Queensland:- Emerald / Bundoora Dam

(28/10/2017 – 30/10/2017)

I spy with my little eye something beginning with C!!!  I spy with my little eye something beginning with T!!!   I spy with my little eye something beginning with G!!   And so the car games continue as we travel north on the Carnarvon Highway  to Emerald.

We stopped in  Emerald to go shopping, have some lunch and fill up with fuel.  We had a drive around the town and then stopped at the visitor information centre.  We were planning to free camp just out of town but Andrew got talking to the staff member in the centre who told him about Bundoora Dam.

Outside the info centre was a huge easel of the famous Vincent Van Gogh’s painting of sunflowers which he originally painted in the early 1800s.   Van Gogh saw the sunflower as a symbol of life and hope.    This actual painting here in Emerald was done by Cameron Cross (a Canadian artist).    This super structure stands 25 metres high.   Approx 13 tonnes of steel was required to complete the easel.   A total of 50 litres of high performance paint was required to complete the giant work of art which has a weight of approx 4.5 tonnes.   It’s the largest painting in the Southern Hemisphere and this  painting celebrates the Central Highland’s Region’s reputation as a major Australian sunflower producer!!!!

From Emerald we continued to Bundoora Dam.    It was about a 2 hour drive, missed the turn off but we finally found it!!!     Wow, what a gorgeous spot which feels like it’s in the middle of nowhere!!   The man-made dam was constructed on German Creek and is near the German Creek Coal Mine.    It was just lovely and so we decided to stay for 2 nights and then head up to Mackay on Monday morning.   So glad we changed our plans and not stay at the other place we were originally looking at, this was sooo much better!!!

There were a few caravans and tents camped along the water’s edge but we parked up on the hill overlooking the dam.       Since it was the weekend there were quite a number of people coming in to water ski and jet ski, etc, just for the day.

Oh how we wished we had our boat here…………..

The water was fresh and cool and the bottom was a mixture of mud and sand so no yucky and creepy crawly things in there!!!!

The sunsets over the dam were just stunning and it was so peaceful of a night!!! It was a great free camping spot!!!!

(28/10/2017 – 30/10/2017)