Billo and Beyond

Another beautiful day; another beautiful drive.  I forgot to mention that the other theme of the trip besides high-viz was vistas.  Everything was so green, that we remarked upon heaps of these. 'Look at that beautful vista!', we would cry. We gazed upon some lovely vistas that morning, including Kroombit Tops from the west, and that's when we discovered that Jo's car has a sunroof.  We were almost Thelma and Louise (plus one)!

Biloela, at the junction of the Dawson and Burnett Highways, is a busy, thriving centre with a population of nearly 6,000 people, but it has only one op shop.  Gayndah has a population of under 2,000 and it has two! We decided to have lunch first, before we set about finding it.  The remains of the Monto cooked chook were put to good use at a roadside picnic table near the tourist information centre.  Jan then went into said centre to ask the whereabouts of the local Vinnies, and just about had to tell her life story before the information was divulged.

Vinnie's Biloela is well away from the centre of town and we would never have found it by ourselves.  It is quite a good shop, though.  I managed to pick up three blouses there for $3 each. Unfortunately,the fill-a-bag-for $5 day had been the day before. Maybe all the Vinnies in Queensland had that sale on the same day?

As we drove eastwards out of town, I spotted a large director's chair sitting in a park. It was a tribute to the late Bille Brown.  He was at the University of Queensland when I was, and I saw him in a couple if student productions at the time. Who could have known that he would one day become a leading light in the Royal Shakespeare Company?  Or one day appear in an Aussie classic, The Dish?  The chair was erected by the local Lions Club, who chose Bille as their inaugural Youth of the Year in 1969.  Of course, he was just plain 'Bill' then, as he was at Uni. On the subject of people I saw on stage while at Uni, I should mention Geoffrey Rush's memorable portrayal of Snoopy in 'You're a Good man, Charlie Brown', at the Avalon Theatre. 

As we headed east, our vista viewing was interrupted by (a) a view of the Callide Power Station and (b) a couple of times by huge collections of workmen's huts, like great gulags beside the road.  Obviously something big is going on in the area but we don't know what.  Please feel free to enlighten me if you know.

Onwards towards Calliope we travelled. I had always been curious about this town, ever since I had seen its name on a roadside sign. As a kid, I discovered these amazing musical instruments via a Scrooge McDuck comic featuring the Beagle Boys and a stolen calliope and have been intrigued by them ever since. So how did a small town in Queensland get to be given the name of a steam-driven pipe organ?  Apparently it is named after the ship that brought New South Wales Governor Fitzroy to Port Curtis in 1854.  Anyhow, I have finally seen Calliope. It is much bigger than I expected, and nicer. I didn't spot any op shops, but it has a pretty impressive new servo.

It's a commuter suburb of Gladstone these days, really. And it was Gladstone that was our target, as closing time was fast approaching.

Memorable Monto

Monto has two hotels, The Grand (the bottom pub) and The Albert (the top pub).  The top pub appeared to be the nicer of the two, so we had made a booking there.  

The centre parking in the main street was filled with utes and there was plenty of high-viz clothing about.  Jan took a good look at one of these workers and he turned out to be a friend of her son's. He told us they were doing a lot of flood repair work on the local roads controlled by the council.

Off to the Albert we trotted, where there was no record of our booking.  
'Who took the booking?' asked the girl? 'The person who answered the phone' says Jan! She and Jo ended up in a three-bed room where one bed was not made up, and I was across a corridor in a two-bed room with one of the beds unmade from the night before.  They were very hot and hard to cool with above-door windows which were stuck closed, and only had a single pedestal fan to do the job.  I think the bigger room was the one my family stayed in when we passed through Monto in 1961 and I left my security blanket at the hotel.  The nice people posted it home for me (after Mum and Dad paid for the postage).
 
As there were no mirrors in the rooms and only a tiny one in the bathroom, this was not a night for a fashion parade of the day's acquisitions.  The ladies' facilities are worth analysis.  At the other end of a long dark corridor is the single door which leads to all this.  The showers open out onto the main floor area, with nowhere to put your stuff and not a single hook in the whole place.  The light switch is on a timer, so if the light goes out while you are in the shower, you have to remember the big step down out of the shower, so you don't break your neck in the dark.  And to have a shower, you must close the outer door, thus denying any other women access to the toilet. Luckily, there was only us plus the high-viz boys.

We joined them in the bar while the rooms cooled down and that's when we discovered that the young woman pulling the beers, who can't have been more than about 23, was running the whole show on her own.

