21 A Birds’ Eye View

I’m joining Becky in her July Square Photo Challenge over at The Life of B.  The rules of the challenge are simple: most photos must be square and fit the theme word tree. Look for #treesquare. Come with me on a Central Queensland road trip starring trees and the beautiful landscapes of my home state.

Lake Maraboon, Emerald

The sweet blossoms of a gum tree provide a tasty feast for a pair of rainbow lorikeets.

They’re so engrossed in feeding our presence doesn’t bother them.

From their perch high up in the tree, they have a great view of Lake Maraboon and Fairbairn Dam.

20 Turned To Stone

I’m joining Becky in her July Square Photo Challenge over at The Life of B.  The rules of the challenge are simple: most photos must be square and fit the theme word tree. Look for #treesquare. Come with me on a Central Queensland road trip starring trees and the beautiful landscapes of my home state.

Emerald

More than 250 million years ago, a tree fell to the ground near a waterway in the area where Emerald now stands. It was washed downstream and quickly buried by sediment and over time became fossilised by a process of mineralisation.

The petrified tree lay buried in the soil until it was unearthed during the construction of a bridge over the Mackenzie River in 1979. It is now on display in front of the Emerald Town Hall on Egerton Street.

19 Supersized Sunflowers

I’m joining Becky in her July Square Photo Challenge over at The Life of B.  The rules of the challenge are simple: most photos must be square and fit the theme word tree. Look for #treesquare. Come with me on a Central Queensland road trip starring trees and the beautiful landscapes of my home state.

Emerald

A supersized Van Gogh painting in a park in Emerald is a unexpected sight! At a height of 25 metres, it towers above the trees surrounding Morton Park.

This huge painting on its massive steel easel was created by Canadian artist Cameron Cross, whose aim is to place copies of Van Gogh’s seven different sunflower paintings in seven countries around the world.

Why did he select Emerald as the location for the third painting in the series? Sunflower production is one of the region’s major industries and the town’s annual Sunflower Festival is a highlight every Easter.

Also joining in with Marsha’s PPAC challenge

18 Feathers In Their Caps

I’m joining Becky in her July Square Photo Challenge over at The Life of B. The rules of the challenge are simple: most photos must be square and fit the theme word tree. Look for #treesquare. Come with me on a Central Queensland road trip starring trees and the beautiful landscapes of my home state.

Capella

A long avenue of bottle trees defines the park beside the highway at Capella. At one end a little shelter shed provides shade from the morning sun. At the other end a beautiful memorial pays homage to the Australian Light Horse, who served with distinction in the Boer War and World War One.

Local legend connects Capella with the traditional emu plumes worn in the slouch hats of the troops of the Light Horse. A group of Mounted Infantry troopers based on duty near the town in 1891 is said to have been the first to tuck a handful of emu feathers in their hatbands.

Today, Australian Light Horse units operate as part of the Royal Australian Armoured Corps and the troops proudly wear their slouch hats, still decorated with plumes of emu feathers.

17 Ready for Night

I’m joining Becky in her July Square Photo Challenge over at The Life of B.  The rules of the challenge are simple: most photos must be square and fit the theme word tree. Look for #treesquare. Come with me on a Central Queensland road trip starring trees and the beautiful landscapes of my home state.

Hoods Lagoon, Clermont

As night falls, birds begin roosting in the trees around Hoods Lagoon.

sulphur crested cockatoos

kookaburra

Australasian darter

16 Changing Light

I’m joining Becky in her July Square Photo Challenge over at The Life of B.  The rules of the challenge are simple: most photos must be square and fit the theme word tree. Look for #treesquare. Come with me on a Central Queensland road trip starring trees and the beautiful landscapes of my home state.

Hoods Lagoon, Clermont

As afternoon fades into evening, the play of colour and light on the water of Hoods Lagoon changes.

