Monday 5th April 2021
It was a quiet and cool night on the Calliope River. There was so little noise you could hear a pin drop. Until I heard a whimper from the bunk beds, which grew louder and louder. It turned into a cry of utter frustration, Madeline….was stuck in her sheets. She was thrashing around with so much gusto that the caravan rocked and swayed. She kicked the window and the bed rail but to no avail, she was stuck!
After this all hell broken loose and our little terror was awake and needing resettling into bed. Mummy and daddy crawled back to bed exhausted after she finally went back down.
615am and up we are again…happy time, as Madeline calls it. It was raining, muddy and miserable outside.
Today was moving day after a one night stop over. We were heading for Cattle Country and Queensland’s beef capital, Rockhampton. We had breakfast, we cleaned, dressed and packed everything away. We got moving in the rain at around 940 am.
We pulled into Rockhampton at around 1150am and made our way to the caravan park in Parkhurst, just north of Rockhampton.
We found a camp site and set up. It was nice and level and it was a drive through site as well.
We had lunch and sorted through our itinerary for this week.
After lunch we made our way to Bunnings and BigW. Madeline proudly strolled Bunnings and owned it.
We returned to the van for the afternoon and settled in for the night. Madeline managed to coax us into buying a stray pack of Baby Shark water play sharks, that were lying out of place in a sales bin of paper towels. She spent the afternoon and night playing with them.
Rockhampton
Rockhampton is one of the oldest cities in Queensland and in Northern Australia. In 1853, Charles and William Archer came across what is now known as the Fitzroy River, which they named in honour of Sir Charles FitzRoy.
The Archer brothers took up a run near Gracemere in 1855, and more settlers arrived soon after, enticed by the fertile valleys.
The town of Rockhampton was proclaimed in 1858, and surveyed by William Henry Standish, Arthur F Wood and Francis Clarke, the chosen street design closely resembled the Hoddle Grid in Melbourne and consisted of a grid of wide boulevards and laneways, which was uncommon in Queensland.
Location
The town lies on the Fitzroy River, approximately 45 kilometres from where the river enters the Coral Sea. Rockhampton has a north and south side with three bridges connecting the two sides, one for trains and two for vehicles and people.
Rockhampton lies just north of the Tropic of Capricorn in Central Queensland. A sculpture originally marking the latitude was later moved into town to be more accessible to tourists. Although the Tropic of Capricorn is represented on maps as a “dotted line”, there is actually a bio-geographical overlap of Tropical and Temperate zones more than 500 kilometres wide with Rockhampton being roughly at its centre on the East Coast of Australia.
Tomorrow
A big day planned tomorrow. We are hoping to get to the Farmers markets around 830am and then to visit the information centre and Tropic of Capricorn spire.
After this we will explore Kershaw Gardens which boasts gardens, walks, playgrounds and a water play park.
In the afternoon we will take a stroll down Historic Quay Street and check out some of the heritage listed buildings.
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