A DRIVE AROUND THE SCENIC RIM - A VISIT TO BEAUDESERT, RATHDOWNEY, FLANAGHAN'S RESERVE AND BOONAH....

On Tuesday, we spent the day with our good friends Ian and Kathy exploring the Scenic Rim.  We left home around 10am to head out to visit their daughter Melody and their son in law Justin who had bought property just over a year ago on the way to Beaudesert.  It is always lovely to catch up with them and their little family.  Melody was only 9 months old when we first met Ian and Kathy and she is now in her 40s so we have had a very long and wonderful friendship with these guys.

Justin really enjoyed taking Steve for a walk all over their property, and discussing his desire to get some bees for their place.  It is a wonderful house with six bedrooms which just suits this family no end with their five children.  No one no longer has to share.

We left Mel and Justin's around 11.30am and headed out towards Beaudesert.  We really didn't have a plan for the day, we were just going to go exploring..

Once we got to Beaudesert we were entralled with all the beautiful Christmas decorations around town and decided that we definitely needed to hope out of the car and walk around them and check them out completely.

I think the thing that impressed us the most that the decorations weren't commercially bought but each one of them required effort and skill by the local community.  There were kilometres of hand made bunting strung around town, and all the poles, trees and bollards and seats where covered in the most amazing crocheted or knitted  covers.  Hours and hours and hours of work and you could really feel the community love within the town.

 

At first glance it could be tempting to view this lovely little town in the Gold Coast hinterlands, as a blink and you miss it stop along the Mt Lindsay Highway...  It really has a real authentic rural experience and really has a lot to offer the tourist as well.  I were really taken by the community feel to this little town.  It is such a clean and tidy little town with the gardens and parks immaculately kept...

It is a destination where you can take your time, have a yarn with a local, wander down an uncrowded main street, or enjoy a cold drink in one of the local cafes or pubs in town.  This little town is built off the back of the wool industry, Beaudesert's history is as golden as its landscrape.  The town was built off the back of the wool industry and it's history is as golden as its landscape.  The town was named by a sheep farmer around 1841.  Beaudesert also has a rich rail story, serving the meat packing industry with a line which ran all the way to the outskirts of Brisbane. While the trains no longer run here, this region stays on track and trend with quality country restaurants serving lashings of homegrown hospitality, colourful country markets and handsome heritage buildings.

There's also burgeoning vineyards and boutique accommodation ideal for romantic escapes. Nestled among national parks and rainforests, some of which are World Heritage listed, bushwalk around nearby Mt Tamborine, Mt Lindesay, Mt Barney, Mt Ernest, Mt May and Mt Maroon.

Some very talented handcraft woman live in this town...

 

The gardens in the main street are beautifully manicured and are a real credit to the local council.  We loved our wander down the main street admiring all the beautiful works of art that have been used to decorate the town for Christmas..

 Four or more years ago though, this sleepy little town had no Christmas spirit at all.  They didn't even have a Christmas tree in town and people were complaining that were was no Christmas spirit at all.  This yarnbombing all started with a local Councillor and the Yarnbombing organiser seeking out other Christmas tragics in town and they started by putting up a bit of tinsel and other bits and pieces and then that made them want to do more...

In the previous year the rural township had been faced with severe drought and nearby bush-fires and they needed something to help lift spirits within the town and also draw visitors into it. 

The thought was that if they could get people to make their own decorations together it would create a positive community spirit, and their community response was phenomenal with more and more new things being added all the time.  

Boxes of green, red, and white donated yarn were left around the community for residents to pick up to use for their knitting or crochet project which were then returned to the same boxes.

Volunteer 'elves' then collected the handmade items, stitched them together, and decorated the main street.  For the volunteers who stitch it all together, the fun thing is that they never know who does what. 

Even the children have been involved in making the bunting as it's easier with only two rows of stitches and they now have metres and metres of bunting with thousands and thousands of flags coming in.  They just keep adding to it more and more each year...

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Benches covered in red, white and green knitting, light poles covered in crochet, and thousands of metres of bunting have created a popular attraction for a small community trying to lift spirits after a hard 12 months.

