Day 232 Leyburn, Qld

Our friends have a family run timber milling business and today we drove twenty minutes out of town to watch the whole process.  It is a massive business and much bigger than I anticipated.  At the moment, apart from family members, the business employs another six people on the site.  The business runs like a well oiled machine (pardon the pun) and I was very impressed by the whole set-up.  The business is mobile and it goes from property to property in search of old timber ie dead trees that are lying on the ground, and they pay the owners a certain amount of money per tonne.  The property owners are very happy because not only do they have their land cleared of old timber, they are getting paid for the privilege.  Money for nothing for them.   The timber is cut into manageable size logs by the biggest saw I have ever seen (scary!) or taken one step further and split into smaller pieces.  The business has a B-double truck that runs continually, taking loads to either Sydney or Brisbane.  

Philip and I will be heading into Toowoomba tomorrow to stay with my mum until our part arrives for the power system. We are both feeling discombobulated with our holiday coming to such an abrupt halt but we also know that there is nothing we can do about it. We are having a lovely time with our friends here in Leyburn and are still grateful that we have the van parked in their huge yard and not in the middle of nowhere.  We will enjoy the next few days in Toowoomba and might even play the tourist while we are there.