Chinchilla

While in Toowoomba Jay informed us that he would be home in Chinchilla the day we had planned to leave there so we again adjusted the plan to stay a little longer here so that we could meet up. We also then planned still heading west to Roma before going north to Emerald then heading west this would avoid the closed roads beyond Morven, it would also unfortunately bypass Charleville, our changes had already meant that stays at Miles and Roma were not to be, we would only pass through them, and we would see Emerald twice, not what I wanted to do, though it would guarantee we could get through.

Chinchilla being a small town about which we knew very little was only to be a short stop (two nights) now it was 3 nights, by now the coastal rain was behind us and the skies, while there were some clouds, were blue and the days were warm, so a visit to the tourist information centre was in order, along with a drive to follow the tourist trail.

Chinchilla’s claim to fame is the melon capital of Australia and in 2019 Wotif awarded Chinchilla with the Big Melon, since that time the number of melon farmers has drastically fallen from over 60 to less than 10 commercial melon farms.

What we did discover was the existence of a Communal Settlers program in Chinchilla, this peaked Carol’s interest, in particular the Mizpah community & the where abouts we passed going to the Old Man Lagoon, only to find that Jay and Renee own where the community was started and that some foundations and handmade bricks can still be found there, more information was given to us when we visited Jay, & Renee showed us a book on the settlement (“Chinchilla Communal Settlers” by Veronica Dawson)

While at Chinchilla waiting for Jay to come home, we also visited the nearby town of Tara and what remains of Pelican and in many ways, we could have stayed longer to explore more of the district so we have an excuse to return.

 

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