Bunya mountains ...

Nick and I took a drive out to the Bunya Mountains in the afternoon.  There was some lovely scenery en route and we saw hills with many fruiting prickly pears, which made us wonder where all the cacto-blastis moths were!

There were quite a few trees with small orange fruit along one roadside, so we stopped to collect a sample - then later identified it as a Weeping Pitto-sporum using my Australian Trees book, cos my library was in the back of the car (yep, I'm a bit nerdy)!

We enjoyed our afternoon tea at one of the tables in the Dandabah picnic area.  A male satin bowerbird was busy in the undergrowth nearby and the scrub turkeys also wandered very close to us.  We could hear currawongs calling overhead and it was a lovely place for sitting quietly.

The sun was setting as we made our way back to Dalby, driving carefully due to the many small wallabies beside the road.  (They were grazing in house yards as well as more open areas).

Bunya Mountains National Park is home to the world’s largest stand of bunya pines. (They can live 600 years)!

Dalby dawdling ...

Nick works shift-work, so isn't always rostered off for weekends and often works during public holidays.  When we saw this opportunity for a mini-holiday, it didn't occur to either of us that it was also a long weekend for all the state.  That fact became clear when I tried to book our accommodation!

(As new QLDers we aren't yet up-to-date with our now local public holidays).

After lucking out on several destinations I found a budget, pet-friendly cabin at Dalby - so booked quickly!  I did a little research and read the town boasted a monument to the cactoblastis moth! Of course, we had to see that!

We've visited all kinds of monuments and memorials in our travels.  We regularly see prickly pear also and know it as an invasive plant. I was very surprised to see it being grown in Victoria - in netted areas to protect it from birds!  Given our extremely negative experience of prickly pear jam (purchased during our Lightning Ridge visit), it didn't make sense that a pest species would be grown as a prized crop.

Since returning from Dalby, I've done more research and some communities value the fruit very highly.  I'm still not sure what legal requirements exist for growing the cactus in Victoria.  In Queensland many of the subspecies are "prohibited invasive plants" and must be reported within 24 hours to Biosecurity Queensland, under the Biosecurity Act 2014.  ("Prickly Pear" is a general term used to describe more than ten species of cactus, most from the opuntia species).

There was an abbreviated history of prickly pear reported on the Dalby monument. I've learnt a lot more since returning home.  Some facts were revision, while others were new.  It's a very interesting story.  Biosecurity Queensland has published a detailed four-page PDF file, here.  There are more photos and facts, here.

About 70km from Dalby is another memorial to the cactoblastis moth.  The Cactoblastis Memorial Hall at Boonarga is the only building in the world named after an insect. (Boonarga is near Chinchilla, where the first prickly pear plant was destroyed by the cactoblastis larvae in 1926).  The local community celebrated the hall's 80th anniversary last year.  

We love Tyrepower!

Our first mission of the morning was to get the tyre repaired. Given it was the Saturday of a long weekend, Nick and I went out before breakfast.  There were five tyre repair options in Dalby. We chose the one closest to us - and then the GPS took us there via the most indirect route, which saw us arrive at the rear of the building!

It was a busy morning for the employees and I found it quite interesting to see them all at work.  Our tyre was fixed and then re-fitted to the car in it's rightful spot.  Nick put the spare back and we headed "home" for breakfast, which was a lot quicker when we navigated more efficiently!

I'd flash-frozen cooked pikelets for microwave reheating during one of our Lithgow/Ironfest visits, which was a wonderful success.  I'd similarly pre-cooked pikelets for this trip though cut them into heart-shapes for extra pizzaz!  Very happy to report they were heartily (hah!) enjoyed by all!

Feeling flat?!

Our plan was to depart when school finished on Friday afternoon - and we left pretty much on schedule. 

One of my last missions was to reheat some party pies and sausage rolls to keep warm in the thermal cooker (an idea that was successful for our Mortlake camping trip in 2014).

Of course, when packing these snacks I envisioned eating them at a nice picnic table!

