Toowoomba, Queensland

Toowoomba with a population of around 115,000 is a city in the Darling Downs area of Queensland. With over 150 public parks and gardens it is  affectionately known as the Garden City. Toowoomba's history dates back to the mid 1800's when the English botanist and explorer discovered 4 million acres of  it's rich farming and grazing countryside. Our Saturday night was an extremely cold night spent at the PBR Bull Riding. It was a fun night watching fifty bull riders from Australia and one from Brazil tackle the very angry, very big and very mean bulls for a very long eight seconds.

Australia's history consists a lot of the travels of the Cobb and Co. wagons, so it was natural that we visited the Cobb and Co. Museum. Not only did the museum consist of a number of historic wagons there were a few other exhibits and special events.

The exhibition A Room for Wild Animals features 20 large and very impressive taxidermy specimens of big cats, bears and deer from the Queensland Museum collection.

Another special exhibition was Let Me Be Myself - The Life Story of Anne Frank. Seeing her personal story from her birth in 1929 to her death in 1945 and her story during the second World War in photos made me remember how sad I feel about her life. I was once again so engrossed in her story I forgot to take any photos.

I had previously read about a couple of the gardens in Toowoomba that I really wanted to visit. Situated in the grounds of the Southern University of Queensland are the Ju Raku En - Japanese Gardens. Designed by Professor Kinsaku Nakane of Kyoto in 1989 consist of 3 kms of paths, 230 species of Japanese and Australian native trees and plants.

The other garden I wanted to visit was the State Rose Garden. Located in historic Newton Park these spectacular gardens have more than 1,500 roses planted. With most of them having a beautiful smell it was quite a delight roaming around.

Mount Isa Mines Rotary Rodeo

Here I sit on the third day of Mount Isa Mines Rotary Rodeo. This rodeo is the biggest in the Southern Hemisphere and runs for 3 days and we have been here for all 3 days. I have been to a rodeo before when I was in Broome but that one was tiny compared to Mount Isa's Rodeo. Our 3 day pass cost $90 per person and gave us access to the Rodeo, the circus, the boxing tent and sideshow alley but we have spent the majority of our time sitting and watching the rodeo. Prior to seeing a real rodeo I was always concerned about the treatment of the animals. But from what I've seen they are treated extremely well and the Cowboys have come off second best as there have been a few broken bones and injuries. Although I must add that one horse did go down probably with a broken leg and I am presuming the vet that was on hand within seconds may have euthanized him. It was very sad to see but the cowboys handled it very well for the crowd and you could see that they were visibly upset.

Ouch!!

The Protection Clowns did an amazing job protecting the cowboys from the bulls,
sometimes putting their owns lives in danger

There certainly was no shortage of cowboys

This is one angry bull and one brave cowboy

Over the weekend there have been some great events one that the crowd loved was the Poddy Ride, which is young calves trying to buck of very young children. I say children as there was one little girl riding. But the winner was a young 7 year old Aboriginal boy. He was so adorable and really played up to the crowd. When he was interviewed and asked what he wanted to be when grew up and his answer was "a cowboy". It was so super cute. 

The winner (hat on) of the Poddy Calf ride was pretty adorable.
 The other little cowboy was runner up and broke his arm 

Get off my back!!!

The Pick Up Riders (think that's what they were called)
certainly were something to witness.
Their connection with the horses was nothing short of totally amazing 

Well I'm now back sitting in Myrtle (camper) after a fabulous 3 days, but I must say I am totally exhausted. After a nice hot shower to wash all the dust off I am just about ready to tuck myself into bed after having a fantastic three days.