"Capital of the Darling Downs" Dalby by ogb4619

Dalby is a small town of less than 100,000 people, about 350km due west of Brisbane, Queensland.
It is situated on the "Darling Downs", an area named after the English explorer, Darling who discovered the rich plains of black volcanic soil west of the "Great Dividing Range" that runs from the far north to the southern tip of Australia.

The area has for centuries, been the largest wheat and other grain growing area of Australia.

Further west of Dalby, the sheep growing area of Queensland begins, which we Queenslanders are forced to admit is second to the western parts of New South wales in the number of sheep and the quantity of mutton and whool grown in Australia.

Further west again (about another 250km) but a bit further north, is the cattle growing area.

There are not too many tourists in this part of Queensland.
Roads are good, hotels and motels are cheap, but the land is F L A T.
Rolling plains as far the horizon.
If you're travelling to the dead centre of Australia (the desert), you will travel through this direction.
The tourist's way of getting to the desert is by plane but the traveller will drive or bus it.

My original home town (of 12 people) where i grew up is in this area (see Hannaford).

Actually, this is the real Australia, not Sydney or Melbourne.
Trouble is, you need a few weeks just to drive there. Distances are so huge.
Texas, the biggest of everything, fits into Queensland about 10 times.

This is a must see for the genuine traveller.
For the tourist, keep away from this area.

• Pros:This is the real Australia
• Cons:It's a bloody long way
• In a nutshell:You want to see wheat fields? I mean big ones!!