Spring in Toowoomba

What a difference a month makes!  We have gone from very cold weather to heatwave temperatures and now back to average that is around 12-25 degrees.  Perfect for all the outdoor activities that we have been enjoying.  We keep commenting that we have been coming to Toowoomba for the past 20 years to visit mum but not once did we come as tourists.  So with time to kill until we sell Mums townhouse we are playing the tourists.....

It is almost "Carnival of Flowers" time so the gardens, all around Toowoomba, are looking magnificent and each week we are seeing more and more blooms.  Laurel Bank Park was an unknown to us until my Aunty mentioned it as being one of the best parks in Toowoomba.  After visiting the Botanic Gardens I was a little skeptical but I have to say, Aunty was right.  From the moment you park your car you are met with so many wonderful garden "rooms".  The first is the sculpture garden, followed by the Topiary, and then the potted plants.  Wandering further you arrive at the ponds that are surrounded by all the tropical plants.  There is also the Wisteria walk and then on to the dutch tulip gardens.  There is Thomas the Tank engine that I imagine the kids would love and the highlight is the viewing platform that overlooks a gorgeous display of flower beds.  You have to look hard to see various garden themes amongst the gardens for example the digging fork and the words "Hip Hip Hooray". It was such a treat to visit Laurel Bank Park and we will return in a few days to see the garden in absolute full bloom.

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Another place on our list was the Cobb and Co Museum.  We have been to a lot of museums in the past and some leave a lot to be desired, but not this one.  Not only does it house one of the best displays of horse drawn carriages in Australia but the venue is home to Exhibitions and Workshops.  There is even a blacksmithing shed adjoining the cafe where you can watch the tradesman at work at various times of the year.  At this time of the year it is all about the flowers so there is a competition for the "best hanging basket".  After we finished our Devonshire tea we wandered past the display that is pretty darn good. This circus theme was my personal favourite.......

Next we walked the short distance to the where the coaches were housed.  As you enter the building through a "tunnel", on both sides of the wall is a lot of information about the early days of the Cobb and Co coach and Philip was able to relate to me the trip that his family made to Combo Waterhole near Winton for the jubilee celebration of Cobb and Co where the coach below travelled from Port Douglas to Melbourne through the centre of Australia.  It took three months. Philip said it was amazing to see such a big turnout of people who had come from all around the west to cheer on the coach.

Philip probably enjoyed this museum more than me, because for men, the build of the coaches is fascinating.  I was intrigued to see however, an old wooden crate with the words "Say Tristrams Please" written on the side.  This was a real walk down memory lane for me as I recalled my dad, walking across the road from our home in Warwick, to the soft drink factory to pick up a crate of Tristrams Softdrink.  My favourites were Sarsaparilla and Creamy Soda. Such a great memory...

We like to visit places in the afternoon to kill a few hours and last Sunday we drove the short distance to the Japanese Gardens at the University of Southern Queensland.  I had visited here many years ago when I was doing a photography course at the Uni and I loved it then and love it more so now.  It is beautiful and should be on everybody's lists of places to visit in Toowoomba.  We again enjoyed the spring flowering in the gardens that are bursting with colour.  

So that brings us to yesterday when we drove the Cobb and Co Tourist drive.  This is a terrific drive that starts east of Toowoomba and heads down the range to Spring Bluff and then on to Murphys Creek before joining the highway to take us back to Toowoomba.  This is a lovely area with lots of fertile grazing and farming land.  It is at the top end of the Lockyer Valley that everybody knows is the fruit and vegetable bowl of Queensland.  The area we drove through suffered a massive amount of damage in the devastating floods of 2011 where houses and people were swept away.  It was a very sad time in Queensland history.  The highlight of this drive was Spring Bluff Railway Station where a team of volunteers keep the gardens at the station looking absolutely beautiful, with once again, an abundance of spring colour.  We enjoyed Spring Bluff so much that we have booked ourselves on the train that leaves Toowoomba and travels downhill through many tunnels to reach Spring Bluff.  Will let you know how it goes....

In the meantime here are some photos from our visit.

That's our past few weeks in a nutshell.  I feel a little sad that I used to write this blog for my mum to enjoy and now I don't know whether anyone will bother reading it.  However, it is my "diary" so I will keep writing for me.