Herberton

Wednesday, 23 July 2014

 

Waiting for the teacher

A music chart - must mean something to someone!

Reminiscing

Enjoying the campfire

A "miner" bird

Anyone want to watch "Gone With the Wind?"

Funny place to park

One happy Cat

Obviously had to wait a long time for an appointment!

A restorer's delight

Sanitation Wagon - ie night cart

Might need longer legs

A Furphy

Grandpop had a black one, just like this

Cat Heaven

Put some effort into it!

1935/6 model

Sanitation wagon may be needed soon

Hasties' Swamp

We had a “Big Day Out” yesterday and drove all the way to Herberton, on the Atherton Tablelands.  The weather was superb, with clear, blue skies and no breeze; temperatures on the Tablelands are a little bit lower than Cairns, but still very pleasant.

Our main reason for going to Herberton was to visit the Historic Village; we spent a few hours here enjoying all the exhibits, which ranged from the typical businesses found in a small town in the early 20^th century, as well as many, many, many old tools and machinery.  A lot of the items on show were very much “boys’ toys.”  We enjoyed lunch at the tea rooms before crossing the suspension bridge to the camp and the John Deere display.  The village was beautifully maintained and well worth a visit.

Our next stop was the Spy and Camera Museum and what a wonderful experience this was and well worth the money.  The owner conducts individual tours, explaining out all the cameras on show – from the very first cameras, to miniatures, to spy cameras (even a camera which looks exactly like a button!) and many made during the first half of the 20^th Century.  We spent over an hour here, enjoying both the camera and the owner’s sense of humour.

There was a large fire burning in the bush behind the township, but there was no sense of panic in the town (the locals outside the local just seemed interested in all the smoke), so we assumed it was a controlled burn.

On the return to Cairns, we stopped at Hasties’ Swamp, near Atherton, not expecting to see much birdlife in the middle of the afternoon.  However, there were hundreds of magpie geese in residence, as well as plenty of wood ducks and moorhens.

We also had our first game of bowls yesterday evening, our first game since leaving home.  It did take a bit of adjustment, bowling on a green running at about 20 after the much slower grass greens.  We both did well, and Les came home with a $30 meat voucher.