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Mitsubishi 4WD Owners Club of Qld (Inc) |
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Boolbunda Tunnel Trip - Nov '08Link to the PhotoBucket slideshow here. Trip leader- Ross Hall Participants: Debbi Doherty, Graeme Clarke, John Veling, Brian McKenzie, Faye Stanley.
I haven’t been on a Ross Hall trip before but I do know one thing - he likes driving and driving and driving. So where is the Boolboonda Tunnel you ask???? Well I asked the same question thinking it can’t be that far away but 1100km later and arriving home exhausted just before 10.00pm on a Sunday night I thought, why didn’t we charter a plane instead? With a small group we left Saturday morning and headed up the highway for our first stop which was at Mamminos Ice cream near Childers. After munching away we then continued north stopping for lunch at the Tirroan hotel (out of Gin Gin) before finding a campsite at the Kalpower Forest Reserve (100 kms NE of Gin Gin). A beautiful spot, flat, grass, long drop toilets and sheltered table and chairs. Someone even left a large pile of wood for use. Night sky was just fantastic and the usual camp stories kept us entertained. That was the good day!! Things started to go wrong when I poke my head out of the tent on Sunday morning and saw that Ross was already with his tent down at 6.00am. 6.00am???? But the night before Ross said we were leaving the next morning at 8.30am?? (Graeme even tried squeezing 9.00am out of him). No time for eggs, bacon, coffee as we headed out of camp earlier than expected. Zoomed out of the gate, turned left and 5 mins later on the radio was “I don’t think this was the road we came in on”? Now I do not have GPS like all the others but blind Freddy could have told you that this was not the way we came in. Anyway, we continued along and all was forgiven as we found the right track. Let’s go and have a look at the ‘Galatea diggings” Ross said. “I haven’t been there before but it is not too far off the track.” Hmmm, do I need to tell more as Graeme Clarke started humming the banjo theme from Deliverance as we drove onto someone’s property searching for it? Morning tea was at an old mine and then we continued to the Boolboonda Tunnel, which is the largest unsupported tunnel in the Southern Hemisphere (built 1884). You can actually drive through with your vehicle but you need to watch the bats, as they love hanging upside down and doing dirty deeds on people that don’t have wide brimmed hats. After also doing a walk through the tunnel we then headed off to the Mt Perry hotel for lunch and then to see the slag pile left behind from the old copper days. A very interesting place! Lots of dust and dirt later we then continued on to Goodnight Scrub National Park to see the spectacular views from “one tree lookout” and the on to Paradise dam. Which was a controversial damming project over 5 years ago. Scenery along the way changed from hoop pine forest, thick scrub to lush rolling hills (which was great for our trip leader but for the rest of us it was just dust). A bit of light rain did give some reprieve but the dust was thick and heavy in spots. Still, that is why we have 4wds isn’t it? Some more great and spectacular scenery as we headed back to Childers for another Ice cream stops. Hmm?? This place looks familiar as we drove back into Mamminos? The ice cream man said “haven’t I seen you before”? It was great weekend away. We saw some fascinating places, drove over lots of windy dusty roads, up hills, through mining areas of interest and of course the tunnel. A top trip and well done Ross! But next time can we charter a plane please? John Veling P.S. - Brian McKenzie had a lot of “family” history on the area that made it even more interesting. He was a walking library. Back to Top
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