Saturday the 25th August has been a day of travelling the Burnett Highway and today is our eldest daughter Fiona's birthday.  'Happy Birthday' Fiona.

We have travelled to Mundubbera and one of the reasons to travel this way is to get a photo of the 'Big Mandarin'.  It wasn't planned that we would be heading to Mundubbera on the 25th August, but it was very appropriate to photograph another 'Big Aussie Icon' on Fiona's birthday, as she gave Peter the book for Fathers Day five years ago.  

We arrived in Monto around lunchtime.  Monto lies 200 kilometres west of Bundaberg.   It was settled in 1924 as a result of goldfields of Cania and Monal and the township’s first buildings were built around 1926.  The population at the 2016 Census was 1,189, the average age was 50 and people were paying on average $160.00 a week for rent.  Those stats do pretty much paint the picture of the area.  

When you are travelling you arrive in these towns and so many times you are never sure sure where you should be going!  This was certainly the case with Monto.  We pulled into a small parking area just off the highway to decide where to next.  There in front of us was a statue of a rather small person.  This small person was actually a horse jockey with a very interesting story.  

The statue was of horse jockey Ken Russell who earnt the title of 'Monto Marvel, King of the Coast'.  Ken Russell was born in Monto in 1951 and grew up in the town.  He never served an apprenticeship, but was granted a professional licence in 1972 at the age of 20.  He rode his first winner, a horse called Frosty Val, at the little Queensland town of Banana on the 24th June 1972.  Ken won numerous race wins at the Gold Coast Turf Club's Southport track, which earned Ken the nickname of 'King of the Coast'.  Apart from his five Premiership wins, he also won seven Golden Nugget Stakes, two Magic Millions and one Prime Minister's Cup.  Ken Russell won five juvenile races carrying prize money of $1 million.  He had approximately 10,000 race rides and 1,804 career wins.  He died at the Rosehill  Racecourse when Mount Tuig broke down and fell during the running of the final event.  He had ridden a winner earlier in the day.  He was only 42 and had also ridden successfully overseas.

The statue was unveiled in July 2016.  It is another Regional Arts Development Fund (RADG) project and it is a Memorial that is listed on Monuments Australia. I wonder if this NFP organisation helps community organisations to get funding for memorials.  The artist donated his time to make the project possible.  The original 'Monto Marvel' sculpture has been relocated to Rockhampton Jocky Club Memorial Gardens. 

We made our way to Lister Street to where the Art Sculptures have been placed.  Can't say they ticked my box!  I am not into that sort of art and nor is Peter.  There was a small 'Pioneer Cottage' that was the Information Centre and I have a feeling it may have been manned by a volunteer.  We chatted with him for a bit and he told us "It hadn't rained in the town for 10 years"!  We were amazed when he said "They had only received 20 mls of rain the year before".  He went on to tell us about the ground around the area and the large cracks that form due to the soil being so dry.  In fact some cracks are over a metre wide and 200 feet deep, we were told.  If this is the case one would think they would have to be cordoned off, but I guess the cracks are on farming properties.

During our walk up the main street of the town, we found the story of the 'Three Moon Creek' interesting.   The town clock in the middle of the wide street has been attached to a structure depicting 'Three Moons'.  A Chinese shepherd fetching water from a creek many years ago saw 'three moons'.  One in the creek, one in his bucket of water and one overhead and told his boss there had been three moons!  I guess it was a good enough reason for the  creek to be named the 'The Three Moon Creek' and to put the story on a plaque under the clock.  The clock is dedicated to the memory of those committed people who had the courage to pioneer the Monto Shire.

There is a RV parking area between Lister Street and the old railway line.  A caretaker takes the money from those wishing to stay a while in Monto.  There were some quirky signs and bits and pieces in front of the caretakers caravan.  The railway line has not been used for many years and the sleepers and railway line are being pulled up and it has been sold to Japan.  There was a huge stockpile of railway sleepers.  This was more info from the guy at the Information Centre.

Today we prepared our lunch in the vans again, but ate together outside under the shelter on the street.  There was plenty of parking for caravans on Lister Street.

With nothing more to see in Monto we travelled 20 kms further on the Burnett Highway to the small town of Mulgildie to find the statue of the 'Mulgildie Bunyip'.  The 'Bunyip' story was in the brochure we had picked up at Biloela and because the information said that the QCWA (being Queensland CWA) were instrumental in erecting the sculpture I did more of a search on this 'Bunyip'.  The NFP group 'Australian Monuments' was involved once again with this Memorial, but they are not actually recognised at the site.  The bunyip is a large mythical creature from Aboriginal mythology, said to lurk in swamps, billabongs, creeks, riverbeds, and waterholes.  The Mulgildie Water Hole is about 10 kilometres from the town.

The Mulgildie Bunyip commemorates the Mulgildie Branch of the Queensland Country Women's Association (QCWA) 80 years of service and Queensland's 150 years of the State.  The mural behind the Bunyip was unveiled at the Mulgildie Bunyip Festival on the 12th November 2011.  It was another interesting memorial to ponder why such a statue was built to commemorate the CWA branch and the State.  But I guess the 'Bunyip' is important to this very small community. There is a CWA Centre in the town, nicely painted white with the touch of blue.  The centres have all looked very fresh in Queensland and are all the same, painted white with blue window frames.

All of the shops in the town have now closed and the Hotel is the only business still operating.  The paintings all over the Hotel certainly make a statement and you do have to stop and check it out.  It is so quirky!  The rooms are very colourful with the crochet rugs on the beds.

Onward now to today's destination Mundubbera, settled in the 1840's with a population of 1,260.  The region was a very large citrus growing area back in the 1980's.  The chap in Monto had also told us that a lot of the citrus trees have now been pulled out.  They just don't get enough rain anymore for the fruit to mature.  Mundubbera likes to promote itself as the 'Meeting Place of Three Rivers' as the Boyne and the Auburn join the Burnett River, 10 kilometres west of the town.  There is a very nice mural on the water tank in the centre of the town.  We had thought we might have stayed at the showground, but the weather forecast was for some rain, so we decided on the Three Rivers Caravan Park, which looked very nice.

It turned out to be a good choice as we were about to witness 50 bike riders in their lycra arrive at the CP.  In 2006 the very first bike ride from Brisbane to Townsville took place to raise money for cancer research.  Three young men set off on the ride to honour their mate 'Smiddy' who had died from a melanoema.  Adam Smiddy from Home Hill was just 26 years old when he was diagnosed with melanoma.  Adam died in just over six months, without his knowledge the cancer had spread to his vital organs.  The first year his three mates road for 'Smiddy' they raised $24,000 for cancer research.  The following year 22 more friends joined the 'Smiling for Smiddy' bike ride and in 2008, 50 riders took to the road and raised $420,000 for cancer research.  In the last 12 years more than $8 million dollars has been raised.  We felt very honoured to be asked to join the circle with these bike riders at the end of day two of their ride.

And the final thing to report about Mundubbera is the 'Big Mandarin'.  It is on a bit of a rise at the very run down Big Mandarin Caravan Park.  The office for the park is actually in the 'Big Mandarin'.  It has probably not always been here as the book says it is located at the 'Golden Mile Orchard' and its date of birth was 1983.  It only scores 4/10 on the 'Iconmetre' and we possibly would have rated it higher if it wasn't so black and horrible on one side.  Maybe the rain on Saturday night gave it a bot of a clean.  But that's one more Big Aussie Icon that we have found.  That's nine of Queensland's visited, only six more to find!  Obviously the 'Mandarin' is still important to this community as we were given two mandarins when we booked into the park.