Birds seen on trip

Species Name	Comments
Magpie Goose
Plumed Whistling-Duck	Everywhere, sometimes in  in huge numbers
Wandering Whistling-Duck
Greylag Goose (Domestic type)
Domestic goose sp. (Domestic type)
Black Swan
Radjah Shelduck
Muscovy Duck (Domestic type)
Green Pygmy-Goose
Cotton Pygmy-Goose	Surprisingly common.  Lifer
Australian Wood Duck
Mallard (Domestic type)
Pacific Black Duck
Mallard x Pacific Black Duck (hybrid)
Grey Teal
Hardhead
Australian Brushturkey
Orange-footed Scrubfowl	Few sightings
Brown Quail
Australasian Grebe
Great Crested Grebe	Tablelands Lakes
Black-necked Stork	Burdekin River only
Little Pied Cormorant
Great Cormorant
Little Black Cormorant
Pied Cormorant
Australasian Darter
Australian Pelican
White-necked Heron
Great Egret
Intermediate Egret
White-faced Heron
Little Egret
Eastern Reef Egret
Cattle Egret
Australian White Ibis
Straw-necked Ibis
Royal Spoonbill
Black-shouldered Kite (Australian)
Square-tailed Kite
Wedge-tailed Eagle
Swamp Harrier
Spotted Harrier
Grey Goshawk
Brown Goshawk
Collared Sparrowhawk
Black Kite	often in largeish numbers
Whistling Kite
White-bellied Sea-Eagle
Australian Bustard	Two sightings
Pale-vented Bush-hen	Lifer
Australasian Swamphen
Dusky Moorhen
Eurasian Coot
Sarus Crane	2 sites near Yungaburra
Brolga	Huge flock at Mazeppa NP
Bush Stone-curlew	Very common at Yungaburra.  Heard other sites
Black-winged Stilt (Australian)
Australian Pied Oystercatcher
Masked Lapwing
Comb-crested Jacana
Whimbrel
Eastern Curlew
Bar-tailed Godwit
Ruddy Turnstone
Latham's Snipe
Silver Gull
Gull-billed Tern
Caspian Tern
Crested Tern
Rock Dove
White-headed Pigeon
Brown Cuckoo-Dove (Australian)
Pacific Emerald Dove	Garden bird at Yunmgaburra
Crested Pigeon
Peaceful Dove
Bar-shouldered Dove
Wompoo Fruit-Dove	Nesting at Curtain Fig Tree
Pheasant Coucal
Shining Bronze-Cuckoo
Fan-tailed Cuckoo
Barn Owl
Australian Swiftlet
Laughing Kookaburra
Blue-winged Kookaburra	Mount Garnet
Forest Kingfisher	Common at Yungaburra
Sacred Kingfisher
Rainbow Bee-eater
Nankeen Kestrel
Australian Hobby
Red-tailed Black-Cockatoo
Galah
Little Corella
Sulphur-crested Cockatoo
Cockatiel
Australian King-Parrot
Red-winged Parrot	Several sightings
Australian Ringneck
Pale-headed Rosella
Red-rumped Parrot
Double-eyed Fig-Parrot	Lifer, Bird of the trip
Little Lorikeet
Rainbow Lorikeet
Scaly-breasted Lorikeet	Several sightings around Yungaburra
Spotted Bowerbird
Superb Fairywren
Red-backed Fairywren
Eastern Spinebill
Yellow-spotted Honeyeater
Lewin's Honeyeater
Yellow Honeyeater
Yellow-faced Honeyeater
Noisy Miner
Yellow-throated Miner
Bridled Honeyeater	Endemic
Spiny-cheeked Honeyeater
Red Wattlebird
Singing Honeyeater
White-plumed Honeyeater
Dusky Honeyeater
Scarlet Honeyeater
Brown Honeyeater
White-cheeked Honeyeater
Blue-faced Honeyeater
Macleay's Honeyeater	Endemic
Helmeted Friarbird
Noisy Friarbird
Striated Pardalote
Yellow-throated Scrubwren	Lake Barrine
Atherton Scrubwren
Large-billed Scrubwren
Mountain Thornbill	Lifer
Weebill
Fairy Gerygone	Lifer
White-throated Gerygone
Brown Gerygone
Grey-crowned Babbler
Chowchilla	Endemic  Lifer, Lake Barrine
Eastern Whipbird
White-breasted Woodswallow
Dusky Woodswallow
Grey Butcherbird
Pied Butcherbird
Australian Magpie
Pied Currawong
Barred Cuckooshrike	Lifer Mather Rd
Black-faced Cuckooshrike
White-bellied Cuckooshrike	Several sightings at Yungaburra
Varied Triller	Once on Mather Rd
Grey Shrikethrush
Bower's Shrikethrush	Lifer, several sightings around Yungaburra
Golden Whistler
Rufous Whistler
Olive-backed Oriole
Australasian Figbird	Very common around Yungaburra
Spangled Drongo
Willie Wagtail
Grey Fantail
Black-faced Monarch	1 sighting at Curtain Fig
Spectacled Monarch	Quite common at Yungaburra
Pied Monarch	1 sighting on Petersons's Creek
Magpie-lark
Leaden Flycatcher
Torresian Crow	Everywhere on the Tablelands
Little Crow	Western/Central Queensland
Australian Raven
Little Raven
crow/raven sp.
Apostlebird
Victoria's Riflebird	Curtain Fig Tree, Lifer
Pale-yellow Robin
Eastern Yellow Robin
White-browed Robin
Grey-headed Robin	Lifer Lake Barrine
Welcome Swallow
Fairy Martin
Tree Martin
Australian Reed-Warbler
Tawny Grassbird
Golden-headed Cisticola
Silvereye
Common Blackbird
Metallic Starling	One sighting of 2 birds in Garden.
Common Starling
Common Myna
Mistletoebird
Olive-backed Sunbird
Australasian Pipit
House Sparrow
Red-browed Finch
Crimson Finch
Double-barred Finch
Scaly-breasted Munia	Lifer, Cairns Esplanade
Chestnut-breasted Mannikin