We hadn't been on the road long when we spotted another Landcruiser the same colour as ours. When it exited the freeway, we were checking it's snorkel and thought the driver was waving but in fact he was shouting "tyre"!

Nick exited the freeway as soon as he could and found a quieter stretch of road for changing the tyre.  Vaughan helped - and we all enjoyed hot pies and sausage rolls during the delay, even though it wasn't quite the rest stop I imagined!

I was reminded of another trip where the commodore had a flat tyre en route to our campsite.  Fortunately this time we were staying in a cabin and didn't need to set-up a tent etc in the dark!

Elmer the Gold!

As it happened, we purchased our new-to-us truck not quite two weeks after we farewelled the original Elmer Fudd.

Our replacement is fairly standard - no lift, winch, driving lights, roof-rack, cargo barrier or drawers. He doesn't look, sound or feel the same but has traveled considerably less - 182,000km vs the starting 290,200km of his predecessor , a very worthwhile investment.

We managed 130,000km of adventures with the original Elmer, so there is plenty of potential for even more with this one!

Once home, we quickly organised four new tyres and pondered what to do next.  We've been out on a few local-ish day-trips and collected various furniture bargains but left the truck as purchased, while we considered what improvements to do.

In preparation for a weekend away, Nick fixed the awning (which hadn't been quite the same since a gust of wind caught it about 12 months ago at Beaufort).  He then fitted the roof-rack regalia. And now, the truck really feels like ours!  Hooray for Elmer the Gold!

We decided to stay in a Bandit-friendly cabin for the long weekend.  Fitting the roof-rack meant several suitcases and other gear could be stashed in our Aldi cargo bags, leaving plenty of room in the back of the car for food, picnic cases and a variety of essentials.

Typically, no-one remembered to wash the Elmer Fudd sign while the roof-rack was at ground level - der!  

130,000km of adventures ...

We arrived in QLD on Friday morning. The next Monday I drove Elmer to his damage assessment. He was moved from there to a different repairer and for a while it looked like he would actually be repaired, which was great news.

Unfortunately the cost of repairing our wonderful truck was more than his listed value, so we said goodbye two weeks later.  The staff at the centre were quite understanding of our emotional attachment, with one fellow saying that he'd owned a car for 31 years before it was written off in an accident.

We bought Elmer in October 2010. His odometer then read 290,200 and when we fare-welled him he'd done 420,000. How good is that?! Nearly 130,000 km of adventures (and a few misadventures as well but they are equally important in our family history)!  We'll definitely miss the Fudd Truck but Nick is searching for a suitable successor and we hope to be exploring again - soon.  Fingers crossed!

Forest Hill finale ...

Our last few days before departure were very busy. Aside from all the usual final packing, we were involved in an accident on the freeway where another 4WD lost concentration and ran up the back of us at speed.

We were all very lucky. Elmer was damaged but cleared for travel.  We made arrangements for him to be assessed by the insurance company once we reached Brisbane.

There was lots to do on our last morning. Nissa was farewelled at the train station. We handed back various keys, said goodbye to our neighbours and finally headed out the gate around midday - needing to achieve 530 km before 10:00pm.

Of course we stopped along the way for fuel and sustenance.  We even managed to find our 600th geocache beside the Murray river just before crossing from Victoria into NSW!

We'd achieved our 400th and 500th geocaching milestones while in Victoria and wanted to tick off our 600th as part of our relocation journey from Victoria to Queensland.  (Given timing restrictions, the group shot was not one of our better efforts)!

It was a big day. When planning our itinerary we'd decided against using the van for accommodation en route but rather seek Bandit-friendly places to stay.

The first of those was at the Forest Hill Caravan Park, where we had stayed with our menagerie on the way down to Victoria from New South Wales in December 2012.  It seemed a tidy conclusion to our Victorian era, particularly as we checked-in close to 10:00pm, much the same as we'd done on our first visit.  Denis escorted us to the same cabin we'd used before but skipped the intro tour, cos he reckoned we knew where everything was!

I stayed up for a while after arrival and grinned hugely when I realised that I had no need for my winter dressing gown (which had been standard night-wear even in late January)!