Clermont to Brisbane (22 & 23 January 2015)

Established in 1864, Clermont is a small agricultural town as well as a hub for large coal mines in the area and is located some 945 km north of Brisbane in Queensland. The 2011 census recorded a population of 2177.

Clermont is named after Clermont-Ferrand in France; Clermont-Ferrand was the ancestral home of Oscar de Satge, one of the first European graziers who owned the Wolfang Downs pastoral run.

Originally. Clermont was built on low lying ground next to a billabong (lagoon), and it turned out that flooding was a major problem.  There were four substantial floods between 1864 and 1896 with the biggest flood being in 1916.  A total of 65 people died and with the population at the time being only 1,500, that was quite considerable. It was a great loss and I would imagine it was a big impact on the community.

The 1916 flood remains one of Australia's worst natural disasters in terms of life lost. Following the flood, many of the wooden buildings of the town were moved to higher ground using steam traction engines.  A local amateur photographer, George Pullar took numerous photographs of the moving buildings, published in the 1980s as "A Shifting Town".

Leo Hotel being moved along Lime Street after the flood

Gold was discovered in 1861 which lead to the town being established.  The goldfield was proclaimed in 1862 and copper was discovered soon after.

In the 1880s up to 4000 Chinese people were resident in Clermont, mining for gold and copper. This led to racial riots and the Chinese were removed from the region in 1888.

Coal was discovered in 1864, 20 kms north west of Clermont but was only first mined in 1890.  This mine, Blair Athol, supplied customers in Asia and Europe with up to 12 million tonnes of thermal coal per annum before closed 122 years later in November 2012 when the coal ran out.

Located 12 kms north west of the township, the Clermont Mine began operations in April 2010. When the mine reaches full capacity it will produce up to 12.2 million tonnes of thermal coal for international markets.  In October 2013, RIO Tinto sold its 50.1 per cent stake in mine to fellow mining giant Glencore-Xstrata and Sumitomo for just over $US1.05 billion.

The railway was extended north from Emerald to Clermont in February 1884. We saw about 5 or 6 very long coal trains with up to 5 engines either coming or going, so the line is very busy these days.  However, no passenger trains are available to or from Clermont.

Murals at Clermont

Well, we stayed overnight at Clermont, had a walk around the town in the morning and then headed off to Dululu with me driving.  I have not towed the van before, but Nick is a good teacher and he said I did very well.  You have to drive in "sports mode" which is using the gears rather than automatic to get good fuel economy and also to look after the engine, especially so that it doesn't overhead going up the hills, of which there where quite a few.

The beauty of our new lifestyle is that every thing is subject to change, and when we drove into Dululu just around 2pm, we decided to continue on a further 72 kms to Biloela.

We stayed at the Discovery Caravan Park there which turned out to be a dump....not recommended at all  (note to self....put comment on Trip Advisor).  The good thing was that there was another Kedron parked next to us,  owned by Ralph.  Unfortunately, Ralph's wife had taken ill and was in hospital so Nick did the decent thing and spent a couple of hours with Ralph, sitting outside talking about this and that, as you do, with a number of glasses of wine of course.

We decided to go straight through to Brisbane the following day.  There have been some significant rains in the ares and it is lovely a green.  Below are photos taken on the road near Cania Gorge National Park.

Next Stop.....Brisbane or as it is quaintly known, BrisVegas.