The testing of pies

Over the last couple of trips I have taken to reviewing the pies I have had for lunch most days.  On this trip I have also discussed the offerings with Frances and think I can offer a summary of the factors considered in arriving at a rating.  I will also see if can attach scores to each factor.

1. Basic taste according to style.  This gets a maximum score of 3 points.  If a plain meat pie has a very good taste it can score 3, whereas a pepper pie has to taste of pepper, and a steak and kidney pie has to have both steak and kidney.
2. Was there some decent meat in there or just mince meat?  +1 for chunks of meat, -1 for only mince meat.  On further consideration if it is only a plain pie, steak should not be expected so a score of 0 is awarded for mince in a basic pie.
3. What is the ratio of meat to gravy?  Overall chewy +1, bit runny 0, could be eaten through a straw -1.
4. How about ratio of crust to filling.  Solid crust holds the deal together +1.  Crust a bit weak and collapses under the weight of filling, 0.  Volume of crust greater than filling -1.
5. Texture of crust.  Flaky and crisp 1.  Burnt or under-cooked 0, indistiguishable from cardboard -1
6. Nicely warm indicating freshly made +2.  Very hot indicating pie which has been nuked  +1.  Barely warm-1
7. Is it basically a home made pie or something commercial.  Home made +1.  Origin unclear 0.  Anything involving cellophane -1.

Here is a score sheet using my memory of the best and worst pies encountered on the trip.

Category	Quincan café	Chillago
Taste	3	1
Meatiness	1	-1
Gravy ratio	1	0
Crust ratio	0	1
crust nature	1	-1
Warmth	2	1
Artisanality	1	-1
Total	9	0

This pretty much comes out where I did at the time, although I think I gave Chillago a score of 3, knowing this to be logically unsustainable.

