Tuesday 5th July

  We were looking forward to the famous Queensland warm weather but at the moment that is certainly not the case. We woke to drizzle and quite a cool morning. (Later in the day we found out that today, in many places around Queensland records have been broken for low temperatures.) To keep warm and despite the drizzle, we decided to go for a little walk in the main part of the town and then do some grocery shopping. Rob needed to get a part for the caravan so we visited a fishing, camping, outdoor shop on the main street. While in there I recognised the voice of the woman who owned the shop. She had featured on the ABC program “Back Roads” when they visited Charleville. She was a hoot. Funny as a fit and she also tried her hardest to help us. (She even brought out her yellow pages to look up the number of a business that may have been able to help us.) I said to her that I’d seen her on the program and she said how the young woman that was hosting the program was a little worried about the “adult” things she had in her shop and had a big laugh. She is known as “rude Jude”. This is the link to the Back Roads program about Charleville. You will meet Judey!

During our walk, we visited the State Emergency Services centre where there were some excellent information boards about the devastating floods Charleville has experienced over the years, in particular the 1990 flood where 1,200 homes were impacted by the flood. We visited some of the places around town that had markers and information boards about the effects of the floods in different areas. Following lunch we did a lovely walk around the newly developed, Graham Andrews Parklands. I had visited the information centre and obtained a pamphlet about famous people in the cemetery so we had to have a quick visit there. We finished the day with a drink in the magnificent Corones Hotel, a place full of amazing history.