Once again, we are in Chinchilla, but this time the town is full.

Chinchilla Melon Festival is one of the best festival experiences on offer. It is the world’s biggest melon festival, and it will be back to celebrate its 15th biannual event in 2023.

This festival has something for everyone with a Street Parade, Beach Party, Free Family Activities, Festival Feasts, Farm Tours and an arena full of melon related activities to name a few.
Visitors from around the globe descend on the township to try their hand at a range of unique activities including Melon Skiing, Melon Pip Spitting, Melon Bungy and Melon Chariot Races. This festival is definitely one for the ‘bucket list’ and is the ideal way to enjoy the warm hospitality of the Western Downs region.

I came in Chinchilla to work with some old friends, that own a bus company. Their parents also did own a bus company, so I’m guessing they are just keeping family traditions alive.. Brendan and Gina are a young and lovely couple to work with and they always took good care of both customers and drivers alike..

If you ever are looking for work in this area, it may pay to give them a visit.. More info HERE..

Been in and out of Chinchilla for the past 15 years. Not sure about what it is. It has an interesting atmosphere, people are very friendly and above all I got great memories, from motorcycle trips, driving buses full of miners to coming from Toowoomba with Charlie just to eat some of the excellent Asian food offered by Cheong Kong, to then drive back to work the same day…

The showground in Chinchilla has been well looked after and this year we got all new water/power spots. I wish I took a picture when only few days ago it was at full capacity (more than 500 vehicles did pass the front gates). But the soon the festival was over, the showground was back to the usual (empty)…

One thing that really took me by surprise, was the amount of new or nearly new caravans that I saw on the weekend. Since Covid, a lot of family have realised how hard it is now to have a decent holiday, when the majority of the population are no longer travelling overseas. Unfortunately and I may add, as usual, in a country driven 100% by a culture of greed, the huge influx did help raising the prices of accommodation to new high levels…

Most showground did raise their fees by 25% from $20 to $25 per night, but at least the new money was spent on improvements, while I heard that, some caravan park did charged in excess of $100 per night, with no improvements what so ever..

Time will tell, if those massive increased will actually benefit anyone, once the people will start to travel overseas again and most caravan park and township will be left out to dry again.. Gravity is a bitch and whatever goes up…

At the moment the town is experiencing the typical Australian summer… Heatwave, fires, flood, but that’s old news these days. It is after all, the land of the extremes, and either you love it or hate it. Today here is 40°, the sky is reddish brown, but as the winds pick up, it will lift and then you get the chance to take some great pictures… Soon, winter will be here and winters in QLD are possibly the best in Australia..

The soon as the horde of caravans left, the wildlife, that is in abundance in Chinchilla, returns to normal. As a matter of fact, if you enjoy bird watching, you should spend sometime in Chinchilla in particularly at the showground..

Being so near to the Chinchilla Weir and so many trees, it does help to keep the wildlife in high numbers around here..

Waking up in the morning at the sound of thousands of birds it is really an experience. In the evening, once they are on the ground, you also get to meet all the locals…

It doesn’t take long to realise than even the birds are struggling a bit in this heat. I was able to witness few birds taking turn in having a shower under the sprinkle and then in the evening a massive flock of Galah using the gravel road, for what it looked like, to clean or scratch their beak. Those are all daily routines here at the showground..

If you prefer to take pictures of much larger birds, all you have to do is, jump in the car and head out of town, in any direction really. You will find an exquisite amount of wild life of which the most common will be the Wedge Tail Eagle..

As you can also see, the roads, beside the Hwy, are not really that busy and only few are tarmac, so if you have expensive photographic equipment, do keep that in mind. Bull dust is and gets everywhere..

Wallaby and Roo are also everywhere, and don’t believe the myth that they are on the road only sometime. They are everywhere, all the times!

It goes without saying that such abundance of wildlife, brings also out another couple of locals that are again in huge numbers around here.. Goanna and snake, in particular the Red bellied black snake.

You could easily see up to ten per day in this area, to the point that the locals are a bit worried about the numbers at the moment. Personally I think they are wrong, because more snakes, equals less mice and rats, and that’s a good thing in my books..

Most of these animal are cold blooded and need heat to digest their food. So they use the heat from the road to help their digestion. Whatever you do, please try not to disturb them or even worse drive on top of them. They are all great creature that, if left alone, would never interfere with humans.

I see only too often very stupid humans getting out of their way to purposely hit and run over anything on the road.. To those people I would like to say: “Karma will get you one day!” Unfortunately they are also too stupid to realise when Karma does hit them back, and possibly blaming the rest of the world for their insecurity and failures.

Luckily, the majority of people know what to do and we can still enjoy the variety of wildlife that this country has on offer. All you need is a bit of time and enjoy the scenery. The background also does always offer chances of great pictures.. Early morning and late evening will reward you with colours that you don’t normally see in a big city.

I was in Brisbane few week back and I took this picture, from the building I was in. I guess next to that sunrise, makes you wonder a bit..