Since we had not seen the town, we stayed behind to visit the Botanic Gardens which were very impressive for a country town. Lots of trees with name plates, a herb garden, a rose garden, well manicured lawns all set out along the river bank. There were, of course lots of birds of many different species so we had much to see.
We detoured to the Fairbairn Dam as we had been told it was worth visiting. Built by the federal government to provide for water for the cotton and fruit growers, it was interesting to see so much of the credit having been taken by Joe Bjelke-Peterson, one time bad guy and Premier of Queensland.
The picnic facilities are superb with lots of grass and shade and plenty of space to allow everyone to do their own thing without disturbing others.
The flow of water into the irrigation system obviously catches lots of fish because there were many Egrets and Cormorants perched on the concrete walls of the canals taking turns to pluck fish out of the water.
The safari had planned to drive 50 km to Caplella today but when they got there the rest area was right beside the road and there would have been no room for anyone else so we all pressed on to Clermont.
We found a nice big flat camping area a few kilometres out of town and settled in. The local wild pig business has his chiller here and we talked to him in between the arrivals of the hunters who brought in their kills. Apparently there is a high demand for wild boar meat in Germany but they have hunted out their animals so Jim buys carcasses at $1.50/kg from pig shooters, chills them and ships them off to Germany where they sell retail for $80/kg! Jim doesn't put his life at risk and he doesn't get dirty but he sure takes the cream off the top.