Winter Wonderland

Welcome to the Webb holiday blog update! Here’s what we’ve been up to for the past two weeks.

A couple of weeks ago we drove from Dubbo to Toowoomba in Queensland (the state just up from NSW). The journey took about eleven hours including some decent stops. We were travelling in convoy with fellow student Ian Johansson as I was going to be taking part in a Scripture Union camp with him. We stayed with his parents in Toowoomba for a couple of nights and had a splendid time. Ruth wonders if there is a road called 'Toowoomba Way' as she'd quite like to live there. All together now: Toowoomba Way, Toowoomba Way, Toowoomba Way. In the jungle, the mighty jungle, the lion sleeps tonight...

I think that this is the perfect time to state that, of what I’ve seen so far, Queensland seems to be far more beautiful than NSW. Sorry to all the NSW friends I’ve made, but it’s true. The bits of NSW that I’ve seen (and to be fair, I’ve not seen much at all) have that flat, wide-expansive, red-soiled beauty that I’ve raved about in previous posts but Queensland is full of tropical plant-life and amazing mountains which make for some awesome panoramic views. It’s a totally different type of beauty to NSW but one that I think I prefer. Maybe when we see a bit more of NSW I’ll modify my opinion (after all, the Blue Mountains are amazing) but I’m not sure that I will. NSW may be pretty but Queensland is gorgeous. And it’s warmer too.


After a couple of nights in Toowoomba we drove a few hours along to coast to Mapleton via Brisbane. As Brisbane is the capital city of the state and therefore a busy place we finally got to drive on an Australian motorway. It’s pretty similar to a UK motorway but nowhere near as busy. I wonder what Aussie visitors to the UK make of the M25?

The camp site at Mapleton (known as QCCC) was also very nice. The Webb family had a nice little cabin to ourselves whilst Ian had to sleep in the boys dorm. Despite the fact that we only had curtains to separate our sleeping areas I think that we still managed to get more sleep than him. The centre was quite similar to the kind of sites you might find at places like The New Forest and so on - except for the fact that it’s more like a rainforest and the Health and Safety Fear hasn’t gripped Oz quite as badly as it has in the UK. There were precarious bridges and cliff drops all over the place, with no visible means of preventing campers from plunging to their deaths (or at least plunging to their serious injuries). This SU camp is known as ‘Training Week’ and was for Christians aged between 15-17, the majority of whom had displayed some potential as leaders in their school’s Christian activities. Some non-Christians slipped through the net though, and it was a really great week for them to be exposed to what being a Christian really means. The whole thing went really well and I know have renewed respect for those of you who are frequently involved in discipling that age group. Of course, the highlight of the week was the Leaders vs. Campers touch ‘footy’ game which the Leaders (quite rightly) dominated. I was a key member of the winning squad, with my ‘pass without looking’ method striking fear into both friend and foe alike. Apart from that, I think the week has just confirmed for me that I’m better able to communicate to older age groups but it was still a great experience and the young people really seemed to benefit from the week and the things that Ian and I shared. Those of you from Haywards Heath may remember the Ukrainian “Don’t swap your cross for chewing gum” story that was shared with us. It went down very well here in Queensland too. If you don’t know the story then ask me and I’ll tell you.

Ian was on great form and proved himself to be truly ‘down with the kidz’. I found out a few of his nicknames from his days as a Scripture Union schools chaplain (Joey, Jopantsdown, Johandsome and Jo ugly). While we were there we heard that the Federal government (i.e. Australia’s ‘national’ government as opposed to the individual state governments) had decided to plough even more money into providing chaplains for schools. These chaplains must provide support for the ‘pastoral’ and ‘spiritual’ needs of the students (so they’re not allowed to just be social workers – they have to be coming from a ‘spiritual’ position). The chaplain must also reflect the make-up of the local community and the only faith in Australia that is currently set up to provide this service is Christianity. You essentially have the Australian government providing millions of dollars to make sure that most students have access to a Christian schools worker. It’s an amazing situation and Scripture Union currently have far more schools than chaplains at the moment. If any of you youth workers out there are looking for an excuse to move to Queensland and work as a Christian school chaplain then here it is. I just can’t imagine the same thing happening in the UK, at least certainly not being funded by the government.

Following the camp we drove half-an-hour down the road to Caloundra and picked up the keys to our accommodation. The flat was a minute’s walk from the beach and the weather was amazing, pretty much like a spring or even summer week in the UK. To put this in perspective I’ll remind you that it’s winter here – weatherwise the equivalent UK time would be January, one of the coldest times of the year in Britain. The difference between the UK in January and the Sunshine Coast in July is that you wouldn’t expect to go swimming in the sea in the UK.


Our holiday in Caloundra was bonzer. The incredible weather was amazing for winter and just cemented Queensland’s position as “My favourite State”. One of the highlights was getting to visit Steve Irwin’s former stomping ground, Australia Zoo. Crikey! It was a great experience but there was something a little saddening about seeing so many pictures and videos of Steve-o. It would have been great to get to see him in action but the zoo is still doing plenty of business and some excellent work in the field of conservation. Reid and Calvin loved seeing the crocs too.




As well as swimming in the sea at Mooloolaba and Caloundra, we also managed to get to see the Glass House Mountains, visit friends in ‘nearby’ Labrador and have a meal at Kentucky Fried Chicken. The Colonel sends his regards. After a great week we enjoyed a thirteen hour journey back to Dubbo, which seems to be horribly cold after our time in sunny Queensland.

That’s about it for now. It’s a lot to take in, so I’ll leave you with some photos to enjoy. Hopefully see you in a week!