That night we self-catered, thanks to a cooked chook from the Monto IGA, in the hotel's communal kitchen, which is really nice.  The game for the evening was The  Travel Quiz Game, which is easy to play, but not entirely trustworthy, as it thinks Anchorage is the capital of Alaska.  
You will note that we used the Revolving Party Jet-Set for our snacks.



I decided one extra glass of wine wouldn't hurt, and then went off to bed.  That's when the fun started. My room was over the dining room, but Jo's and Jan's room was directly over the bar.  The noise from the bar got louder and louder. Jo rang and asked when the bar closed. 12. 'I'll turn the jukebox down'. She did, but that didn't disguise what sounded like furniture being thrown about and other unidentifiable acts of violence. 
 
It was 12.30 before they were all out on the street and the girls could get some sleep.  Luckily none of the offenders were actually staying in the hotel. All the high-viz boys had gone to bed early so they could wake up for work at 4am and wake the girls up again.

Meanwhile, I slept like a log and was up early to enjoy coffee and my crossword puzzle in the communal kitchen, and photograph the early morning light on the beautiful wide verandah.

When the zombies finally arose, and we were fed, coffeed, packed and had loaded the car, we were amazed that all looked normal and calm downstairs.  Perhaps that was a normal night at the Albert?

Monto only has one op shop - Vinnies - but when we arrived there, we discovered they didn't open till 10am.  We whiled away some time in the main street, then tried again at 10.05.  Still closed. Eventually a slightly stressed woman arrived, apologised and let us in, but omitted to turn on the lights.

It was fill-a-bag for $5 day, so lots of other people were right behind us.  When the lights eventually came on, we discovered a really lovely op shop, clean and tidy, but with heaps of stock and good prices.

Drama continued,however, when the ladies discovered they couldn't open the till. With customers stacking up at the counter, a helpful gentleman managed to open it so they could get at the money, but still nothing could be rung up.

Jo decided to get in the high-viz mood by trying on this little number, but it didn't actually fit.  

My haul was a pair of shorts (part of the communal $5 clothing bag), a pair of shoes , a necklace and a pair of earrings, each at $2.

And I forgot to mention that Monto also has a lovely Art Deco council chambers, although not as spectacular as the Murgon public hall.

That was it for our Monto experience, so we now continued north towards Biloela, last visited by the McBurneys with a broken windscreen in our red Renault in 1977.  Neither Jan nor Jo had never been there.

Road Trip Continued: Of Ghosts and Bunyips

Memerambie is a little town north of Kingaroy on the Bunya Highway, once the home of 'the fastest man in the world', Arthur Postle, The Crimson Flash.  These days it is more famous for The Stop Shop.
This is not your average only-shop-in-town experience.  While it does stock the basic groceries one needs in emergencies, the first thing you notice when you walk in is the aroma.  This place is full of spices, curries (all bought in bulk by the owner and packaged himself) and other exotic foods.

I presume Kingaroy locals would drive there to stock up.  Actually, the one thing I wanted was local honey, but he was sold out, so I ended up with curried peanuts instead.  They were delicious.

We asked him about the large number of empty new brick homes in the centre of town and he told us the following sad tale of this ghost town.

Once upon a time, a developer convinced the South Burnett Regional Council to give him approval to build the houses on his new estate before the water, sewerage, power, roads and drainage were in place.  Then he went bust. The result is 53 homes at lock-up stage, which the owners are unable to occupy.  They are paying rates on the land only because it is considered 'undeveloped'. 

Next stop Wondai, whose notable citizens include Carl Rackemann who took the catch that won Queensland its first Sheffield Shield, Chad Morgan, The Sheik of Scrubby Creek, and champion pacer Wondai's Mate. We stopped briefly at Vinnie's so I could duck in and buy the Arsenal lampshade, then found a nice creekside park just north of town for morning teas. Then it was on to Murgon, which has a great art deco Public Hall.

The ladies at the Blue Care op shop were lovely, but we couldn't find anything there that we wanted to buy so we headed northwards again, whizzing past Ban Ban Springs, which never changes, and reaching our next targets in Gayndah.  

First stop was the Gunther Village shop, which initially looked promising.  Now I am all for clutter, but this place was a bit of a nightmare when it came to looking for clothes.  There was no attempt to separate anything into size, style, colour, whatever; and they had a lot of stock so it was hard to look through the racks.  I did manage to find a top there that would be acceptable with a skirt I bought in Kingaroy so that was one tick for Gunther Village.  This was the only shop we visited that still calls dresses 'frocks'. How quaint.  The much bigger Lifeline was just down the road and it was there that I found an acceptable 100% cotton brunch coat make me decent at the hotel at Monto that night.