A couple of years down the track I have decided that it should be possible to give a bonus point if acquiring the pie leads  to an unexpected but enjoyable eating site.  This was occasioned by the Poppet Head Rest Area in West Wyalong, which we would never have visited if we didn't need to break the trip to eat the pie! 

An overview and index

The idea of this post is to give an overview of the trip and provide a consolidated way of navigating around the set of posts.

Overall I rated the trip very successful.  We avoided 6 weeks of Carwoola Winter, saw many interesting things and new places and got to 'know' Yungaburra a bit.

• Bird of the trip: There are three categories now.
• The prime award goes to Double-eyed Fig-Parrot as it is cute and was a lifer.  The runner up award goes to Chowchilla: also a lifer and very difficult to see on the floor of the rainforest at Lake Barrine.  
• In the flocks category it is very hard to choose between the Plumed Whistling Ducks at Hasties Swamp and the Brolgas at Mazeppa.  The latter just win as the flock had dispersed somewhat when another birder had a go, and thus our sighting of the Brolgas was special.  (Frances went for the PWDs as they were evident in more places
• The ubiquitous award can only be applied at the end of the trip.  Several contenders here, with the Gold Bogie going to Masked Lapwing.  Seen everywhere (a fair definition of ubiquity) and often initially mistaken for some thing else,   Second was Australian White Ibis, but it is not good to see the ultimate bin-chook win.  Black Kite was common everywhere north of the Mitchell Highway but not on the first or last days.  Cattle Egrets were in large numbers everywhere East of the Divide, but that rules out about 7 days.  Magpie-larks were everywhere but in smaller numbers than the other contenders.
• Vegetation of the trip:   In the "native" category I put the rainforest around Lake Barrine as the winner, with the regeneration at our friend's place at Daintree and the vegetation along Peterson's Creek at Yungaburra as tied for second place.  The 'agricultural' award goes to the ubiquitous sugar cane.
• Memorable moment:  Finding the chewed spud in the car, showing that the rat was in there.
• Comment of the trip: The two contenders were both at the caravan park in St Georgeearly in the trip:
• I think the winner was an exchange between two folks on the Monday morning.  "In a weeks time I'll be back at work." "Good: someone's gotta pay for our pension!".
• The second place award again featured two people but on the Sunday night.  As the party was breaking one one of the members said "Well we'll see you later somewhere.  I probably won't recognise you but I'll say g'day any way.
• Pie of the trip: The plain pie from the Quincan cafe wins out for being such a welcome change from the rather poor offerings of most places in Queensland.  It was pretty good anyway, and would have been even higher rated if the crust had the strength needed to contain the huge amount of filling. The most memorable is a tie between the offering at Chillago - barely edible - and one Frances had at Proserpine which included a whole hard-boiled egg (also barely edible).
• Troppo moment of the trip. Tinaroo man, with his strange clothing and undertaking the most tropical of activities, mowing a very extensive lawn.

In terms of statistics:

• We covered 8300km of which about 5200km were towing the camper.  We averaged 11.7 litres /100km (or 23.9mpg). The average cost per litre was $1.246 (with a range from $1.299 in Mackay to $1.129 - including discount - on the outskirts of Townsville).
• I recorded 194 species of birds (including 4 species of domestic waterfowl).  10 of these were lifers.

Our overall route is shown in blue on a clip from Google Maps:

The dashed green line is our original plan which I changed as a result of finding out that there was a large RV Rally and "Henley on Flinders" event at Hughenden (marked with a red cross).  I'd still like to visit Longreach (but not in Summer).

Following a question from a friend I realise I didn't complete the circle on the dog-scone situation.  Here is the full story:

Basically both vets that looked at her started by saying that her teeth were in fine.  The second guy - the one in Atherton - thought that there were two options: 

​​1  the infection had got into bone; or

2 some form of cancer.

