Today was a transit day and a very long one at that, being just on 500km. Along the road from Roma across to Taroom, where we would join the Leichhardt Highway, we saw signs of the continuing gas exploration with a number of drilling rigs, or at least signs pointing to them, just off the road. Perhaps this is what Victoria would look like if not for the State Government's ban on gas/oil exploration.

It was just coincidental that we stopped at Theodore for lunch, as we had done on our homeward journey from last year's "Dinosaur Tour". But this time the Willows Cafe was open next door to the IGA and we enjoyed a nice lunch there, as well as pick up some local knowledge about our planned detour off the Leichhardt Highway to Moura.

On the road to Moura we passed through a tunnel, over which there was a road connecting different parts of a mine. There were several large dump trucks working in this area and we're unsure what they were mining, but this area (Kianga) has a rich mining history.

Our main purpose of detouring via Moura was to view the water tower art. Artist Sam Wilkinson, who is also known as Leans, painted the tower in May 2018 as part of the Works for Queensland program. Depicted on this tower is a very impressive Pink Galah and a cotton plant to represent some of the farming industry in the area.

As mentioned above, this area has a rich mining history, but there is also a dark side in that many lives have been lost during mining activities. The Moura Miners Memorial is a solemn reminder for the mining industry of the lessons from the past. It records the loss of 50 local men who have died in mining accidents over the past 70 years. It will now remain a place of reflection for families and others to commemorate and honour those who made the ultimate sacrifice for ‘doing their jobs’. 

Our last stop for the day was at the Spirit of the Land Mural; 100m long and 4m high, the mural wraps itself around a water reservoir at Biloela.

It honours the role women played in shaping the Callide Valley from Indigenous origins to European settlement and beyond by depicting the stories of women from two cultures spanning indigenous beginnings to 1928. 

So after a long day on the road we arrived at Tannum Sands, the most Northerly stopover for this trip and which would be home for the next five nights. We eventually set up on Site 84, after initially being allocated another site which would have seen us backing our van over our neighbour's chairs! 

The replacement van door locks we'd ordered from Dometic and Caravan Plus as a backup had arrived and were given to us on checking in. Pleasingly it was simple matter to refit the barrel with no need to disassemble the internal mechanism and so no need for the screwdriver as a "key" anymore! 

After such a long day, a break from cooking was in order and we decided to have some takeaway Chinese. In a novel arrangement, we could choose whatever dishes we wanted and serve ourselves from a smorgasbord and just pay per container.