Apparently, the "Yarnbombing for Christmas" group of woman from the community meet weekly from February at the start of the year to add to the wonderful decorations that decorate the town. They met on the stage area in Jubilee Park for two hour from 9.30am to 11.30am on a Tuesday and as it gets closer to Christmas from September on, meet both Tuesday and Wednesday.    Even those that can't stick or crochet can contribute by donating fabric and wool to a box at the the local library, and then the resources can be collected from the library by those that are very handy to a crochet or knit.

The added bonus of doing community decorations like this, means that the woman meet each week and enjoy each other's friendship, share ideas, stitches and have a good laugh as they work together...

Another of the benefits to come out of the community involvement in decorating Beaudesert for Christmas is  the wonderful stories of Grandmothers teaching their grandchildren how to crochet, knit and sew so that it really is a whole community project and these children are learning new and wonderful skills along with cementing family ties...

The Christmas Grinch

 

They have kilometre of Christmas bunting strung up around town, and each year they hold a Bunting construction working bee, where woman bring their sewing machines, scissors, thread, tape measures, irons and ironing boards and they get busy constructing more bunting to be hung around town.  For those that can't make the working bees, they do up bunting packs so that those women can still be involved and can make the bunting at home.  The bunting construction working bees start around September and this way they ensure they have many more metres of bunting to add each year.  They have so much now that it really does make the town look quite spectacular...

From no Christmas Tree in town only four years ago, the town is now definitely on the map as a tourist attraction at this time of year...  With the decorations being such a beautiful visual thing, the local Scenic Rim Council hoping that visitors will also spend money within the town. 

No only has this been a wonderful community project, there is no waste or any pieces being wasted or thrown away as the volunteer 'elves' weave their magic once the season finishes by taking them all down before New Year where they are then sorted and washed so that they can be reused for the following year.  They just keep adding to their collection, which means that each year just gets gets better and better and it is worth another visit again.

 Definitely having the town decorated caused us to want to get out of the car and walk the streets.  Previously we have only ever really driven through Beaudesert with only a toilet stop at the park.   We were amazed at the different array of lovely shops within the town and I am sure now that we will visit again and not on a public holiday when most of these shops were closed...

As we sat at one of the picnic tables in Central Park, we noticed this little postcard sitting on the table.  It was titled the "The Perfect Present".  Once you turned it over, the message was about the most perfect gift of the birth of a Saviour which is why we celebrate the season.  I thought it was a very fitting reminder of the true meaning of Christmas and why we celebrate the season.  It was also a timely reminder of just how thankful I am that God in his perfect love and wisdom sent his only Son as a baby in a manager as a gift to us, as a way to draw and bring us back to a relationship with HIM.  Amazing love....

From the Square, we headed a bit further down the street admiring all the beautiful buildings in the main Street.  My now Steve had made it down to the park and was having a bit of an explore around there.  The rest of us were a little hungry as it was going on for 2pm.   Ian decided to walk back and get the car and then head down to pick us all up...

Kathy and I

Unfortunately because it was a public holiday, we had trouble finding anything open to go and have a meal.  Our only options seemed to be the take away places, like MacDonalds, Hungry Jacks and Subway.  Subway won out and we bought some wraps and a sub,  and then headed back to Jubilee park.  This was the park that Steve had explored a little earlier.

Again, like the rest of Beaudesert, Jubilee park has been immaculately kept with the lawns all nicely moved and the tables and eating areas lovely and clean.  We found a nice clean table underneath the shade of a lovely hanging tree...

Enjoying our lunch at the park..

This park is a lovely day rest area with lots of grassy areas to picnic on and is located on the banks of Spring Creek.

Jubilee Park has taken on a fresh new look with the installation of a colourful playground with something for children of all ages.  This all-abilities playground caters to a broad spectrum of physical and intellectual disabilities. The centrepiece of the playground is a 9.15m high custom-built Majestic Climbing Tower in hues of beautiful blues adorned with locally designed artworks at the top of the tower.

It is obviously a very popular addition to the park, as there were lots of families out enjoying the beautiful day and picnicing in the park.  There were lots of kids climbing all over the equipment..

