Walking the Dog at Imbil

Imbil is a pretty little town nestled in the hills just 37 kilometers inland from Gympie in southern Queensland. Follow this link to find out more - Imbil

Swimming Hole at the Caravan Park

We stayed at the Island Reach Camping Resort in town – which is mixture of caravan park, camper trailers, and tents. If you’re looking for an organized caravan park where you are allocated your site clearly marked and set out don’t come here.

Our camp after 2 days of storms

The Camping Resort works on an organised chaos approach – park where you like, set up how you like and start a fire anywhere you wish. And it works! With acres of grass, huge jacarandas, figs and other flowering trees, a beaut swimming hole on the creek at the park – it’s a great place to stay.

Lake Borumba early morning

Enough of the tourist stuff – just 11 kilometers down Yabba Creek Road from town is Lake Borumba – a big lake surrounded by mist covered hills and post card waterways covered with waterlily’s and abounding with birds of all sorts. And guess what - it’s also well stocked with Bass, Silver Perch, Golden Perch, and breeding population of introduced Saratoga. This is why we were at Imbil !!

Toga hunter poised for that next cast!

Every morning just after 5:00 AM we hooked up the Tinny and drove out to the dam and Linda and I threw lures till our arms fell off. Home by 11:00 for brunch and at 3:00 PM out for a solo afternoon fish till dark.

Mutant Ninja Toga? 

Our plan was to fish for the “Toga” early and late and in between these times fish the deeper edges for Bass and Yellow-belly. After a couple of days of little reward for our Bass and Yellow-belly fishing and getting smashed by Toga on our surface lures we became Toga addicted.

Bass Britton?

There is little in fresh water sport fishing that can beat that magical moment where your tiny “walk the dog” surface lure is smashed in a moment of froth and spray by almost a meter of angry Saratoga that then comes flying fully out of the water for 2-3 times during the fight to the landing net. Certainly gets the pulse up! This is not me fishing but this YouTube video Toga Fishing gives you a good idea of the fun factor of Toga fishing.

Linda's family record Toga!

Linda now holds the Britton Family record Toga – a 78cm beauty (caught on my rod using my lure whist I was untangling a knot in her gear!!). But no sour grapes here - she earnt every centimeter of that fish having spent at least 30 hours out on the water casting lures while sitting on an uncomfortable seat in a small tinny in fine and foul weather. I joked that her “walk the dog” lure must have rabies because it walked a wobbly walk – buy hey she caught fish.

72cm of angry Toga about to be released

I also caught my personal best Toga at a measly 72cm and lots of others just under – woo hoo!!

What a beast! (but nice fish)

My Personal Trainer (AKA Tom the fishing guru) dropped in for an afternoon fishing session (he was half way through a 1600 Km round trip to see a sick mate) but alas his “dog” had rabies as well and the Toga weren’t interested in his famous Baralaba lure.

Caught red handed

Linda and I both loved Imbil – the caravan park, the lush green farmlands and the scenic Lake Borumba. We will be back to walk the dog again.

Wuruma Dam

At the dam wall

Wuruma Dam is halfway between Monto and Eidsvold on the southern end of the central highlands in QLD -  Map is here . Whilst at Boyndale Bush Camp we agreed with the mob we were travelling with since Baralabar that we would meet up at Wuruma for a week before we all headed our separate meandering ways.






On arrival we soon realized that “the secret was out” - the place was packed with grey nomads on every available space along the water front.  After towing the van around in circles and walking thru several camp sites we finally located the “Baralabar Bunch”.

View from under our caravan awning

There was no waterfront sites left but we found a spot at the back of the camp area close to our travelling friends and with views over the dam.

Excavations required to get level

There is not a single level caravan site in the whole Wuruma camping area and the spot we chose was no exception – so out with the shovel’s and lots of help from our fellow campers we soon had a hole of almost half the wheel height dug on the uphill side for our tandem wheels.  All vans in the area were similary dug in on the uphill side.

Spangled Perch

Wuruma Dam is stocked with Barramundi, Australian Bass, Golden Perch, Silver Perch and has a resident population of Saratoga and Eel Tailed Catfish.  It is also full of red claw (apparently!) and most folk with tinnies were catching 40-50 a night. Despite some determined efforts with Linda and my mate Budgie we didn’t catch any fish in the Dam except small Spangled Perch which were everywhere and always willing to hit a small diving lure or popper.

