EMERALD Pt 3

We went for a drive today to Lake Maraboon.




It was about 25 km out from Emerald through bushland and orange orchards. 

Lake Maraboon is Queensland’s second largest lake. It has a massive 15,000
hectare surface area when full, which is three times the size of Sydney Harbour, and can hold 1.3 million mega litres of water.

While the water is called Lake Maraboon, meaning “where the black duck fly”…..
The wall and spillway is called Fairbairn Dam. 



When you approach the dam, it’s just so beautiful, but not till you go over it in the car, can you appreciate just how massive it is, and how high up you are from the water!


















Looking down into the valley from the top of the Dam.

Red Claw, a freshwater crayfish are in abundance here and best caught in “opera nets”,  with bait being fruit, partially cooked vegetables or pet food!

The Lake is a very popular freshwater fishing place and is stocked well. 

Boats are allowed, but not near the dam wall for obvious reasons, plus Jet Skiing , water skiing and swimming are all popular. 
You are not allowed to camp here but there is a big cabin and caravan park just nearby which would be very popular over Christmas. 

It was a lovely day out. 

I forgot to post these next photos yesterday when we went to Anakie and the gem fields. 







I couldn’t get a proper photo of the tree with the carvings, but I thought it was a lovely story. 

The train station was small but pretty.








So tonight we walked into town as it’s our last night here. It’s nice walking at night, with all the houses lit up and looking cosy. It was quite fresh but a 6 km walk warmed us up. 



It’s a pretty town all lit up at night as well as being so clean and tidy!








So that’s it for Emerald. We’ve had a lovely time here, but it will be nice to move on to somewhere not so busy. 

Oh……we went to the supermarket today to just stock up on more food as there’s not going to be many big shopping centres where we will be going. 
You can’t say we don’t contribute to the economy here in the town……$600 spent in the last four days on groceries and fuel! 

Speaking of which, while we were at the supermarket, we ran into a couple that we had camped with while we were at Jericho. It was nice to catch up with them again.  They were contributing as well 🤣🤣

Stay safe 🦋🦋



Beautiful sunset. 

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