Emerald

Leaving Airlie Beach behind, we hit the road and head for Emerald, and the long planned, and much anticipated visit with Carolyn's family, and especially, the first birthday of Mandy & Steve's son, Ethan. Mandy is beside herself with anticipation, and has been texting us for weeks, counting down the weeks and days. We have always been Aunty Carolyn and Uncle Bear to the kids, and have had a wonderful relationship with them. It is hard to imagine them now as parents, and us retired.


Through Proserpine, and the all now familiar sugar cane fields, we rolled into Mackay, in time for morning coffee. When we are towing the van, Carol often finds coffee in the most awkward locations, like the centre of Mackay!  We stop the traffic, and reverse park in a triple spot, amid much head shaking and smiling, and head off to enjoy a lovely morning tea, at an Italian restaurant, in the familiarly named Sydney Markets complex.


Heading out of Mackay, we phone mum for a chat, and promptly miss the turn off to Clermont! The navigator checks the map, and says it's OK to head down to Sarina, and go out to Clermont. At Sarina, there is a huge mess of of roadworks and detours, so after a few trips around town, and a little cross country caravanning, we find the right route for Clermont. The sugar country soon gives way to farm country, and it isn't long before we meet the main highway again at Nebo. There is nothing at Nebo, other than a huge railway development, which will be a staging area for the hundreds of coal trains, transporting the black gold to Gladstone harbour, for shipment to the world.

Rail has gone from cattle to coal.
Exhibit at Clermont.

The sheer scale of the coal mining operations, has to be seen to be believed. The coal trains are around 2kms long, and they just follow each other, 24hours a day. We drive past side roads that have signs to mines. There are hundreds of them. Beside the road are massive mounds of earth, the overburden that has been cleared off the huge open cut mines, and these mounds are kilometres long. In addition there are the underground mines and it all adds up to mountains of coal.

Huge Bulldozer en route to the mines

In addition to the endless trains, we are also regularly stopped, to let wide loads carrying huge machinery, go by, under police escort.


We decide to stop at Moranbah for late lunch. We have never heard of the place, but soon find out, it is the fasting growing town in Queensland, and the most expensive to live in. All because of mining. The town is full of demountable buildings. The population is 80 percent male, and the car parks look like Toyota Sales Yards, full of 4wds. We stop at Subway, join the lengthy queue, and order lunch. I almost swallow my sandwich whole, when I look in the window of the Real Estate Office next door, and see a nice 3 bedroom cottage for sale for $975,000!!!!
It has been a long day, so we decide to stay the night, rather than drive the extra 120kms to Clermont. We pull into the caravan park, walk over to the office, which is closed, and has a sign stuck on the glass door. The sign says "NO CASUAL SITES AVAILABLE. IF YOU'VE BOOKED A CABIN THE KEY WILL BE IN THE TIN BELOW. IF YOU HAVE ANY PROBLEM PHONE XXXXXXXX. UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES RING THIS NUMBER IF YOU WANT A CASUAL SITE. WE DO NOT HAVE ANY CASUAL SITES!" After such a warm welcome, we decide Clermont looks good!


We drive on past mine after mine. We see demountable cities being built at the mine sites. These "cities" often come complete with swimming pools and other resort facilities. At the mines, the standard shifts are 5 or 7 days on, and 5 or 7 days off. Shifts last 12 hours.The latest thing is for the mine employees to "Fly In/Fly Out". The mine provides them with all their meals and accommodation whilst on site, for next to nothing, and either pays for or subsidises the miners' airfare. The argument is that the miners' families are less impacted. The local communities are not impressed, and there are signs up saying "THIS IS A COMMUNITY NOT A CAMP". There are all sorts of issues created for the community, by a work force that is more than 80% male. Who knows where it will all end!!


We overnight at Clermont, where the caravan park is only half full of miners! Our neighbour warns us against washing anything in the park laundry, as the miners all wash their clothes, and the coal residue stains everything! There are 3 new "super" mines planned for Clermont in the next 12 months, so the tourists will most likely be squeezed out of this park too. John notices we have a half inflated tyre on the caravan, which on investigation has a bolt in it. Our first flat tyre! Changing a tyre on the caravan is a big job, so John inflates the tyre, and next morning, we call in at Clermont Tyrepower, where the guys quickly repair the damage.


On to Emerald, just 100km away. We arrive at lunchtime, via Capella, a nice looking rural town, in the centre of a wheat growing area. There are obviously mines as well.

