This was our first time to the Dalby area and we knew very little about the town or its history. We stayed at the Jondaryan Woolsheds – a great place to stay, steeped in the history of wool production, with good van sites. It’s 24km to Dalby. The only disappointment was that Jimbour homestead was not open on the day we visited. Check the internet before you head out to the homestead.

We headed north on 24th May 2024.

Kerry’s snippets in fuchsia

History

First Nations

The Indigenous tribes of the Jagera, Giabal and Jarowair people inhabited the Darling Downs for at least 40,000 years before British colonial settlement. Estimations place the Indigenous population pre-settlement from 1,500 to 2,500 people. The way of life of the First Nations people can be read here in the first 5 or so pages.

To read about the interaction between the First Nations people and the British settlers click here.

Colonial History

In 1841 Dalby came into existence as the point where the Myall Creek could be crossed. It was called, rather unimaginately, The Crossing. Later it was reputedly named after the tiny village of Dalby on the Isle of Man by the surveyor, Captain Samuel Perry, in 1853.

To read more about Dalby’s history and its main features and attractions , click here.

Today Dalby is a large and prosperous rural service centre located in an area of fertile volcanic soil. It is surrounded by fields of wheat, cotton, mung beans, sunflowers, sorghum, millet and barley. The region’s thriving cotton industry spreads from Dalby, south to Goondiwindi and west across to St George. Add to this its importance as a centre for natural gas, coal and power generation and it is easy to understand that Dalby is one of the state’s most important regional industrial, agricultural and manufacturing centres. Many of these activities have impacts on First Nation communities.

In 2024 its population was 13,286.

The Woolshed

Jondaryan Woolshed is a heritage-listed shearing shed at Evanslea Road, Jondaryan. It was built in 1859-60 to replace an earlier, smaller woolshed on the former Jondaryan pastoral station, which was at one stage the largest freehold station in Queensland. The woolshed was the scene of significant labour conflict in the late 1880s and early 1890s, as the station became a test case for the new Queensland Shearers Union in the lead-up to the 1891 shearers’ strike.

To read more about the history of the Woolshed, click here

Day 1 – Friday 24 May

Getting There

Kingscliff > Toowoomba (214km) > Dalby (88km) ~ 302km in total

The Dalby area was the starting point for a trip up to northern Queensland as far as Mission Beach – up the Great Inland Way and returning along the coast. We had covered much of the coastline north when we went around Australia in 2018 over a 2 year period. Posts for these travels can be found here.

We departed from Kingscliff heading north on 24th May 2024, hoping that the M1 would not be its normal slow crawl. In fact it was a reasonable run. We drove the M1 past the Gold Coast and took the turnoff to Toowoomba on the M6, M2 and A2 (all one road). It is about 130km to Toowoomba and is a motorway virtually as far as that town. There is one place where it is a single lane road but not for long.

We drove up the recently completed Toowoomba by-pass – what a great road that is, avoiding the steep hill and the drive through the town. When we were last here the road was only partially complete – July 2019 (click here)

Past Toowoomba, we were in the the Darling Downs, a renowned farming region on the western slopes of the Great Dividing Range. The term Downs applies to a wide region comprising the Southern Downs, Western Downs, and Toowoomba and Goondiwindi local authority areas. The name was set in 1827 by Allan Cunningham, the first British explorer to reach the area, after the then Governor of NSW, Ralph Darling.

The landscape is dominated by rolling hills covered by pastures of many different species, vegetables, legumes such as soy beans and chick peas, and other crops including cotton, wheat, barley and sorghum. Cotton is a major crop and you can see cotton balls that fell from the trucks caught in the grasses beside the road.

It’s quite a bumpy road to Dalby through the flat farmlands.

About 20km or so from Dalby, we took the turnoff on the right through the small village of Jondaryan, and followed the signs to the Woolshed, past the first gate and turning into the Park at the second gate. The managers accomodation is up on the left.

Our three nights cost $105 and we also paid $8 each for access to the historical area around the Woolshed – lots of old buildings that serviced the Woolshed.

Phones and internet were fine.

The Van Park

The caravan park is at the Jondaryan Woolshed, a must do to visit. It is a vast property with a central caravan area, a large camping area and vans/tents along the creek along one border of the park. It is currently being upgraded and expanded with additional ablutions blocks, camp kitchens, more camping areas and pathways. It’s going to be great when finished. Currently one ablutions block serves the caravan/camping area. This is small – 2 toilets, 4 showers in the mens.

The van sites are wide and spacious. The slight tricky bit is that you have to park the van at an angle. It took us a couple of goes to get it right. Plywood cutouts of sheep festoon the park.

We made an initial inspection of the Woolshed. It is massive! At almost 90 metres in length, it boasted 52 shearing stands and could hold 3,000 sheep under cover. Today it boasts chandeliers at the recreation end. The shearing facilities all remain although some are a bit dilapidated. Its an amazing old building – really interesting seeing the old shearing equipment on display.

