Last month i joined delivery teams to a job in Banana shire in Central Queensland. Will I find bananas there i wonder?
Banana is a farming, mining and cattle region. It is also home to a series of pipelines vital to the oil and gas industry. It is linked by roads and railway to the major centres of Rockhampton and Gladstone. The major roads crossing the shire include the Leichhardt, Dawson and Burnett Highways.
The shire actually takes its name from a bullock of the same name, not from lakatan or tokcho.
A statue of the famed bullock called Banana, after which the shire was named.
Our base for the job is Biloela, just under 600 kms to the north-northwest of Brisbane. Biloela is the main population and government centre.
The name of the town is the local Aboriginal term for "white cockatoo". The trip there takes about 7.5 hours including a couple of stops on the way for smokes, leg-stretches, fuel and meals. On the way up, we drove through old haunts in the south burnett and thence Goomeri, Gayndah, Eidsvold, etc. We also took in some of the great roadways of Queensland.
The great majority of The teams were tasked to deliver over a 60km section. We worked about 15hours a day for 17 days straight. Over that period we got to see a bit of the sights in banana shire. Myself personally i got to see moura, banana and of course Biloela, and all the little villages in between. Some localities are simply centred on a crossroads, with one dwelling as its hub and with a few other homesteads within 20kms comprising the village. Banana shire is a cattle industry centre in southern central queensland.
Moura, in the heart of the Dawson valley and 65kms west of Biloela, is home to a meridian marker.
The 150 degree meridian is an imaginary line on which is based local queensland time. Here 'holey rocks' are erected to mark the meridian.
Now there is someone else doing deliveries of another kind - pipes.
A bottle tree on a lonesome plain provides great shelter from the sun. Bottle trees are a protected species in the shire.
or view in youtube:
going bananas video
Banana is a farming, mining and cattle region. It is also home to a series of pipelines vital to the oil and gas industry. It is linked by roads and railway to the major centres of Rockhampton and Gladstone. The major roads crossing the shire include the Leichhardt, Dawson and Burnett Highways.
The shire actually takes its name from a bullock of the same name, not from lakatan or tokcho.
A statue of the famed bullock called Banana, after which the shire was named.
Our base for the job is Biloela, just under 600 kms to the north-northwest of Brisbane. Biloela is the main population and government centre.
The name of the town is the local Aboriginal term for "white cockatoo". The trip there takes about 7.5 hours including a couple of stops on the way for smokes, leg-stretches, fuel and meals. On the way up, we drove through old haunts in the south burnett and thence Goomeri, Gayndah, Eidsvold, etc. We also took in some of the great roadways of Queensland.
The great majority of The teams were tasked to deliver over a 60km section. We worked about 15hours a day for 17 days straight. Over that period we got to see a bit of the sights in banana shire. Myself personally i got to see moura, banana and of course Biloela, and all the little villages in between. Some localities are simply centred on a crossroads, with one dwelling as its hub and with a few other homesteads within 20kms comprising the village. Banana shire is a cattle industry centre in southern central queensland.
Moura, in the heart of the Dawson valley and 65kms west of Biloela, is home to a meridian marker.
The 150 degree meridian is an imaginary line on which is based local queensland time. Here 'holey rocks' are erected to mark the meridian.
The shire also offers fresh country air and hospitality as well as various adventure and bush escape tours, drives, trails and treks.
Banana town itself offers this great little attraction - a barbeque!
Just bring your own cow.
Just bring your own cow.
Now there is someone else doing deliveries of another kind - pipes. i wonder if he's got a pipe for my tobacco?
We had accommodations in the "white cockatoo" accomodation park.
Our quarters are simple self-contained heated units with single bed and built-in toilets.
At the end of our stay, I accumulated so much unwanted baggage.
Postscript to this at the end of blog.
A bottle tree on a lonesome plain provides great shelter from the sun. Bottle trees are a protected species in the shire. More on bottles (not trees) later...
click below for related video:
or view in youtube:
going bananas video
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