"This gate is locked"

Leaving suburbia, we looked forward to the peace and quiet of the countryside and free camping. However we had forgotton about the inconsiderate campers that seem to arrive out of the blue-fortunately they are rare. There was plenty of space at Kumbia, but this camper  wanted more than his share… (PHOTO)

New Years Eve was spent at a free camp, on the banks of the Condarmine River,  at Cecil Plains, 43 kms sth of Dalby. A very quiet evening. (PHOTO)

Cecil Plains is known as a cotton growing area and also more lately for the 2011 floods. The cemetery is home to many who have lost their lives from the early 1800’s to now, trying to cross the river. (PHOTO)

Between Cecil Plains and Millmerran are the following signs “This gate is locked”-CSG are keen to buy the farms-Coal Seam Gas. It is a very hot topic in this area and as far away as Texas locals are keen to voice their anger-we met the local Texas plumber and caravan park owner, while we did laundry. The main crop in this area is sorghum-looks like maize but is a dwarf variety. The heads are used either as cattle feed or cereal and the stems are crushed and made into sugar syrup. Sorghum is gluten free.

Murray was keen to visit Texas – he has cousins in Texas (USA), so off we went, arriving on a very hot day – 37degs. We camped on the river, along with many others. Texas and Millmerran and Inglewood are small country towns-they have a garage and supermarket, pub and op shops, still the population would be not more than a thousand. Our camp site was 50 metres from the NSW border and many times a day our phones would pick up the NSW satellite and want to change to a different time zone. (PHOTO)

The countryside is lush and green, with water lying on the ground in places. It reminded us of NZ. (PHOTO)

We are now in Moree ‘taking in the artesian waters’. At the caravan park we have 5 pools to choose from ranging from 30degs – 39dgs. (PHOTO). This caravan park is huge, 141 cabins, 42 sites and 12 motel type rooms. The winter is the most popular time to come and you cannot put out your awning-caravans are parked next to each other, often doubling up on sites. At this time of the year, we are lucky to see 20 people in the pools, whereas in the winter they are bunched up together.

We must mention our visit to the Moree Service Club to play bingo. Murray was wearing a singlet and initially was refused entry, but the receptionist lent him a long sleeve bar shirt. Although the tourist book advertised 2 sessions of bingo 11am and 1pm, it is in fact 1 session with a 1hr break for lunch. We arrived at 1pm and paid $4 each for a half book. Murray won a $15 meal voucher and a lady gave us her Lions Christmas cake – she had won enough goodies. The bingo prizes here are food packs-either, meat, fruit, vegies, or pantry.

The main agricultural crop here is pecan nuts and cotton. Approximately 14,000 people live here. There is an underlying racial tension atmosphere in the town-with motels, businesses surrounded by high fences and guard dogs. A mineral health spa resort has been trashed and sold recently at a mortgagee sale.