Thursday Thursday - Theebine Hotel

Theebine Hotel

Well, we used to call this hidden gem "Petticoat Junction", as it has a little rarely used (if ever) railway track at the front of it, and is just beautiful. Not sure if it's heritage listed, but I sure just discovered that it is for sale! Eeeek! Wish I had a lazy 1.25 mil laying around!

Image courtesy of the Theebine Hotel Facebook Page

Now this place ticks all the boxes - pub grub, regular entertainment, rustic accommodation and a dinky-di bar at the front....what you are NOT prepared for though, is the giant entertainment area out the back with pool tables and a juke box where you can load it up and waste more money than a pokie once you've had a couple of cold beers....there is so much to this place, so probably smartest to visit their facebook page for a full picture of it.

Image Courtesy Of The Theebine Hotel Facebbok Page

Bonus thrill - nearby is the Dickabram Bridge - a heritage listed bridge built in 1885 (?) I believe you can still drive over it, and some dear friends and I made sure we WALKED over it to give it the full respect it deserves.....stunning with a picnic table nearby, but I am going to tag some true locals to give full commentary on this particular blog - too much good stuff to miss details!

Image courtesy of Wikipedia

Serenity Sundays - Mothar Mountain Rockpools

Mother Mountain Rockpools

If you love the sounds of the bush and running waterfalls, this is a great place to find serenity.....I remember taking my Kelpie here for his weekly swim and a good game of fetch! I love the unknown tracks in our region....we just have to dig a little! Image below courtesy of Queensland.com. Map Included!

Gympie's Glowing Tombstone

Well, if you are new to the region, this is an article from the Gympie times a few years ago regarding one of our favorite childhood experiences....

"EVEN if you're new about town, chances are you've heard about the eerie glowing tombstone standing high on the rolling hills of the Corella Rd cemetery.
For what seems like decades, locals have debated the source of the creepy light shining off George Argo's granite obelisk, be it a simple reflection of passing headlights and adjacent fixtures or evidence of something stranger at play.
Questions continue to cloud the circumstances of Mr Argo's 'accidental' early morning death in February 1895 - did he really fall down a mine shaft he knew 'like the back of his hand', or does a sinister truth remain hiding in the shadow of doubt?
Cemetery workers claim Mr Argo's tombstone no longer glows, but remain open-minded about just what that light could have been".

Image Craig Warhurst

So this is how it works.....you head back into town from the Forestry department late at night, and as you get to the entry gates on the left, slow right down....over in the middle of the cemetery, ahead on the left, the tombstone will suddenly light up! It is like a "glow in the dark". Contrary to what the cemetery workers say, it is still going strong as I have personally checked it our recently.

There was a rumor around years ago that it was caused by the exact refraction of a street light on the angle with what it is actually made out of, but we all checked this out in a blackout when we were kids and it STILL GLOWS!

Even if you don't live in Gympie, maybe next trip to Rainbow at night, it's worth a side-trip :)

Gympie - Did You Know?

* Prior to European settlement the district was occupied by the Gubbi Gubbi people.

* By the 1840s European graziers had established sheep properties in the area. John Daniel 
McTaggart established the Kilkivan selection 50 km west of Gympie around this time.

* In 1867 James Nash, the son of an English farm labourer who had migrated to Sydney in 1857, discovered gold near the Mary River. Nash announced his find on 16 October 1867 and it resulted in "one of the wildest rushes in Queensland history".

* By 1868 there were more than 25,000 people in the Gympie area.

* It was officially named Gympie in 1868. Previously it had been known as Gympie Creek.

* The first flood of the Mary River during European settlement occurred in 1870.

 

* The town was proclaimed a municipality in 1880.

* The railway arrived in 1881 and in 1888 it had its own stock exchange.

* In 1891 the rail line connected Gympie to Brisbane.

* The town's worst flood was recorded in 1893 when the Mary River reached 25.45 metres.

* Gympie was officially declared a town in 1903.

* The gold mining eventually closed in 1925. By that time the city was an important regional centre for the surrounding rich agricultural district.

  
NB:Information copied directly from the Aussie Towns site which contains other amazing links for exploration!