This is the recently restored original Rockhampton Railway Station. With the posible exception of Puffing Billy this is the absolute best "Museum" of it's type in Australia. Dirt cheap, around $5 a head includes all the rides in the Purrey you could have, cups of tea etc...
The Purrey Steam Tram is unique, the French want it back. There were 4 operating in Rocky and they have made one working one from the 4 originals. Burns "coke" and has quite a burst of speed way above the 8 mph originally legislated. The flashing yellow light and freon powered hooter are a bit hows yer father but are required by "Council Ordinance".
A definate must see if you are up that way.....

she's on "the list" basil

Bloody hell (dave put that on report again) - this is my backyard and I have never seen it! To be fair I work long hours, and out of town. When in Rocky, its get this, get that and go If you are interested in Rocky there are a number of attraction that i could research, and post. One of the best bits for me is where i live. Cawarral - 20 minutes from Rocky, 20 minutes from the beach. If you are interested, as I am, in early Aussie history - The Durack's (Kings in Grass Castles - book fame), had their Qld headquarters just down the road - Costello's road is named after the Brother in Law, who managed this end. I met a descendant. For the VV's, "****scomb" is the original name of Mount Wheeler, and that is where the camp is. Mount Wheeler is named after an infamous police officer. Down the road towards Yeppoon, is "Wreck Point" where Cook went aground - absolutely spectacular drive and view, the road between Emu Park and Yeppoon. I have unconfirmed, that the bloke who started the Commonwealth Bank, was set ashore here, on his way to the Colony, due to fever. The local aboriginals, helped him and he survived to go on to bigger and fee charging, better things. One of the (if not the) biggest Coffee farms are here. I would be neglectful, as I run cattle, to mention the "Beef 2009" starts in May next year. The local "Heritage Village" is a must see (I have not seen that either) You have not seen beaches (not counting Broome) as here - Long Beach at Yeppoon, take your dog and walk for 45 minutes, before you have to turn back, and its right in the town! Enough

use of non stream language duly noted, report to god will read " continues to use colourfull language, remedial recommendation humbly suggested short spell with lucifer to atone for sinfull language" mate most of us have not seen "our backyard" we spend our lives working and when we go anywhere we have "white line fever" go get it and get it back, dont stop on the way. I am constantly surprised when I just go for a drive and keep finding things that are new "to me". we won a travel auction at john wormsleys warrawong sanctuary in the adelaide hills just the other side of mylor, 3 nights it was, didnt even know the place existed, had a ball, it was set about 20 clicks south of Hahndorf so we dined at the german arms hotel, fantastic table staff always gave us the best seat and fantastic service, remembered us all 3 nights and would sit and chat with us while we dined, days were spent just wandering around the sanctuary, estimated it took me about 5 hours waiting to get a blurry shot of the bloody platypus, lot of little secrets in this great country, I hope to find a few more before I kick the bucket

Needless to say Basil has screwed up yet again, this was sposed to be in the Magical Places thread....
Here's the URL if you want to do a bit more research;
http://steamtram.rockhampton.qld.gov.au/

dave06 wrote:

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use of non stream language duly noted, report to god will read " continues to use colourfull language, remedial recommendation humbly suggested short spell with lucifer to atone for sinfull language" mate most of us have not seen "our backyard" we spend our lives working and when we go anywhere we have "white line fever" go get it and get it back, dont stop on the way. I am constantly surprised when I just go for a drive and keep finding things that are new "to me". we won a travel auction at john wormsleys warrawong sanctuary in the adelaide hills just the other side of mylor, 3 nights it was, didnt even know the place existed, had a ball, it was set about 20 clicks south of Hahndorf so we dined at the german arms hotel, fantastic table staff always gave us the best seat and fantastic service, remembered us all 3 nights and would sit and chat with us while we dined, days were spent just wandering around the sanctuary, estimated it took me about 5 hours waiting to get a blurry shot of the bloody platypus, lot of little secrets in this great country, I hope to find a few more before I kick the bucket

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Eungala ( Spelling Basil, spelling) west of Mackay is the place to go for Platycat viewing. If it's an overcast day they come out in 2's and 3's.... Murrumbidgee River near me (5 mins drive) has a platypus plague.... I was swimming there last summer and one scared the daylights out of me, hell it could have been a male and attacked me and the CSIRO is still spending about $5,000,000 pa to perfect an antivenine for this troublesome pest.... They did discover that a favourite food of Platypus is Euro Carp eggs and experimnets are under way in Lake Burley Griffin to control the carp via Platypus and Vietnamese fishermen who seem to enjoy eating it, to me Carp tastes like oily cotton wool with pins through it....

a platypus attacking Basil, hell we cant have that, dont know what the poor little bugger would pick up, european carp abound throughout the murray, I took a short break in a free camp just the other side of the river at morgan, there was obviously a keen fisherman in residence before me as he had left about 10 carp ranging in size from 12" to close to 2', these he had thoughtfully left on the bank and in the midday sun was, well to say unappealing would be downplaying the sensory assault, I understand that it is ilegal to return these rats to the water but surely he could have killed them and chucked them back or buried them or something, anyway to return to the platypi or is that platypusses or platypus, whatever, warrawong, we went on a nocturnal tour and to our amasement seen 3 of the little wretches waiting on the bank to be pointed out by the guide all in very candid poses, little mongrels are fed just before the tour