Another Quick Trip to Toowoomba...

Poor DsD1 is still in hospital as she awaits the birth of their first baby. Because her home is 4-5 hours away from Toowoomba and its medical specialists, the obstetrician has kept her there under supervision and care.
So on the Monday before last, DH and I took another trip up to visit her. The road to Toowoomba from Brisbane is good and traffic was light on the mostly dual carriage way highway.

St Vincent's Hospital is like a lot of hospitals with old and new sections and with lots of 'rabbit warren' corridors and confusing levels! ( yes I did get lost when I attempted to go out to the car park on my own and had to ask a staff member where the exit to the front of the building was! Lol)

Some nice landscaping near the front entrance...

DH went into the CBD for lunch...it was a great view from the rooftop car park.

We planned to head back to the hospital for another short visit later in the afternoon, but before that, DH suggested a drive to the new airport that has been built just outside Toowoomba. This airport was built by private enterprise; a local family company.

We could see the terminal building on our right  had a few kilometre drive straight ahead before the road curved around....

Nearly there!

The drop off area for passengers...

Parking is free for 3 hours, so we parked in the large one level car park and walked to the terminal...yes! I did say 'free'!

The terminal is very nice, but as there were no flights due in the next 2 hours that day, it was very quiet and the coffee shop was closed.

As we were leaving, a shuttle bus arrived but I was a bit slow getting a photo...so just a part of the bus is in the photo! Lol. If you look at the lettering on the right of the photo you may see that this airport is known as Wellcamp Airport, situated in Brisbane West...about 2 hours west of Brisbane actually 😉.

Driving to and from the airport, I got to see more of the Toowoomba area than I normally see. Hopefully next visit, we can go to a favourite spot of mine there...Picnic Point.

Carnival of Flowers...

Remember how DH and I spent the last weekend of September in Wandoan? 

On the Sunday morning we awoke to this view....

And then it was time for a shower, some breakfast and repacking our bags, ready to head home. On the trip to Wandoan we had had a very short stop in Toowoomba. But by leaving Wandoan fairly early we would be able to have a longer stop to check out some of the Carnival of Flowers displays on the way back. 

We arrived in Toowoomba early afternoon and went straight to Queens Park. As usual, Toowoomba didn't disappoint...this annual display of gardens always have the wow factor! 

Queens Park is only one of the many places with magnificent garden displays for the Carnival of Flowers. DH and I have been to this event a few times and it's quite exhausting trying to see everything the city displays have to offer. But this time we were content just to visit this one venue. 

Family celebrations...

Last Friday most of the family headed off to Wandoan. We all had an engagement party to go to on Saturday night...what a wonderful excuse for the family to gather together. 

Two different cars but staying in touch through Facebook! Lol

Wandoan is a 6 hour drive from Brisbane, so we had a few breaks...

First stop was in Toowoomba at the Visitors Centre. Every year at this time, Toowoomba hosts the Carnival of Flowers, but with the 6 hour drive to Wandoan facing us, we knew there wasn't time to go around all the garden displays.  But the Info Centre had some lovely gardens for us to admire...

Because of the influx of visitors for the Carnival, the public toilets at the Info Centre were supplemented by a cute little temporary toilet block...

The next stop was in Dalby, where we lunched at the Coffee Club. 

The mid afternoon stop was in Chinchilla...

In recent years this pretty town has been flooded a few times, but was nice and dry at this time! 😉

Next stop was Wandoan, the town where DsD1 teaches.

5pm on a Friday and not much was happening...

We headed to the motel which was the meeting point for the weary travellers...but only DH, myself and our sister in law were actually staying at the motel.

As each carload arrived at the motel, the facilities of our room came in very handy for everyone.

DsD1 and her fiancé Dan live 60 km away on a cattle property and they came into town to pick up a few items and to lend DH and I one of their four wheel drive vehicles...

