This Adventurous Age

Adventures travelling and working around Australia.

Monthly Archives: October 2017


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2000 Travels May 15

MONDAY 15 MAY     RUBYVALE

After breakfast, we drove out to Graves Hill fossicking area, where we had not been before. This was the location that JJ had said he’d take us out to, but the silence from that direction had been deafening!

We took a lone traveller – R -with us. He tagged along in his vehicle. His wife left to go back home, six weeks ago, so he is finishing his trip on his own, and staying near us in the park.

We drove around a bit, sussing out Graves Hill, where there seemed to be quite a lot of activity, and chose a spot to dig. Took half a drum of gravel back to the water hole at Retreat, to wash. No good. This was disheartening. We thought we’d picked an area where there seemed to be a layer of gravel, but there was no colour in what we washed. We’d had to move a layer of billy boulders from the surface, before starting to dig and that had been hard work – all for no return.

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Digging at Graves Hill. Note pile of shifted billy boulders

We gave up, after a while, and tipped out the remaining gravel.

I think R learned the methodology of fossicking for such stones, even if not the technique for actually finding same! He seemed to enjoy the companionship.

Back in town, checked for mail. I had a Mothers Day card from R – nice.

R brought us over a frozen pack of home grown chicken breasts, for taking him out today.

Tea was cold corned beef and salad.

 


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2000 Travels May 14

SUNDAY 14 MAY     RUBYVALE

Today was Mothers Day – and lovely weather, again.

We had discovered that eating meals outside the van, as we prefer to do, could be a hazard, due to the ultra-friendly scavenging lorikeets! I was not sure whether John or the birds got the major share of his breakfast, today.

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John trying to eat his weetbix

I washed my bowls clothes, and the trial place mat for S, which I’d finished on Friday.

Walked around to the Miners Cottage and bought and sieved a big bucket of wash. There are a number of enterprises on the gemfields who sell buckets or barrows of wash – gravel they mine from their claims,  usually from shafts too deep for fossickers like us. It is the easy way – and possibly the smartest – to go fossicking!

Our bucket cost us $15 and we found a couple of cutters.

Got chatting to the owner. He offered to sell us his claim, two accommodation flats and the mining gear, for $150,000. It seemed everything here was for sale – for a price!

The vacant block we’d seen the other day, being sold for rate arrears, fetched $18,000.

I had a phone message from S, and a call from V – nice to get.

Tea was corned beef I cooked and served with vegies.


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2000 Travels May 13

SATURDAY 13 MAY   RUBYVALE

I walked to the store for the paper.

We left about 11am, to go to bowls in Emerald.

Stopped at Emerald shops before bowls. I collected my photos, bought some oddments of supplies, bought some lunch.

Bowls was quite pleasant. There were not many there. We encountered a couple who came from Wynyard, in Tasmania, so had something to chat with them about. The team John played in won – he collected a voucher for a meal at the club. His skip, a local miner, gave John his voucher, so we had two and planned to go in on Wednesday morning and play, and then have lunch at the club.

It was dusk when we were driving back to Rubyvale. The sky was most spectacular with some really lovely light effects. Of course, I didn’t have my camera.

That was a 130km round trip – just to play bowls!

Tea was salad and tinned red salmon.


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2000 Travels May 12

FRIDAY 12 MAY      RUBYVALE

Today was a rest day from digging. It was a pleasant, sunny day, again. Weatherwise, that was more like it!

We walked around town, after breakfast. The township is actually a common area, so cows can roam about it – and do. Their leavings appear on the roads and footpaths. Some cow pats had unusual, long stalked toadstools growing from them. John was most taken with these!

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Toadstools growing in a cow pat on a Rubyvale footpath

Visited the gem Gallery again. They had such wonderful cut stones and made up pieces of jewellery. I could only look and wish!

Called in at Old Mick’s and saw the owner, just back from an overseas trip. From her, we chose earrings for the girls for Xmas presents for this year – amethyst for S, topaz for V, and garnet for R. $80 for the three sets, which we thought was reasonable.

The travelling fish supply truck was in town. On the advice of one of the permanent dwellers in the park, I bought some spotted ray, which I’d never heard of before.

