1st September – Wallangarra Railway Station

It was overcast and raining lightly when I woke up, so I scrapped the scenic drive I’d had planned. Instead I drove south to see the Wallangarra Railway Station. This station was where the Queensland railway lines met the New South Wales lines, and the picture below explains everything.

 

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A very informative sign, worthy of a photo.

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You can see the different sides.

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There’s even a line drawn across the station to mark the state border!

It’s pretty hilarious to think that everyone had to get off and switch trains – even circuses had to unload and reload!

I had a bit of a headache afterwards, so I went back to Turtle Shell for some lunch and to sleep for a while.

A quick nap restored me (like restarting a computer, it can work wonders), and I took a short walk in the park near the Tourist Information. There were some interesting birdlife, and I took some photos.

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I was just zooming in to get a good shot of the bird.  It was only when I was looking at this photo on the computer that I realised there was a turtle (or terrapin, I can’t really tell) on the rocks next to him!

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This guy was sunning himself on the rocks and giving me the stink-eye.

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These ducks must be friends or family or something, because they were always swimming together.

There was still some time in the day, so I drove down some country roads to check out a place called Granite Gardens. I had no idea what it was, I just thought it sounded interesting. And it was exactly as described – a nicely kept little garden open to the public. Most of the plants were dormant, but there were still some beautiful flowers – here’s some photos! But if you’re looking for names and species, you’re talking to the wrong girl.

I also managed to snap some pictures of a very pretty Rosella that was flitting around.

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Just chillin’ on a fence.

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Up in a tree.

There was a large pond at the end of the garden, and I heard some crazy-sounding frogs! Listen to them go!  (You might have to turn up the volume to hear them.)

I never saw them, but a quick Google told me they might be Eastern Banjo Frogs. They’re also called Eastern Pobblebonk Frogs, which I think is a much more descriptive name – the noise does sound like something that should be describe as a ‘pobblebonk’.

All this and it was only late afternoon! So I decided to follow some signs I’d seen on the way to the gardens which promised something called Bush Rock Gallery. At the end of a dirt road I found Graeme Schreiber, an engineer turned artist who lives out in the bush and paints. And does fairly well for himself too, considering he was preparing for a show in Toowoomba.

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This is his studio – you can just see the roof behind the wall of plants.

I ended up buying one of his paintings for Mum, and headed back to Turtle Shell as the sun set.

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