V & C Impressions

Almost Grey Nomads in Australia

Tag: Queensland

Explore Queensland’s top campsites and free camping spots, from the tropical rainforests to the Great Barrier Reef. Find reviews, travel tips, and must-visit locations.

  • Voting when on the road

    Voting when on the road

    Next year the Federal election will be held, and depending where you are there may be others. In Queensland we have recently just held the State elections.

    If you are travelling around Australia, or going overseas for an extended period of time, then it is possible to advise the AEC (Australian Electoral Commission) of the fact that you have no fixed address. What this does is stop the AEC chasing you when you inadvertently don’t vote at an election, which you may be unaware of, or may not even be able to vote at.

    This process is to inform AEC that you are an itinerant voter. Which means you can vote if you can/want to, but if not then you won’t get fined.

    As far as I know this applies to all elections, council,state and federal.

    Below is an explanation of how I have gone about this. It was not as straight forward as I thought it should have been as there is no direct link to the form you need.

    You need to use the People with no fixed address enrolment form.

    How I did it

    Go to this page on the AEC site and click on the Enrol to vote with no fixed address

    No fixed address enrolment form

    After that you land on another page, click on No fixed address enrolment form

    Select you state, then fill out the form using your last registered address., also make the selection as below.

    Enrolment options

    Once this form has been submitted, you should get an email confirming you are now an Itinerant voter, this may take a few days.

    Itinerant Confirmation letter

    confirmation letter
    confirmation letter

    That’s it, all done. One last thing to have to think about when on the road.

    I hope this information may be useful to someone out there, and if there are any corrections to be made, please leave a comment.

  • Kirra Beach Tourist Park – Gold Coast

    Kirra Beach Tourist Park – Gold Coast

    Kirra Beach Tourist Park
    Kirra Beach Tourist Park

    Our Opinion

    If you want/need a dog friendly park in this area of the Gold Coast, your options are limited, fortunately this park is an excellent place to stay. It is well laid out and run, and in a great location. Excellent clean facilities, which were cleaned daily.

    Only a 5 minutes walk to Kirra beach, which has Cafes, Gym, tourist shops. The site size/cost is average for this type of location, with all of the sites we saw being reasonably level.

    Being at the southern end of the Gold Coast means you are in the quieter area, with most activities being a 30 minutes drive north. Going south into NSW 45 Minutes drive to Byron Bay. Tambourine Mountain is another location worth checking out. Also the famous Surfers Paradise.

    Only thing to be aware of is the close proximity to the airport, with planes starting to take off at 6AM and going through the day until about 10PM. Didn’t bother us, others may be more sensitive to the noise.

    There are plenty of trees in the park, so depending on what site you get, solar may not work very well.

    We were here for 2 weeks during November, we would stay again and also not hesitate to recommend this park to anyone else. The big trees give plenty of shelter from the wind, as we found out as a few storms came through in the evening. Also the trees provide plenty of shade.

    Images from the Park and beach

    Kirra Beach Tourist Park sites
    Kirra Beach Tourist Park sites
    Kirra Beach Tourist Park on site Pizza
    Kirra Beach
    Kirra Beach with Surfers Paradise in the background
  • Slow Website Updates

    Slow Website Updates

    We are so sorry that we haven’t posted in a while, and we will be back.

    We had a wedding to go to, A few business appointments as well as other appointments. Everything has been on hold for now. Things have been busy, busy, busy for us and we do promise to post some more of what we have been up real soon.

    Our adventure will be kicking off again and heading into another 2 states – can you guess which ones?

    Stick with us and watch this space, we will have some great adventures coming your way. We are starting something new for us.

    Thanks for your support as always.

  • Galaxy Caravan Park – Brisbane

    Galaxy Caravan Park – Brisbane

    We’re a quaint holidaying destination located in Tanah Merah, Queensland. Nestled comfortably between Brisbane City and the Gold Coast, our caravan park boasts outstanding friendliness, a relaxed atmosphere and exceptional cleanliness. This is the perfect place to base yourself as you explore all that South-East Queensland has to offer

    Galaxy Caravan Park
    Shadow outside Galaxy Caravan Park

    Our Opinion

    This is a pretty good, well run park, with clean amenities, the park itself is quite, but warning here, the M1 motorway is noisy, so if peace and quite is your thing then this place is not for you.

    Location is excellent, being only a few kilometres away from Brisbane CBD, not too far from the Gold Coast, A major shopping centre on the other side of the motor way. Location wise, it is close to everything.

    Sites I would describe as sufficient for a caravan and car, with not much to spare, pretty typical for a caravan park this close to a city.

    Access to the Galaxy caravan Park is not difficult, Google maps got us there no problems. wether you are coming from the north or south, you should not have any problems.

    Directly opposite, on the other side of the motorway is the Hyperdome, here there are movies, restaurants, Cafes, Supermarkets etc. Also close by, there are the other useful stores, Supercheap, Repco, Bunnings etc.

