Welcoming Wynola Country Cousins Family
Paragliders at Sunday Plain
Platypus spotting Below: Aerial of the Junction campsite
Jo and Bernie Brosnan, “Wynola Country Cousins” Killarney SE Queensland
Hello!
I won’t tell you we’ve been busy; everyone is busy, and it’s an overused word. But life has been pleasantly hectic! The long weekend just gone we were fully booked with campers! Our eight campsites were abuzz with the distant sound of ‘howzat!’, the thwack of badminton rackets and kids’ laughter.
Back when we started Wynola Country Cousins Bush Camping three years ago, our goal was to generate so much return visitation that regular campers would become part of the Wynola family; they’d jealously guard their favourite site, book a long weekend a year in advance and know the way to their campsite when they arrive. Guess what! Seven of our eight campsites last long weekend were returns. And they brought new friends and family with them. Love it.
Sunday was hot, but the river was cold, and while the water levels are getting low because there’s been no rain, there was plenty for campers to cool down in. Our Cave site campers loved sharing the river with the platypus they spotted.
Speaking of no rain, we desperately need some. Cattle prices are terrible; we are just about giving them away, but we are caught in the squeeze of diminishing feed and very high grain prices. The perfect storm for agriculture and one that gives you little choice but to sell.
We’ve been busy putting out supplementary feed and planning to put up some electric fences on the mountain to keep them grazing up high where there’s more grass. Without that fencing, they prefer hanging by the river flats, chewing the short, sweeter grass and going hungry. Frustrating. Luckily, we have campers, and I have off-farm work for times like these.
We are preparing two lovely stock horse mares for the Dalby sales. I’m hoping they find beautiful homes. They are the sweetest, most talented mares, but we don’t have enough feed or time to keep them. We have younger horses that need work and grass.
You might have heard that the Council has upgraded Long Crossing and the gully near our driveway. Long Crossing is now a concrete bed-level crossing with a bitumen entry and exit. A concrete bridge with box culverts with a fore and aft bitumen strip spans the gully. Family visiting us for the long weekend were very excited about the ease of access to our property.
To escape the heat, we drove the family to Sunday Plain to watch the paragliders launch. They’ve been using that launch site for years and let us know when they will take off because they need permission to ‘bomb out’ in our paddocks. We like helping them; they are fun to watch, but we need to direct them away from the horse paddocks. I sometimes wonder what our campers think when they see one floating into a nearby field.
With visitors and campers gone for the week, we’ve cast our minds back to how best to bring our Wynola Country Cousins eco-tourism and glamping visions to life. Onwards and upwards, until next time, enjoy life and don’t take it for granted.
Jo and Bernie Brosnan, your Wynola Country Cousins xx
