Swansea, Tasmania

Swansea looking towards Freycinet National Park over Oyster Bay, Tasmanian East Coast.

To Swansea

Our recent holiday in Tasmania we headed towards the sea in Bicheno (first 2 photos) then onwards to Swansea on the east coast of Tasmania where we stayed for several days in a caravan park opposite the sea.

The way to one of the beaches in Swansea with a sand path, then the view.

The sign was there on the beach and have no idea how to say that word.  Certainly a long one.

Manferns

Many people especially those from Mainland Australia won't go down the Elephant Pass, Tasmania due to it being windy - well we will go up and down it and have done so many times.  The windy part is a mere 10 klm long.

Three photos of man-ferns towards the east coast of Tasmania growing along the side of the road.

Kangaroo Paw above. There are several different colours to be purchased, these plants lie dormant over winter. Photo from 2nd cousins house at Bicheno.

The old store at Swansea which is over a hundred years old and still in the same family.
I bought the tea towel (below) from there.

On the Way

Instead of a last years holiday post I decided to do one on the trip to the East Coast of Tasmania which we did last week and early this week.

We stayed put in the caravan park at Swansea (south of Bicheno) after staying in the driveway of my 2nd cousins house in Bicheno, Tasmania where we also stayed put for a few days.  His parents (my 1st cousin and his wife) are down from Coffs Harbour for an extended holiday and already visited with us in December last year. We spent all our time in 2nd cousins house only sleeping in the caravan van, a lot of talking that's for sure. 2nd cousin works on a Gas ship (Electrical Engineer) and was at sea with 8 weeks on the ship and 8 weeks off.

Avoca is about 81 km south east of Launceston, Tasmania and was first settled in the 1830's and now has the population of about 123 people.
It was officially settled in 1834 as a farming, coal and tin mining town, but only farming exists now.
There is a Pub, Shop, Church, Police Station and a Post Office.

Below is the St. Thomas Anglican Church which was completed in May 1842.
I made it black and white as you can see plus the clock is not correct, I expect it doesn't work anymore.

Lovely old trees in Avoca

An old house which is certainly worse for ware.

The Post Office, Pub above and below the shop which sells some sausage rolls made by our neighbour across the road!

Fairbairn Dam, Queensland.

The first photo is of one of the streets in Emerald, the Fairbairn Dam and Lake Maraboon which has changed since our last visit with more work being done as shown in the photos.

Fairbairn Dam is an eathfill-filled embankment dam across the Nogoa River, located southwest of Emerald in Central Queensland.  Constructed in 1972 for the primary purpose of irrigation, the impoundment created byt the dam serves as one the potable water supplies for the region and assists with some flood mitigation.  Lake Maraboon with an active capacity of 1,301,000 ML (2.86 x 10"imp gal; 3.44 x 10" US gal) was formed by damming of the Nogoa River, and, in 2008, was Queensland's second largest dam.  Maraboon is the Aboriginal for 'where the black ducks fly".
Wikipedia

Will be away till after the weekend.  Off in the caravan to the east coast of Tasmania.

The Gemfields, Queensland Part 2.

More of the Gemfields.  The homes, well I'm not sure if anyone lives in some of them.
The photos were taken as we moved along so hence the foreground might be blurred on a few.

On the way into Sapphire.

A Minion on top of the rusty sign.

The electrician's residence (above)

Would say no one is home in the above photo - maybe they come once in awhile.

Like the clothes line out the back, then a Caravan Park in Rubyvale.

The shop where we bought some food which was very tasty.

This town of Anakie is across the highway on the opposite side of Sapphire and it's where a Gemfest is held each year.  We only saw a small Pub and a couple of houses.

The Gemfields, Queensland. Part 1

Part 1.
Whilst staying at Emerald in Queensland last winter we visited 'The Gemfields', a place we had never been before.
The Gemfields are in the Central Highland area near the town of Emerald.
What an experience - couldn't live there or have their lifestyle, not for me but each to his own.

The sides of the road were dust.
Gem shops kind of hidden, if it hadn't been for the lovely lady in the Caravan Park in Emerald we wouldn't have known which shop to enter, or even if there was a shop there.  Certainly a good experience.

The first town we came to was Sapphire, then 8 klm on was Rubyvale, this latter town had a nice hotel and accommodation and the price of some of the gemstones were very expensive as in the thousands of dollars.
Both towns have sapphires all different colours.
You can fossick at Sapphire at one of the shops, there apparently is always a very small sapphire to be found but we didn't bother.  I went to one of the shops and bought a yellow sapphire, 3 actually in the one ring.

The first few photos are of Sapphire.

This is the first shop we came across and it was well back off the road.

This is the lock on the post for the gate where I purchased my ring below.

Below are photos of Rubyvale.

A phone box with 3 sides and such old phone books, our mobile phones did work in both towns.

A Gem shop in Rubyvale again well back off the road.

Two different accommodation places and somewhere to eat, a nicer part of the town.

Below - further up the road.