A bridge over a waterway, complete with ducks, takes you over to the Lion's Bicentennial Park.  This is an important place in the community for people from all backgrounds, ages and abilities to connect and find a sense of belonging.  This is the place in Beaudesert where people go to exercise, have family gatherings and come together.

 

After we had a bit of a walk around the parks, we headed back to our table to grab a quick drink whilst some of us made a pit stop at the toilets before leaving.  Kathy and I also enjoyed a bit of a walk around the gardens at Jubilee Park.  They have obviously put in new garden beds and they have been planted up with flowering plants which added some colour to the park...

New garden beds at Jubilee Park in Beaudesert

These sculptures were created by local artist Antone Bruinsma and are of seedlings, opening from pods.  They were created to represent their prospects as a principal rural centre from agricultural beginnings to their future growth and prosperity and were installed in the park in 2006.

We fell in love with this ground cover and retrieved a little piece in the hope that we can get it growing for home.

As we were wandering through the garden section of the park we came across the plague below.  This was a bit of a highlight for us as we knew of Graham Staines and his sons.  We have met his wife Gladys and their lovely daughter who visited our home church a few years after this event, and it lovely to see that they have been recognized in their home town...

This Plaque commemorates Graham Staines and his two sons who were tragically killed in India in 1999.

In January 1999, in a remote hill tribal village in the Indian state of Orissa, Australian missionary Graham Staines and his two young sons, Philip and Timothy, settled to sleep overnight in their station wagon. Soon after midnight, the Staines' vehicle was set upon by an enraged mob. They beat and stabbed the father and his two boys with tridents before lighting a fire beneath their vehicle, incinerating them. Graham Staines devoted his life to leprosy patients in India.

By now it was well and truly mid afternoon, so we decided to continue our journey around the scenic rim and decided to head a further 34kms to Rathdowney to check it out and stop for afternoon tea...

The drive there was beautiful.... after all the recent rain, the countryside is just so green, almost like an English countryside.  We arrived in Rathdowney at 3.50pm and headed into the local store there where we hoped to get a cuppa and something for afternoon tea.  The lady behind the counter told us it was too late to serve us as she was closing in 10 minutes and she also said "besides there is a storm coming" so there was no afternoon tea for us.  

By the time we walked back out to the car it had started to rain.  It wasn't too heavy but heavy enough for us not to walk around town, so we left exploring Rathdowney for another day.  

The lady at the shop here didn't want to serve us as she was closing in 10 minutes..

Rathdowney though is a small rural service centre located on the Mount Lindesay Highway.  You couldn't say it was a town, but rather a few building and houses scattered here and there.   The original town was developed after 1906 when the original Rathdowney estate, which was established in 1876 was broken up.   Timber and dairying dominated the local economy back then.  Today it is a charming village dominated by the Rathdowney Visitors Information Centre and Historical Museum.  It was closed today but is probably worth a visit when we next pass through.  The Museum is located in the old Commercial Bank building and it houses displays relating to local hitory, as well as an old tramway station building and waiting room.  The tram operated from 1911 to 1944 and was important for shipping goods such as cream and timber out and connecting passengers to the outside world. 

We did notice there were a number of interesting historical buildings in the village including "The Barn" which houses a collection of farm equipment including a cream truck, a bullock wagon and a spring cart as well as a huge table cut from a single log.  

Another of the interesting buildings is "The Prison Hut"- one of the huts used for prisoners at the Palen Creek Low Security Farm.  The Old Shop has now become the Visitors Information area and the final one being "The Tramway Building"- which houses a display of pioneering women, local sawmills and the Logan and Albert Butter factory.   Quite a bit for a little village out west..

From here we decided to head back towards Brisbane via Boonah so as to do a circuit drive along the Scenic Rim.  After taking the turnoff towards Boonah, we came across a sign for Flanagan's Reserve.

Ian and Kathy had once camped here for a couple of nights and thoroughly enjoyed their time there, and I had seen numerous mentions of it on Caravan and Camping Facebook pages and it always got very good reviews so we decided to do a bit of a detour and stop in and check it out.  

