This was our plan as we knew the Junction Park free camp at Theodore was a very popular spot - and we were hoping, if we were early, we would get a spot when someone was leaving.
Luck was with us and we got the only spot available at 10.00 am - and we were told that the previous occupants had only just pulled out.
We set up and went on foot exploring down through the town -
- it was pretty quiet being a Sunday morning and nothing was open except the servo where we did snag a good cup of coffee - then we walked back to our campsite along the Creek walk.
Back at the campsite things were getting busy as there was a fishing competition on this weekend and all the boats were starting to come back in from the final days fishing.
This park is in a lovely location on the junction of Castle Creek and the beautiful Dawson River - and the amenities provided by the community - for the cost of user donation - were brand new. They included hot showers for pay as you use fee - along with great toilet facilities in the lovely treed parkland here.
At the entrance to the park is a lovely mosaic mural - depicting features of the local area - and were built after the 2010/2011 floods to recognise the strength of the Theodore community in surviving the worst flood ever recorded in the history of this little township.
Down at the point (where Castle Creek joins the Dawson River) there is a marker which has been placed to mark the levels f the worst floods encountered here. It is just unimaginable to us just how much water must have come through this town in 2010/2011.
The red marker is the height of the river in the 2010/ 2011 flood -
The marker has an aerial hoot of the town wrapped around 3 sides and a short story of the 2010/2011 flood event - when the entire town had to be evacuated by helicopter and could not return to their homes for 12 days.
As we walked around the town 6 years on from 2011 - there is no evidence at all of this flood and no abandoned buildings or homes.
It was a pretty cruisey lazy day really - and we spent the afternoon wandering around the park and the river and late in the afternoon checking out what birdlife was around here.
We met some lovely grey nomads and took their suggestion of dining at the pub tonight - where they could highly recommend the food.
The Hotel Theodore is interesting in that it has been owned and run by the local community since the early 1940's.
It was a pretty good feed and we were more than happy that we gave back some money to this town for providing such a lovely location for a free camp.
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