St George to home

 Friday 30th July

We were collected by our tour guide, Snow, at 9am for a day visiting a Cotton Farm and local winery. After a short tour around town where Snow pointed out the flood fortifications and a few historic monuments we headed out of town. St George was so named because the day Thomas Mitchell camped on the river banh was St George's Day.

It was interesting getting a cotton farmers perspective on the water usage issue. Snow considered any water that he didn't collect in his farm dams was "wasted" quite a contrast to the story we would hear later on our boat trip. He didn't find it ironic that his farm is littered with out of date enormous metal machines or that the local cotton gin has closed down because the cotton is now baled into large round bales rather than loaves and the gin is not able to cater for the round ones. All the irrigation drains are open and unlined so I figure that would also account for some "wastage"

From cotton to wine….apparently the use the same amount of water to achieve the positive outcome for their crop, although the vineyard covers a much smaller area.

David joined us on arrival and took over the commentary. We had a very interesting insight in to the vines and his marketing. Riversand Winery’s grow a balance of table grapes and wine grapes. Their wine grapes are sent to Ballandean winery in Stanthorpe where there are processed before sale. We tried the whole range and found quite a few to our liking so came away with a mixed dozen. We were certainly pleased that after a light lunch Snow was on hand to drive us home.

While Michael had a short afternoon rest before out next appointment I grabbed my binoculars for a look around the adjoining paddocks. I thought I could hear the elusive White-winged Fairy-wren then suddenly there he was…singing his little heart out with not a care that I was nearby…beautiful!

To complete our day we joined a 2 hour River cruise with Brett from Sandytown River Cruises. Brett took the name from back the day when St George had 2 Aboriginal Missions one of which was called Sandytown. I think it would be difficult to find two more diverse characters than Snow and Brett, both passionate about their interests but with very different viewpoints. Brett feels that the water Snow considers to be wasted should be allowed to flush through the system…I lean more towards Bretts way of thinking. Unfortunately here I think the cotton interests would heavily outweigh any of the environmental concerns that Brett has.

It was a beautiful evening with sunlit reflections on the east bank before we turned around and headed back to the dock in the setting sun. We were amazed that the owners of the expensive homes (mostly cotton farmers) are allowed to alter the river banks to create inlets/harbours to park their boats/pontoons. 

I did have to hide a smile when I heard Michael correct Brett…” That’s not a Currawong it’s a White-winged Chough”

Our original plan from here was to cross the border and have a couple of nights in NSW on the way home but with current conditions we decided to stay north of the border until we are a bit closer to home.

Saturday31st July

Before leaving St George, Michael made his greatest catch(apart from me😄) The Murray Cod and we viewed the weir from the bottom side. The highway runs across the top of the weir.

There isn’t much going on between St George and Goondiwindi except lots of ‘undulating’ roads. As we drive into Goondiwindi we finally got radio reception to hear that SE Queensland was going into lockdown as of 4 o’clock this afternoon. This solidified our decision to head for Texas tonight and do the last day without having to stop in NSW. Of course this meant doing a bit more backtracking but so be it. For the first time this trip we pulled into Maccas for lunch and completed our NSW Travel Declaration while we ate. Currently it has to be completed within 24 hours of entry and we weren’t to sure about reception in tonight’s free camp in Texas.

On arrival in Texas we found a permanent Queensland Police presence at the end of the bridge but they were not in the least bit interested in those of us heading south. Later on we saw a camper come in from a back entrance and they were off pretty quickly to check him out.

After a walk by the river where I managed to add another beautiful bird to my list, an Azure Kingfisher, we enjoyed our last campfire feeling very secure with the nearby patrol. Dinner was jaffles filled with leftovers, cooked over the coals….delicious.

Sunday 1st August

On the first day of our trip we had marvelled at the power of water when we had to detour around this damaged bridge. It was also interesting to note how the landscape around us has changed dramatically in the last 300km.

Once back in Lismore, clearing the van collecting some keys and sharing a cuppa, we arrived in Ballina on a perfect afternoon of 27 degrees. Always good to be home…apart from the flat battery in my car, but that’s tomorrow’s problem.

What did we learn this time round:

We took too many clothes.

Michael hates the dust.

We would love to revisit some places, others not so.

We enjoyed travelling with company.

Circular saw was unnecessary!

Fridge set up worked perfectly.

Bird list was 155 species, with 14 lifers for me.

Michael knows more birds than he cares to admit

Michael is still in love with Little Joey.