Swan Hill Vic, 29th July 2026

 Swan Hill Vic, 29th July 2026

Parked up at the Big 4 Riverside caravan park, Backed in right up to the edge of the river. The wind is fairly howling across the park and it freezing cold. Judy thought she might sit out in the sunshine and read a book, but apart from being too windy and too cold, 10,000 ducks came demanding a feed. We are staying two days, and I feel definitely like I cold do with the break after 4 days on the run. 

There is something odd about this place and it turns out we have been here before, in 2015 and parked in almost exactly the same spot! The ducks almost exactly the same as well!

Here's a view out of my back window, now that I've cleaned it....

Murray River. Swan Hill Vic July 2026

We are right next to the Heritage Village which we've been to at least 3 times and despite e them having align show tonight out across the river we've decided to forego the pleasure this time.

However, back alongtheu road about 15km there is a little place called Lake Boga, a 3.5 x 3 km wide body of water approximately 4 metres deep. Major Mitchell, didn't know when he marched up to it in 1836 that it would be perfect for landing flying boats on. The RAAF and QANTAS did however, and a Flying Boat repair centre was established there for the duration of WWII. It's billed as the Home of the Catalina, and quite rightly as they have one inside, but the base serviced all comers. if you could land it on water, it came here to be fixed.

Home of the Catalina. Lake Boga Vic July 2026

Home of the Catalina. Lake Boga Vic July 2026

Jerilderie NSW 27 July 2026

 Jerilderie NSW 27 July 2026

Passed through Deniliquin and then Narrandera on our way to Jerilderie. Stopped at Narrandera for a coffee and took the opportunity to have a look at the Tiger Moth aeroplane. They are commemoration their involvement in WWII as they were one of the flying schools set up to train thousands of pilots and navigators for service overseas.

Tiger Moth. Narrandera NSW July 2026

Jerilderie is a tiny town with a nice enough caravan park. Drove to petrol station. Drove back. Fixed TV aerial, well temporarily anyway. Went to a really nice restaurant for dinner at the Colony Inn Hotel. The restaurant is attached to the hotels, but quite separate except for a single door. 

Nothing much else. There is however, an army Leopard tank parked in the main street....

Leopard Tank. Jerilderie NSW July 2026

 West Wyalong NSW 26 July 2026

West Wyalong NSW July 2026

Journeyed south from Gilgandra, stopping at Peak Hill to have a look through the old shop on the corner that happens to have the town’s collection of historic records. Apart from a hand made collection of notes and names and photos, they have this awesome set of Town Rates Ledgers from 1911. Absolutely fascinating to read down the columns looking at the names. You are struck straight away by the names that appear to own most of the district. You cant help but wonder what happened to those mini-empires. I am reliably informed that my great-grandmother lived in the Peak Hill area, unfortunately we don't have the time to sit and read through the whole collection.

Passed by / through Dubbo, which looks like its finally getting a Newel Highway bypass. Then on and on towards Parkes, which surprisingly, does have a brand new bypass complete with Golden Arches. Just a bit short on signage to tell you its there, or how to get in and park a caravan.

Finally arrived in West Wyalong, which neither of us can remember having been through before. Its claim to fame was gold mining, “largest amount extracted in the colony”, pretty impressive at 400,000 ounces. The odd thing is, that unlike Bendigo, Ballarat and Bathurst, there are no grand pubic building, not even government ones. The town you drive through seems almost like it is in its original state form many days gone by. You half expect a horse and carriage to come clip-clopping along Main St! 

Replica true Blue mine poppet head.
West Wyalong NSW July 2026

Couldn’t help going into the Paragon for some lunch. What old NSW town doesn't have a Paragon café? PS: Café is high-brow speak for milk-bar.

Paragon Café, West Wyalong NSW July 2026

Down in the park they have a DC3 up on stands. You don't realise how small these work-horses of Australian Aviation were. This one was originally flown by the RAF in 1943 and then the RAN before being decommissioned and sold in 1977.

Douglas DC3. West Wyalong NSW July 2026

Gilgandra NSW 25 July 2026

 Gilgandra NSW 15 July 2026

Fairly easy run down from Moree. Stopped at Coonabarabran for a sandwich in the park.

Made it into the van park early enough, went into town to the one (1) open shop that sold coffee, a ‘greasy spoon’, but decked out in a car motif so not all bad. Grabbed some food at the only other shop open, the IGA, and headed back to the van via the Info centre and the cemetery. Pleased to report all the Mortimers are still in their allotted places.

The van battery indicates that it’s charged but with the temperature sensor plugged in it wont run the load and seems to go awry with it plugged in. I suspect that the ‘new’ battery is kaput, thanks in no small way to my mistreatment of it. Turned the battery charger back into Power Supply mode and we’ll just leave it like that. Right back where we started at Day 1.

Moree NSW 24 July 2026

Moree NSW 24 July 2026

Left Stanthorpe and headed to Moree.

Took a backroad, a ‘C’ road at best. Tedious, bumpy, rough, slow. 80-85 was about it. Stopped at Texas to settle down for a half hour. Coffee and scone. 

Texas. Queensland. July 2026

Back out onto the road and picked up the Bruxner Highway. Who are they kidding? Heaps better than the last goat track, but not fantastic. Turned left and headed to Warialda, another ‘C’ road and worse than the last. It was a toss-up what would break first, me or the van. Finally we arrived at Warialda and we just had to stop again. Found a little park and had a sandwich by the side of the van. From Warialda we picked up the Newell Highway and had an easy run across into Moree.

Now, we have stayed at Moree once before and I swore i’d never come back, but here we are. Fortunately we are in a different park, The G’day park just out of town on the Newell Highway and it's reasonably pleasant. They have a little hot spring so we had a soak. Lovely.

