QUEENSLAND -  ARMSTRONG BEACH - HOME IS WHERE THE HEART IS!

There's no place like home!   We have completed the big lap but with a month up our sleeve it was off North again back to the tropics and a chance to wind down at my families home at Armstrong Beach Sarina.  The fishing was fantastic, the company even better and confirmation that the greatest place to live in this country is our beloved Queensland! 

The following photo's are from fishing and camping at Armies with my cousins, family and mates.....

Our resident croc in Boundry Creek.  She's only at about 13 feet but has a huge head for the size and definitely a man eater potential.  The smaller croc that was a regular up stream from here was not seen nor slide/tracks? This croc is very hard to get close too and must get sick of rushing into water when a boat approaches....check 1....we have crocs!

Flicking soft plastics up the creek and scored this nice Jack!  My dad with his back to shot.

The first day we arrived home I ducked up the creek by myself with Chilly for a quick flick.....I stopped taking photo's of the barra at fish number 10 and caught about 30 barra one after the other for the hottest session in the entire round Australia trip of 6 months!  Reason for this poor photo is to show how I have to pin chilly against the tinny with my leg while I try and unhook and release the barra as he is an absolute lunatic in the boat!  If not pinned to the side he rips any fish to pieces that we put in the boat regardless of spikes and razor sharp gill rakers!!  MAD DOG!

Camping opposite Cape Palmerstone N.P. about 35 minutes tinny ride from home. Our tinny and cousins Clint and Pauls at Shag Creek where we had a great time catching up. In the background is Mt Funnel.  

Three of the most treasured best blokes and mates I have!  Paul left, Clint right and their Dad (my uncle) Paul Snr behind the console.  We went reef fishing for the day and scored about 14 trout and some other assorted reefies!  Great shot of Clint and Paul! 

Jessica and my beautiful sister Nikki crabbing up Boundary. 

Best mate Thommo and Dad barra fishing the timber up Boundary.  Flicking lures and softies. Caught plenty of 56 - 62 cm fish but no big ones...the pro nets make short work of the big barra stocks of Llewellyn Bay.

Little Golden Trevva on soft plastic....nothing in Australia I saw is close to the fishing options of home at Armies...and everything is less than 30 minutes whether you want to catch a coral trout, mud crab or barra!

Uncle Pauly with a nice little Snapper at secret spot number 546.

Growing up we lived (when not fishing) at this swimming hole in Sarina in Plane Creek.  Cousin Paul (jnr) resurrected a new swing and the cycle continues with the kids loving a day up at the swimming hole jumping out of the trees and summersaulting from the swing.  Kacie in shot loving it up!

Thommo with a nice little Boundry Barra....too easy!

Bush mechanics fixing thommo's trailer that broke a spring on a drive into Cape Palmerston camping that didn't eventuate.  Clint and Paul dropped everything and came to the rescue!  Cold beers all round and a funny day.

The greatest fun you can have fishing for Black spot tuskfish!  Armies is just out of shot over my left shoulder.  This is a small example of the bluey's we target with specific gear and bait!  This very fish sells for $75 a kg for fillets in WA!  

Had a great session on whiting at Clairview with Dad and uncle Terry. Whiting were all 30 to 35 cm stonkers!  Nothing like a hot whiting fish on the ledge of a rising tide!  

QUEENSLAND RULES!!!!!

High Country Central Victoria....COLD!

A day or two in the high country!  20th and 21st August 2012.

Probably should have dated all the pictures as totally lost track of time/date/place....?  We left the van at Traralgon with the Chilvers' and went for a drive with intentions of seeing some of the high country around Mt Buller and Lake Eilden (Filming of Man from Snowy River country). The main catalyst was our dear old mate Sir Reg Barnwall back home convalescing heard we were near his old stomping grounds and requested we visit where he was born!   We drove up to Mansfield via Healesville, Eildon, Alexandra and saw some incredible country. Pictures and comments follow:

Trout stock ponds at Buxton Trout farm

On the way up to Eildon we dropped into a trout farm at Buxton that charged $3 for kids and I forget what for adults and then you have to keep what you catch and pay about $14.50 per kg of the fish.  We met the bloke in charge who said 'just make yourself at home mate; it's really only a weekend thing so here's some bait and there's some food, go and feed em and have a look around...I'll be in the shed gutting fish, if you need a hand just push the buzzer and I'll come out.....!"  And with that we had the place to ourselves!  We only took one rod and as there were only Rainbow trout and Atlantic Salmon we caught one of each (released it) and put the rod back!

