The Darling Downs in country Queensland is a land of wine and roses, horses and rodeos, and undulating farmlands.
Another route through the Darling Downs, which bypasses Toowoomba initially, travel southwest to Warwick, which is Queensland’s second oldest town, 162 kilometres from Brisbane and .
This is farming country, but its major festival in October refers to flowers and horses and cattle: the Rose and Rodeo Festival.
In town check out the Pringle Cottage and Museum. Later, if you wish, drive out to Killarney, 34 kilometres southwest of Warwick, and view the Queen Mary Falls falling 40 metres into a gorge.
Queensland wine country
From Warwick you can travel south to the elevated plateau of the Great Dividing Range which is the Granite Belt.
Here are fruit and vegetable farms and more than 20 wineries where you can have a taste of Queensland wine. The region’s centre is the town of Stanthorpe.
Brass Monkey Festival
Here, in July, they hold the Brass Monkey Festival. In fact, the winter months of June, July and August are Brass Monkey season in the Darling Downs when it is so cold (for Queensland) the weather used to freeze cannon balls off a brass rack called a monkey on old sailing ships.
Gunsynd and Goondiwindi
If, instead, you traveled west from Warwick, you’d soon be in Goondiwindi, hometown of famed racehorse Gunsynd, a Melbourne Cup winner who has passed on into legend.
There’s a small museum in the old customs house with much material on Gunsynd, and don’t forget to visit Boobera Lagoon, a wildlife sanctuary, if you have an interest in water animals and fowls.
From Goondiwindi, you can drive north to Roma, which is on the Westlander train line, and then proceed southeast towards Toowoomba.
Fields and streams, farms and towns
There’s a Cobb & Co museum in Toowoomba with a variety of carriages and buggies on display. Cobb & Co is the pioneer "stagecoach" company in Australia.
There’s also the botanic gardens which may be worth a visit.
At this point you’d be less than 140 kilometres to Brisbane, where you first started your tour of the fields and streams and farms and towns of the Darling Downs.