Wish I had caught these!

Also our red claw pots remained mostly empty with our best haul a measly 15 red claw – much to the amusement of our neighbours.

First Bass for 2015

During one dawn fish trip we talked to one of the locals out on the dam and he told us that the fishing was good below the dam wall in the river. Sure enough the first afternoon session resulted in two good size Bass on small walk the dog poppers and another two bass on the last trip.

Two nice 35cm bass

As the bass were very structure based my casting efforts ranged from very good to mediocre and most days a small refreshing swim was required to retrieve that occasional mis-directed lure.  Great fishing on light gear and those surface strikes got the pulse up.

Yep - been swimming again

Whist we were camped at Wuruma we witnessed some of the biggest and longest lasting thunder storms I have ever seen. Every evening from around 5:30 to 8:30 Thor got going with lightning and thunder.
We spent a memorable 2 hours one night under a mate’s caravan awning sipping cool refreshments and watching the non-stop light and sound show.




Linda is like a frightened puppy when it comes to thunder and lightning – absolutely terrified. Out came the ear plugs every evening.
Sadly we had to cut our visit short as at some time we had hit something with the prop on my tinny motor and broken the bush on the prop – this resulted in a max speed of around 4-5 knots (normally 14-17 knots). Off to the service man in Brisbane before we head to the next Dam!
It was a little sad to leave the Baralabar Bunch as we had become good friends over the few weeks we had travelled together. We had 5 days with great friends at a great place when at Wuruma – way to go!

Awoonga - again!

Sunrise Lake Awoonga

Boyndale Bush Camp is a great free camp on the western shore of Lake Awoonga about 45 kilometers from Gladstone in central QLD. With beautiful lake views surrounded by hills this is a very popular place for the grey nomads.

The tinny and I - early morning

For the “tiny” brigade there is the additional benefit that you can leave your boat in the lake usually within sight of your caravan. This is the third time we have camped at Boyndale bush camp – we enjoy the lake views, the birdlife and the challenge of catching red-claw and fish and generally being out on the lake in our tinny.

My fishing mate Budgie

We had met a group of fellow grey nomads at Baralabar (our previous camp) and they had also travelled to Boyndale. Together with a nice couple we met this visit we spent many a good night around the campfire with much laughing, joking and the occasional serious discussion.

Catfish Kerry!

Last time we were at Boyndale bush fires were raging in the hills to the east of the camp on the other side of the lake – this time there were several fire fronts on the western side not far from our camp. We kept a close eye on these and watched the fireworks during the night. Thankfully there was a constant easterly wind which kept the fires burning away from us and the local Rural Fire Brigade and water bombers kept it under control.

Budgie with a nice popper caught Sooty

For the period that we were there the local shire was upgrading the gravel road leading into the camp area and this will make access even easier in the future.


Great place, great people, a camp-fire, lake views and the occasional fish – we will be back!

Baralaba - you beauty!

Baralaba is a small town in central Queensland with a population of around 400  - one Pub, a General Store and a News Agent. The local shire has established a nice park and free camping area on the edge of town overlooking the Dawson River and Neville Hewitt Weir. Nice camp with grassed picnic area, $1 hot showers and town water available from 1 tap behind the toilet block. 

Sunset - Dawson River

Baralaba is also famous as being the home for Southern Saraotoga (Toga) – which is only found in the Dawson River and its tributaries in central QLD.

There's Toga in those snags!

After 5 days unsuccessful fishing for Toga at Bedford Weir this was going to be our last fish in the Dawson River system this trip and catching a Toga was on my trip bucket list.

I fished for 4 days- 6 hours a day - and despite seeing Toga “swirls and splashes” caught nothing but catfish! 

My personal trainer (AKA Tom the fishing guru) drove over 500 kilometers to fish with me for a night and morning session to show me how to catch the elusive “Toga”.  Well!! - after 3 hours fishing he had 4 hook-ups, lots of jumping Toga but none in the boat. Toga have very hard mouths, jump a lot and you are found in timber and snag infested sections of the river.

