We arrived at front gate of the block on Sunday 11th March full of dreams and enthusiasm...
The gate is in there somewhere...
There are two sheds in there...
Who knows what is in there and that just looking over what we think is our front fence...
Old tank?...
We get a closer look at the sheds; sort of...
We walk a little further into the block the vegetation is becoming more extreme...
Someone has donated us a roller...
We gingerly part the grass being careful not to disturb any sleepy snakes...
On the way back to the car we have a close encounter with a pair of big angry dogs and only just make it to the safety of the car. Fun eh....
The next day at day break we are back to the block; here after named "Costa d'Aquila"
John fires up the brushcutter and attempts to cut a path through the grass on the verge to get to the front gate...
There it is our street number; 225 Douglas Rd, Carmila, Qld 4039. The district has been Flaggy Rock for over 100 years but Australia post says it is Carmila...
After an hour of grass slashing we cut our way into one of sheds...
The vines have gone feral...
The roof leaks big time. Maybe we could turn them into an artistic skylight?...
In there is our electricity meter box. THAT'S why Ergon has not been able to read the meter for a while...
What the burglars have left behind...
On our way home we are entranced by the local flock of Brolgers...
Day 2 we start to try to discover our boundary. We have the survey plan, a compass and 50m tape. But there are no survey pegs left; anywhere to give a starting point. Well we don't think there are, we spend hours hacking around in the long grass just trying to find some point of reference...
While John tries with brute force to find a peg, Jenelle takes her map reading prowess to legendary levels when she finds the bore house concealed in long grass. Because the bore is marked on the survey plan, we now have a reference point to start our survey...
The brushcutter man leads the way under the careful guidance of his trusty map reading wizard wife...
It looks so, nice, it is in fact 1m high thick grass, on top of 40 cm of thatch. It is the hardest of all to cut through...
The sheds are 3m high. Only the roof is visible...
After about 5 hours of exploring we decide on a leisurely walk along the southern boundary, or roughly what we think is the boundary, down to the beach. Jenelle has not been here for about 15 years. We think the fuel tank is at one of the dozen or so corners of our block...
In places the track is clear-ish. Unfortunately the snakes like the clear areas for a spot of sun baking. We have been keeping the brushcutter running and whizzing through the grass as we walk to hopefully scare the "Joe Blakes". John is lulled by the clearing into tuning off the "Ronny Ryobi" the brushcutter only to stumble on a black Red Belly Black sunning itself on the road down to Red Gully...
The Red Gully crossing looks like a painting...
The track has been severely damaged by "unauthorized" traffic. Although now it is so wet there has not been any traffic for weeks...
Further east along the southern boundary traverse we rediscover our dam; understandably it is brimming full. It was near here last year John managed to bog the Citroen to the axles. Unbelievably it is even wetter this year...
Finally after about 3/4 of an hour of slogging through long grass, wheel ruts full of water and the occasional swamp we arrive at the first salt pan. We are still only half way to the beach...
The salt pan has changed dramatically over the last decade. It used to be just barren, muddy clay pan, but now it has little islands of vegetation starting to form. "Oh that will be caused by global warming"
Some one has dumped and neatly spread a few cubic meters of concrete. Maybe they we planning to build a causeway so they could trespass more efficiently...
As well as the island on the salt pan there is a little rivulet formed. This is so much more attractive than how we remembered it from years ago...
This is sort of how it used to look. Just a board barren stretch of salt pan covered at high tide and only passable when the tide is out...
Across the salt pan we find the track that runs through the dense rainforest...
Looking back you can see the "track" across salt pan is somewhat random...
On the boundary of the salt pan and rainforest the track changes from mud to sand. The rainforest grows on ancient sand dunes. As usually a change of soil type or geography leads to a change of vegetation...
After about 300m of trekking through the rainforest we come out on a second but small salt pan...
The salt pan is fringed by mangroves below the high water mark and rainforest above...
After a few more hundred metres we have our first glimpse of the Flaggy Rock Creek (at low tide)...
There have been major changes here as a lot of the view we used to have has been hidden by mangroves that have grown up right along the end of the creek. Behind the mangroves though is a much wider, sandy beach...
By the time we arrive at our old beach huts we are both done for. We both secretly wonder how we will make it back to the car. We are wearing gum boots full time and our feet are killing us...
We walk back up along Flaggy Rock Creek to the west (away from the sea) to get a better view of the creek mouth and what we call the "Point". Even though it is dead low tide we still love the view. It brings back amazingly wonderful memories for us both...
From the creek bank we look back to the old beach huts...
The huts though used regularly by trespasser are in a frightful state of disrepair...
The beach in front of the huts is just stunning...
