Nanango Stock Route

Including Seven Mile Diggings

8 - 9 April 2000

An early start saw us meeting at Kilcoy at 9 a.m. on Saturday Morning. Undertaking the trip were Ron Penfold and his two sons in the Mitsubishi Challenger, Dave Martin and Gavin McGrath in their Brumbies, John and Julie Shera and their son and a friend travelling in the Forester, as well as Kathy and I and our son in the Mazda Bravo. Joining us for the Saturday only were Chris and Lori in the recently modified MY, and Andrew Gantimuroff and Vic in the Liberty Outback.

From Kilcoy, we headed north towards Jimna, before shortly turning off the bitumen and onto the historic stock route. The roads for most of the morning were of reasonable condition as we travelled along a public road through many private properties. As we travelled along the banks of one of the tributaries of the Brisbane River, we noticed flotsam and jetsam from the floods of early last year at least two metres above the roofs of our cars. We were all glad that the river level was back to normal. Ron noted, however, that the floods had changed the course of the road in a few spots.

Bryant Bravo in action

We came across a sandy flat in the river bed where we decided to stop for morning tea. Whilst partaking of a bite to eat and something cool to drink, it was noticed that not more than 100 metres down the track, someone had done their best to sabotage the track by digging a hole about 5 metres by 4 metres by 3 metres in the track. This was then half filled with very loose river sand and left for us to be the first group of vehicles to traverse the mess since it was done. 15 minutes of shovelling by all who had could lend a hand rearranged the track so that it at least looked passable. Ron “beached” his Challenger on a particularly soft bit of river sand leading up to the mess, so Gavin pulled him back, and Ron roared through. The rest of us followed without too much fuss, only to find that a further 200 metres down the road the saboteur had struck again, this time with a log and a metre high speed bump. Further shovelling and we were soon on our way.           

On we travelled, fording the Brisbane River near Avoca Vale, and then continuing on dirt roads and forest tracks via Linville to the top of the Blackbutt Range. We stopped for lunch at the fire tower, and the energetic amongst us made it to the top for a great view to the south east. We continued on after lunch, stopping briefly at the park in Benarkin opposite the saw mill to look at the recently renovated water pump used for the horses on the old coach route. We sped past historic “Taromeo” Station and soon came across the start of the 4WD part of the journey  - the Seven Mile Diggings.

A little engineering work

Here, the old stock route wound its way downhill towards the old alluvial gold fields. Along this section of the track was evidence of the original stone walls and post and rail fences built by contract labourers for the coach route. We all had our moments travelling down this section of track as the track was badly eroded in spots. Thankfully there were a number of chicken tracks to avoid the worst (impossible) sections. Even so, the bash plates got a good workout on some particularly rocky sections. And then, after most of us had scraped our way towards the bottom of the hill we heard over the CB that Tail-end Charlie (i.e. Dave) had re-invented the term “off road driving”. The track was apparently not rough enough for Dave, so he must have tried to create his own track and ended up in the deepest ditch he could find - how else can he explain it?

Once at creek level, we travelled around the old gold diggings, fording the creeks in the area a few times without incident and at times with quite a splash (Alex’s favourite parts of the trip). Kathy managed a controlled slide at about 60 km/h to avoid a dip in the track - Chris and Lori had a good chuckle as they watched in bemusement. At one point, we came across an ancient bus (how did IT get there?) and decided to get out and have a look and a photo session. The men were all interested in the few remaining mechanicals, and the children were interested in climbing over every square centimetre.  

 Soon it was time to say goodbye to those who were turning home, and we then continued up a reasonable 4WD section to our campsite. Ron, David and I walked our vehicles over a rock wall whilst the others with poorer clearance and poorer tickers watched. A few minutes later we arrived at the site. We were all quickly set up and sitting around an open fire for the rest of the evening, spinning yarns and enjoying the odd tipple.

 An early start to the morning saw us packed up and back onto the track by 9 am. We headed out for Nanango, and then turned straight back off the highway to travel through state forest along some more relatively easy 4WD tracks to Blackbutt. These tracks would have been a lot more fun when wet - it was the kind of soil that would turn to mud after a bit of rain. We stopped for morning tea at Blackbutt and quickly ran the local bakery dry of sausage rolls. Here, we met up with David Moyle, one of the early Subaru Club members, in his MY wagon.

On we went, south from Blackbutt, crossing Emu Creek with a nice little hill climb up the other side of the creek. From there it was reasonably smooth travelling along public roads through farmland. The further we travelled, the better the tracks/roads became, and we found ourselves travelling in a 100 k.p.h. convoy of dust. Ron and David were disappointed, as they both remembered the route to have been a lot more adventurous than it had now become.  

 A stopover for lunch beside a creek just outside of Toogoolawah allowed us all to stretch our legs and wash the dust out of our mouths, and then on we travelled to Esk. At Esk, David replaced a tyre that had developed a slow leak, and then it was onto the bitumen for the trip home.  

 One thing we learnt from this weekend is that it is well worth being a trip leader:

1. You drive straight through all the gates without getting out of the car (at last count we went through 18 gates on the weekend).

2. You don’t eat everyone else’s dust.

Thanks to Ron for the weekend. Whilst the 4WDriving may not have be the toughest we’ll ever do, the trip was certainly worthwhile for its historical aspect and for the enjoyable company. Besides, there’s nothing better than getting out of town for the weekend - and in a 4WD we can all really get out of town.

Greg & Kathy Bryant SC480