owner's children.

Wednesday 18 March

At Uralla we left the New England Highway and headed down Thunderbolt's Way to Gloucester. It is supposed to be a picturesque alternative route to Sydney. Captain Thunderbolt, (Frederick Ward) seen here on his horse was a famous bushranger in the 1800's. That's a real magpie on his hat. He was known as the Gentleman Bushranger, as he never killed anyone and was kind to battlers. So we are following his way through the mountains. The countyside was beautiful. Rolling green hills dotted with cattle and sheep at first. Then we climbed through eucalyptus forests over The Great Dividing Range.

We stopped at a lookout, unfortunately it was a bit hazy.

After a about three hours we came to another country town, Gloucester. We had lunch and then drove another hour through the beautiful green countyside of The Hunter Valley region to our friend's house at Windella, where we have been invited to stay for the next two nights.