Yarraman

Yarraman is a small town not much more than 100 km north of Toowoomba, and still up on the Darling Downs. It is not far from Kingaroy, famous last century in Australia as the home of peanut farmer turned Queensland State Premier Joh Bjelke-Petersen. Queensland has come a long way since the days when Joh and the white shoe brigade ran the state like a personal fiefdom, but judging by the number of things in the area named after him the locals around here still remember him with a great deal of fondness. Peanut farming is still one of the mainstays of the local economy and we have enjoyed the local product, which tastes a lot fresher bought at the source rather than a supermarket.

The countryside here is very attractive, with rolling green hills, contented cows and lots of state forests and national parks. We have done several scenic drives, including a visit to The Palms National Park, a tiny patch of remnant rainforest filled with Piccabeen palms.

Yarraman at one stage was the terminus of a rail line, and there is still evidence around the town and surrounding countryside of the now-gone railway. The old station area provides the focus of an interesting town walk, and there is a tunnel about 40 km southwards that goes underneath the Great Dividing Range, joining the eastern and western watersheds. It is now home to a colony of bats, which didn't seem to appreciate our visit as hundreds of them flapped and swirled around us in the dark. Although none of them actually touched us you could feel the wind of their wings brushing just in front of you, we hurried through all crouched over and were very glad to get out the other side, it was a seriously creepy experience.

We also did a couple of other short walks around the township itself, including one which ran right past the back of our caravan park to the top of the nearby hill for a panoramic view of the area. The local market on Saturday morning was quite a disappointment though, with only a handful of stalls selling mainly second-hand tat rather than any fresh produce or hand made goods.

West of Yarraman is the Bunya Mountains National Park, with cool rainforests sheltering Bunya Pines, remnants of the once dominant Australian vegetation type with a history stretching back 200 million years. The national park is lush and green, with ferns, fungus and bubbling streams. Luckily the rainforest canopy protects the forest floor from the elements, as the day of our visit was cool and wet. We did several terrific walks, and although we could often hear the rain pattering on the leaves overhead little of it managed to filter down to our level.