When he had her asleep he looked at x-rays and ruled out 1.  He then looked at the serum under the microscope and ruled out 2.  He then had a very close look at her teeth and found a couple of back molars were, in fact, rotten and were the source of the problem.  He yanked them.  
He also sent a sample away for culture and this turned out to show that the bacterium involved was a rather nasty variety that was resistant to the antibiotics he'd provided.  It sounded as though she had got that from the dirt in which she buries her bones.  He gave us some boss antibiotics which together with the yanking, seem to have fixed the business up.  Although she missed the rat when she had a chance.

The following is a set of links to the daily posts.

Date	Area	Topic and hyperlink
02-Jul	To Gilgandra	To Gilgandra
03-Jul	To St George	To St George
04-Jul	To Roma	To Roma
05-Jul	To Emerald	Roma,  Emerald
06-Jul	Emerald	Emerald
07-Jul	To Charters Towers	Clermont, Charters Towers
08-Jul	To Mt Garnet	Charters Towers, Mt Garnet
09-Jul	Mt Garnet	Mt Garnet, Atherton
10-Jul	To Yungaburra	Mt Garnet, Platypus
11-Jul	FN  Queensland	Tour of Tinaroo
12-Jul	FN  Queensland	Yungaburra
13-Jul	FN  Queensland	Tinaburra
14-Jul	FN  Queensland	Cairns
15-Jul	FN  Queensland	Atherton
16-Jul	FN  Queensland	Lake Barrine
17-Jul	FN  Queensland	Yungaburra
18-Jul	FN  Queensland	Yungaburra
19-Jul	FN  Queensland	Daintree
20-Jul	FN  Queensland	Daintree
21-Jul	FN  Queensland	Yungaburra
22-Jul	FN  Queensland	Innisfail
23-Jul	FN  Queensland	Yungaburra Market
24-Jul	FN  Queensland	Mt Hypipamee
25-Jul	FN  Queensland	Mareeba
26-Jul	FN  Queensland	Mount Hypipamee
27-Jul	FN  Queensland	Curtain Fig Tree
28-Jul	FN  Queensland	Lake Eacham
29-Jul	FN  Queensland	Atherton
30-Jul	FN  Queensland	Chillago
31-Jul	FN  Queensland	Yungaburra
01-Aug	FN  Queensland	Car non-sevice Atherton
02-Aug	FN  Queensland	Lake Barrine
03-Aug	FN  Queensland	Yungaburra, Malanda
04-Aug	FN  Queensland	Mareeba, Skybury
05-Aug	FN  Queensland	Nerada Tea, Car service Mareeba
06-Aug	FN  Queensland	Lake Barrine, Yungaburra
07-Aug	To Alva Beach	Alva Beach
08-Aug	To Mackay	Mackay
09-Aug	To Rockhampton	Rockhampton
10-Aug	To Goondiwindi	Mount Morgan, Goondiwindi
11-Aug	To Wellington	NW NSW
12-Aug	Home	That’s all folks
Overview	Pie testing	Pie rating methods
Overview	The Rat	A saga
Overview	Observations	Birdlist
Overview	Observations	Animal list

Animals of Northern Trip

Butterflies

Orchard Swallowtail
Ulysses Swallowtail
Cairns Birdwing
Varied Eggfly
Bordered Rustic
Common Jezabel
Red-banded Jezabel
Common Grass-blue

Other invertebrates

Plecia sp.
Huntsman spider

Marsupials

Eastern Grey Kangaroo

Agile Wallaby

Lumholtz Tree-Kangaroo

Red-necked Pademelon
Musky Rat-Kangaroo

Long-nosed Bandicoot

Northern Brown Bandicoot

Coppery Brush-tailed Possum
Common Brush-tailed Kangaroo

Lemuroid Ring-tailed Possum

Striped Possum

Yellow-bellied Glider

Sugar Glider

Feather-tailed Glider

Reptiles

Red-throated Rainbow Skink

Gecko

Other Vertebrates

Spectacled Fruit-Bat
Little Red Fruit-Bat

Dingo (former, on the road to Charters Towers)

Feral pigs
Echidna (former, on the road somewhere on the way home)

The saga of The Rat

I have covered parts of this in various daily posts but thought it was an important enough part of the trip - in terms of the number of days it affected - to get a full post of its own.

