DAY 6 - A DRIVE INTO MONTO TODAY AND A BUSH WALK...

 Today over breakfast we all decided that a drive into Monto for morning tea might be a good idea.  We were keen to see what the town looked like and we also needed to pick up a few fresh supplies..

Monto is a small rural service centre inland from Bundaberg. It is a town dependent on the surrounding agriculture - predominantly mixed farming and timber.  It is one of the newest towns in Queensland having come into existence as recently as 1924 when, under the Land Development Scheme, larger properties were resumed and prime agricultural land was provided, in smaller lots, to soldiers who had returned from World War I.

We left the van around 9.30 and drove straight into Monto parking in Lister Street just in front of the parklands there. The Lister Street Parkland provides a perfect spot for a picnic or bought lunch. We took a stroll to check out the array of metal and sandstone sculptures by local and visiting artists to the region. The parkland also hosts the Pioneer Cottage Visitor Information Centre  which was were we were heading as well as the entrance to the RV 48 hour stopover area. Our first stop was the Information Centre which was just up from where we parked. 

We were surprised to find that the Information Centre was not manned at all, but instead you were able to help yourself to lots of information and brochures of the whole Burnett District....  We took several booklets and brochures as we thought we might find a few more things to check out as we made our way further south after our week at Cania Gorge.

From here we decided to stroll down the main street to see if we could find a bakery so that we could get something for morning tea...

What we did find astounded us.  The art work in Monto is amazing and from all accounts it appears that it has only been completed in the last year or two....

As we walked down the main street, Barb found this quirky little shop that seemed to sell everything.  She found a very colourful dress that she liked and after trying it on we all agreed that it was definitely her so she bought it.  We all kind of wandered our separate ways down the street for a while meeting up to check out the amazing art work we came across....

 

The paintings on the two walls between Heilbronn's Mensland and the old solicitors building show a (breed unspecified) cow on one side and  "literally Monto" on the other side.  All the murals provide great opportunities for interesting, quirky and colourful selfies.  I mean where else can you find an enormous cow trying to lick your head, or where else can you lean against a timber rail for a chat with some larger-than-life locals...

These murals were painted by celebrated street artists Travis Vinson (DRAPL) and Joel Fergie (The Zookeeper).

As we checked out and marveled at these magnificent murals we headed down the laneway to see if we could find some more and we did.  Tucked in a bit of a back alley area we found some more art work..

After checking out all this art we headed back to the main street to wander a little further along looking for what other treasures we could find.  We found the bakery but decided that we would shop there after we had checked out the rest of the street...

This mural honours Ethel Buckby, publican of the New Royal Hotel which was destroyed by fire in 1999.  The patch of grass I was standing on to take this photo was once where the Royal Hotel stood for much of the 20th century.  Ethel Buckby was the publican as worth her family for the past fifty years.  She and her pub have now been immortalised in a mural by DRAPL that forms just another part of the Monto Street Art Trail.

Across the road on the opposite corner of the Street is the Albert Hotel, another magnificent turn of the century pub.  This hotels claim to fame is  where rugby league legend, Mal Meninga spent his early life.

This historic building was first built in 1929 and originally catered for homestay within the town of Monto. It is very much a  two-storey classic Queenslander, 

 

As we continued down the street we came across the Art deco style Shire Council buildings...  It is only one of two substantial shire hall buildings constructed in the 1930s and early 1940s in the art deco style.  It was built by Hall and Phillips Architects. Hall was one of Brisbane's most successful architects of the early 20th century.  He also designed the Brisbane City Hall, Tattersall's Club and Sandgate Town Hall.      

My now we were all feeling a little peckish as it was almost lunch time, so we decided to head back towards the bakery to pick up our morning tea and we were going to head back to Lister Street Parklands for our morning tea as there were a few picnic tables under cover in the park there...

We loved this door handle on the local butcher shop door....

The bakery was amazing with plenty of varieties of savoury and sweets and because we were all a little hungry we probably over indulged.  In fact we ended up with sausage rolls and sweets of which we ended up taking them home with us for afternoon tea.

From here we headed to the local Foodworks store to stop up on some fresh fruit and vegetables along with fresh bread.    They didn't have the variety here that they had at Agnes Waters and there were quite a few of our brands that were unavailable, especially the dark rye bread that Steve and I both like..

We also noticed that the prices of fresh fruit and vegetables was pretty high, so there were quite a few things that we just couldn't bring ourselves to pay that price for so we just decided to do wtihout..

