Why Visit Moura?
Many people live in large cities, where they battle their way through the morning rush hour to get to work, and again at the end of the day.
The air is full of exhaust fumes, and to get anywhere takes at least 20 minutes plus, and in the process you can see the extra stress lines developing as time goes on, feel the cholesterol building up in your blood, and the effects of ever increasing stress-related high blood pressure as that vein pulses on your forehead. You look in the mirror and see this person who is getting prematurely old.
The big city has its attractions of course, but sometimes you just feel the need to breathe fresh country air, experience the real Australia, and maybe get closer to nature as well.
That's where Moura and the Dawson Valley come in.
But there's nothing to do!
Visit Moura and be prepared for a surprise. The first thing that springs to mind when many people think of Moura are the three tragic mining disasters, but this thriving little "Can Do" community has all the basic essentials that you need, and some major attractions to boot.
The air is clean and fresh, apart from the occasional whiff from a passing cattle transport. Get out of the street lights and the sky at night is actually black. Those little bright sparkling dots in the sky are called stars. You see the occasional one in the city, but we have a lot more of them here in Moura, and in the winter, the Milky Way spreads like spilled milk from one corner of the sky to the other.
To go anywhere in Moura takes about 2 minutes. If you're feeling really energetic, you can even run around the perimeter of town in 30 minutes.
The only problem is there's nothing to do, except maybe to catch a barramundi on the Dawson river, go for a swim in our Olympic pool, enjoy a cappuccino or a delicious country baked meal; take a walk along our many paved footpaths in town without the fear of being mugged.
Go boating on the local Dawson River, where you can enjoy the tranquility, the local birds and wildlife and the fact that your blood pressure is beginning to return to normal.
The locals you meet in the shops have nothing to do either, except to be friendly to visitors.
It's really not such a bad feeling having nothing to do. In fact if you try hard enough you'll eventually find a place where mobile phones don't work. (Don't tell anybody, but barramundi love them. They make excellent fishing lures.)
On the way back from the river, stop in by at the cattle yards and witness a real country cattle auction. Be careful who you wave to, or you might end up with a few head of Brahmans.
Then if you get to the stage where you really don't have anything to do, why not use Moura as a base, and go further afield with a few day trips? Theodore is only 30 minutes away, and another 5 minutes down the road is the magnificent Isla Gorge, the nearest of our National Parks. It's not quite the Grand Canyon, but then the Grand Canyon doesn't have Aboriginal Art or Rock Wallabies. Of course you won't find the same huge crowds either, because so far, we've managed to keep it a big secret. So don't tell anybody and spoil it, or we'll have crowds of people who also want to have nothing to do.
To the North another thirty minutes or so, is Baralaba, and not far from there is Myella Farm Stay, where you can get a taste of life on a country property. There you'll find plenty to do. An hour or so to the North West is the Blackdown Tablelands, accessible via the Rolleston road. Blackdown Tablelands National Park is a sandstone plateau reminiscent of Conan Doyle's 'The Lost World', complete with sheer cliffs and deep gorges. It has tall eucalypt forest, heath, spectacular wildflowers, scenic waterfalls and Aboriginal rock art.
At the end of a hard day of having nothing to do, you can cap it off with a drink with the locals, perhaps some entertainment, and a good nights sleep at one of our comfortable motels.