The story began on August 4 as I delivered the Pajero to a dealership in Mareeba to get some important work done.  The main street of Mareeba is limited to 40kph and there are quite a few pedestrian crossings.  Each time we approached a crossing with peiople on it they'd point at the front of the car and look worried.  I assumed this was because fluids were leaking (part of the reason for the work) smiled, and carried on.

The next day we turned up to collect the car (all work done) and the mechanic commented on the big rodent in the car.  He then explained that when they were working under the car (on 4 August) they had suddenly found a large rat looking at them.  They got a bit vocal at this point - to the extent that the receptionist went to see what was causing the fuss.    However the rat disappeared and they didn't know where it had gone: was it somewhere in the car or somewhere in the workshop?  ( I suspect that the rat was hanging 20 on the front of the car and that is what the folk in the Mareeba street were pointing at!)

It was suggested the rat was a White-tailed Rat Uromys caudimaculatus and had invaded the car from a rainforest.  We had seen warnings about them around Lake Tinaroo and were aware that

"The Giant White-tailed Rat loves to chew all sorts of materials such as plastic, rubber, electrical wires, leather, tin and canvas. They will often bite cans open and consume the contents. Some people even believe the rats can read the labels! They have been known to damage and disable vehicles too by biting through fan belts and water hoses."  

This was not good if it was still evident.  See also this story from the ABC.

On the way home we stopped at a roadside stall and bought a sack of Atherton spuds (nice fresh spuds at a good price).  This was left in the car overnight. on 6 August we started to pack things up and I noticed that the sack had been gnawed, as had a spud.  Obviously Mr Rat was still in the car.  The sack was moved to a secure area in the (rat-free as far as we knew, and still know) camper.  The remains of the munched spud were donated to the bantams.

So we called in to the supermarket in Yungaburra and acquired some Ratsak.  This was placed around  inside the car the next night.  In the morning it looked as though a few bits of bait had been nibbled but there wasn't a corpse.  So we headed off on our way home.

Our first overnight was at Alva Beach.  More Ratsak was distributed.  On the 8th I inspected the baits and they appeared to have been untouched but a few rodentish turds were evident.  As we got in the car to drive off Tammy started digging into the back seat: she knew where ratty was!  Unload the entire car and there was the target between the back seat and the tray in the boot.  Tammy was inserted but looked the wrong way and Rat departed for parts unknown.

So we drove off towards Mackay hoping that it hadn't chewed through anything.  Never had warning lights been studied so closely.  Of course, our noses were also twirching in case it had croaked behind some bodywork - in view of O'Reilly Law (which basically reads  "Murphy was an optimist") it was bound to go somewhere inaccessible to die and subsequently rot.

On getting to Mackay without a major system failure or an olfactory explosion, I eventually found a Bunnings (Coles, K-Mart and Woolworths all failing to have rat traps) and they provided some suitable spring-loaded devices.  Frances had suggested buying 2, but I got 3 to cover all parts of the car!  They were baited with cheese and spread around the car.

On the morning of the 9th the cheese had gone but the traps hadn't fired.  No ratsak taken.  Drive on, to Rockhampton again watching the warning lights, and sniffing frequently  That night I tried some peanut butter on one of the traps, which might induce trap firing.  No siree!

By this stage I was beginning to get desperate about how to get rid of the damn thing.  Suddenly I thought about using a glue trap.  We tried a couple of spots on our way to Goondiwindi but they only had mouse sized glue traps which wouldn't slow this beast up.  More cheese consumed in Goondiwindi but the next morning the Home Hardware store in Goondiwindi had some large, rat-sized glue traps.  When I explained why we needed them I was asked to ensure I took the rat away with us.

