Bowenville Reserve – Trek's Walkabout

I have stayed at Neil Turner Weir several times with my First Officer, Chris. This time it was with my ensign Judy, her first time here. The place full of lots of other starships and explorers docked for a few nights.

I guided Trek through the fleet, to an open space further along. We found a spot in the middle with green grass and open skies for the sun rays to power our ships.

Powering up our ships, with the sun rays.

I set up the ensuite tent. Being 100% full of the sun rays I put the hot water on and had a shower. Least this captain smells nice, not sure about the ensign 😛

Our plan is to stay in this part of space for a few days. We have heard another cosmic rain event was coming on the star day of Thursday. So we carefully planned our route through the stars over the coming week.

We went for a walk and explored this space finding that they have extended the area further east, nearly doubling this part of space. Could easily fit a large fleet of over 100 to 200 starships in here. Not that I would want to be here then.

It is a very large camping area.

Today we had visitors from another dimension, one in a mini shuttle that is a friend of Judy’s. Nice lady, solo traveller in her mini shuttle. People ask her why does she not upgrade to a bigger ship but she loves her mini shuttle works well for her.

Other friends of Judy’s, 2 man crew staying at the star base in Mitchell. Lovely to meet other travellers and share their voyagers, and the places they have explored.

We had noticed all these campers having lovely fires with what looked like milled wood they were getting from somewhere. We found out from a fellow traveller that just past the dump point in Mitchell is a wood mill and they put out their off cuts free for people to use. The same person, our neighbour took Judy for a drive to collect some of the wood and cut it to size for us. What a lovely kind person. There are also free showers near the dump point.

Keeping warm around the Campfire.

We had a campfire with our neighbour and another couple. Good fun conversation.

Heading East through Roma, we stopped for the night at Wallumbilla showgrounds. Spent 1 night in Miles, called into Chinchilla, went to the markets, info centre and the big watermelon. Chinchilla is famous for the Watermelon festival. There is also camping at Chinchilla Weir but it was very full and wet in places, so we went via Tara, for a couple of nights, dodging the rain.

Chinchilla Markets.

Slice of watermelon near the info centre.

Bowenville Reserve, this was supposed to be one of our first stops at the start of our trip. But due to rain, the road in was very flooded so we changed plans and headed to Tara.

The first shall be last and the last shall be first. Bowenville Reserve is now the last night of the trip.

It’s 4km off the main hwy, to a very large open area along Oakey Creek. Most vans seem to try and get as close to the creek as they can. There is also a big open grassed paddock. That is where we camped for the night right near the fence. Ground was solid and easy access back onto the gravel road that goes around the camping area. If it rained, we are ready to head straight for that gravel.

There are newish toilets, table and chairs, bins and a small playground for the kids. It would be a popular spot for the locals for a swim in summer.

Lots of campers here but all quiet.

There was rain overnight, we did move at one point early in the evening closer to the gravel road to make sure we would not get stuck.

Creek up a little bit.

In the morning, there were vans and other ships moving off the grass trying to get onto the gravel. Water was pooling in a few places; the creek had risen a bit.

We drove into Bowenville, checked out the old rail station and Judy had a cuppa. The plan was to go to Toowoomba (which Judy did, to catch up with a friend) but I made a run for home to get ahead of more rain coming.

Old Railway Station at Bowenville is like a museum.

Live long and Prosper. 🖖🏿

It’s been a while since I updated the Captain’s log. There has been lot of sorting out to do, including working out travel plans, a lot of major first events without Chris. 2025 was a year I was glad to see the back off. But starting 2026 without Chris is not an easy thing to do either. 40 years together, 40 years of travels together, fitting that in with my new life moving forward alone.

Chris and I talked about any future travels for myself, and it was his wish that I continued for the both of us, easier said than done. I also had to work out if it was something I still wanted to do without him. Do not worry it is, the travel bug is still in there. Just baby steps adjusting to the change as it is not easy doing it without him.

I had done a few short trips with my friend Judy, before we headed off on a bigger trip end of July 2025 for 3 weeks. Main destination was Charlotte Plains west of Cunnamulla, in Qld. A place Chris had wanted to go to on our last trip together, but we did not have enough time. This trip was for him and see how I go for me. Have to say we were disappointed with Charlotte Plains, but more on that later. We did find a few other hot pools we loved.

Unfortunately, the weather was not kind to us. We had rain, flooded roads, mud, creek crossings all which caused us to change our plans many times on the fly. But with your house on your back, you have the freedom to do so.

There had been a lot of rain out west before we left, most of the areas we were heading had a decent amount of rain. Being black soil country we needed to be careful where we stopped making sure our wheels stayed on solid ground. It also meant it did not take much rain for areas to start flooding.

We were thankful it was not raining the day we headed off nor did we get rain on us for a few days. Our first night was Lake Clarendon, near Gatton.

Lake Clarendon

Chris and I had called in here many years ago, but the lake was dry and the grass was very overgrown and dry. This time the lake was very full, lots of bird life on it. It was a bit wet in some areas due to the recent rain but still plenty of high and dry areas.

If it’s flooded forget it. And that is exactly what we did. We had planned to stay a few days at Bowenville Reserve west of Toowoomba about 20km’s from Dalby. But we had a flooded creek, blocking our path.

Flooding Creek heading into Bowenville Reserve.

So we kept driving, with areas off the side of the road very damp we decided to head to Tara, camp on the bitumen for a few nights. The area has changed substantially from the first time Chris and I stayed here. It is still great value, safe, lots of places to walk, showers, toilets, lagoon and potable water. We loved it so much we spent a few more nights here on our way home.

Beautiful artwork on the back of a shelter.

Lagoon boardwalk.

From there we headed to Westmar. Westmar is a small town at the crossroads of the Moonie Highway and the Meandarra-Talwood Road 116km west of St George. The Anderson brothers, owners of the Western & Maranoa Transport Companies, opened a fuel depot and rest stop for their truckies at this intersection. The name Westmar was derived from WESTern and MARanoa Transport.

Not a lot there just a big rest area, has shower toilets and bins. Popular with truckies, lots of trucks pull in. Big grass area across for them, we managed to get ourselves in a corner out of the way, further away from the trucks.

Nice hidden spot.

A servo/corner store with a bottle shop opposite. Looks quite nice and well stocked.

It was a cold night, poor Jess was shivering during the night, had to put her heat pad on for her.

Live long and Prosper.