Outback Queensland has so much to offer with so much history to unravel from natural to early European through to first nation. I was originally heading further north but an unexpected detour pointed me towards Quilpie in the heart of Queensland’s outback. The town was gazetted in 1917 ( which makes it relatively young at 109 years old ), but surprisingly the surrounding channel country had been occupied since the 1860’s due to good areas of Mitchell Grass for grazing. Prior to European...

After the earth settled down through storms, volcanoes and ice ages, we are left what we have today with unique and strange animals and plants in bio-diverse hotspots of the ancient forests down the east coast of Australia. One of these, The New England Group is in my back yard, just a couple of hours away near Armidale NSW and there is plenty of spectacular land forms to explore through these amazing forests.

Head north from Manilla across the Namoi River turn off onto the Fossickers Way. The first 15km is a narrow sealed road wandering past hobby farms and old buildings, as soon as you hit the dirt the farms grow in size to huge pastoral stations and crop growing areas beside the Namoi River, you’ll soon go over the Nandewar Ranges, which was first seen back in 1818 by explorer John Oxley. There are several turns towards Warrabah, but these are well sign posted.