Nice fish hey!!!!! Kacie played this Atlantic Salmon for at least 4 or 5 minutes on light gear. I made sure the drag was backed off as it ran, jumped and fought like a trooper and you can imagine the average fisher having the drag up too tight and getting busted off easily!  There were floats everywhere against the bank of the pond indicating just that.  I even got a nice like gill rake cut on my hand for future memories of our encounter with the Buxton Salmon!

Rainbow's going nuts on the pellets we were given to feed them.  Literally thousands of them in every pond with the odd few dead and drifted against the filter grills.

My little Rainbow which I was told was actually not a bad size for a Rainbow Trout??  Still wish I hooked and played Kacie's Salmon though!!!  Kacie is holding the container of pellets we were given.

Can anyone guess what dam/lake this is.....here's a hint....'Dad didn't mind, he always thought that the power lines reminded him of man ability to conduct electricity!'  HA HA HA!!!!

O.K. if that was too hard how about this photo!!!??? Here are some lines from the scenes involving this shack that any true blooded sralyin will know:   "Smell that.......two stroke" and if you look closer on the verandah you can see the bug zapper hanging up which feature in the line after "hows the serenity......?" I was singing the song all the way from Traralgon to this little spot........'we're going to Bonnnie Doon!" HA HA!

This is Sir Reg's families old farm near Eildon. We popped in and met the lovely people that purchased the properties from Reg who had of course inherited from his parents and sold in the early 70's when they sold up and went to Frazer Island and started the resort off up there.  No doubt Reg will be able to tell me about that old Silky and the shed and dilapidated yards....!  All cattle country now (Angus).

Nice little lunch stop at the base of Mt Buller.  Kerriann cooking stir-fry chicken a favourite in the cold weather on the road!

This drive actually shocked the heck out of me......these tree's are very tall eucalypts in the Marysville region and I surmised that we must be in the area of the Black Saturday fires and was later confirmed.  The trees are burnt black to the canopy basically meaning that this was an area where crown fire or fire storm went through and we lost so many Aussie's. It's quite surreal actually driving through the town and seeing the remnants of such destruction and as opposed to the insulation that T.V. broadcast you really get a feel for how horrifying it would have been!  Rest in peace those that we lost and hope those healing are holding up o.k!  The stats were 173 people killed and 414 injured stemming from the main fire on and around the 7th February 2009.

On a much brighter note....!  Mt Buller in its resplendent beauty!

One of the Mt Buller gimmick activities is the Gnome Trail and this one is on the main road up to the Mountain.  Not a bad idea and one I would love to take home to Mt Tamborine but the moron delinquents that infest SEQ would destroy them in a matter of days.   

Nice one of Mr and Mr's in the snow at Mt Buller.

On the Ski Lift to the top...actually no sorry, on the way back down!

This was on the way up.....!

At the top...just wish we had all the gear and ski's!  We were a bit out of place walking round in jeans and sand-shoes and even funnier was when we got out of the car at the car-park standing in the snow in thongs and t-shirts..!  The Japanese tourists thought we were mad!

We drove home through Mountain dirt roads that took us over all the hills and through amazing little towns and locations.  A very long time to drive 100km but places like this town called Woods Point were a better step back in time than many heritage tourist towns you see!  

Looking down the main street there is dead set a chook in the middle of the road outside the pub in this shot.  Still mining Gold up here too which got me stirred up a bit.....maybe I could take up Gold Mining or fossicking (how do you spell fossicking)?

