Clermont Qld July 17, 2015

Clermont Qld July 17, 2015

We wakeup this morning to find thick ice on the car and a frigid breeze blowing. Not wanting to stay a moment longer we were packed and gone by 830 and heading to Injune, north of Roma which we reached in just an hour or so. We spent the next few hours skirting around the base of the Great Dividing Range escarpment, and started looking for an early lunch at Rolleston, which proved to be little more than a flea-bight and so on to Springsure, where we at least were able to feed the car, if not ourselves. We pushed on up through to Emerald and settled for a coffee and chicken wrap at a large fast-food outlet. 

After a suitable rest reading the Central Qld News, we hit the last leg of our day’s run up to Clermont, which turns out to be off the highway and a quiet little place. Well, it looks quiet but a bit of a poke around reveals plenty of housing development. They have a really nice lagoon in town called Hoods Lagoon, complete with bridge and fountains. The town was originally established next to this lagoon, but following the floods of 1916, when 65 people drowned, the moved the town further up the hill.

Hoods Lagoon. Clermont Qld

Hoods Lagoon. Clermont Qld

 They also have a unique mural up near the railway line: 4 old carriages all painted up with a country / mining mural. Apparently Clermont was also the site of the first gold rush in Queensland in 1861. 

Murals. Clermont Qld

Murals. Clermont Qld

Murals. Clermont Qld

Murals. Clermont Qld

I couldn't help but take a few snaps of some old vans dumped out the back of the park, which is a funny little place really: a mix of travellers, fossickers and permanents, not to mention campers down the bottom in the dirt area. We are right opposite a toilet block, but its closed and full of old mattresses and has more old dead vans dumped behind it.

End of the road for these old vans. Clermont Qld