Lake Monduran

7th May 2009

We are now at Lake Monduran, http://www.lakem.com.au/ 20klms. North of Gin Gin Qld. Arrived here on 25th April – Anzac Day –daughter Jackie’s birthday. It is a lovely place. The dam is the Fred Haigh Dam and is the water supply for the irrigation of the Burnett region, which includes Bunderberg and surrounds. The lake is 32klms from the dam wall to the top. They stock it with 50-100,000 barramundi finglings every year. Only about 1/3rd survive and it takes 15months for them to grow to the legal limit of 58cm and approx. 2.5kg. To date they managed to elude our lures. Apparently a lot of others as well.
The park is managed by Rob, his wife Kellie along with their 2 children, Emily & Jack. We had the privilege last weekend to be invited along to their spit roast dinner which was just beautiful. Our friends Di & Trevor were here also for the weekend and we had a great time.
Rob also does fishing charters and we had a trip with him for a couple of hours late one afternoon, just to get the rundown on how to catch barramundi, but with no luck. The lake has lots of trees, which the barra love to hide around, but you have to be careful not to get your lures caught. The only thing I managed to catch was the beautiful sunset before heading home.

D’Arcy & I went out for the day fishing and packed a picnic lunch, which we had in the dingy, tied to tree branch & watched some swans “swanning” around. D’Arcy managed to catch 3 catfish, which he carefully let go. On our way back later in the day our trusted new outboard motor decided to just stop. Couldn’t figure out the problem, so had to tie up to a tree and call for help. Just as well we had mobile phone service. Called Rob and not a problem for him, within half an hour he was there to give us a tow. The next morning the motor started fine. Still do not know what the problem was.
Had a few nights around the “conversation pit” with a very warm fire going. One night our friends Rachael & Greg ,had their 2 boys, Charlie & Hamish, cook us all some marshmallows over the coals. Even though now the temperature has dropped quite a lot in the evenings & mornings, the days are lovely & still warm, around 22-25deg.
As Gin Gin is only about 15mins. drive away the markets are on Sat. Mornings so we managed to head in & pick up our fresh produce. The local butchers is recommended as well for their great meat and the Traveller’s Rest Cafe, for their award winning pies, which even I had to try one for lunch one day a laksa (chicken & seafood) with a lovely pastry. Also picked this cafe for breakfast on market day, as we headed in very early.
Yesterday, we had the pleasure of John & Fran, who we met back in Pialba, come out & visit. They are now in the park at Bargara, where our next stop will be next week.
Have taken lots of pics, but too many to post here, so these are just a few.
Till next time.....Still having a few problems sorting out organizing the photos....please bear with me....