Mt Marshall is a smallish agricultural zone in the Southern Downs region near Alorra in the north and +- 20km from Warwick in the south. It is named after the nearby mountain, Mount Marshall, which rises 601 metres from sea level.
We left Maleny and travelled to Toogoolawah, a little town that we adore, to visit with friends. After Toogoolwah, we pushed through to Gatton’s free camp and stayed a night. We had lovely views over the wheat fields across Lockyer Creek.
From Gatton we moved on to a free camp alongside the Heifer Creek on the Allora/Gatton Road. What bliss! So many birds, such tranquillity. To get there, we drove through the Heifer Creek cutting – a little piece of history, excavated by the Theiss brothers early in the 1900s with custom-made Theiss tools. We were sad to have to leave the next morning.
A 40-minute drive on an extremely narrow road brought us to Allora, the nearest town to Mt Marshall. It is an enchanting, beautiful town. We stopped for 2 days at the showground's camping area to catch up on washing and to wait for the right time to ‘book in’ here at the house. We explored Allora, with its old colonial feel. Heritage-listed places are dotted all around the town.
We counted at least 3 hotels, a few churches, and a few necessary stores on its main street. The residential gardens are almost all meticulous. There are large grain silos in town, so heavy vehicles come and go in the early mornings, but no one minds, as grain is the heartbeat of the region. It was fascinating to see where the rail tracks once ran through town. Now, as they say, without trucks, Australia stops. There is a golf course in town, with the sports club a popular venue. We stopped by the heritage-listed memorial park, to view only one of two monuments in Queensland, dedicated to the Boer war, and honouring Australians who fought and fell there. Sad for us as South Africans, to know that people even from this remote area so far away, were called, or volunteered, to fight for queen and country on the plains and hills of South Africa. 😣
The wind blew us away on the day we were due to leave, gusting at 40 km/hr. The temp dropped by 10 degrees. We were forced to roll in the caravan awning at 4 AM (without waking the neighbours) as it was being attacked by the wind and rattling the whole van. A rude awakening before coffee! 😆 Later we found the neighbours were all awake too, as the wind was that fierce.
We look forward to exploring Warwick in a few days.
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Thanks for stopping by. 🦜
Lovely ❤️