Flanagan's Reserve is is nestled upon 28 acres of camping grounds, wrapped in a natural bush setting.‍ It is encapsulated by the foothills and mountains of Mt. Barney National Park and this world heritage listed site is one you will remember forever. 

There  are plenty of well shaded campsites nestled on the river bank and an abundance of natural wild life.  This reserve is also a great spot for swimming and fishing for the whole family.

They have had quite a bit of rain in the last few weeks, so there was plenty of water flowing through the creek.  It is such a lovely setting to sit and relax in the water...

Kathy and I enjoyed a quick walk down to the water's edge.  It is such a pretty spot with vines growing up and around the trees, and tree branches reaching out their long tentacle branches throughout the bush...

Beautiful trees reaching out across the creek...

One of the campers we met here told us how they love to bring a glass of champagne down and just it in the water whilst they sip it.  I could well imagine that it would be an ideal way to spend the afternoon.

The reserve is quite large and although there were lots of folk camping there, it really didn't seem that full.  There seemed to be plenty of room to locate well away from other campers if that was your preference.  One of the other good things about camping here, was that generators were allowed, although they had set times for running them and the reserve was animal friendly.

We were very impressed with the many things on offer at Flanagan's Reserve.  It was low cost camping with showers and toilets.  Cold showers were free and if you wanted a hot shower, they were coin operated.    There was plenty of shady areas, picnic table and wood fire barbecues, along with fire pits scattered throughout the reserve.  

On site managers, manger the reserve and they run a well stocked kiosk which stocks your basic needs.  The reserve also includes disabled facilities.   There is easy access to level sites for caravans and buses and also excellent sites for camping in tents and camper trailers and we found a mix of all these forms of camping at the reserve when we visited.   The reserve is also close to many walking tracks...

Plenty of swimming spots along the river.

Huge amounts of firewood on offer.... $10 a wheelbarrow...

Flanagan Reserve Bush Camping is surrounded by private property though so they do ask campers to have full respect for these land owners by staying within the boundaries of the Reserve

We were all pretty impressed with the reserve and felt that we could easily enjoy spending a week out here.  The first 8kms or so in to the reserve are bitumen with the last few kilometres being a well graded dirt road.    You are also close enough here to a number of smaller towns on the scenic rim, so even if you spent a week here, there were places within a short distance that you could go and explore...

 

The drive in and out of the reserve was stunning with lush green grass and rolling hills as far as the eye could see.  

From here we continued our journey through to Boonah.

Just before we got to Boonah we came across the Dugandan Hotel, a classic Queensland quintessential county pub...  To the locals it is affectionately known as "The Dugie".  The owners have made it look very welcoming and if we had more time, we may have stopped to check it out a little more thoroughly but by now it was pushing past 5pm and we still hadn't got to Boonah to explore it and then we still had almost 90klms to drive back to Brisbane.   Their decks did seem to offer though picturesque views of the Scenic Rim and there were quite a few patrons sitting out there enjoying a beer and a yarn.

It was only a few hundred metres up the road that Ian was pulled in by the local cop to blow in the bag.  He was conducting a random breathalyzing test on on motorists driving through Boonah.  I guess at that time of the afternoon he was likely to catch a few heading home from the pub as it was less than a kilometre down the road.  He wasn't lucky with us though as we had had nothing to drive so Ian returned a zero alcohol reading.  

It was only another 100 metres of so up the road and we came across some public toilets.  We were all pretty keen for a pit stop here so once we all went it was back in the car, but unfortunately we could turn back towards town but had to go back past where we had the breathalyzing test and back to the pub before we could turn around and head back into town....

We thought surely we won't get pulled in for another test, but he was busy with another motorist as we drove through.   We headed straight for the main street.  

The charming country town of Boonah is located 41klm west of Beauderest and 48klm south of Ipwich and is nestled among world heritage-listed areas, rich in natural beauty.  The town i the primary service centre catering for the district's needs with a range of businesses, services and commercial activities. 

