About Toowoomba
Not too much info on Spring Creek (where we stayed). But about Toowoomba – it is the largest inland settlement in Queensland and one of the largest inland cities in Australia. It has been described as ‘Regional Capital of the Darling Downs’ and ‘The Garden City’. Both descriptions are accurate. It is a city to be enjoyed for its history, its elegant buildings, its superb parks (particularly in spring) and the very impressive – and huge – Cobb & Co Museum. (sourced from the Aussie Towns website – click for more).
Getting there
Another standard sized trip of 209km from Kingaroy to Spring Creek (route map) with no dramas except battling the traffic through Toowoomba.
Accommodation
Spring Creek Caravan Park (Facebook link) was selected by the Tagalong organisers as all of the caravan parks in Toowoomba were booked out due to the Toowoomba’s Annual Carnival of Flowers.
The caravan park is right beside the New England Highway (maplink) and was quite noisy from the passing road traffic. There’s plenty of room for large caravan’s like ours. The amenities were not the best but the owners were super friendly.
Toowoomba’s Carnival of Flowers
This is a massive occasion and we didn’t realise how massive until we turned up on the Saturday. Our Tagalong group travelled in by bus and had pre-booked seats for the big parade.
The Carnival of Flowers Parade
We are from Melbourne and the 1st thing I thought of when the parade began was our “Moomba Parade“, but this is probably bigger with so many community and multi-cultural groups participating. It was a fantastic start to our big day in Toowoomba, with more to come.
Lunch at Urban Grounds Café
After the parade it was back onto the bus and off to another part of town for lunch at Urban Grounds Café with a table booked for 31 people. It was a fantastic meal with the usual banter and laughter, which is always the way this Tagalong group roll.
Laurel Bank Park Flowers
After lunch is was just a matter of crossing the road from Urban Grounds Café to Laurel Bank Park (maplink) to view the magnificent flower beds, craftily built by the gardeners who maintain this large park. There were literally thousands of people taking in the flower displays of multiple colourful plants.
Open House Gardens
It was back onto the bus again and off to view some of this years award winning gardens. They were pretty cool but we were left a bit flat after being in the flower paradise in Laurel Bank Park.
The views from Picnic Point
Our last stop of the day was to the breathtaking views over Toowoomba and it’s surrounds from the Picnic Point Lookout (maplink). These images have been taken from the internet (didn’t have my camera!)
Visit to Allora Village
There’s a town called Allora not far south of the Spring Creek Caravan Park which was nice to visit (maplink). We found another “Mary Poppins” connection here where the stories author, Helen Lyndon, spent her early years
Summing up…
- Accommodation – Spring Creek Caravan Park (07) 4697 3397
- Cost per night – $25.00 (@ 19-Sep-2022)
- Stayed for – 4 nights
- Facilities – not well cleaned and extremely smelly 😖
- CP Location – 616 Upper Spring Creek Rd, Spring Creek
- Our rating/score – 4/10 Would never stay here again as it’s so noisy from passing road traffic and amenities were not very good. However, the people who run the park are really friendly and put on a campfire at the camp kitchen every night.
- Was it a nice town to visit? – No town here
- Activities & places of interest – Plenty to do in Toowoomba (49kms to the north)
- Tourist info centre? – None
- Would we return? – Not at Spring Creek but would stay in Toowoomba next time
- We rate the town – Spring Creek = 3/10 & Toowoomba = 7/10
- Overall thoughts – Toowoomba looks like it’s got plenty to offer so will return again in the future to check it out further.