This is what we call Lloydy's Hut. Built by retired couple from Mackay (Lloyd and Ruby) about 30 or 35 years ago. Apart from a few holes in the roof the hut is still livable (sort of).
This is our old hut that John's Mum & Dad built back in the 70s. It is a total ruin. In real estate salesman speak it is a "fixer upper"...
Lloydy's hut has been well used apparently because the poachers have left written names and the date of their visit on the timbers of the hut...
Ruby and later Jenelle have cooked some incredible meals and cake in this old stove over the years but it has probably seen better days...
Despite the fact that the trespassers have put their own lock on the door to Lloydy's hut John can manage to pull the door open enough for Jenelle to squeeze inside for a look...
The donkey hot water system, shower and septic toilet are still usable and could be fully operational with a little extra attention...
Our hut has seen better days. It will need a full rebuild...
These two water tanks, cemented on the inside by John in his early teens, amazingly still hold water...
Maybe these old kero fridges can be resurrected. We love a challenge...
A third hut used to be here but all that is left is the slab. Waste not want not, I am sure this will be great from a caravan annex or tent site again one day soon...
Despite our aching feet we just have to go and have a closer look at the point...
Looking back up Flaggy Creek, we can see that once wide channel is now almost entirely closed by sand banks at low tide. In the old days it was quite a swim to get across the creek, now you can almost walk across...
Looking north from the point across the kilometer wide beach front at low tide, in the distance you can see West Hill Island. John's great grand father, John Theophilus De Costa use to run cattle on the island in the 1880s and 90s. Now it is a national park...
Here when the tide goes out, it really goes out...
With our spirits lifted by our visit to the beach we trudge back up the farm, to the sheds and the car. Along the way we detour to have a look at Sheila's Orchard. John's Mum planted this orchard back in the 70's. Despite 15 years of neglect the fruit trees are thriving. In there, there are Reed avocados, Bowen Mangoes, Lychees, Loquats, Lemons, Oranges. The citrus trees seem to be the struggling but we are really surprised how well every thing else looks...
This is the shed Shelia and Eric built in 1987. This was where in early 1988 they were planning to put a caravan to live in when they retired. In September Sheila felt a little off colour; she didn't live to see Australia Day 1988...
To jolly ourselves along as were slashed our way through infested long grass we started to refer to ourselves as the explorers Burke and Wills, but considering they died on the job, we decided to rename our team, Hume and Hovel. This is our latter day Captain William Hovell. Jenelle got to be Hovell because her weapon of necessity is the shovel (Rhymes with Hovell..get it). Anyway as it turns our Hovell was also a great navigator just like Jenelle...
On our way home we always stop to watch the Brolgas...
Another day, another encounter with the jungle...
We are so confident in our surveying we have begun to peg the survey line...
We are trying to get a handle on just what it is we own. We have no idea where our land begins and ends...
After a couple of days of surveying, and cross referencing, we are fairly confident that we know roughly the layout of the block. Unfortunately it is going to cost about $6000 to have a surveyor re-peg the block before we can build boundary fencing to hopefully keep out the rogues. In the mean time there is the small matter of trying to clear the sheds...
Right about now John is depressed. The task ahead seems insurmountable. Jenelle assures him it is just one step at a time...
After just a few hours with brushcutter, chainsaw, shovel and rake we are starting to make an impression. We found a tank and it still works!...
After another hour of chopping, sawing and hacking we clear around the power box. We have come to the realisation that person or persons unknown have stolen our fluro light fittings and pressure pump. They just cut them off and left the bare wires dangling. Thankfully they were clever enough to turn off the power before their dis-installation of our property...
Later on we lift the cover over the bore to find the pump from there has also been stolen as well...
Another day another shed to unwrap from the jungle of grass, lantana and vine. Today we find we have an ablution block with shower, toilet and vanity. It doesn't work, but all the plumbing is connected, the electrical wiring is there but once again the light fittings have been pilfered...
And we found a cement mixer in the Lantana as well...
A nice termite nest in the shed...
The inside of the Abolsion block sans fittings...
Oh and a twin tub washing machine. They take the light fittings and leave the washing machine; go figure...
By lunch time we have completed our circumnavigation of the Ablution block shed and we are totally knackered...
We are hoping that a slashing/mulching machine is coming on Monday so we do our best to find stuff that could damage the machine. In the long grass we find a very large roller, a huge tractor tyre, old tanks, old farm equipment. We are fearful of what else the mulcher might find hidden in the long grass dangerous to the mulcher's survival...
Yesterday we discovered, despite all the noise from brush cutting and chain sawing that we had two resident carpet snakes in the roof timbers of the large shed. This is freaking Jenelle out; but she is a trooper. When got home today John found a tree snake slithering over the outdoor setting of our motel room. John has now added "snake wrangler" to his CV...
