Charlie Moreland / The Farm

Labour Day Weekend

Brett, Melissa & Declan Lynch – GQ Partol.
Gordon & Lorraine – Jackaroo
Bill Freeman – 4 Runner
John & Joyce – Gu Patrol
Paul, Nicole Bishop & Kids – GU Patrol
Kelby & Vanessa Willams – Prado
Lee, Tracy & Lachlan Harris – Jeep
Noel & Gwenda Kanofski – GU Patrol

As it says at the top we were supposed to go to the Charlie Moreland’s Campgrounds for the weekend and do some 4wding there. Unfortunately the weather was against us and on the Wednesday before, the Ranger scared me by saying that they might have to cancel our permit as they had a lot of rain. They would not make the decision until Friday lunch time. This forced me to make a decision, do we still go there and risk not being able to do any driving for the weekend or change the location of the camp. I decided to change the location to make sure some 4wding would be done. My first choice was Black Duck Valley. After ringing the Bundaberg 4wd club and other members with this news I was left with 3 families going on the trip instead of 15. I then make a few more phone calls and changed the location to The Farm. The club went there towards the end of last year and I missed that weekend and the reports made it sound like a nice place to visit. This then made up some numbers to 8 from our club. Hopefully we can have a joint trip with the Bundy club at a later date.

We met at the Bluestar Caltex servo on Saturday morning at 8am. Then proceded up the Brisbane Valley Highway and picked up Paul, Nicole and family at Fernvale. We stopped at Moore for a stop then on to Blackbutt. I followed the map I got from Daryl Parcell and we arrived at the Farm with no troubles. We then setup camp and had lunch as we waited for Kelby and Vanessa to arrive.

Kelby and Vanessa turned up just as we had given up waiting for them. With a hasty unpack of their gear on to the ground they joined us for a little drive around the property. Now as this was a last minute decision to go to The Farm I hadn’t done a recce so we were driving blind as we looked for a few tracks trusting to Noel and Gordon’s memories from the last time they were there. We drove through a few gullies and found a long climb up a hill. We all got up the hill except Bill who wasn’t to sure if he would make it ok. We found some more gullies and then a tricky one as at the top as you drove out was a sharp turn to the left on a fence line. I had a few goes to get up through the ruts to the top then Kelby in his Prado with new tyres and other fancy gear that he decided he needed after the last time he was at The Farm had a go. Bang what a noise, not sure at the time what was wrong but after his first attempt Kelby’s car started making a lot of bad noises. After a few tries to drive his car we decided to get Noel to drive around and use his winch to pull Kelby up out of the gully. This was going ok but after a while we could not pull him up any further without pulling Noel’s car into the gully with him and we decided to use a couple of short straps to join Noel’s car to Kelby’s and then mine to Noel’s and pull him out that way. Was a bit tricky as I was pulling them both to the left as well as up but with a bit of care we finally got Kelby out without pulling him into the bush and doing more damage to his car. It turned out to be close to happy hour so we all then followed the limping Kelby back to camp to see if we could fix or make temporary repairs to the Prado and enjoy happy hour, although we had more luck emptying the eskies than with Kelby’s car. We had tea and then retired around the camp fire for some fun, chatter and sing song.

The next morning Noel and I went for a quick drive to find a few places to play with the cars as everyone cleaned up after breakfast. We came back and roused everyone and headed off for a drive following the “F” Track. You would not believe how much crap we thought of to comment on the name of that track but the track, while a simple drive, had a few tricky parts and gullies in it. We then circled around and following an old creek with a few close calls and rocks to drive around. After a lunch break we moved on up the creek. I had been told that everyone was not to keen on Lantana so I found a few more overground tracks to drive down. We then headed back to camp for lunch, the hard way of course not the easy way. After lunch we went back to the area we went to Saturday afternoon and played a bit more on some steeper slopes and then had a go at Kelby’s gully and the patrols proved themselves being the only cars to make it up unaided. We then followed the “F” track back in to opposite direction back to camp for happy hour. This time we had happy hour around the fire instead of Kelby’s car.

We had a bit quieter night and the next day started packing up and headed home. Kelby and the others headed of early to see how far he would get with his car and Lee and I followed later, the tents were a bit longer packing up then those with vans. Kelby finally got his car to Toogoolawah where he left his car and the others packed his gear in to their cars and gave him a lift to Vanessa’s mothers place where their other car was. Lee and I caught them up at Fernvale and we all had lunch (pies) and then went our separate ways home.

I would like to thank all the people who came on the weekend and I hope you didn’t mind all the mucking around with where we were going and the disorganisation of the weekend. I had a great time and will look forward to going back to The Farm another day. I am also hoping to make a trip to Charlie Moreland’s happen at a later date as it will not beat me. It rained during the recce and could not do much that weekend either. I would also like to thank Daryl for helping me get in contact with John at The Farm. Also to Daryl, Beryl and Lee for helping me do the recce at Charlie Morelands, we will get there one day.

Brett Lynch.