63 cm of  Dawson River Toga

After he departed and left me his secret Toga Lure – out I went again for the 3 hour afternoon to dark session.  

4 cm lure = 63 cm Toga

Armed with Tom’s secret lure and lessons learnt from the previous session -  I hooked 4 Toga and landed 2 !!!  As the sun set out came my favorite “walk the dog” popper and after a few casts - whammo  - big surface strike and screaming run until he pulled the hooks.

Yahoo – mission accomplished!!

Bedford Weir Fishing Competition

Two optimistic anglers

We had planned to stay at Bedford Weir (on the McKenzie River 26 kilometers from Blackwater in central north QLD) as we had been told by other Grey Nomads that this was a nice spot. By coincidence the annual fishing competition was held 3 days after we arrived - so keen to show these Queenslanders how us West Ozzies can fish Linda and I nominated for the Saratoga Spectacular.

one of six catfish

We fished poppers, shallow divers, deep divers, blades, vibes, bait and apart from catching stinking old catfish (which were not a category eligible for the comp) and every tree, stump and each other we didn’t enter a single fish after about 10 hours on the water.

nothing to brag about here!

There were 356 fisherman entered for the 2 day comp and 37 Saratoga (largest 79cm), 3 Barramundi, 6 Yellow Belly, 2 Sleepy Cod, 37 Sooty Grunter, and 3 eel tailed catfish were caught – sadly none by Team Britton.

"are you sure there are fish here?"

Over the two day comp there were hundreds of prizes drawn for nominated fisherman – and yep Linda and I didn’t get a sniff!!

Winner - Red Claw Draw!

However – there was a novelty category for Red Claw and all you had to qualify for the $100 prize money was to catch a Red Claw and take it to the weigh in desk to be in the draw.  Linda won!! Yahoo!!
Bit of story how Linda ended up with a Red Claw but enough to say her good looks and happy smile contributed to the winning catch.

keen angler and tinny

The comp is run by the McKenzie River Fish Stocking Association (MRFSA) and all proceeds go back into stocking the weir.

two new crutch type rods 

Great atmosphere and friendly well run event – we had a ball! No excuse for not catching any fish but looks like I will need a new knee soon as the left one is giving me grief (if I was a horse I would have been shot by now).

Fishing to the Max

Since leaving Perth in April I had been keenly anticipating spending a month with Linda’s brother Tom and his lovely wife Marion. Plan was that the girls would do girly things and Tom and I would camp and fish until we dropped.

Lets go camping and fishing!

Well the plan went to plan and we fished every creek possible within a 300 kilometer radius for Barra and anything else that we could temp with our lures and live bait.

We fished Carmila Creek, Constant Creek, Murray Creek, Sandy Creek, Wallaces Creek, Morrissey Creek, Baratta Creek and caught Barramundi, Estuary Cod, Mangrove Jack, Threadfin Salmon, Blue Salmon, Barracouta, Trevalley, Bream, Flathead and a half a dozen big fat mud crabs.

Blue Salmon and Threadfin Salmon

Every fish and crab was earnt with a typical easy day going like this:

- Up before 5:00AM
- Leave before 5:30AM and drive 100-200 kilometres to the chosen creek· 

The only bit of shade on the boat!

 - Launch the boat and cast lures continuously at every tree, snag, branch, stick, gutter, rock, mud bank that we could see as we slowly crept along on the electric motor.
- Continue doing this until it was impossible to go any further up the creek and then head back to the ramp against the incoming tide.
- Retrieve the boat and drive the 100-200 kilometres back home

Nice legal Barra

- Get home around 3:00 PM
- So in a 10 hour session 4 hours driving and 6 hours casting lures (in the full sun in an open boat).

One of many undersized barra

So yes – every fish and crab was earn't with blood, sweat and perseverance – and I loved every minute of it!!

Mmmm - tasty tucker!

Harder days included the setting and pulling of 8 mud crab pots.  If you have pulled a 10KG heavy duty crab pot against the tide a few times you will appreciate the effort involved – but those big buck mud crabs are a delicacy worth the effort.

Another highlight was seeing those monstrous mean crocodiles close up – kept you on your toes and out of the water!

