With the prospect of more rain at the end of the week, we abandoned plans to drive home via Goondiwindi. Instead we drove north to Surat. We have never been to this town before so we made it a lunch stop. The only cafe in town served lovely quiches with flaky pastry.
There was still a lot of water lying around but not covering the road. The fast flowing Balonne River on the northern side of Surat was just washing the underside of the bridge. It is in major flood at 10.75 metres and likely to rise by the weekend as water from the Condamine River flows into the Balonne. That is likely to close the bridge to all traffic.
There are several abandoned buildings in Surat, but basic services and retail outlets exist. The Shire Hall is an impressive building with interesting features such as the windows.
By way of contrast this old unloved building is opposite the Shire Hall.
We continued driving north and turned east onto the Warrego Hwy on the outskirts of Roma. When on the Warrego Hwy we passed through several small villages and well known towns like Miles and Chinchilla. There was no flooding affecting the highway.
We stopped for the night at a caravan park beside Myall Creek in Dalby. Hundreds of homes in this town have suffered repeated inundations of floodwater. This building is in our caravan park. The bridge over Myall Creek is in the background. In January the height of the creek was above the timber work of the building so all caravans were relocated out of the park.
Committed Travellers 