After lunch, I did some sewing, while John went around to see if JJ was home. His wife said he’d gone to get a vehicle exhaust fixed, and that he’d had a busy week. Yeah, yeah….

Some unusual excitement when two police appeared and served a subpoena on one of the winter dwellers here – a woman, two sites up, who’d witnessed a murder, near their camper, at a Lightning Ridge caravan park, last year. That sounded like a rough place!

Tea was fries and fish – the ray was good eating.


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2000 Travels May 11

THURSDAY 11 MAY     RUBYVALE

In the morning, E invited us out to view The Castle. The road out there had been a quagmire, until today.

The Castle was built by a guy who came and settled on the gemfields. It is, in a way, a Spanish or Moorish style. He was about 40 when he started it, and it evolved over some thirty years. E bought it from him, just days before he died.

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The Castle, from the access track

The concept was that it was built to be let out as 8 units, but was never finished enough to do so. E had worked at getting it to the letting stage, and had four or five units ready to be used, with a communal kitchen and lounge.

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The Spanish styling of The Castle

The Castle was a really whimsical and interesting place – very typical of gemfields eccentricity. The builder used job lots of whatever he could come by cheaply, so nothing was very co-ordinated. There was some great workmanship, in parts; in other places it was very hit and miss, like the tiled central pool, meant to be filled by roof run off,  that did not hold water! At one end of that central enclosure was a three storey high bell tower like structure, that housed water tanks.

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The water tank tower and the leaky central pool

Unfortunately, E had an access problem that he had not anticipated. The Castle was built on a one acre Miner’s Home Perpetual Lease, but the access track is across a pastoral lease. This was taken over by a new person, a month after E bought The Castle. He can’t ban E having access, but was threatening not to allow anyone else to do so.

Whilst commercial accommodation, apart from the caravan parks, was fairly scarce, I was not sure about this venture – access issues aside. To attract backpackers and the like, which E saw as the target market, it seemed just too far out of the township.

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Outlook to the west, from The Castle

I suspect that tensions between pastoralists and miners may be fairly common, in these parts. We had heard of things like some of the rougher “campers” out on the fields, helping themselves to fresh beef. And lighting fires to make breaks around the mining camp areas – which burned well into grazing land.

John helped E for a while, to instal a gas hot water service, before we went back to the van for lunch.

After lunch ,we went back to Retreat and dug some more, with similarly poor results.

We had more mail: the new mobile phone battery. Good service from Telstra.

Tea was sweet and sour vegetable stir fry, with rice. John liked it, despite it being “vegie”.


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2000 Travels May 10

WEDNESDAY 10 MAY     RUBYVALE

In the morning, i took advantage of the finer weather to do the washing. I walked to the store for the papers that had accumulated in our absence. I lazed about and read some of these.

John helped E, the park owner, unload a trailer full of wood and lent him the big round magnet to help him find some screws he’d lost from the chainsaw.

Our mail was in – a package from home containing John’s left-behind tools, as well as normal mail.

There was no contact from JJ. Not surprising.

After lunch, drove out to Retreat, to the south west of town,  and did some digging. E hired us a Willoughby and a half 44 gallon drum.

We put the gravel we dug into buckets and washed it at a big waterhole that had been made by machine mining, to the great interest of some campers who came in while we were there. They were camped nearby, in motor homes.

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Washing gravel with Willoughby. Waterhole made by past machine mining

We found a couple of small chips of sapphire, only. The late afternoon sun was not great for trying to sort the wash in. The angle of the light was wrong.

The mozzies were really bad.

Tea was pork steaks, with apple, and salad.


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2000 Travels May 9

TUESDAY 9 MAY     RUBYVALE

Up early again. John took Truck to get the tyres done, then walked back to the unit for breakfast.

All was done by 10am.

We went and did a big grocery shop. whilst in the “big smoke”, and then headed out.

We ate a foccacia bread lunch, with donuts as an extra for John – while we travelled.

This time, we could see the scenery, which was quite interesting. The Blackdown Tableland National Park presented as a low-ish escarpment to the south.

We did not see as many coal trains.

John was really pleased with the “feel” of the new tyres.