15 Ghosts of the Past

I’m joining Becky in her July Square Photo Challenge over at The Life of B.  The rules of the challenge are simple: most photos must be square and fit the theme word tree. Look for #treesquare. Come with me on a Central Queensland road trip starring trees and the beautiful landscapes of my home state.

Copperfield

In 1862 a solid wall of copper ore more than three metres high was discovered at a site just south of Clermont. Within months Queensland’s first copper mine opened and the township of Copperfield was established. At its peak more than 2000 people lived in the town, which was serviced by many businesses including six hotels.

Copperfield’s rapid development was followed almost as quickly by decline. In the mid 1880s copper prices in London plunged, demand slumped and the population dwindled as opportunities elsewhere beckoned.

Three lonely sites are all that survive of this once thriving township. The General Store, long ago closed, sits right beside Rubyvale Road. At one time it housed a small museum dedicated to the story of Copperfield and its residents.

A few kilometres further south, a brick chimney stack is all that remains of the Peak Downs Copper Mine. At the height of the boom, 22 chimneys like this stood sentinel over the minefield. Built of bricks handmade in Clermont and finished with a layer of powdered glass, the chimney shimmers in the sunlight.

The most moving of the three sites is the Copperfield Cemetery, where dozens of inhabitants were laid to rest from the 1870s to the early 1900s. Many of the historic graves are no longer identifiable but the cemetery is still maintained by the local shire council.

Imagine the stories these people could tell about their lives in the once prosperous town of Copperfield.

14 Washed Away

I’m joining Becky in her July Square Photo Challenge over at The Life of B.  The rules of the challenge are simple: most photos must be square and fit the theme word tree. Look for #treesquare. Come with me on a Central Queensland road trip starring trees and the beautiful landscapes of my home state.

Clermont

On 29th December 1916 disaster struck the little town of Clermont. The previous day a tropical cyclone off the coast had delivered torrential rain over the central Queensland region and early that morning a wall of water rushed along Sandy and Wolfgang Creeks, destroying the town and killing 65 people.

A flood memorial on the corner of Drummond and Capricorn Streets commemorates the tragedy.

A marker on the Flood Tree shows the height of the water at the peak of the flood and the memorial plaques tell the story.

Later on that fateful day in 1916 a piano was found downstream on Sandy Creek, stuck high in a tree where the raging water had left it. Across the road from the flood memorial a replica piano, wedged in the branches of a gum tree, is another reminder of the day Clermont was changed forever.

13 On The Train

I’m joining Becky in her July Square Photo Challenge over at The Life of B.  The rules of the challenge are simple: most photos must be square and fit the theme word tree. Look for #treesquare. Come with me on a Central Queensland road trip starring trees and the beautiful landscapes of my home state.

Clermont

You would normally expect to see train wagons lined up at the railway station, but in Clermont they’re parked in the main street.

Four different wagons are painted with murals, each depicting the rural landscape and industries of this central Queensland region. The paintings were completed by Glen Gillard in 1999.

Life on the land in cattle and beef production

The mining industry in a region rich in gold, silver, copper and coal deposits.

Grain and crop farming

The sheep and wool industry

12 Rising Up

I’m joining Becky in her July Square Photo Challenge over at The Life of B.  The rules of the challenge are simple: most photos must be square and fit the theme word tree. Look for #treesquare. Come with me on a Central Queensland road trip starring trees and the beautiful landscapes of my home state.

Peak Range

At first you might think there’s not much to see along the Peak Downs Highway between Mackay and Clermont. It’s cattle and coal mining country and, for a long time on either side of the highway, the plains are flat and covered with trees and grasses.

Close to the junction of the Peak Downs and Gregory Highways the scenery changes. The land is punctuated by a series of massive rocky outcrops at the northern end of the Peak Range.

The rugged basalt formations are volcanic plugs and domes, remnants of an ancient volcano which erupted around 30 million years ago.

They certainly make the drive more interesting.