29 May 2011 - Boonah Showgrounds

This morning we woke in the midst of another leisure pursuit. The banging and neighing of horses was soon explained when I raised the blinds to find that we were surrounded by dozens and dozens of horse floats. The action started soon after eight, loud speakers announcing names of both riders and their horse, but in a manner that confused us as to the nature of the activity.

Surrounded by horse floats

The Stetsons, jeans and check shirts spelled out a rodeo style activity, and sure enough, when I quizzed a guy parked next to us, I found they were “camp drafting’, a process of drafting out one beast from the herd, and taking it through a gate and on to an allocated point – a bit like sheep trials on horse without the dog, replacing the sheep with a cattle beast. This is obviously a popular activity here, and I suspect that most of the contestants were like my new friend, not farmers at all, but life stylers with their little patch of dirt and their horses soaking up their wages income.

I trapsed back and forth through the horsy crowd, to and from the laundry, attending to my washing, and then Chris and I set out on foot up into the village which was seething with activity even on a Sunday. I had in fact popped up to the baker earlier, at about eight thirty, purchasing a couple of buns and a handful of change for the washing machine. I had been surprised then to see so many people in the cafes having brunch at such an appropriate time rather than the later time of eleven or twelve so often observed elsewhere. (I just don’t know how they can wait so long before eating in the morning!)

Views from Mount French

Chris and I visited the Regional Art Gallery where there was an excellent one (wo)man exhibition by someone Bailey, on to the old Butter Factory to see sculpture, stained glass work, photography and painting, the latter done by a woman who paints with her mouth, then on to the Art and Soul Gallery which featured among many local artists, work by a geologist Dr John Hindle Jackson, who interprets the earth secrets with vibrant acrylics. While these took our breath away, we agreed that we could not live with any of his works in our own home. 

We returned for lunch and to enjoy the ongoing equestrian activity, before setting off in the Cruiser, firstly up to the top of Mount French at 468 metres (Boonah is at just 184 metres) from where we enjoyed views all around this magnificent scenic rim of mountains, taking two short walks to do so. We then descended and made our way north west to the little settlement of Kalbar, the source of the carrots Chris is preparing for our dinner tonight, and visited the Wiss Emporium where an assortment of artists were exhibiting their eclectic collection of artistry, from patchwork, painting, fashion design, jewellery, photography, and so much more.

We wended our way back to Boonah via yet another back road, popped up to the top of Mount Carmel, the town hill, then back to our camp, now slowly emptying of horses and their owners.