Welcome to Stopped for a While. You’ve had a long drive, and you’ve landed at the Peaceful Place on the Fraser Coast, just north of Hervey Bay. Once the tent’s up, the caravan’s level, and you’ve got a cold one in your hand, the stories wander down the road. Laughter’s never far off, and the facts sometimes take a detour.

That’s just the way we like it around here. This is the podcast about the folks who roll into the Peaceful Place and the stories they spin. Did it all happen just like this, or is it another one that just got away? That’s half of the fun, isn’t it? We had an artist teacher from just down the track at Hervey Bay bunking here at the Peaceful Place a while back.

Then just recently, Mark swung by and stopped for a while. He’s one of those blokes who paints Aussie landscapes, gum trees, red dirt, the whole lot. His story soon.

I think the worst part was being a new caravan and, and our first free camp for the night was, I had a tomcat that decided to visit and spray all the door. So we had like an endless smell of tomcats. That was about one situation.

Some days this place is so peaceful you’d swear it couldn’t get any better.

Other days it’s chaos for about an hour, usually just before the next lot of guests roll in. It’s never a dull moment around here. If you’ve been following along with Stopped for a while, you might remember the story of three caravanners with monster vans. Well, okay, they were fairly big. They rocked up at the same time, only to be thwarted by dodgy gear and a tree that clearly was in the wrong spot.

Neil and his wife are part of that circus, and they came back just a week or so ago. They were chuffed to see that the tree had finally got the chop. Getting into their site now was a breeze. Turns out they reckon they started a trend, trees coming down all over the park. Trailblazers, those two. Mark is a painter, not the kind of guy who waits around for retirement.

One morning he just decided he’d had a gut full of work, grabbed the ute and the van and hit the road, chasing sunsets with a paintbrush. The best part, as dog lovers, he brought his big boy Ned with him.

Why did you come here?

Uh, basically it was a stopover because we’re on our way around. We’re doing a lap.

Um, pretty much, um, I haven’t been back… Well, Hervey Bay for one was on the list because Sharon had lived here for six years.

And, um, she had a few friends to catch up with.

But those friends in that time, I think it’s been, uh, between COVID and everything else, a lot of things have changed.

People have changed. Um, some people have stayed the same, some have got a little bit more… There’s one older lady that she was talking to, was in her 90s. Um, her husband was a fantastic man, and he was, he, he, he was, he suffered with asbestos, um, thing. Oh, tool bucket. And he was on his deathbed, and Sharon used to help go around and nurse him Anyway, long story short, and he was a great guy, so that’s Sharon’s story from, with this other lady.

So we caught up with the old lady again, and she’s getting a lot more older now. Like, it’s been probably, oh, I’d say probably, what would’ve it been? Probably 15 years since she was back.

And yeah, just how change, you know? Yeah. She still remembered Sharon and the rest of it, but the feeling of the house was not the same- Yeah

because he’s, she won’t leave the house because his presence is still in the house.

Um-

And of course, it’s not the way you remember it, too- No … when you go back because you were younger- Yeah … and you had different thought processes yourself when you went in. Yeah, understand that.

So when I come up here myself back in 1978, I think it was, I’d lost my license for three months. I was on P plates. Ah. Got booked for speeding.

Seven surfboards on top, you know? Seven women in the car and the rest of it. The cops pulled me over. They pulled me, they booked me in the March, but they didn’t take me to court till the November, being a surfer, so they knew that he’s gonna miss having his license over summer, so they deliberately put me to court, so I lost my license for the three months during that summer.

Ah. So I jumped on a bus tour- Yeah … and come to Queensland. Um, met lots of people. It was a camping safari tour. Yeah. Um, all the way up to Yeppoon and back. Brief looks down the coast. Done some boom netting around the Barrier Reef. Loved every minute of it. Got into four-wheel driving here, even though I was suspended.

There was a guy I met on the bus. He had a motorbike license, and you could hire out little Suzuki four-wheel drives to drive up and down Rainbow Beach. Okay, right.

yeah. So I got the taste for it, and I said to him at that time, I said, “Look, when I get back home and I get my license back, um, the first thing I’m gonna do is buy myself another four-wheel drive,” and I have.

And in the last probably, I’d say 30 years, I’ve always had a four-wheel drive now since then. Wow. And coming up here, and I went back to Rainbow Beach the other day to have a look around, and it was beautiful still, but it’s grown, you know? Oh,

God, yes. Hasn’t

it grown? It’s grown. Hasn’t it grown? So, um, you know, and being school holidays, it was pretty, it was pretty full on.

