Day 17 and 18 - St George

 

Day 17

So a little history about St George. St George gets its name from when explorer Major Sir Thomas Mitchell crossed the Balonne River on Saint George's Day, 23 April 1846.

Agriculture is the lifeblood of the St George Region.  Cotton is St Georges leading industry.  Sheep and wool are also part of the region's agriculture industry.

This morning Tilly and I walked the River Path.    There are markers along the banks showing the heights of various floods in St George over the years.   In 2012 the flood reached 14 metres.    Absolutely astonishing.   At the end of our walk   Tilly had her first encounter with geese.   I hate geese.  It brings back awful childhood memories of being chased by geese on my Uncle Colin's farm in Kangaloon.

So for lunch today we decided to have a look at the Riversands Winery.     The Riversands Winery is Queensland's most western winery.    Their vineyard's wine grapes are made into red and white table wines, ports and liqueurs while their table grapes are sold as fresh fruit to supermarkets or turned into grape jams and chutneys What a great little spot.  We were treated to tasting of some really beautiful wines and a lovely lunch.    George found a friend and he quite graciously shared his leftovers with his new friend.

Day 18 

Today we decided to take the Cotton Self Drive Trail.  It was a 94km round trip drive which started just down the road from the van park at the Jack Taylor Weir and Andrew Nixon Bridge.  

      

From here we travelled out to Beardmore Dam - Lake Kajarabie which is located 22klm north of St George.  

 

From Beardmore Dam we head through the St George irrigation area to Buckinbah Weir.  The cotton farms are irrigated using siphons that flood the paddock and gravity feed down each row. 

Unfortuntately we missed the growing and harvesting season.    A lot of field ploughing was being undertaken and there was only a spattering of left over cotton on the side of the fields.

From here we headed back into St George again through the cotton irrigation area and past the old St George Cotton Gin which was closed in 2014.   

On the way back into town we past the John Deere shop.   The machinery sold out here is a little different to what they sell at home.

After getting back into town we had a quick stop at the St George Bakery and were treated to the Bakery's 1917 Model T Ford delivery truck leaving on errands.

Later afternoon we headed down to St George pub on the bikes for a quite afternoon ale.    Well at the pub Tilly found a mate and so did George.     It was a beautiful warm afternoon and as the pub sits on the banks of the Balonne River it was really enjoyable.