Thursday, September 04, 2014

Rockhampton…………………..Day 163

4 September 2014

Yesterday was a day trip to the coast to Emu Park and Yeppoon, but fi9rst we stopped at the Information Centre to photograph the monument telling us exactly where the Tropic of Capricorn is.

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What beautiful scenery we saw at Yeppoon and Emu Park.

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Today we drove further inland to Mt Morgan, a former gold mining town. It is just 4 days into spring and already we saw a bush fire on the road to Mt Morgan.

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We drove through the Mount Morgan Ranges with 40km hairpin bends. The lady in the Information centre told us this road has just been reopened recently after being destroyed by flood and being closed 18 months for repairs._MG_0020web

Mt Morgan, a listed Heritage Town, has many old heritage buildings around the town, one notable building being the former Queensland National Hotel. This Hotel was built in 1899 and was used as a spotting tower during World War II. the hotel closed in 1992 and is now a private residence.

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We went to the Bakery to get a cup of coffee and a pie and took a run to the Dam to have a look and have our coffee. The dam was built to support the gold mine’s needs and later deeded to the Mt Morgan Town was its water supply.

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I took a walk over the Swinging Bridle, opened in 2001 and named after the first Australian Soldier killed in Australian uniform on foreign soil. The bridge was built by the Army 35 field Squadron.

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The town has 2 lookouts which we checked out. One overlooks the goldmine while this one overlooks the town and has a signpost telling us how far places are. Home (Perth) is 3905 kms from this point.

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Denise cooked us roast lamb for tea tonight – thanks to Denise for a great meal.

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