In Emerald, we got fuel – 83cpl – and I dropped off a film for processing. I’d tried to get it done at a shop in Rockhampton, but their machine had broken.

Got back to Rubyvale about 4.30pm. The caravan park was noticeably drier – in just two days! We had new neighbours – a couple from Port Macquarie. who travel for a few months every year. Guessed that might be us, at some future time.

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Dried out camp but dirty Truck

We had to do a big unpack and put away of all the shopping.

Tea was chow mein and bread.

I appreciated being back in my own bed. Early night was needed, after our more than 700kms round tripping of the past couple of days.


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2000 Travels May 8

MONDAY 8 MAY     ROCKHAMPTON

John was up early, to take Truck to Landrover. We packed our bedding and the overnight things in Truck before he went. He then walked back to the unit for breakfast.

We left there at 10 and walked to the nearby shopping complex. On the way we visited Harvey Norman and bought computer games. John bought Railroad Tycoon and an update for his Alpha Centuari. I bought  Bridge and Euchre games.

Having time to fill in, we browsed in a tile shop, looking at kitchen tiles and laminexes.

At the shopping complex, bought a birthday card for S, ordered a new mobile phone battery, had lunch.

John checked in by phone with Landrover. Truck needed new wheel bearing seals on the front. It also needed a new tyre as the flat one was beyond redemption.

We walked back there and spent a while checking out new tyres at a nearby place. Decided to buy a complete new set – definitely not Olympics! Went for Dunlops – a new type, SF Road Grippers, replacing their Adventurers. These were the ones the tyre service man recommended as best for our needs. We got a good trade in on the Olympics.

John then realized that the tubes he had in the Olympics were the original ones – now done over 100,000kms! No wonder they had been wearing!

The tyres were an unexpected expenditure, but I think we both had much more confidence that these new ones would be much more stable on the road.

The tyres could not be done until the next day, so we went back to the caravan park for another night. We were in a different unit, but one with a similar layout and price.

While John went to collect Truck, with new seals done, I walked to the shops and bought things for tea and breakfast.

Tea was some salad. John had skinless franks and bread. I just had bread with my salad.


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2000 Travels May 7

SUNDAY 7 MAY     ROCKHAMPTON

Late morning, we left to drive to Rockhampton.

It was still raining in Rubyvale when we left, and for much of the drive we had heavy rain and low visibility, so did not see much in the way of scenery. This was a disappointment, as we’d not been this way before.

We stopped in Emerald for fuel – 83cpl.

We stopped at Blackwater to eat our packed lunch. This was very much a coal mining area, the centre for major mining activity.

On our way from Blackwater to Rockhampton, saw several long coal trains – the line was electrified to Emerald. Qld takes rail transport seriously! The Blackwater area coal goes to Gladstone for export.

Just out of Rockhampton, got a flat tyre – driver side front. We are getting rather practised at changing wheels, these days!

Reached Rockhampton about 5pm. The caravan park was on the north side of the river, not too far from the Landrover dealership.

The unit in the caravan park cost us $54, after Big 4 discount. It was alright in comfort terms, but it was one where we were to supply our own bed linen. which we’d brought with us. However, my sheets did not fit the queen sized bed – we couldn’t use the fitted sheet and had to make do with just the flat one.

Went to the nearby shops and bought fruit for breakfast, and fish and chips for tonight’s tea.

Drove 375kms today.


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2000 Travels May 6

SATURDAY 6 MAY     RUBYVALE

It rained steadily for much of the morning and part of the afternoon, so we had an “in” day.

I studied share prices, which have gone down since the .com crash of April. However, I am sure there will be a recovery.

John made us toasted cheese for lunch – it was that kind of day!

In a break in the rain, in the afternoon, we went for a walk around town.

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Keilambete Road, in the wet weather

There were several places for sale, which prompted us into “what if” speculations. There was a house and shop front – I wondered what that was selling for? Next door to Old Micks gem shop was an empty block – had been a slab and house that had fallen down; that was for sale for rate arrears. This town is the sort of place one could return to, year after year. John mused about the possibility of building a house out of billy boulders. We are great dreamers, the two of us!

Tea was salad with flathead pieces for John and oven fried fish for me.