The township of Boonah, which is home to some 2500 people, supports the outlying areas of Kalbar, Harrisville, Peak Crossing, Aratula, Mount Alford, Roadvale, Warrill View, Rosevale, Maroon and Dugandan.  It is proud of it's family history and retains its traditional "high street"where country shopping, friendly locals and a talented arts community welcome visitors and tourists to their town..

Proud of its farming history, the town retains its traditional ‘high street’ where country shopping, friendly locals and a talented arts community welcome visitors to their town.

Boonah's heritage and country charm have helped to drive the Scenic Rim's progressive tourism industry, with several wineries, farm stays and bed and breakfast businesses attracting visitors to the region.

Expanding on a theme that began three years ago, Margaret Fry and Wendy Briner from the Boonah District Chamber of Commerce, have led a core band of crafters, knitters, crocheters and sewing machinists, in the creating of textile artworks to brighten up the town’s business district.  These ladies knit until their merry hearts are content and then they yarn bomb the town, and then in the lead up to Christmas all the trees in the main street plus anything that will stand still long enough is covered in festive yarn creations...

The Commercial Hotel in Boonah is a beautiful building full of character.  This whole town has kept the charm of a bygone era.

Towards the end of the street we came across the famous Boonah Blumbergville Clock which was named after the name of the original township Blumbergville... and is situated just out front of the Boonah Town Square.  

The Blumbergville clock is both an artwork and timepiece and has been made as part of the town's recovery from floods in the region.  The clock's creator was a local sculptor Christopher Trotter  and he designed it to play on the town's former name and commemorate the Scenic Rim's agricultural heritage. 

He named it the Blumbergville clock because Boonah used to be named Blumbergville and it was named ater the Blumberg brothers.  The artist that created this work of art has quite a few other famous works which in clude the famous City Roos in the Brisbane CBD, the mechanical pelicans on the Brisbane Rive and the fish fossil at Kangaroo Point.

The artist has made the clock from recovered and donated farm equipment, and the whole project has been about the resilience of the community with the floods.  He has taken components that have been donated from various farms as well as stuff he has acquired that would have would have been used on working farms in the area and with all of these he has created his timepiece. 

"Blumberg actually means blossoming hill, so he has taken this old firebox from a steam boiler and it's become the carcass of his clock, and the side of it is curved, and he's got this new growth coming out the side.

He used a stationary engine  which is probably from the 1930s and he has somehow developed a way where actually the compression of the engine drives a steam whistle, so on the hour you get a sound that will come from that.   Very ingenious indeed...

The Scenic Rim region suffered damage during the floods of 2011 and 2013, and the clock was largely  paid for with flood recovery funding. 

Mr Trotter also wanted visitors to get a sense of the Scenic Rim as they view the clock and has included a number of animals and features inspired by the local environment.  The frog is inspired by the Pobblebonk and there's a sound in the clock itself that people will hear that. There's a number of different noises that come from the area that will be surprise elements, so that when people come to see it they will get surprises at quarter-past, half-past and quarter-to. 

The artist, a Boonah resident who boasts a catalogue of public art commissions from around Australia over his 20-year sculpting career, says the clock has been one of his biggest works - and the most important.  He wanted to make sure that this clock was his best as it was for his hometown...

"I've done pieces all over Australia and for this it's my hometown - I want to make sure it's the best thing I can do," he said.

 

Boonah’s streetscape comes to life in the last year with new public artworks and storyboards as part of the Boonah Town Centre Revitalisation Project capturing the unique stories, history and character of the region.  This project was only completed this time last year and is a real credit to all who were involved in the developmant.

Council worked with local historians, writers, museums, Indigenous elders, artists and environmental groups to gather stories, and create artworks and history storyboards that run across Railway street, Park Street, Church street and High street.
“The seven commissioned public artworks includes intricate bronze artworks of native wildlife, seating designs inspired by local flora, and whimsical chook themed creations using a mix of discarded farm and domestic objects.

 

 The walkway connecting the forecourt to the rear car park features a 20-metre-long artwork designed by Ugurapul artists telling the story of the Warrajum.  Two wayfinding sculptures, inspired by the iconic Blumbergville Clock have also been installed, creating a story trail throughout the High Street precinct.”