So the next (last of the trip) night a couple of glue traps were put out when we set up in Wellington.  A little after dark I looked through the window into the boot and the trap there had been overturned.  On opening the boot area the rat was still attached to the trap.  A couple of minutes of (I regret to say, enjoyable) violence then ensued with the result that the Rat was no longer a problem.  Finally.

My belief is that it wasn't in fact a White-tailed rat but just a fairly large black rat (Rattus rattus).  Alan Gillanders has subsequently identified the beast from a photograph, as a Fawn-footed Melomys (Melomys cervinipes) and noted that they can be very destructive. It doesn't seem to damaged anything other than munching some of a dessicated specimen which Frances was bringing home for scientific and artistic study.  The damn rodent effectively messed up 6 days of our trip (and a potato)!

Ding-dong, the rat is dead

With the assistance of a glue-trap our rodent companion was captured last night.  It was then dealt with appropriately.  A full write up of the saga is here and Ratty is there:

As I type, at 6:44 on 12 August at Wellington NSW it is well below freezing.  Please explain why we left Yungaburra!  Apparently the overnight low was -2^oC.  We forced ourselves out to start packing and completed this by about 9am and were on the road soon after.

The drive was basically a drive.  From Wellington to (about) Cowra we were impressed with how green the country was.

 In some places canola had been plated and was fully flowering, giving patches of bright yellow.

More yellow was evident from the wattles beside the road.

As we started to climb from the plains up to the Tableland the green-ness started to decline to the frost-burnt brown of a Monaro Winter.  While there there was plenty of canola planted between Cowra and Boorowa it was only just starting to flower.  This was a sure sign that things had been cool.  Probably not a pleasant time for these sheep to have misplaced their overcoats.

 At least the little lambs were capering well (although Frances noted a few in another paddock that appeared to gone to check on Ratty).

We got home at just on 2pm having paused briefly in Boorowa for a pie.

• Bird of the day: Pied Butcherbird: common through the trip but not in Canberra, so I had been saving the species for this day.  Flock of the day was NOT Superb Parrot, which as usual was unevident , except on various hoardings around Boorowa.  This tick goes to Little Corellas along the Macquarie River in Wellington.
• Vegetation of the day:    Canola near Molong.
• Memorable moment:  Swinging into our drive!
• Comment of the day: None
• Pie of the day: A steak and kidney item from Superb Bakery in Boorowa.  A very good offering indeed.  Everything well done.  It at least ties with the Quincan Cafe in Yungaburra for pie of the trip.  A little small so 9/10.
• Troppo moment of the day.I was so laid back that even a pause at roadworks on the edge of Wellington didn't cause me anguish.  We were also well below the tropics!

Some overall review of the trip material will be has been generated when I have caught up on a few other things!
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One sleep to go!

The penultimate kip at Goondiwindi was pretty good, although hearing rain a couple of times in the night was ungood.  No biggie however.

We were on our way before 9 and bought breakfast in the town.  We didn't hang around much as it was raining again.  I didn't even see a statue of Gunsynd to photograph.  The Home Hardware store did provide some rat sized glue traps: here is hoping!

In passing I noticed a sign for the "Goondiwindi öff-road race" next weekend.  I'm glad we aren't in town for that revhead special.  On the road I saw several trucks laden with buggies and in Coonabarrabran a bunch of utes with many trail bikes. Good we're outtathere.

The weather was basically horrible as we crossed the State border - surprisingly only about 500m past the end of the town - and drove down towards Moree.  Lots of trucks coming towards us and quite a few caravans (all Vic registered) going, slowly, our way.  The Newell Highway is after all the direct route from Melbourne to Brisbane.  At one point we were held up for about 10 minutes by some unemployables talking about roadworks.

On the one time we had been to Moree in the past it seemed rather suave.  This route took us through the industrial outskirts, so not suave.  On on towards Narrabri.  The country to the West of the road was MBF: Mind Bogglingly Flat.

 Some lumps were visible to the East.

As we neared Narrabri they turned into Mount Kaputar.