At one end is a small creek making its way through a nice garden. There is quite a large a cafe there and we guess it is used for receptions.

In the distance up on one corner is a cute looking church and behind that a farm dam.

Soon after we had set up Liz and Barry arrive and park next to us. They had been touring the area for a week or so. It was great to get together again.

Day 2 – Saturday 25 May

We departed early to explore Dalby and also the reportedly magnificent gardens of Jimbour House, an amazing homestead from the 1800’s. We went to the latter first.

The drive west was into very flat country with vast areas prepared for agriculture. Lots of cotton bales ready to move on.

At Jimbour House we were met with a big disappointed – it was closed. The sign at the gate said they were only open to the public on the first Wednesday of each month. Unfortunately this was all news to us – clearly we should have called into the tourist information office first.

Whilst feeling sorry for ourselves, we had driven over 60km to get there, Kerry had spotted a sign to the start of the dingo fence. It was only about 15km away so we went there. We had heard do much about this incredible structure but had never seen it.

Wikipedia tells us that the Dingo Fence or Dog Fence is a pest-exclusion fence to keep dingoes out of the relatively fertile south-east part of the continent (where they have largely been exterminated) and protect the sheep flocks of southern Queensland.

It is one of the longest structures in the world. It stretches 5,614 km from Jimbour near Dalby through thousands of kilometres of arid land ending west of Eyre peninsula on cliffs of the Nullarbor Plain above the Great Australian Bight near Nundroo.

To our eyes it does not look very substantial. But it must have been fully tested. Eight teams look after sections of the fence by way of weekly inspections we read on the information board.

It has been partly successful, although dingoes can still be found in parts of the southern states. Although the fence has helped reduce losses of sheep to predators, this has been countered by holes in fences found in the 1990s.

From the starting place for the fence we headed back to Dalby to check out the town. We drove to the tourist information office but that was closed. In particular, I wanted to see if the town had a heated pool open for lap swimming. I had read that the Dalby pool had a bit of history.

So we set the sat nav for the aquatic centre and, as it was close by, we went to have a look. The Dalby Olympic Swimming Pool is in fact a heritage-listed swimming pool and is the earliest identified Olympic standard pool in Queensland constructed outside Brisbane. It was built in 1936 and added to the Queensland Heritage Register on in March 2008.

The 50m pool was closed for winter, but the 25m pool was open with very few people in the water. Fortunately my swimming gear was in the car and I through enjoyed my 40 lap swim.

The buildings in Darby are not magnificent, not like those in big towns like Toowoomba , but are important in depicting the special character and features of Dalby.

The postoffice and courthouse are the pick of the bunch.

Here are a selection of others.

And a church and some monuments.

Day 3 – Sunday 26 May

Before we left for this trip we had decided to get a fire pit, given the time of year. I wanted a simple and light one that was easy – not like the complicated and very heavy on we had for our big trip around the country to erect. After a bit of research I found one at BCF that sounded ideal, and there had a few in stock.

So we drove back to BCF inToowoomba – it was only about 40km. It did look good so we bought that and some fire starters. We also went to Bunnings to get some more WD40 and some clothes hooks for the caravan bathroom. And then to get some more prosecco for Kerry. Can’t have too much of a good thing!

On the way back to the van Kerry experienced a strange event. We were at a petrol station filling up the car when I got very excited. I pointed out to Des a small white SUV entering the service station. I quickly saw that the number plate was exactly the same as for our electric car at home. I fleetingly thought that our car had been stolen and was simply at the same service station as us. Then we realised that the number plate was a QLD number whereas ours is a NSW plate. The other driver saw the funny side of things. How bizarre this was!

In the afternoon we walked through all the exhibits at the Woolshed. It was a special event weekend and there were quite a few people there, especially for the high tea. There were also some craft shops open.

The woolshed is a wonderful building originally built between 1859 and1861, designed as a shearing shed with 52 blade shearers. The northern entrance is into the wool room, full of historical attractions all to do with wool. The Eastern end of the shed is still in its original condition with overhead shearing gear as it was installed in 1890, and the sheep pens as they were when the shed was going full bore. The Western end is a reconstruction as that part was partly demolished in 1946. It is now an auditorium for shearing shows, functions and events.

There are many buildings still in excellent order, especially the Bank of New South Wales building. This was built in Oakey in 1913 and moved to the Woolshed in 1986. The building had been converted internally to serve as an administration building.

The Schoolmasters Residence is a beautiful building set out for use as it would have been in the old days. Fabulous!

Other special buildings are the Flagstone Creek Public Hall, Woodview State School, the craft shop (open for business) and the Station Smithy. I can’t do it justice – there are numerous other buildings and historical items, all focussed on wool.