With our shopping done, we pondered the local lunch options, deciding on the Bakery. When you order your food, your table number is in a little orange. How very Gayndah!  
Next, to inspect the facilities. I wish to report that Gayndah has one of the prettiest little public toilets you will ever see. It nestles under the big trees up the side street that has the NAB on the corner.  Finally, a quick trip in to Mellors drapery to see the only operating flying fox change dispenser in Queensland.  The nice woman demonstrated it for me.
Onwards to Mundubbera, past the landmark bimble box tree and straight to the Anglican op shop in the main street, where one of the lovely women serving there knew my friend Georgina's mum. I bought a travel trivia game. The other op shop was closed. Jan and I then posed for this photo as our husbands first met there working for Telecom in the 1970s.

I had a little problem all day.  Ever since I had spinal surgery years ago, I have used a back support frame while driving.  It is extremely comfortable. However, my newly acquired shorts had buttons on the back pockets that were deeply attracted to the frame. As a result, every time I got out of the car, the frame came too. The girls thought this was funny. I didn't.

We thought it was non-stop from here to Monto, with trivia questions from the game keeping the driver alert, but at Mulgildie we discovered this bunyip.  He has his own painted backdrop, a lungfish under one arm, and eyes made of motorbike taillights. We wondered if they light up at night? 
He faces the pub. Imagine if you had had a drink or three too many and as you stumbled outside, a passing car's headlights lit up this thing!
There is a local pond called the Bunyip Hole where legend has it the bunyip lives. The locals say you never swim there because you can be dragged under and just disappear.

Road Trip: The Peanut Portion Continued

It was fashion parade time in Kingaroy, now that The Dorm was a bit cooler.  Here is a small sample.

We agreed that not everything we bought was necessarily a 'keeper' and that we would donate the rejects back to op shops at the end, but for now, our purchases gave us some options.  Then it was dinner time and our first outing in our new outfits, to the RSL in fact. Unfortunately, this selfie is the only photo I have of that adventure.

It was poker night at the Kingaroy RSL (Wednesday). Much less rowdy than trivia nights, I must say. Unfortunately, wherever we went, we missed trivia night by 24 hours :-(  Anyway, we made our own entertainment with a different game each night. This was gin rummy night. Jo taught Jan and I how to play and we promptly beat her.

Once we were in bed we learned the downside of sleeping in a room that was almost hanging over the road. It sounded like every truck, motorbike, hotted-up vehicle that passed by in the night actually revved up inside The Dorm.  Sleep was fitful. Brekky was in the communal kitchen which we shared with a number of transient workers recognizable by their high-visibility workwear.  They had been predominant in the bar the evening before.  Hi-viz was to become the major theme of the trip, in fact. I also realised during the night that the nightie I had packed was somewhat more high-viz than advisable when wandering through hotel corridors at night trying to remember the location of the loo.  Time to look for a new brunch coat.

As we packed up, we spotted market stalls setting up directly over the road, next to the old railway station.  I bought a pair of earrings (new) and hickory smoked macadamias. Yum!  Then it was off to the Salvos.  This was a really good op shop, and I found my formal dress there.  This was not it.

Total haul at the Salvos was my long red dress, a skirt, a top and a pair of leggings. Total expenditure $19.  As we were leaving, we asked another customer to take a photo of the three of us in our op shop finery.  She said she 'wasn't good with cameras'. This woman did not lie.  After several failed attempts during which the future of my camera looked doubtful, we thanked her for her efforts and gave up.

On to Vinnes, which scored on so many counts.  First of all, it was having a 50%-off-all-summer-stock sale. Second, it is the first op shop I have ever encountered that has its own toilets for customers on the premises. Third it was where I found bling footwear to wear on our formal night. Fourth was a game of Pictionary to add the the games options en route.  Fifth and finally, it was where the search for sister Jean's sugar bowl ended.  It didn't satisfy all three criteria, as it was not glass, but it had two handles and a lid and was very sweet. A steal at $3, and Jeannie loved it.

 
 Jo also picked up a special something to add to her 70s retro collection. Named on the box 'Revolving Party Jet-Set', it looks like a plastic orange ball until you pull the pieces apart, whereby it reassembles as an arrangement of five bowls, just right for your 1970s snacky delights.

So now it was farewell to Kingaroy and its five varied and extremely entertaining op shops and back on the road headed for Memerambi. Remember Memerambi...?