 

Also located in the park is the "With an Eye on the Sky" sculpture by Catherine Anderson.  It was commissioned by the local council to celebrate the Year of the Outback in 2002 and the statue depicts a man standing hat in hand, dressed in an open necked long sleeve shirt, trousers and boots gazing up at the sky seeking any rain that may be coming.
 

The plaque at his foot reads:
"This sculpture celebrates our association with the land we work and the heavens we rely on for life-giving sun and for rain ... Weather is the common theme running through and impacting on the day-to-day lives of anyone living in rural and regional Australia ... Country people live 'with an eye on the sky'."

"With an Eye on the Sky" sculpture situated in the Town Centre Square in Boonah..

There is so much to explore in Boonah and it is definitely on our list of places to come back and visit in the very near future...

 The Boonah bases artist Christopher Trotter has added another work to the revitalization of the Town Centre with is lastest sculpture "The Steaming Noisy Minor".   His creative passion is to source and join unrelated objects in a manner that appears perfectly plausible and he has achieved that with this latest piece of work.  He describes his newest work for the Boonah Town Centre project as “an ode to the history of Boonah”. It is a piece of artwork that references the history of the area including the railway line that ran through the town

The main body of the work for Steaming Noisy Minor is two old stationary engines, which the artist turned on their side and joined back to back to create this steaming rail contraption with mechanical smoke that’s pluming back down towards town.

Boonah’s main street is one way and it’s sort of off to the side, so the artwork acts as a marker for people who are travelling through Boonah … an element to engage the public as they travel through and suggests they should turn down and have a look at the township. 

Mr Trotter gathers the materials he uses for his artworks from both SimsMetal and locally.  He has been sponored by SimMetal, a recycling metal yard for about thirty years but he also loke to go to local swap meets and clearance sales to find materials, so some of the materials would have actually worked the land in the area and it's nice that these objects have a connection to the town.

Just up the road from the "The Steaming Noisy Minor" is the War Memorial Park.  The Memorial features a 6 metre high obelisk surmounted by a small statue of an Australian soldier standing at ease,the memorial bears 300 names of all who served from the area and include the sixty six who died. Flanking the memorial are a German 7.7cm field gun and a German light mortar.

By the time we left here it was going on for 6pm and we still had a good hours drive before we got home, so we decided it was time to leave....

As we were driving out of town we noticed this amazing sculpture at the entrance to the town... Well of course we had to stop and get a few more photos...

Boonah has been a huge surprise to us.  So much artwork around town, so many things and places to explore a little further.  We could have spent our whole day here alone and still not seen it all.

The sculpture "Clydebuilt" commemorates the Clydesdale horses which worked in Queensland agriculture. British Sculptor Andrew Scott was visiting the local arts community when he decided to create the monument to the days when horses pulled the ploughs in Queensland`s agricultural scene. He welded and galvanised it and then offered it to the local council who hadn`t commissioned it. The council was unsure whether they wanted to purchase the horse but eventually relented.

 

Early in 2003 a successful local fundraising campaign to buy the $20,000 sculpture was launched by the Boonah Arts and Culture Trail Committee and "Clydebuilt"  was offically unveiled in his present spot on the 21st November 2005 by the Hon Fran Bailey MP, Federal Minister for Small Business and Tourism.

 

 

The Plague reads:

This statue stands as a tribute to the Clydesdale heavy horse and the role it played in the development of our nation.  Boonah Shire's Clydesdale heritage is unique and spans the period from the 1840's through to today.  The heavy horse came with the squatters, was the settlers most valued assistant and the farmers trusted and useful friend.  "Clydebuilt" stands as a testament to the efforts of Pat and Col Ehrich and their families who were instrumental in keeping the Clydesdale breed aline when the heavy horse had almost disappeared from the Australian landscape.

It was after 7pm before we arrived back to Ian and Kathy's.  We've had the most wonderful relaxing unplanned day and we came across some real gems in our travel.  It is always great to spend a day with good friends.  We feel so blessed to have such good friends in Ian and Kathy.  We have been very good friends now for over 40 years.