A Visit to Lake Broadwater Conservation Park – Dalby- Darling Downs

We were driving back from Toowoomba, after visiting our daughter in the Toowoomba Hospital, when Val insisted on taking me to see Lake Broadwater.

He waxed lyrical about how beautiful this lake is and how it is a conservation refuge area for water birds and other wildlife such as kangaroos. It is one of the few remaining areas where you can see the vegetation that was common to the Darling Downs before the area was settled.

It is apparently a lovely place for a picnic outing as the park is provided with tables, barbecues and toilets on hand. A perfect place to eat by the lake under the shade of the large blue and red gums.

And after you have eaten you can get a boating permit from the caretaker so that you can go out on the lake if you so desire. The park is great for bird watching (of the feathered kind) especially from a hide at the neck of the lake.

You can even stay overnight at one of two camping areas – Lake Broadwater or Wilga Bush. Both areas have toilets and Lake Broadwater also has cold showers and picnic facilities along with caravan and motorhome parking. Wilga Bush has fireplaces and a shelter shed. To do this you will need to get a camping permit before you arrive or if you forget, you can get one from the self registration station in the picnic grounds.

So by the time we driven along the 20 klms along Moonie Highway heading from Dalby to Tara, I am warming up to this visit to see the glistening waters and relax watching the birds wading etc.

We turn down the Lake Broadwater road and drive for another 10 klms and miss the turnoff to the lake. So once we reach a closed gate over a stock bridge we realise we have come too far so we back track and see the sign to the boat ramp that we had missed on the way in.

• We take particular note of the ‘Rules for Boating’

• Check out the lake from the boat ramp.

• Something of an understatement on this sign. Okay not likely to get my feet wet here. And although there weren’t any water birds, there were plenty of kangaroos grazing.

To be fair, we are currently in a drought situation, in fact nobody knows it better than me. I currently live in rural Qld on a property in Tara and as we rely on tank water, I get up every day hoping it is going to rain.

Val assures me that when he last went to see Lake Broadwater it was full of water so I will go back after it rains and I am sure it will be beautiful.