Loading our groceries in the car.

From here John and Barb decided to head back to the caravan park whilst we had a little drive around Monto.  We had planned to head home also, but driving up to the end of the street to turn around we spied the Water Tower... Wow how impressive was it...

 

Monto's water tower was among the first murals to be painted in the town,  with  the artworks featuring local residents.

When the two artists  come up with a design … they usually single out a few people that they've warmed too in the town, and we paint them.  They love to capture the essence of the town.  All of the artwork in Monto so far has been by complete by celebrated street artists Travis Vinson (DRAPL) and Joel Fergie (The Zookeeper).

We were really impressed with this playful art. The images on the water tower are all about fun and freedom, where three local children have been transformed into six metre high figures playing with the water "bursting"from the concrete structure and one swinging from the platform at the top of the tower.

From here we headed back to the Lister Street Parklands to check out the RV 48hour stop over.  Who knows one day we might end up staying here ourselves.   There were several vans parked in there.  It is a great location and only $5 a night.  Very centre to town.

From here we went looking for the home of a relative of Ian's.  He had some idea where they lived but wasn't 100 per cent sure, so we drove around town until he thought he had found their place although it looked like no one was home.  

We did come across a few other interesting places and gardens around town and both Kathy and I photographed them, especially the gardens. 

A pretty little house with lovely gardens..

We couldn't resist taking the photo above, as our friend John is holidaying with us and he loves his shed time...

By now we were heading back out of town heading for home when we came across the M.  The Monto Historical Complex which had a wide range of historic artefacts and an excellent exhibition of memorabilia.  Appartently the complex is open by appointment only but you can wander around the outside exhibits which is what we did...

The overall aim of this Museum is to preserve and present the culture, heritage and history of the Monto district and its people.  The Historical collection extends beyond the main building into the grounds of the complex.  A group of pioneer buildings include a Cania goldfield slab hut and the Goody family's Birnam Homestead kitchen which dates from around 1910...

 

 

 The slab hut and Birnam Homestead kitchen are original buildings relocated from surrounding rural properties. There’s a lot to see including an unusual timber jack honed from one log, an early railway carriage with historical railway memorabilia and the Cynthia station siding.

 

 Also featured is a remarkable array of horse-drawn vehicle replicas, built by Harold Ware.  Appartently there are days when visitors can watch demonstraions by Harold  in the  wheelwright’s workshop, but as this was a Saturday we missed out...

One of the most interesting exhibits is a 1/5th replica of a World War II Liberator B24D Bomber nicknamed Beautiful Betsy which is located outside the main building. It was built in February 1943 in San Diego. "On 15 April 1943 she departed Hamilton Airfield California and arrived at Amberley Brisbane. Her first combat mission was 11 June 1943 on a bombing raid against Koepang Timor. In all she flew 22 combat missions before being retired as a cargo aircraft. Her final ill fated flight left Darwin on 26 February 1945 at 2200 hours bound for Eagle Farm airfield Brisbane. Two days later two B24s flew the route focusing on the Claraville area where the bomber was last reported at 3.00 am but failed to find any trace of the aircraft. The crash site was located on 2 August 1994 in Kroombit Tops National Park north of Monto. US and Australian army personnel visited the site during 1994 and recovered various remains and personal effects. The cew was officially declared dead on the day of the mission. American crew members were memorialised on the tablets of the missing at Manila American Cemetery. Afer the recovery of remains in 1994, McDaniel, Tucker, Owen, Lemons, Cook and Cannon were buried at Arlington National Cemetery on 25 September 1995."

Beautiful Betsy - the World War II Liberator B24D Bomber

On leaving here, a little further down the highway we came acrossthe Monto Water Tank Art...

This work was by the artist Karen Gross and again the artwork reflects the Three Moon Creek Legend which according to local legend, naming of the Three Moon Creek recalls the early days of the exploration of the Monto District.  There are many different accounts of who saw the three moons.

The version Karen Gorss pained is "A traveller was passing through this area. At nightfall he set up his camp and went to the creek to fill his billy. At the moment of drawing the water he caught for an instant the reflection of the moon in the billy and in the creek and then looked up to see it also in the sky, at which point he exclaimed that there were three moons.

This was pretty much on the outskirts of town and we only stopped long enough to photograph it.

