Jondaryan Woolshed to Roma

Not too far west of Toowoomba is a wonderful part of Australia's Wool history. We are currently staying at the Jondaryan Woolshed.  www.jondaryanwoolshed.com.au  

Pronounced Jon dary an, this place is all about when Australia rode on the sheep's back. It was first settled in the 1830's, and the huge shed was built between 1859 and 1862. We are in the rich farming area known as the Darling Downs. When the area was first settled, the Government would only grant land in parcels of 600 acres. The remoteness of the area, and the high cost of bringing produce to market, saw most farmers struggle, until some enterprising men who could see the potential of the area, bought up most of the leases, thus injecting cash into the area, and creating one huge Leasehold. At it's peak in the 1880's, this property extended over 300,000 acres, and in one period of 11 months, 650,000 sheep were shorn in the shed. Eventually, the Government forced them out of leases and the sheep business, and the small parcels were sold off, in favour of grain crops.

Today, it is no longer a working station, it is just the most amazing 300 acre working museum, a testament to those incredible men and women who helped to shape our nation. We are staying at the caravan park built on the property right beside the wool shed. It is a nice caravan park, with a new amenities block, and whilst the powered sites don't have water, there are a number of taps around the park to fill up your tanks. The whole scene is very rustic, with the camp kitchen being a corrugated iron shed, with an open fireplace in the centre, which attracts a lot of visitors on the cold wintry nights we've been having.

The actual woolshed building.

Carolyn at the caravan park.

A walk around the grounds is a walk back in time. There are buildings everywhere. An old Schoolhouse transported from a local village, a boundary rider's hut from times before the property was fenced, a blacksmith's shop, an old homestead building, a tiny railway station building, and countless sheds that house an unbelievable collection of old horse drawn wagons, sulkies and drays, as well as tractors from over all ages. There is an animal nursery, with sheep and ducks and chickens and a variety of native birds, as well as five Clydesdale horses, that still work around the property doing stage coach rides and demonstrations.

Some of the Clydesdale.

The Tractor Shed.

Every year, a number of big events occur coinciding with national days of celebration such as Australia Day, and New Year's Eve, as well as featuring the working horses and of course a huge sheep shearing event. Some of the old buildings have been modernised and are used to host social functions from Weddings to Corporate Events. All year round, tours are conducted daily, and the Damper Hut dishes out good old Aussie tucker, like Damper and Cockie's Joy, genuine Billy Tea, Treacle Dumplings, real corned beef and pickles. It is like raiding Grandma's kitchen 50 years ago!

Inside the woolshed.

Doing the tour.

We signed up for a tour, which ran for over two hours, and was so informative. Listening to our guide, talking in that so distinctive, slow bushman's drawl, you can't help but be overawed by the scale of what happened here, over 150 years ago. When the shearing was underway, 88 shearers were hard at work in the shed, shearing an average of 200 sheep a day each, using hand shears. The legendary Jack Howe, Australia's most famous shearer, was regular at Jondaryan. Throughout Central Queensland he is an absolute legend. For those that don't know of Jack Howe, he set the record for shearing most sheep in one day. It was 10th October 1892, when in a period of 7 hours and 40 minutes he sheared 321 sheep. The record was not broken until 1950, when it was surpassed by a shearer using mechanical shears! He also set a weekly record of 1437 sheep in 44 hours and 30 minutes. Once all that wool was baled, it had to be sent to the coast for shipment back to England. Before the railway came in the late 1800's, the wool was shipped overland to Newcastle in NSW, a five and a half month trip, one way! It was carried on bullock drawn drays, pulled by teams of 80 bullocks. On the downhill sections, it was 40 up front, and 40 at the back to act as the brakes!! Truly amazing. And we bitch if we can't get a parking space near the entrance!!

Shearing demonstration.

On our tour was a young shearer from Victoria. He camped down by the river with his dog. I loved talking to him about his life. It is so different to mine. He was on holiday, or should I say a pilgrimage. All he wanted to do, was shear a sheep in the famous shed where Jack Howe had worked. When one of the other people on the tour asked him why, he simply said "just so I can say I've done it."
When the shearing demonstration commenced, I don't know how he kept off the stage. As you can see from the picture, he is on the right holding the sheep's leg, he just wanted to help.
I hope that during his stay, he did get to shear that sheep, in the famous Jondaryan Woolshed.

This is a genuine furphy.

A Pub with no beer!

After the tour, we enjoyed a lunch of corned beef, pickles and damper, followed by some of those treacle dumplings and ice cream, all washed down with billy tea. We just walked around, and made sure we looked in every building and shed. For all you trivia buffs, what is a furphy? Most of you will know that a furphy is good old Aussie slang for an unlikely or improbable story. So how did a water cart become an improbable story? Well the answer is that the water cart became a place for people to gather and share the gossip!

Another great piece of Australian history visited, and enjoyed.

Chinchilla Information Centre.

Lunch on the road at Miles.

From Jondaryan, we headed west towards our next short stop at Roma. The first town we come to is Dalby, a good sized town that looks orderly and well laid out. We found the Coffee Club was in town, so stopped for morning tea and a little banking. Back on the road we next reached Chinchilla. Don't ask me why, but I've always wanted to visit Chinchilla. Well, I've now got that out of my system. Not a lot at Chinchilla! We stopped for lunch at Miles, and if we thought there wasn't much at Chinchilla, there was a lot less at Miles! We pulled in alongside the railway station, and got out the tuna and bikkies for a lunch on the run. It was soon pretty crowded as more caravans pulled in for DIY lunch.

One of the new miners residential
villages at Roma.

Roma Saleyards.

We made it to Roma mid afternoon. Boy has it changed since we were last there around 2006. The mines have taken over. Around here it is coal seam gas. We are in the Surat Basin, with its vast quantities of gas. It is all being piped overland to Gladstone, for shipment overseas. The Big Rig Caravan Park, which was grassy and full of Bottle Trees, is now full of portable buildings, permanent and semi permanent caravans, a few casual sites, and lots of dust! Fortunately, we got a site with a reasonable amount of grass. Glad we'd booked, as the House Full sign was up early every day. 

One of Roma's Bottle Trees.

Roma is home to the largest cattle saleyards in Australia, and is still in full scale operation. There are huge lines of road trains bringing the cattle in and out. There is a sale on almost every week day. The other great attraction around town is all the bottle trees. The Memorial Avenue of Trees, that is one tree for  very man lost in the Great War, is a moving site. 
We stocked up on groceries at the local Woolworths. Shopping in these mining towns is quite amazing. You look in peoples trolleys and see 20 loaves of bread, 10 Frozen Pizzas, 10 packets of frozen pies, 30 litres of milk, giant jars or tins of coffee, everything is in bulk. It just cracks me up. And everyone wears yellow or orange flouro work clothes and Mongrel boots! The local menswear store is row after row of work clothes, and everyone drives a white 4WD or Ute. Welcome to the mining boom. Believe me, not Kevin. The boom is still going nicely out here in Mining Land!

So, off to Carnarvon Gorge. We are really looking forward to that. No mining allowed there!!