It was another glorious day when we set out to explore the hinterland of the Rainbow Beach and Noosa areas. We turned south from the Gympie road toward Kin Kin. The road is in good condition with bitumen through the fertile valleys and gravel through the rolling hills. Rain forests adorn the hills and market gardeners are active in the valleys.

Rolling Hills

Gravel road mountain pass

Long road

Farm house in the green valley

We came across a quiet little valley where the forest had been cleared and a rest area had been developed. We walked into the rainforest for a few hundred meters along a track and took some pictures of the tree canopy. It felt like another world.

Rest area in them thar hills

Inside the rain forrest

Filtered light under the green canopy

We eventually came across Kin Kin which turned out to be a charming little old village where one could sense the history of the area.  This history started with timber cutting and eventually moved on to dairy and small produce farming.  A coffee and some cake later we continued through this historically rich area on to Pomona. Behind Pomona a ‘Volcanic Plug’ overlooks the town. Volcanic plugs were formed by volcanic events some 5 million years ago. They are literally ‘Magma pimples’ that have been squeezed onto the earth’s surface by pressure increases pushing on cooling lava.

For more information visit the following sites:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kin_Kin

http://www.inkinkin.net/

http://www.noosacountrydrive.com.au/country-drive-villages/kin-kin

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pomona,_Queensland

The ‘Country Life’ hotel at Kin Kin

Churches to be found at every place

The General store

A galery of historical pictures at the General Store

The Art school at Kin Kin

The products of the Art school (insect)

Along the way we drove through several other villages on our way home. We returned late in the day to our caravan park.

The plasma plug overlooking Pomona

…and the Locals are very friendly.

These little fellas are everywhere

I find the Yorke peninsula staggering at this time of the year. Wherever you drive, as far as the eye can see, you see grain fields. It is beautiful; fields of Barley, Wheat, Pulses and Green fertilizers that get ploughed straight back into the paddock, no wonder they call this Australia’s food basket. I cannot express things better than the link below. There you will find all the facts and pictures for this area. The link takes you to one of the main pages. Explore the many fantastic links from there.

http://www.harvestcorner.com.au/#!farming/c84j

After an hour of driving through cropping farms we arrived in Moonta. The town has a central park with a generous grassy area and many shady old Fig trees and public facilities. This is a reasonable size centre which proudly displays its rich copper mining heritage in the many well maintained churches, official buildings and miner’s cottages.

Great architecture

Moonta square

School of Mines

Miner’s cottage

The history is proudly displayed also in an artist’s contribution in the form of a collection of mining related sketches that include a picture of Elizabeth Woolcock, the only woman to be executed ever in South Australia. See pic below:

Artists sketches of mining

Elizabeth Woolcock

An internet search will reveal the following in Wikipedia:

Elizabeth Woolcock (20 April 1848 – 30 December 1873) was born Elizabeth Lillian Oliver in Burra Burra and was hanged in Adelaide Gaol for the murder of her husband Thomas Wollcock by mercury poisoning.

As one drives through the suburbs of Moonta one arrives in Moonta bay. The large jetty here is well known for being a good fishing and squidding spot. Just down the road is Port Hughes, another lovely coastal gem that is expanding rapidly.

Massive Jetty at Moonta Bay

From there we drove through an increasingly arid landscape to the port of Wallaroo. I found the shipping terminal with its massive ship loading infrastructure fascinating. Wallaroo is also a base for the trawling fleet and if you like boats you will enjoy having a look at the trawlers there.

Kadina has the ‘larger town’ feel as you drive through the light industry areas leading into the town. It is a great town with good public facilities and we went for a walk and stretched our legs before we made our way back to Port Vincent. There we spent a pleasant afternoon on the beach  swimming the dogs and soaking up the tranquility.

Port Vincent – even the fish like it!