On our way into town this morning, we had noticed an statue in full armour on the verandah of one of the halls out in the country but being on the other side of the road and all travelling together we didn't bother to stop to check it out.  It was a different story as we headed home.  Of course I wanted to stop and check it out and Kathy was right behind me.  AFter taking the customary photos we were back in the car and on our way bak to the van...

Road conditions weren't the best heading into Cania Gorge, but the land was flat but quite green and picturesque.  It is still very much a farming community out this way...

The road back into the Caravan Park...

Once we got home John and Barb had already had a bit of a nanna nap and were ready to have a cuppa with us...

We were pretty amazed at the bird life that were hanging around.  At this point we hadn't made it over to the feeding of the birds which takes place each afternoon at 4pm.  We were hoping to get there this afternoon.  However, the birds had found us and were coming into our camping area, especially the King Red Parrot.  We  loved it...  Some other campers were not quite as impressed especially when they messed on their cars...

I was feeling pretty tired from all our wandering around town this morning, so decided to lay down and have a nanna nap for half an hour.  I must of slept a bit longer than that and by the time I had woken, Ian, Kathy and Barb had taken off on one of the walks to the Giant Chair Lookout.  I was a little disappointed that I missed them, but as they had a good fifteen minutes start on us, Steve and I decided that we would do the walk to check out "Big Foot".  This was only a short walk which meant I could get back in time for the 4pm bird feeding...

The other's headed off to hike to the Giant Chair Lookout...

Ian and Kathy at Big Foot Lookout

After walking for quite a while and with a lot of climbing up stairs etc, they were never quite sure it they made it too the lookout.  But it was getting later in the afternoon and Barb's knees were playing up so they decided to head back.  Unfortunately a lot of the tracks are not really that well signed out here..

Meanwhile, Steve and I set out on the Big Foot walk which is only about a 1km return walk.  We started from the Caravan park which included an extra 50m to get us to the Fern Tree Pool Car park which runs parallel to the road.  Big Foot os a large brown stain of a four-toed foot on the white sandstone cliff.

It was a pretty easy walk with very little climbing.

Some land mark rocks on our Big Foot Walk...

Close up of Big Foot

Some of the amazing rock formations around the park..

There were also lots of beautiful butterflies along our walk this afternoon.  It was almost like a butterfly valley..

By now it was about 10 to four, so we decided to head back to the caravan park as they have a bird feeding around 4pm and I really wanted to be back to do this.  After feeding the birds, they also feed the poddy calves and the chooks.. How I wish the grandchildren were here to do this...

By the time we arrived back at the caravan park, they had already started feeding the birds and there were quite a few folk there for this.  The birds all flock in and are very tame with lots of them feeding out of your hand or along a table that you can sit at and feed them..

I was busy with my camera and managed to get some really good shots of the birds...  Ian, Kathy and Barb arrived after we got there..

From the birds, we walked over to an enclosure where there were a couple of poddy calves that were hand fed each aternoon.  There were quite a few little children here to help do this...

They last but not least it was time to feed the chooks.  This van park is a great place to stay for kids as they really do try to involve everyone with the feeding of the animals...

It was after 5pm by the time we walked back to our caravans.  The night chill was really starting to settle in, so Steve unpacked our fire pit that he made for our big lap around Australia...

It has been sitting in the back of our car now for three years and hasn't been used one, so we figured that since we were going to be here for a week, it was time to pull it out and set it up so that we could enjoy sitting around it on these cold evenings.

Steve John and Ian set about to set it all up, cut firewood and get the fire burning for us...

The fire pit that Steve made to take on our lap around Australia

Meanwhile us girls indulged in some afternoon nibbles and a drink whilst we watched the boys working...

Success at last... a nice fire roaring... now to keep it stoked up so that we can sit around it tonight when the cold sets in.  We had made sure that we had stocked up on marshmallows when we were in shopping this morning....

Once again the cold weather turned cold while we were  having dinner, although thankfully not as cold as the previous night. Or maybe the fact that we already had a fire burning, it at least didn't feel quite as cold as the previous evening....  We all contributed to dinner this evening, but once it was finished and we had cleared up, we all made a beline to the camp fire which we set up on the site next to Ian and Kathy,,

Desert tonight was toasting marshmallows around the camp fire....

We sat around the fire, telling stories and reminising until around 9.30pm before we all called it quits and headed to bed.  We have had a full on day today... Tomorow we plan to do another one of the walks and head to the dam to check it out and for the boys to have a bit of a fish..