Moree obviously still has a crime problem. The gates are locked at 6pm and there are signs every where to make sure everything is locked at all times.

At least I can now plainly see why the TV doesn’t pick up any channel: the lead-in cable from the aerial is completely severed half way up the mast. Another job for another day.

And yes, the battery is still not solved. It  started to stink of hydrogen during the evening, and now the "Bulk" light is on which is not a good sign and it probably should have the thermal warning lead plugged back in. Turned the whole lot off and hoped the battery would last the night, which it did. 

Braved the zero degrees outside and took part in the Moree Parkrun at 7am. Madness i'm sure.

Moree Parkrun, 7AM. Moree NSW July 2026

Stanthorpe Qld 23 July 2026

Stanthorpe Qld 23 July 2026

Left Tewantin at 845 as planned, traffic was relatively calm down the Mighty Bruce, over the Gateway bridge ($6.57), down onto the Logan Motorway ($4.10) and out and around Ipswich, then Warwick, over the mountains via The Gap and lots of road work, to Stanthorpe. Big deserted van park. We were allocated the “best spot in the park” mostly because it was one of two Ensuite sites and at the top of the hill.
TV is laying up, wont find channels. FWAW finale is coming up soon and I'm under the gun to get it fixed. Basically we had a relaxed day doing not much. Spend a heap of cash! Bought new running shoes and a new headlamp for the car.

Took the TV to the recreation room and plugged it into the TV aerial there. It works fine. Junk aerial I bought from junk shop doesn’t appear to work at all, so a waste of $10 as far as a diagnostic tool was concerned.

it certainly wasn't a waste having coffee and later, lunch, at the   Groove 'n' Grill Diner, downtown, as they say. 

Groove 'n Grill Diner. Stanthorpe Qld July 2026

Groove 'n Grill Diner. Stanthorpe Qld July 2026

Groove 'n Grill Diner. Stanthorpe Qld July 2026 n

Sitting here tonight minding our own business and bam, lights out. In a nutshell the 240V 16A circuit breaker had tripped because we had floor heater on, oven on and then JB turned the kettle on. Anyhow all settled down after a bit of fiddling. But I had to relook at the battery situation again. Nutshell: the battery is overheating and the thermal cutout is cutting out, which means the charger is not charging and then the battery is going flat and the under voltage sensor senses and cuts the load from the battery, hence no lights. The only thing  I could see is that the battery type switch was set halfway between ‘wet’ and ‘agm’ which means the battery may have not been charging properly. On and on it goes….

Spent an hour in  the Museum next to the van park. Extensive collection of locally donated articles, some with attached local history. Actually very well done. Here's a snap.

Museum. Stanthorpe Qld July 2026

Museum. Stanthorpe Qld July 2026

Cold morning light. Checked the battery again. Is  now showing float instead of absorption so thats a good sign. Still sounds like its boiling though. Checked the cells, its old school, and naturally they are all empty. Topped them all up and we’ll see what another night of charging does. And I disconnected hat sensor thing, it seems to be causing the under voltage to trip straight away. On and on…

Tewantin, Qld 15-21 July 2026

 Tewantin, Qld 15-21 July 2026

Oh my, that drive for 2hours 45 minutes from Tweed to Tewantin. Just full on. Motorbikes seemed intent on committing kamikaze under or front wheels, one truck literally fell apart in front of us… A van and car on their sides in a ditch… Glad to be here. Exhausted. Stressed. Why do we do it?

Already been down to Perigean Beach, Coolum, Maroochydore or Mooloolaba or wherever.  Windy, rainy, unpleasant.

Perigian Beach Qld

Car made a particularly weird noise when we pulled out pf the carpark. Not a grinding noise, sounded like cardboard box dragging or something. Odd. Stopped and looked all around. The noise started again as we left but not heard it since. Assume it was something stuck under the car / in the engine? Who knows. Does make you wonder just what you would do if….

Doesn’t bear thinking about.

Saturday. Up early and down to Coolum for a 7am start at Parkrun. Reasonably pleasant trail run around some duck ponds near the industrial area. Quick breakfast and then off to Eumundi for the market. Last few time I have dropped Judy off and then gone to find a car-park. She went on her way and then I spend an hour trying to park, including the pay parking areas, which are all full. They only open up when someone leaves, but just like a spot in the street, you have to be the car on the spot, or around you go again. Finally jagged a spot in the pay parking, $9.14 worth and had just backed in when Judy calls me to say she’s finished. Rats. Went and drank coffee at Berkelouw’s book shop and cafe in the main street to make it seem worthwhile. Returned to Tewantin and went straight to the marina and more or less straight onto a ferry, direct to Noosa itself. The Noosa Concours d’elegance was in full swing. Some really great cars apart from the exotica one always expects to see at these things.

Judy throwing herself into the madding crowd. Bugatti on the right. Noosa Qld July 2026

Next-gen concours judges going through their paces, looking for faults with the F40. Noosa Qld July 2026

They have this program called Next-Gen Judges, where they take young car enthusiasts and train them in the art of judging cars on their merit, not by their drool-value.

Our pick of the bunch. A 1936 Cadillac.  Noosa Qld July 2026

We lasted a couple of hours and jumped a ferry back to Tewantin Marina where it seemed only right that we should have some lunch, given that it was after three o’clock!

The weather is not great. Windy and cloudy. The wind started to alarm us so we put the awing away.

The awning. Did I mention that the remote lock for the release is broken. Didn’t worry me much as I can just as easily operate the lever by hand. Except now the blind roller isn’t under any tension. Either the spring is broke or the end cap has come away and let the spring go. We have a ‘little man’ coming to the van park tomorrow to deal with it.