Tonight we’ve moved back to the Queensland coast, and we’re grateful to be on the lands of the Darumbal people in what’s now known as Rockhampton. We acknowledge this has always been their land, and we pay our respects to the Darumbal elders past, present and emerging. It was a long day of driving today. And not the greatest night’s sleep last night made it a very tiring day! But as far as travel days goes, it was an excellent…

Today we headed back up the road about an hour to Longreach. When we were planning out the holiday, we wanted to do things in both Barcaldine and Longreach – but with trying to squeeze so much into the holiday, and wanting to try and avoid overnight stays in towns unless we needed to, we decided to do two nights in Barcaldine and just travel back to Longreach. The first stop was at the Longreach School of Distance Education. We…

This evening we’re on the lands of the Iningai people in Barcaldine. We pay our respects to the elders of the Iningai past, present and emerging. It was only a relatively short drive deeper into Central Queensland from Winton today, to an area generally known as the capital of Central Queensland. It was nice to just have a relaxed pack up in Winton, and we were on the road by about 9am (after a quick stop at a wonderful little…

Today was a bit more of a relaxed day. We had a few things we wanted to check out around town, but we also wanted to opt for having some time of doing nothing much at home, ahead of a few days of visiting places and driving over the next 5 or 6 days. This morning we dropped into the Waltzing Matilda Centre; not to visit the proper display, but just to get a couple of information things and see…

Happy birthday, Daniel! We started out this morning celebrating Daniel’s 11th birthday, reading the birthday messages we’d written for him, and him opening a couple of small presents from all of us. His big present from the family comes later in the trip – a penguin encounter in Coffs Harbour! He was very excited for that. We then headed off for today’s big adventure – the Australian Age of Dinosaurs! There were three parts of the tour – the fossil…

After a full day of driving, tonight we’re resting our heads on the lands of the Koa people, the traditional owners and native title holders of this area around Winton, and extending to Corfield, Kynuna and Middleton. We pay our respects to the elders of the Koa people past, present and still to come. We headed off from Magnetic Island early this morning, grabbing a chai and coffee (for Debbie and I) on the way to the ferry terminal at…

I’m sure Townsville is lovely, and there’s plenty to see there – but choosing to come over to Magnetic Island for 3 nights rather than stay in Townsville is possibly the best decision we made in planning this trip. It is a brilliantly relaxing place, and the weather in winter is spectacular. This morning we headed around to Geoffrey Bay to see the rock wallabies that inhabit the area. There are just so many of them hanging around! They have…

Today was just the day we needed – slow paced, relaxing and full of beach. The kids were up at about 7am, but with no rush to get moving, Debbie and I enjoyed sleeping in until about 8am. Magnetic Island is known for its snorkelling – but rather than snorkelling from boats, you snorkel just off the beach! There are two proper “snorkel trails” on the island – one in Geoffrey Bay, and a much closer and easier one in…

Magnetic Island is our home for the next 3 nights. This island is known as Yunbenun by the Wulgurukaba people, who are the owners of this land. We pay our respects to the Wulgurukaba elders past, present and emerging. Late this afternoon we hopped off the ferry that brought us across to Magnetic Island and we’re now settling into a really nice Airbnb place down in Picnic Bay. The weather down here is perfect – not too humid, and not…

About an hour and a half south-east of the Atherton Tablelands is the beautiful Mission Beach area. We started the day at Charley’s Chocolate Factory – one of the only chocolate producers in Australia who make chocolate from the tree to the chocolate bar. We arrived for our 10:30am tour, along with quite a few other people. From the outside, it doesn’t look like much – they just have a big, open shelter that we sit under, and most of…