Today is 22nd August and we are back at the Chilvers and packing up ready to move on finally from Southern Victoria!  Girls are loading up as much internet stuff from the Chilvers WiFi and these posts and pictures in haste as it seems to use up so much data usage loading photos!   Hope you are all well and there seems to be a hint of warmer weather to come in the next few weeks.  Will be nice to feel the sun and warmth again!

Love to all!  The Joneses....xx

Wilsons Promontory - Victoria - Tidal River

An absolute magnificent part of Australia!  We stayed at Tidal River and basically had the place to ourselves bar about 3 or 4 other campers and vans in a ghost town park.  The lady at reception explained that they have a ballot system for the allocation of camps during the holiday period as there are over 2000 bookings years in advance that the have to try and sort out!  There is a police station and large store much like the Gympie Muster is in Queensland where a whole town pops up out of nothing!  Easy to see why as the scenery is magnificent and the creek itself a beautiful spot for swimming on a warm sunny day (just not sure if it gets warm this far south or not?).  

The following are some photo's of the River, Beach and surrounding hills of Tidal River.

Just wishing it was 36 degress and sunny.....what a swimming hole!

The girls testing the temperature....yep, bit chilly for swimmin!

Was looking for flathead marks but none to be seen?  They'd be here somewhere surely?

Same same....beautiful spot!

One of the lookouts over Tidal River. To the left of shot is the river and camping grounds.  The hill in the background is Mount Oberon which the Commando's had to climb as their first test of fitness if they wished to continue selection training.  More on that a later in this post.....

In the spirit of 'where's wally' can you spot the swamp wallaby in the photograph.  There is one so see how long it takes you!?

Footbridge over the river heading back to camp after walking to the lookout over Tidal River.

This was a pleasant surprise at Tidal River and unknown to me!

The plaque on the memorial in the background reads as follows:

This cairn was erected to commemorate the birthplace of the Commando in Australia and in memory of all Commandos who made the supreme sacrifice in World War II.

During 1941 and 1042 the 1st to 8th Independent Companies, the colour patches of which appear hereon and two New Zealand Units, were formed and trained in the Darby and Tidal River areas. Subsequently "Z" and "M" Special Units, 9th, 10th, 11th and 12th Commando Squadrons and Commando Regiments were formed. Commando Training was continued thereafter at Canungra, Fraser Island and elsewhere in northern Queensland and Garden Island, Western Australia.

Section 29 of the National Parks Act requires that the cairn at Tidal River commemorating wartime commando training be maintained. The Army buildings at Tidal River became a holiday village after the war. The road into the area was finally sealed in 1970/71.

Lest we forget!!!  What a spot to celebrate Dawn Service I can only imagine that it would be a wonderful service?  Just have to watch out for the Commando Wombats........

This big fella returned time and again through the night scratching around under our van and we would bump the wheels or stabiliser legs and the van would shake.....funny buggers they are!

Trying to get a photo with a wombat.....they really don't like staying still for long and this is about as good as I could get...we saw heaps of them in camp but trying to take a photo was near impossible!?

I would rate Tidal River as one of the nicest spots you could take the family camping!  It had sustained a heap of flood damage in 2011 and still recovering.   We are back to Taralgon again and preparing for Lucy and James' birthday parties at the Chilvers residence!! 

Love to all!! xx 

Snow Snow Snow....!

Well it August now and time is flying. At the time of typing this there is severe weather in Victoria and we are leaving the van at Taralgon with the Chillies (Chilvers family) and heading up into the Alpine's for a bit of search, seek and see.  The current weather might mean we see a hell of a lot more snow than expected so could be fun?   The following photo's are from a day trip:

Mt Saint Gwinear in the Baw Baw National Park about 80km from Traralgon.  The Chilvers have a network of friends who all borrow snow gear from each other so we were all decked out like pro's with toboggan's, cross country ski's etc..... Save a fortune and end of the day only cost us fuel there and back.  For the girls it was their first time ever in the snow and a great day was had by all.  