Nice up the creek

On days where the wind and tide wasn’t favorable we would go fresh water fishing in the Pioneer River for those big mean black Sooty Grunters. Still getting up before 5:00AM but only a few minutes’ drive as Tom’s place is at Mirani which is on the River. 

Linda's nice Sooty

It’s a beautiful river early in the morning with Sooties smashing our little lures and the added bonus of platypus swimming past and eyeing us off.

Tom and best mate China

Thanks to Tom and Marion for making us so welcome and especially to Tom for driving both the car and the boat for hours on end, taking me to every creek that could have a barra lurking and retrieving all my badly cast lures out of trees, snags , banks, stumps and the back of his shirt.

What's on the Table

We spent two glorious weeks on the Atherton Tablelands and it remains one of our favourite places on the planet. The mountains, lakes, rain forests, and everything so green, green, green!  Lots of photos on this post as these capture the beauty of the highlands better than my words.

Lava tube explorers

First night was spent at the Undara Resort http://undara.com.au/ which is the stepping off point for the world famous Undara Lava Tubes. Although a little on the pricey side ($38 for powered site, and $57 each for the Lava Tube Tours) it’s well worth the time and money to see these marvels of nature. The photos don’t properly show the scale of these formations and you have to see it first hand to appreciate the attractions of the tubes. One more off the bucket list!

The Britton Camp

Apart from 2 nights in Atherton at a caravan park (to stock up on supplies, water, and alcohol) we spent the remaining time camped on the water at Fong-On Bay at Tinaroo Dam.

My secret red-claw spot

Tinaroo Dam is one of those magic places that has it all, a massive lake nestled in the mountains filled with 

Crocodile Kerry and Red-claw

Red Claw and Barra (apparently??), thousands of water birds, and curlews and bandicoots walking (hopping?) around the camp-fire every night. 

The daily routine of getting out on the mist covered water at daylight to check the red claw pots, troll for Barra for an hour or so, home for breakfast, and then heading out 2 hours before dark to set the red-claw pots and troll for Barra was pretty hard to take.

Jabiru at Tinaroo

Caught no Barra (water too cold) but it was nice to be out in the tinny which hadn't seen the water since Venus Bay in SA some months ago.

We were also very lucky to catch up friends and family from Cairns who took the time to come up and see us at Tinaroo. 

While at Tinaroo we took a few day trips:

Looking up at us looking down inside the Cathederal Fig

Accompanied by Tony and Trudi who had travelled up from Cairns to spend some time with us we did a day trip to Lake Mobo  (crater lake),  Cathedral Fig, Lake Bareen and then lunch and a red or two at the  villa over-looking Tinaroo. A great day out and so good to catch up with Tony and Trudi.

Mt Edith Rainforest Stream

When we were talking to Tony he recommended a 4WD trail in the National Park where we were staying. It’s a 450M climb up Mt Edith Road to 1050 meters and then down  450 meters on Karri Creek Road back to the lake.  43km round trip but a nice drive. You start out in tropical rainforest, head up into highland eucalypt forest, come down through pine forests and back into rainforest. It’s a steep climb up Mt Edith Drive (Linda was hanging on in sections!) but 4WD drive is not really needed other than to user the gearbox for engine braking on the descent (would be a different story if it had been raining!).

Young treckers at Milla Milla Falls

Our next day out was the waterfall circuit at Milla Milla which encompasses three waterfalls - Milla Milla, Zillie and Ellingaa Falls. http://www.millaamillaa.com/waterfalls.htm   Each of the falls has reasonably good access although Zillie requires a walk down a bit of a goat track if you want to photograph the falls from the bottom. 

Ellingaa Falls

From Milla Milla we drove out to Herberton for a counter lunch and the plan was to then to get back to our camp via Atherton.  That was until Linda gort a text message from a tour guide operator asking if she had lost her Tablet!. On the way from Milla Milla to Herberton we stopped at the McHugh Look-out and Linda had left her Tablet sitting on top of a post there! Turned out the tour bus was stopping at a Lake Eacham – a crater Lake not far from the eastern entrance to the Park. So we detoured back to Lake Eacham and then headed home. So lucky to have met an honest person who had the IT smarts to look up Linda’s contact details on her Facebook profile!