You see, some of that 60km of road to the farm is gravel and there are many parts where cars have to ford water...'Carlotta Camry' would not be able to do the drive safely.

So we used this car to do the 120km round trip on both Friday night and Saturday...nice and high off the ground. ( mind you, it was filthy with mud when we'd finished using it!) 

So when baby was fed and changed our convoy of 4 vehicles set out on the 60km drive for our family dinner on the Friday night.

DsD1 had asked everyone to bring something for the meal. She mentioned that she would provide spaghetti, so I offered to make a batch of my pasta sauce. Apparently she was expecting 27 of us to be having dinner together, so it was a rather large batch that I took. 

My little granddaughter had some of the sauce...

She ate the whole bowl full! 

It was quite cold outside; nevertheless most of the family moved outside...

In the photo above, we are actually sitting around a fire pit but we were still cold. Eventually DH, our SiL and I took our leave ready to drive the 60km back to town. We left the others to bed down in their tents or swags on the floor, on the property. More about our 'country break' in later posts. 

An ARHS excursion; Memories of train travels long ago...and what it's like today...

Last weekend DH and I enjoyed our Christmas gifts to each other...a trip on the 'Winelander' train which is one of the excursions run by the Australian Railway Historical Society, Queensland Division. Sadly this is the last Winelander to run due to problems with rolling stock and small tunnels. The trip goes from Brisbane, to Ipswich, then on to Toowoomba, then Warwick and finally arriving in Stanthorpe which is known for it's 50+ wineries in the region. The journey passes through lots of small communities; some with stations others just with a name board.
I wanted to do this trip for sentimental reasons. My mother and I made this same journey in the 1950s when we would at various times, go to visit my godparents on their farm outside Stanthorpe. I still have some memories of those trips such as the train stopping beside another train with sheep in the wagons (very exciting for a city kid!) and arriving at Stanthorpe station and being met by my godfather.

There may not be any livestock trains on this line any more but we did see some of the old wagons that used to carry animals, in a paddock. There were about 3 or 4 wagons with grass growing up through them. The photo was taken from the moving train and then cropped but it may be necessary to double click on the photo to enlarge it.

As we journeyed on Saturday I was saddened by the realisation that the era of the railway on this line is virtually over...passenger services no longer go out past Toowoomba...many stations have been pulled down. My godparents used to use the railways to send their fruit to the markets in both Brisbane and Sydney as did the other farmers but that stopped a long time ago. Buildings around the bigger stations that held freight etc sit empty, neglected and dejected looking.

But enough of the 'sad, reflective stuff', it was a wonderful trip in comfortable ex Sunlander carriages.

Saturday, 6.20 am and already we are at Roma St Station...

 A couple of views from Platform 10...

Our train has arrived from Mayne yard...

 Old Sunlander carriages...

The people in the white shirts in front of DH are some of the wonderful staff who looked after us over the 2 days; they were all volunteers!

As we head towards Ipswich, we pass stately old homes in Graceville...

 A view of the Brisbane River...

Then before long we are crossing another river, this time the Bremer River...

We've passed through Ipswich now and are heading towards Toowoomba...

I'm a big kid really...love it when the train goes around a curve and you can see the loco :-)

To get to Toowoomba, the railway line climbs up the range quite steeply from Murphy's Creek to Spring Bluff. If you have a bit of time, you may like to read the post I wrote about Spring Bluff here; it's one of the prettiest stations I've seen and it suffered greatly in the floods of 2011.

 When the train arrived in Toowoomba, because of the big 'step down' between the train and the platform, we had to use these steps...

Some of the old restored railway equipment at Toowoomba station...

Part of the front of the station...it is all beautifully restored even though its heyday is long gone.

On the train that Saturday morning, as well as looking out the window and taking in the views of the beautiful countryside, we were also able to go to the Lounge Car and try some wines...3 whites on Saturday. (the reds were on Sunday on the way home)

Next time I will write about the rest of our trip...