Tootling Through Toowoomba and Millmerran

In search of new sights and aromas, we boarded an Airnorth flight for a three day break in Toowoomba and at the nearby Millmerran Camp Oven Festival. The flight was a breeze, our rental car pickup and dropoff never got touched by human hand, and message notes and envelopes got us all the keys and paperwork in hand, including those for the motel.

Rain didn't stop our enjoyment of Toowoomba - the whole region was thirsting for water after a very long drought, so the drenching was much appreciated. First. we went to the Botanical Gardens, a mass of carefully laid out foxgloves, cabbages, dianthus...and a pair of large lady's undies in the rain on the washing line in the beautiful flowerbeds.

 Next door was the Cobb & Co museum, a splendid display of coaches, landaus, bullock carts, dog carts, goat carts, and every conceivable type of animal drawn conveyance. Just over a hundred years ago, the mail coach raced on its bumpy way between major townships, exchanging relays of horses en route, and depositing battered travellers at local hotels to dine and recover.

Next morning we visited the DownsSteam Tourist Railway and Museum, a delightful volunteer-run display of old-style Drayton station, rolling stock, carriages, and a meticulously planted garden. On show were the last locomotive built in Toowoomba; wonderful steam loco refurbishment work in progress; ornate carriages, lounge cars, and diners from the Brisbane-Cairns Sunlander repainted as Great Divide Scenic Railway; and a recently retired dining car, fully laid out for 70 guests for morning tea. Quite the most jawdropping exhibit was a set of carriages, known as the Dreamtime Carriages', painted by an Italian-Aboriginal prisoner from the now closed open prison nearby. What a burst of imaginative painting, so full of life and energy!

From there it was an hour of driving across flat, black earth plains to Millmerran for the camp oven festival. What a pleasure to see all the camp ovens, smell the woodsmoke on camp oven alley; and taste the damper and syrup from the stalls.

On show were an Aboriginal raconteur, singer, and didgeridoo maestro explaining how to make music; a whipcracker, snapping his whip, a series of lively damper throwing competitions where the crowd needed to duck frequently; and a lost trades master showing how to use a foot treadle and chisel to handcraft old-style furniture.

The atmosphere was packed with Aussies having a great time, lots of characters, with and without sunnies, beards, moustaches, and hats cocked at all angles.

As we went to leave, a wonderfully quirky trio started playing old Beatles and Lady Gaga songs. Sitting on a mini jeep and a mini Fordson tractor, giant tophats perched above large sunnies, they belted out tunes and jigged along with the crowd.