Yeah. Yeah. So, um, lost it, but it was good. I didn’t actually go to drive on the beach this time, though. I wanted to, but-

No, that’s right. That, and that part of the, the most beautiful parts of the world grow- Yes … get bigger, change.

And we’re just hoping that it kind of avoids us just a little bit here for a while.

Yeah. ‘Cause it’s just quiet, peaceful.

Oh, and look, this caravan park is so quiet, and we were gonna stay in the Hervey Bay at, at, near the boat shed.

And I’m glad we didn’t because it’s just so mental. It’s just busy. I think Saturday was the last time we went in. Saturday was the only time that we seen Hervey Bay not busy.

I think everyone was kind of- Really? I think everyone was at home. School holidays is starting. Yeah. Um, and it was… Yeah, and Sharon had said, you know, “This is the Hervey Bay I used to remember.” Yeah.

Yeah. ‘Cause Hervey Bay from, like, 20-odd years ago didn’t start until the other end of Boat Harbor Drive- That’s it

down that way. It was the older way, wasn’t it?

So-

So where have you come from now? So where, where was home? Ballarat.

Ballarat? Ballarat, Victoria. Um, lived down there for… Yeah. Geez. Well, we just moved back for 12 months back to Ballarat. Previous before that, I lived in Moama for four years after COVID.

Um, my girls weren’t real… ‘Cause I have three daughters and Sharon has three sons. Um, my three daughters have never really liked any of my partners I’ve been with, so we’re kind of… And you know, there’s some issues that are there with Sharon’s boys. We’re just split and- Yeah … I find that since COVID, it’s kind of, a lot of that’s kind of happened with the younger kids, and they don’t…

They’ve all got their own agendas. So yeah, but anyway, Ballarat.

Came from Ballarat.

Came from Ballarat.

And driven up just directly from Ballarat? Yeah.

Yeah. Straight up from Ballarat. Um, we did stop off. We stopped off at Cobar-

and stopped off at Bourke because I’m an oil painter, and there was a beautiful gallery there I wanted to see.

She does some beautiful pastel work.

And it was well worth. And I love her, her style of painting was brilliant, and to see her bigger works was amazing.

Have you seen those big road works on, out towards the Western Highway, uh, on the silos?

Yes. Yes. That’s

some amazing work out

there. Yeah. Well, even in Victoria, you go around up past all the wheat belt and stuff, they’re all being painted now, and they are worth…

Um, previous before this trip, we were in Yarrawonga, and I started to get a collection of them. And yeah, it… We– And s- just, we were just wanting to get up here. So we did see ’em, but we didn’t really take ’em in. But yeah. Yeah.

No, Yarrawonga’s nice.

Nice place. Uh, we were in Albury for 15 years.

And my sister-in-law’s ov- over at Cobram.

right. So it’s, it’s sort of, Yarrawonga’s about halfway.

Ish Depending on which way, which road you go on, I suppose. Yeah, yeah.

Yeah. Gee, that’s a busy town, too. It’s– When I last went to Yarrawonga, it was busy. I think it was a, it was a long weekend when we went through anyway. But previous before that, I lived in Moama for that four years.

So- Yeah … originally from Ballarat, moved to Moama for four years, then went back for the sake of the kids, hopefully another second chance to, to, you know, for the kids to come to the table- Yeah … and talk about things, and it never happened. So I said to Sharon, I said, “What are we doing here? Paying a mortgage on the bloody wheel.

Um, go to work,” ’cause I’m a, a way maintainer with the railways, metro trains down in Melbourne.

Um, yeah, and it’s time. I could have waited another two years to retire, but I decided to go pack me bags and go now while I’m still fit and healthy, and me knees aren’t shot and me back isn’t broken. If I had have stayed another two years, a lot of that could have happened, so.

Oh, yes, yes. Yes, there’s, um… There was somebody talking to the other day And they, uh, they were moving stuff around. Oh, it was Cliff that was over here.

He was doing the repairs.

And he just went to work one day and bang, there goes his back.

No, didn’t feel it coming on, it just happened. Yeah.

And a friend of ours as well doing offload trucks as well. Yeah. Just same kind of thing, just off and on the truck the same way every day- Mm … and suddenly that was it.