 A bit further down the road I noticed a flagpole and a bunch of brass plates on rocks.  Surely a War Memorial.  Nope done on the 100th anniversary of founding the village and the rail service to the NW.  Interestingly they gave everyone's name and when they lived in the area.

I then found another plaque referring to Lone Pine.  I reckon this is a War Memorial even though the pines seem to have died.

 Between Moonie and Goondiwindi we saw a few signs to "rig ##" but no Lock the Gate material.  Once South of the border this was a common message as we went on to Narrabri.

 They had a War Memorial!

South of Narrabri the anti CSG message changed to protecting the Pilliga.  Still basically sticking it to Santos and their ilk.

We wondered if it was worth stopping for another night or just press on.  After an interesting drive from Coonabarrabran on the Google shortest route (with some rather wet and ordinary dirt roads) we got to Wellington at 3:15 and decided that (apart from the tiredness issue) getting home at 7:30 pm or later to a cold dark house was ungood.  So we are at the Riverview Caravan Park in that town.

• Bird of the day: Cockatiel gets the individual award, while a mob of about 80 Little Corellas get a flock guernsey.
• Vegetation of the day:    The epicormic growth in the Pilliga.
• Memorable moment:  Posting our Census form back at Boggabilla!
• Comment of the day: "Please pick up the mess." Apparently the owner of the van park at Wellington has a few 'pon my sole' issues.  I assured her we would collect.
• Pie of the day: A steak and kidney item from Narrabri.  Quite sound: the crust was a tad moist and the kidney taste was not strong, but a lot better than most offerings in QLD!  8/10
• Troppo moment of the day. Waiting for 10 minutes at road works, which mainly consisted of 5 fat bastards standing around talking.  (In contrast in a couple of cases guys were filling in potholes, ducking out in gaps in the 110kph traffic: go figure the OHAS mentality! )

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On, on while one feels like it!

As we set off I realised we might gt to our planned destination (near Miles QLD) about 2pm.  If we felt like it, and pressed on, we could get to Goondiwindi and make the last two days much easier.

Here is the sign for the park in daylight.

The owner was a very conscientious guy and was trying very hard to do the right thing by the Census.  He had thought that 4 pom backpackers were out of scope and when I said they were in, he went to give them a form at 7:30.  He was astonished that they had already left - apparently the usual backpacker model is to get up at 10:00am (unless checkout is at 12)!

On down the road heading along the A3 towards Mount Morgan/  There were signs about "caravans take extreme care" and "roadworks 30 minute delay" but we got straight through the works.  It was one of the more interesting roads I have driven but with chunderpooch in back, and a nervous Frances in front, I didn't have too much fun.

Mount Morgan was an old mining town which looks pretty well maintained.  This mural is on the theatre.

Here is the railway station (now a museum).

We eventually found our way to a lookout giving a great view over the mine workings.

They had found a large ichthyosaur fossil in the area and we could have viewed that in the museum if we had wished.  We settled for this indigenous depiction of it.

A rather impressive fig tree.

When we got to the lookout a Pheasant Coucal (aka Flying Haystack) flew off and got itself photographed and elected as Bird of the Day.

Some distance down the road we got to Banana Shire  and then Banana township.  The shire was named after the town which was so-called after a bullock of that name.  Shades of Captains Flat!  That explains the bovines on the town sign!

We crossed a number of small ranges, on one of which we were directed to pull over by cops on escort duty.  This is about the most oversized load I have seen.

In fact there we both halves of the house on separate trucks!  At least 3 cop cars were escorting them and we saw another just up the road: it will be costing the house owners a lot to shift it!

We took a comfort stop in Tamoor, with a nice mural on the bog.

I'm not sure how big road trains get, but this one, full of Brahman cattle, was pretty impressive ...

.. especially as it pulled away.

Our next stop was Miles, where we had planned to stop for the night.  But it was, as expected only 2pm and we felt good , so after refuelling and taking a walk along Dogpound Creek (a more PC name that that on one road sign "Chinaman's Lagoon") 

where we photographed some flowers ....

it was on on to Goondiwindi for the night.  As an example of the daftness of grey nomads those in van 1 below were having a chat with those in van 2.  Did they go over - of course not just yell back and forth!

