John and Jill Nth QLD Travels: Rockhampton QLD

We departed Canberra on a cold wet, winter's day and drove 4 days inland to reach some warmer weather in Queensland. We stayed at Wellington Caves, in a quiet caravan park but had a frosty morning, colder than Canberra. Our next night was at Narrabri showgrounds which was quiet but muddy in places. We drove longer days to reach Qld faster & stayed at Miles, a busy mining town, with lots of trucks driving through all night! They mine coal and LNG gas in the area. Possum Park, just 20kms, out of town, we heard was much quieter.

We were pleased to find Rockhampton warmer during the day, but started off cold at night. We are staying at Gracemere, 5 kms from Rocky. Rockhampton, is the Beef cattle capital, with lots of herds of Brahman cattle in the area. We enjoyed walking along the Fitzroy river which covers more than twice the area of Tasmania. Rockhampton is derived from "Rocks in the river"& "town on a river flat".

We visited the free zoo, whose keepers gave interesting talks, & saw endangered cassowaries close up. We didn't see any when we visited the Daintree Rainforest, where they still live, a few years ago.

We also saw chimps, who taught themselves to eat yogurt with a spoon. Two had come from Mogo Zoo. They are also endangered because of deforestation & people hunting them for meat. They encouraged people to recycle mobile phones & computer screens to reduce use of chemicals, cheaply mined in the Congo, which damages their habitat. The botanical gardens were huge & we saw some local birds at the café & lagoon.

We drove about, 30 minutes to Mt Archer National Park, which was over 600 metres elevation so great views of the Beserker ranges & Rockhampton. It has lots of tree ferns & grass trees ( black boys) & we saw some black cockatoos there. Very peaceful & quiet after the business of Rockhampton city.