Beth's guide to... Toowoomba!

5 months ago (I've only just got round to typing up my blog post for this one) Joe and I lived for about a month and a half in a city called Toowoomba, labouring and au pairing for a family of 8: yes, that does mean 6 kids! (If we're not counting the 11 chickens, 5 bearded dragons, a horse, and 50,000 redback spiders)

Feeding time for the babies

While we were there, we got to see the city centre, neighbouring towns and amazing scenic views of the glass house mountains. The stunning modern house we were living in was perfect for this, as it features a 30 metre long curved window facing the mountains. Safe to say, I never got bored of eating my coco pops while enjoying the breathtaking views, listening to the kookaburras and looking out for the occasional eagle.

Double rainbow photographed through their massive window

Toowoomba is Queensland's largest inland city, and it's located about an hour west of Brisbane. It is named "The Garden City" for it's vast amount of lovely gardens and parks. It has just finished celebrating it's annual flower festival, something that sadly I didn't get to experience.

However, there was plenty that I did get to see. Sunday was "family day", so we'd generally go with the whole family to a park, country drive, or a local market. On my day off I'd usually end up going into the city centre, as there are a great number of shops, restaurants, cinemas and allsorts of fun to be had. But other than that, there are some wonderful spots to take advantge of while in the area. Here I've listed my top 5 sites that I visited.


5. Springs Bluff Railway
On a drive to Murphys Creek, we first stopped by at the historic and quaint Springs Bluff railway (which ended up being more spectacular than the rather disappointing Murphys Creek). The beautiful gardens spring to life in season, and the cafe is open to welcome tourists and residents alike. Good spot for a picnic, and a tranquil afternoon.

Springs Bluff railway

4. Japanese Gardens

At number 4, the Japanese gardens in Toowoomba, though smaller than I expected, proved to be one of our favourite spots in the city. Joe and I were both partial to the cute red bridges dotted around the park, and we decided that in our future house we will have a peaceful Japanese style garden, with Joe's own judo dojo, and my favourite flowers. Walking through the paths surrounded by bamboo and Japanese plants and flowers, you'll find plaques with Japanese words and phrases written in both English and Japanese. Ibises, ducks and even turtles frequent the park - and I don't blame them, it must be the perfect place to live.

3. Coomba Falls
If a nice drive out of the city is what you're after, Coomba falls is the perfect place to come. You'll know you're close when you reach the near vertical roads (picture Joe driving Hodor up them in first gear and me gritting my teeth and peeking through the gap in my fingers until the road is level again). But once you reach the falls, you'll realise the serenity. It had been pretty dry prior to our visit, so no waterfall, but it was still lovely to picnic by the waters edge. A good swimming spot, I'm told, as it is popular for people to jump off the large rocks into the water. Perhaps I would have braved it in summer, but not this time.

2. Picnic Point
This is where you go (funnily enough) to have a picnic. There is a restaurant at the summit with some pretty good ice cream, but there's nothing quite like a ham, cheese and crisp sandwich whilst enjoying the views, avoiding sitting on sticks under your blanket, and flicking the ants away from getting their dirty, theiving little antennae on your dessert. I love it - and I love the aptly named Picnic Point. There are walks here for every ability, and it really does make for an excellent day out.

Best seats in the house - picnicking at Picnic Point

1. Pioneer Village, Highfields
My number 1 spot goes to the Pioneer Village and museum located just outside Toowoomba. It was a different and interesting way of learning about the history of Australia, and how things were done back in the days of the pioneers. The village covers every facility of a real village, and lets you enter their world each room at a time to see what life was really like. Visit the hospital, school, dairy, butchers, and even the fire station and jail. Stop at the cafe for "tea and damper" - an aussie tradition of tea and bread cooked over the fire. Then don't forget to visit the museum to find out the history of, well, just about everything else that wasn't covered already! During school holidays and special event days, you can even have the opportunity to meet the infamous Australian bushranger and folk hero, Ned Kelly.

After a month and a half of living in Toowoomba, we missed the beach too much, and it was then that we decided to head off on our next adventure. If you haven't already, check out here what happened when we left and how our plans changed drastically... again!