As night fell the bugs came out.  Some friendly ...

.. others possibly not.

I retreated but Frances stayed outside and didn't get savaged.

As darkness really came down other wildlife appeared in the trees along the billabong behind our site.

Much quieter than the night before.

• Bird of the day: Pheasant Coucal.  The flock was again Apostlebird as we saw hundreds of them in groups of up to 15 once we passed Miles.  On the way up it was from Walgett to St George (about the same longitude).
• Vegetation of the day:   Massive amount of lantana around Banana.
• Memorable moment:  The house being moved.
• Comment of the day: "$4 please."the shop owner in Tamoor selling me a sausage roll!  They are usually about $2.50!
• Pie of the day: Non existent.
• Troppo moment of the day. Being deluged by bugs.  It turned out this was barely troppo as we were only about 3km from NSW!

Happy Census Day!

The chaos continues: I am so glad I am not involved other than as a respondent. I've just completed our form at Rocky (ie Rockhampton) and it was OK, but a few strange bits of design.

When we got up it was a very dewy morning and the humidity was evident in these clouds.

 What about the rat you ask?  It had cleaned out one of the traps without firing it.  Tonight I will try to set them very sensitively, and donate some more Ratsak to the cause.

The coconuts look a bit threatening.

The caravan park was a tad basic but having a resident flock of PWDs  is a bonus.

When we left I called in to thank them for allowing Tammie (despite signs to the contrary).  The two ladies on deck were very pleased that I took the time to do so.  Given their evident low occupancy rate they need to get every punter they can.

It was still humid and quite cool over night , so lots of dew on the camper.  Also attractive clouds over the mountains a bit South of Mackay.

The drive was strange as it seemed to take forever to get anywhere.  For the first 80 or so kms this was because of continual small settlements and/or roadworks.  After that the speed limit went up to 110 but it still seemed slow.  At one point a B-double came past us and had to cut in a bit, but no biggie.  We then followed it for about the next 100kms.  Still time went slowly - was it because we were going through sclerophyll woodland?

Eventually we got to Rockhampton.  It was huge.  Lots of flashing lights resolved to cops (1) escorting this massive load (2) - no idea what it was.

After dropping the camper off we went back to Rockie to look round the Kershaw Gardens.  Generally good, with this palm clad pool the highlight.

They have solved the problem of how many trees by painting a number on them!

On the way back out to the camp we took a look at Shanessy Park.  Another huge aggregation of Plumed Whistling Ducks (this time I guessed 2000).

Back at the camp a moggie was evident.  Physical warfare didn't happen, but neither looked likely to back down until I intervened on Tammy's side.

I like this night shot of Frances preparing an excellent tea.

Here is the entrance to the camp at night.

I'd gone to the gate to photograph the passing trucks, but they were too fast.  They were also continual through the night, as were the coal trains (ie trains carrying coal, not carrying miners as per Hugh Masakela's song) across the highway.  Each train took ~70 seconds to pass so my guess is they were about 1km long.  Despite this continual racket we slept quite well.

Update: in daylight a few of the trains were gereal freight and others passenger carriers.

• Bird of the day: Little Lorikeet pulls down the prize as most everything more interesting has already been used.  Nope: Red-tailed Black-Cockatoo got the nod.    Flock is (again) Plumed Whistling Duck at Shanessy Park
• Vegetation of the day:   Palms at Kershaw Gardens
• Memorable moment:  It was actually many moments following a truck for about 60km!
• Comment of the day: "Someone just refused."  The poor Census Collector at our campground.  She is damn lucky in the circumstances that anyone has cooperated.
• Pie of the day: Non existent.
• Troppo moment of the day. Misinterpreting the signs to the Rockhampton VIC  and doing an exploration as a result.  This meets both definitions of troppo: bloody stupid and becoming angry!

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