Set up at Mandy & Steve's house

Mandy, Steve & Ethan

It is great to see everyone again. It is the first time Carol has seen Ethan, since visiting on his birth last year, and it is the first time John (Uncle Bear) has met him. Chris has already arrived for the festivities, to help with the party preparations. Darren is in his "off week" for the first couple of days, so we got to see him Erin and the two kids, Kynan and Jersey. They are now back in their home that was damaged in the floods at New Year. What was a very traumatic time, has given them a good outcome, as the renovations they had started, were completed under their insurance settlement, and they have an almost new house throughout. It is a lovely home.  It is a nice family feeling, which is rounded off on Friday, with the arrival of Keith and Kyle. Steve had taken a few days off work, which meant everyone was available for most of the time we were there.


Darren works in the mines. He has recently changed employment, and is now employed at the Ensham Mine, about 35kms east of Emerald, and which has been around for along time as an open cut mine. Now with the coal being uneconomical to mine open cut, they are going underground, and Darren was part of the first team to bring coal to the surface. Darren had previously worked as a diesel fitter, but is now employed as an operator, currently getting his ticket on as much equipment as possible. It is part of his plan to work his way up the ladder. He is currently on a 7 day on, 7 day off roster. When he is "on", he stays on site for the 7 days, where he gets full board including all meals, for $30 per shift! Steve works for a local heavy equipment and crane hire company, who support the mining industry, the railways, the rural sector and the community. He works long days, usually leaving home around 5.45am, and getting home about 7.00pm. He works some weekends as well, and when they get derailments and rollovers, can be on site 24 hours a day, until the job is complete. The boys make good money, but they really earn it.

Carolyn, John & Ethan

Most of our time was spent with the family, and it gave us a lot of time to get to know little Ethan. He melted our hearts, with his quiet and unflappable nature, as we played with him for hours. It was a real treat for us to be able to use our travels as a way of spending time at Emerald, and celebrating Ethan's birthday. It was also special to spend time with Kynan and Jersey. They are all growing up so fast, already.


Steve did take some time to borrow a friends ski boat, to take John out to the Fairbairn Dam. I've never seen it with so much water, following the floods. It isn't long that water stopped flowing over the spillway. The lake is now at its largest, with abundant wildlife everywhere. It is wonderful recreation facility for the town. We also drove around the outskirts of town. With all the mining going on, it is easy to forget the huge amount of agriculture that occurs as a result of the irrigation from the dam. Cotton is grown, as well as some of the worlds largest citrus orchards, and vast amounts of table grapes. It is also a major beef producer, with a high volume of beef going through the sale yards, and the silos are full of wheat following a bumper crop.

The birthday cake.

Ethan & his presents.

Saturday was party day. The girls had done great job of organising the decorations, party bags for the kids, and lots of excellent food for all. In addition to our family, Steve's sisters-in-law and their kids were there, plus Steve's mum Daphne, and Erin's mum Sandy. The kids all had a ball, especially with the horns and the bubble blowing kits. With all the amazing toys on offer, it was the simple little things that grabbed the attention! There were lots of presents for Ethan. The day went really quickly, and all the kids were terrific.


Sunday was departure day for Chris, Keith and Kyle. So after another quiet family day and dropping in to say goodbye to Darren, Erin, Kynan & Jersey, it was out to the airport for their return flight to Brisbane. It had been a really nice few days, with all the family together, which is a rare event these days.

Ethan loves the water.

As the facilities at our Emerald caravan park were so good, we decided to stay a couple of extra days. Monday, Carol and Mandy took Ethan to the doctor for his 1 year old shots. Mandy hates taking him for his needles, so Aunty Carolyn got to hold Ethan while he got his three needles. Steve & John could almost hear the screaming out on the golf course! We had decided this would be a nice way to spend Steve's last day off. It was a very relaxed round, on a golf course that has improved a great deal. We all hit the pool in the afternoon. Tuesday, Steve was back to work, and the girls decided to do some shopping. This meant that Uncle Bear was on child minding duty for the morning. This was all new to me, but a lot of fun, and I got to master all of the one year old's birthday presents! We got on famously, and the evening was topped off with Uncle Bear getting Ethan to sleep, apparently a task mastered by few! Uncle Bear was in bed himself, soon after! It had been an exhausting day.


Wednesday morning we hitched up, and headed for Rockhampton, after a wonderful 10 days in Emerald. We have chosen to head back to the coast, and another recommended caravan park at Kinka Beach near Yeppoon. John has managed to pick up a chest infection along the way, so a few days by the seaside sounds like a good remedy, and besides, we both need a rest after all that babysitting!