2023 Australia Springtime Spectacular to the Carnival of Flowers and Beyond

On arrival in Brisbane, you will have the option to join a guided walking tour of the Brisbane Botanic Gardens in the afternoon, accompanied by your tour leader. In the evening, gather for a welcome dinner with your tour leader and fellow travellers at the historic Transcontinental Hotel.

Overnight: Mercure King George Square, Brisbane (or similar) (D)

Depart Brisbane by coach this morning and travel to the town of Rathdowney, where we’ll have some time for morning tea and a wander around. Continue on for a scenic drive through the heritage-listed Mount Barney National park, an impressive mountainous park characterised by valleys, caves, cascades, pools, and rare fauna.

After some time to look around, we board our coach once again and continue the journey to Glengallan Homestead. Restored from ruin in 2001, this iconic house emerges from the ruins of the 1867 sandstone mansion as a unique heritage experience. Relive the Glengallan story from squattocracy to farmer settlement through an innovative interpretation that allows the place to tell its own story. We’ll also have time to enjoy lunch at the café. Continue to Warwick later in the afternoon and check in to our hotel. Dinner this evening will be hosted at the hotel’s restaurant.

Overnight: The Coachman’s Inn, Warwick (or similar) (B, L, D)

Travel on Southern Downs Steam Railway’s steam-hauled train from Warwick to Toowoomba today. After breakfast and a free morning, we’ll board our coach for the short transfer to the departure point of our train. Departing just before midday, it traverses the open plains of the Darling Downs, with the great dividing ranges to our east and the rich agricultural country to the west. The train rises toward Toowoomba, passing quaint towns and villages like Nobby and Clifton, where we pause for a short break before our arrival.

In Toowoomba, we’ll check in to our hotel and have some downtime before a late afternoon excursion to smell the roses at the beautifully laid-out Japanese Gardens. Just a short drive down the road is the wonderful railway collection at Downs Steam where dinner is laid on in style in the dining car.

Overnight: Country Gardens Motor Inn (or similar) (B, D)

This morning you’ll have the option to either join Southern Downs Steam Railway on another steam-hauled journey from Toowoomba to Wyreema, returning later in the afternoon or stay in town and explore the many beautiful gardens and attractions of the Carnival of Flowers festival. You’ll also have the option of taking a guided town tour, including a visit to the extensive Cobb+Co Museum with its excellent collection and stories, and Picnic Point, where the large park is ablaze with colour.

Enjoy a free afternoon and evening following your optional activities today. The Carnival of Flowers will have a number of features on show for you to explore later in the evening.

Overnight: Country Gardens Motor Inn (or similar) (B)

This morning we’ll travel north by coach to Dalby and take some time along the way to visit the interesting Australian Army Flying Museum in Oakey. Continuing to Dalby, we’ll enjoy a delicious lunch at a local cafe before heading to the sprawling estate of Jimbour. This grand homestead was built by the Bell family in the mid-1870s and is one of the most opulent rural homesteads in the English style in Queensland. We’ll enjoy a guided tour of the house and grounds which feature an extensive stand of Bunya Pines, as well as an afternoon high tea and drinks.

We’ll return to Dalby in the late afternoon and enjoy dinner together later on.

Overnight: Drovers Motor Inn, Dalby (or similar) (B, L, D)

After breakfast in the hotel, we’ll head out past the villages of Kaimkillenbun and Mowbullan into the tree-clad escarpment of the Bunya Mountains National Park. The Bunya Pine, Araucaria Bidwilli, is the largest of the ancient native pine family and was a culturally significant tree for the local Aboriginal tribes. The park rises more than 1,100m above sea level and offers sweeping views of the surrounding area. We’ll have a chance to find out more about the unique botany and heritage at the information centre before we take a gentle drive through this impressive forest and down the ranges to Kingaroy. Enjoy some free time for lunch in town in the shadow of the gigantic peanut silos.

Continuing toward our destination of Gympie affords the chance to settle back on the coach and enjoy the ever-changing scenery and small stops we’ll make along the way. Pause at Wondai for a wander and visit the information centre and timber museum. On arrival in Gympie, we’ll settle into our accommodation and enjoy dinner at the hotel.

Overnight: Shady Rest Motel, Gympie (or similar) (B, D)

This morning we’ll gather for an iconic heritage rail experience on the Mary Valley Rattler. This restored branch line railway will take you back to a time when rail travel was replacing horses as a means of transport and it became a valuable link to service the growing need for goods in the goldfields around Gympie. The journey starts at the historic Gympie Station, still the largest timber railway building in Queensland, before taking you through the upper reaches of the Mary River Valley. On our return, we’ll enjoy lunch at the station’s cafe.

Later on, we’ll explore the town of Gympie. Made famous in 1867 when James Nash discovered 72 ounces of gold in just six days, Gympie became known as “the town that saved Queensland from bankruptcy.” Explore the town with a visit to the Gympie Gold Mining and Historical Museum with its vast collection of artefacts and photographs, and the Woodworks Museum where we’ll take a tour of the workshop and mills. This evening we’ll enjoy a dinner at the exquisite Kingston House Impressions restaurant nearby.

Overnight: Shady Rest Motel, Gympie (or similar) (B, L, D)

After breakfast, we’ll head to Maryborough for our first stop, the Maryborough City Whistle Stop. Here, an amazing group of volunteers maintains and operate, amongst other railway memorabilia, the Mary Ann replica steam locomotive, a full-size replica of Queensland’s first locomotive of 1873. We even get to ride on a special run of this historic relic for a short distance down the track.

After some free time for lunch, we’ll head to meet Peter and Robert Olds who run a most illuminating engineering enterprise that, amongst other things, has constructed wheels for the Queen’s royal coach.  We’ll enjoy a farewell dinner at our hotel’s restaurant this evening.

Overnight: Blue Shades Motel, Maryborough (or similar) (B, D)

This morning after breakfast, enjoy some free time to further explore Maryborough. Look over the military museum and excellent heritage precinct including the statue to Mary Poppins and the adjacent museum dedicated to its creator PL Travers. After lunch, meet at the hotel before we board our coach for the journey to Brisbane, where our tour comes to an end. (B)