    We have been here twice now this year, and would not hesitate to book again.

    Galaxy Caravan Park pool
    Galaxy Caravan Park

  • Farnborough Beach

    Farnborough Beach

    Great for Dogs, Kids, and a Lovely Beach Drive

    When travelling with a dog, you soon realise that many areas are not dog friendly. They are what I describe as dog tolerant.

    By dog friendly, I mean the ability to let the your dog run freely about, with you keeping an eye on him or her, of course. After all you do need to clean up after them, and also just as importantly make sure they don’t get themselves into trouble.

    Well, this beach is dog friendly, and to boot you are allowed to drive on it.

    It is about 10 minutes north of Yeppoon, easy to get on the beach with a 4WD, head north and find a spot to have a picnic. Bonus is, during the week your dog can be off leash.

    The beach is firm, so easy to drive on, and when the tide is low, there is heaps of beach for the dogs to run around.

    When we were there, it was relatively quite, a few other people with their dogs running around, but since the beach is so big, especially at low tide, it was easy to find a spot away from other people.

  • Pic of the Day – Wall Art

    Pic of the Day – Wall Art

    A striking image at an entrance to an underground cafe. There sure are some talented artists around.

    Things have been a bit slow around here for the past year, hopefully now that society is getting back to normal, I can find more time to get active with the camera.

  • Pic of the Day – Lone Tree

    Pic of the Day – Lone Tree

    While camping at Norval Park campground I took the opportunity to get up early and have a go at some early sunrise photography.

    The weather was not particularly co-operative with heavy clouds and rain forecast. The clouds did break at dawn with some nice colors to come through.

    This tree, or what was left of it was about the only item of significance on this beach, I thought it would match well with the moody heavy clouds.

  • Pic of the Day – On the beach

    Pic of the Day – On the beach

    This trip was a long time coming.

    Towards the end of our holiday, we met up with some friends, so we can go in a group to the beach, you know, safety in numbers, especially since we had never done beach/sand driving before. Byfield National Park was the place we stayed at for a few days, so we just had a short drive to the beach along some sandy tracks.

    As the Ranger suggested drop Tyre pressures down to about 14psi, low range, manual third gear and just keep on going. Our new Nissan Patrol did not disappoint, handling the sand with ease. Not once did we think we would get stuck.

    It was a good day out with the experience wanting use to do it again soon.

  • Pic of the Day – Lest we Forget

    Pic of the Day – Lest we Forget

    Took a drive around Yeppoon and then on to Emu Park today.

    Very much a holiday destination with an idealist coastline, excellent climate, what more could you ask?

    How about Byfield National Park just a short drive up the road which you can drive in and around on the sand dunes. Thats for another day that adventure.

    At Emu Park there is this memorial to the Anzac fighters. Well laid out and in a pleasant location.

    The Singing Ship
    Yeppoon coastline
  • Pic of the Day – Sunrise

    Pic of the Day – Sunrise

    In what seems like forever I have managed to get out at sunrise and do a photo shoot. It felt good to get back to what started getting me into photography in the beginning. But like everybody else, life/Covid gets in the way.

    It also helps to be on holiday in the Sunshine Coast, staying across the road from the beach.

    With the living with Covid now beginning to be reality, and hopefully with-it lockdowns/restriction ending, life can get back to normal.

    Below is a pic of Shadow, our dog, just has happy to be out and about on the beach.

    Shadow on the beach
  • Pic of the Day – Red-bowed finch

    Pic of the Day – Red-bowed finch

    It has taken me awhile to have a good opportunity to get a clear shot of this bird. A common bird but in my experience an elusive one when it comes to photography. Plenty of times I have seen them around, but never able to get a good shot.

    Taken a Oxley Common Creek, and added to my bird gallery.

    The red-browed finch (Neochmia temporalis) is an estrildid finch that inhabits the east coast of Australia. This species has also been introduced to French Polynesia. It is commonly found in temperate forest and dry savannah habitats. It may also be found in dry forest and mangrove habitats in tropical region.

    Wikipedia
  • Pic of the Day – Red-backed Fairywren

    Pic of the Day – Red-backed Fairywren

    The venerable Red-backed Fairywren, a common bird around eastern and northern Australia.

    It has been a long time between updates on this website, life has a habit of getting in the way, as does Covid. Hopefully moving forward, I can get some regular content happening.

    Today I managed to get to my favorite birding spot Oxley Commons Creek.

    The red-backed fairywren (Malurus melanocephalus) is a species of passerine bird in the Australasian wren family, Maluridae. It is endemic to Australia and can be found near rivers and coastal areas along the northern and eastern coastlines from the Kimberley in the northwest to the Hunter Region in New South Wales. The male adopts a striking breeding plumage, with a black head, upperparts and tail, and a brightly coloured red back and brown wings. The female has brownish upperparts and paler underparts.

    Wikipedia