Road Trip episode 2

On to Kingaroy, where the first stop was the Kingaroy Community Store. What a find! An eccentric shop run by an eccentric woman.  They had an amazing array of 80s glam evening dresses. It was at this point that we officially decided that one night of our trip would be formal night.  Miriam Vale, we thought.  However, none of us could quite bring ourselves to buy the satin and spangles on offer.

It was here that I was to find my travel outfit for day 2 - a pair of grey shorts and a sleeveless black top. Total outlay $5. The second-hand shop next door was an over-priced disappointment.

There were two more op shops further up the D'Aguilar Highway in town - the Lifeline Superstore and Red Cross - both of them huge.  Despite their size, I found nothing in either.  Jan and Jo fared better.  Lots of sugar bowls were spotted throughout the day, but none with two handles and a lid, although there were some some glass ones.

We quizzed the locals and discovered there were actually another two op shops in town in less obvious locations, so we earmarked them for the morrow, as it was now late in the day.

I have always been interested in how op shops handle clothes for larger women.  Most separate them into 'Size 16 and Over' racks; one we found chose '18 and Over' instead; the Lifeline in Kingaroy excelled itself with an entire section of the shop devoted to 'Plus Size'.  It was like the op shop version of David Jones!

It was now time to find our lodgings for the evening: the Carrollee Hotel.  At $25 per head, it was a bargain, and in sight of the iconic peanut silos that I remember so well from my youth.  Our parents took us on a tour through them in 1961, and I held out my open blazer pockets under a chute to catch little red peanut kernels that lasted me for days.

Our room, which we christened 'The Dorm' was a closed in end of the front verandah, being blasted by afternoon sunlight, and at that point the hottest room in the pub.  The photo above right shows Jo in The Dorm checking our her retro dress from Murgon. We dumped our bags and headed for the bar, where we took the first group shot.

Toasting to another successful day of  shopping tomorrow.

The Great Op Shop Road Trip Begins

Jan and I started by making an offering to the op shop gods: a bag of clothes donated to the Red Cross shop at Imbil. 

As Jo was at the doctor's at the time, we just popped in for a peek, resulting in my purchase of a skirt and a fork and dessert spoon that match the McBurneys' camping cutlery. The spoon came in handy next morning for my Weetbix, as there were only teaspoons at the hotel in Kingaroy.

I had been tasked by my sister to buy her a 'sugar bowl with two handles and a lid, preferable glass' so I felt I needed to leave no op shop unturned. No sugar bowls satisfied the criteria, and Jo was unimpressed that we had started without her.

  
As we were now running late, we skipped morning tea and headed for Murgon, our No 1 destination.  Lunch was scoffed at the servo at Goomeri on the way. Who knew that the Murgon Lifeline closed at 1.30?  We arrived at 1.20 and they woman behind the counter was lovely, allowing us to keep clothes hunting after the door was shut. It was amazing as it had the most separate categories I have ever seen in an op shop eg size 14 short sleeves etc.


I didn't find anything, but Jo had a win.  By the time we had finished there, the Blue Care op shop had closed (early) as well.  All was not lost however, as we knew we would be coming back through Murgon the next day.

Vinnies at Wondai closes at 2pm, and we made that just in time as well.  The ladies there were not as gracious as the woman in Murgon, and complained audibly when Jo raced into the change rooms right on the stroke of 2.  She did find things to buy. I had also picked up a top which I thought would go with my Imbil skirt; it didn't really, but was useful later.  I did spot something rather special on the shelves, however.  I photographed it (see below) and when I showed the photo to the girls back in the car, they couldn't believe I didn't buy it.  I was ordered to purchase it when we came back through Wondai. 

Wondai has a pretty pub, by the way.

Onwards to Kingaroy, passing through Memerambi on the way, where Jo introduced us to the 'ghostly estate'.  More about this in the next episode...

The Great Op Shop Road Trip - Teaser

I left home after work on Tuesday afternoon - April Fools Day, was that going to be prophetic? - and headed for Jo's home at Imbil.  The next morning, Jan was collected from Carters Ridge (west of Cooroy) and off we went.

This was the plan: We were allowed to pack undies, toiletries and food and catering supplies, but nothing else.  All clothing etc for the journey was to be sourced from op shops along the way.  Shoes were an optional extra (we each bought thongs and a pair suitable for RSL clubs etc).

We arrived home yesterday, loaded with stuff. I plan to blog the journey in detail but there is one small problem. Yesterday morning we went to Mammino's near Childers for a home-made ice cream (as you do) and I left my camera there.  So no blog till I get the photos back!

However, here is one from my phone.  This is in the main street of Mundubbera.  It is a lovely little shop staffed by lovely ladies.