We didn't realise it but Kacie was soaked through to the bone the poor little bugger and freezing.  Silvana took this family shot for us at the bottom of the ski run.  

Jessie Bell about to plant a giant now ball on the photographer!

Nice shot by Kerriann of the girls!

Yeeehaaaa!!  We all had a bit of fun on the toboggan's.  The shot of me going through and tangled up in the safety net at the bottom of the hill unfortunately didn't work out......straight out of cartoons legs in tangled in the mesh upside down and covered in snow!

Lovely shot of Silvana and Kerriann at the top of the toboggan slope.

Snow fight!!!!

Our first ever snow man! 

Ye olde Melbourne town!

We spent a lovely 4 days in Melbourne staying at a caravan park about 20 minutes bus ride from the CBD.  Each day we got the bus ($23.70) for all four of us which allowed us on any train and tram for a 24 hours period and was a great way to get around.   Most of our time was spent around the CBD visiting the lanes and myriad of shops here and there.   

We were lucky enough to score tickets to Annie the Musical!  Great show and big thanks to Aunty Del Ross who got on the internet and did all the work for us to secure tickets.  THANKS DEL DEL DEL RING THE BELL YA GOT YA EARS ON GAL!!!  (That was our radio call to Del and Greg when they were with us for the first few months on the road UHF radio).

Let them eat cake!!!  Jessica adores Cup cakes and every second shop in Melbourne seems to be a cake shop!  Foooood glorious fooooood!

Melbourne Tea room!  The girls sampling some of the fine deserts on offer!  Indulgence and then some!

Eureka Tower Melbourne CBD...this is a typical personality shot....Kacie right up on the edge face planted to the glass leaning against it almost straining to get outside....Jessica and Kerriann very cautiously and happy to admire the view from a safer distance perhaps!  I like this photo.....?  

The wonderful Burke and Wills Dig tree (left) and The Pioneer (right)!!!!  WOW!!!!  The girls to their credit immediately recognised the three panel story to the Pioneer and one of their homework projects was to write me 300 words on the painting.  They had a choice and both picked The Pioneer.

I didn't know this but here copy past of the caption to Red Riding Hood!  This painting is a more detailed rendition of one of the designs made by the great French illustrator Gustave Dore for the fairy tale of Charles Perrauff (1628-1703), which were reprinted in Paris in 1862, Here Dore has illustrated Perrauff's original Little Red Riding Hood of 1697 - rather than the later, sanitised versions - and depicts the story's penultimate moment, just before the triumphant, and satiated, wolf bites off Little Red Riding Hood's head, Terror was often a key component in fairy tales which also had a moralising element or subtext. Romantic artists were drawn to these darker aspects of tales written for children.   GO FIGURE!

We went to Sovereign Hill at Ballarat which was pretty cool!  Especially the original Southern Cross (Eureka) Flag which is on display at the local Museum Arts centre!  Of course everyone pans for gold in the creek at the theme park but here's the thing.....! It's full of GOLD! The put about 2k worth of Gold a month depending on holidays etc...and basically 99% of people have no idea how to properly pan out gold and sit there and sift through the gravel looking for nuggets and chunks of gold....I panned  a total of 4 pans of gravel that I scooped with a shovel from no particular part of the creek and every pan had as much if not more Gold in it than I got panning in PNG last year!   It was very cool....can understand how the pioneers got Golf fever...there's something about seeing that flash of fleck after 15 minutes of cleaning....(takes me about 15minutes per pan I'm very slow).

 And there it is!!!  Every pan had this gold in it...I imagine you could spend the day there and if I were any good at it they'd probably ask you politely to leave.  Be nice to pan a few grams to cover the entry!

This one dedicated to my sister Nikki!  The Wallace and Gromit exhibition was on at the Science works.....Nik they had all the sets and stuff from the Wallace and Gromit movies etc....quirky and fun!

More to come!  We are currently in Melbourne and our dear friends the Chilvers family whom we met in the Kimberley....off to camp with wombats at Wilson's Promontory tomorrow!