On the Road Again

The usual focus of Friendship Force is cultural exchange through home-hosting club members from around the world and travelling to visit sister clubs overseas. However, due to COVID-19 travel restrictions, members have had the opportunity instead to explore local regions around and beyond the Sunshine Coast.

The most recent three-week adventure started in Dalby on the Darling Downs and continued on through fabulous-sounding Outback towns such as Mungindi, Cunnamulla, Eulo, Hungerford, Dirranbandi, Thargomindah, Eromanga, Quilpie, St George, Mitchell and Roma – and smaller townships in between.

Tag-along leader Ron Usher found being able to experience the lifestyles of these rural and remote communities to be “a special cultural experience.”

He says: “The group learned the local history of early exploration and settlement, current land use and the farmers’ response to drought. Along the way, we viewed amazing art on silos and water towers, bathed in artesian spas and visited fascinating sites such as the Dinosaur Natural History Museum at Eromanga and the unique Bilby Centre in Charleville.

“Sometimes we stayed in shearers’ quarters on working sheep stations,” he adds. “We arrived at one station just after a young man had come off a farm bike and had broken his leg. One of our members, a nurse, was able to assist until the Royal Flying Doctors’ Service arrived to

The club is already planning overseas travel for 2022, once international borders are hopefully open. In the meantime, members continue to explore local regions with the next tag-along journey scheduled for midOctober travelling north along the Queensland coast to Bundaberg and beyond taking in such towns as Woodgate, Agnes Waters, 1770, Childers and Biggenden.

The club constantly welcomes new members. Anyone interested should visit the website and follow the club’s activities on the Friendship Force Sunshine Coast