And that’s the same with me, ’cause I used to go, I used to do track inspections with the rail as well and, um, there was one guy that was…

He was probably a foreman of the track inspectors there, and he just had a bad fall recent. Like, I didn’t even get to say goodbye to him because he’s been off, he’s, he’s done four discs in his back. He fell and landed on the rail.

How?

Just about broke his, just about broke his, broke his back.

So I don’t want that.

No. That’s

why. So you sort of decided you’re gonna lug a dirty great big caravan around.

Yeah, well, I was, I was towing a bigger one.

I had a 21-footer Jayco before that, and basically we decided to go with something a little bit smaller, so I come down to a 19 foot. And really when you, when you measure it all up, there’s only 18, 18 feet of…

Sorry.

18 inches

difference. There’s, there… Yeah, there’s, there’s, there’s only probably, there’s only eight feet of living space, and the rest of it’s taken up in the hitch of the van. Yeah. So, but it’s been a nice van. So far it’s good.

Good. Good. What brand is it? Jayco.

It’s a J- another Jayco.

Another Jayco.

Yeah, yeah. This is my fourth one.

Okay. What you towing it with?

I’m towing it with a, a Navara, a Nissan Navara. Yeah. Um, it’s a 2025 model.

And so far so good.

And you got the big-

they’re the dust guards.

Is that right? Yeah, they’re the dust guards for the back. To, to stop the, the… Yeah. To stop the stones.

Yeah. Because if you know Jayco caravans, there’s a lot of, um, PVC pipe in the newer ones now underneath so. Oh,

is that why

you’ve done it? Yeah. So-

instead of getting some noodles on it, which was another job I wanted to do, which still might even happen ’cause we’re going down to Brisbane, um, just to protect them from the rocks coming up.

And the rock, the rock guards that I brought for it is to eliminate that. I did have another stone guard on my caravan, but I decided to leave it with that van-

because with the bike rack it’s taking up a bit of room on the- Yeah.

Yeah, I’ve seen them before where- Mm … where they had… It’s, it’s almost like a curtain where they hook it to the back of the car.

Yeah. Hook it to the front, front of the caravan or down low on the caravan. Yeah. And it stops all the flicking up. But-

but these would, like you said, stop the plastics underneath. Yeah. Yeah,

it stops… And, and not only that, it stops… Of course it’s connected to the car. That’s gonna stop it right there, and then it’ll keep ’em down, um, and stop it all from come up.

But having with this newer van, um, they have, Jayco has extended their plastic to the front.

So it is pretty much stone-proof, but it’s still not protecting really your pipework underneath there. I’ve been to Broken Hill, been up to, um… This is with another Jayco caravan. We went up to Innamincka, up to where, um, Burke and Wills perished.

Done all that history there. Yeah. And also done a couple paintings on the way. Of course. And the roads, some of the roads I was driving on were pretty… Yeah. I actually had rocks go through the stone guard I had on

there, so. Yeah. Amazing. Yeah. Yeah. Before we go to your painting-

where’s, which way, or have you got any planned stops as you do your lap?

Yeah, um, well, for, for this next week, we’re going back down to, to the Surf Coast, so I’m gonna take in Maroochydore.

Um, a little bit of Surfers Paradise and Brisbane because I do have to get the Navara serviced. Yeah. And it’ll be a Nissan, um, warranty service. Mm-hmm. And from there, pretty much straight up to Longreach.

We’re gonna stay inland for a little bit. I’m gonna stay off the coast. Once we make it to Longreach, I think we’ll make a decision where we’re gonna go. It could be Darwin. We may continue on and go up to, um- Cooktown, have a look there. Um, I’d still like to, seeing we’re so far up there, and just see, just, just to take in a little bit of the Daintree Rainforest and that.

Beautiful up

there. And, yeah. And no, no timeframe.

No timeframe, no.

No timeframe. ‘

Cause you’re not… That’s, that’s your home now, is it?

That’s your home. Yeah, definitely. Everything’s

there. Everything’s there. Do miss the 21 footer now, though.

But it’s all there.

We’ve done the same. Yeah. Only we’re stopping for a long while.

Yeah. And that’s what it is. It’s where we are. Yeah. We love it here and, and, yeah. No

timeframe.

That’s it, no timeframe at all.

Okay. So you’re a painter.

What do you like painting the best?

Oh, definitely our Australian bush.

Um, and especially the pioneer side of the Australian bush where you’ve got a lot of the desert country.

Um, all the stuff that shows out those reds and golds and the beautiful blue skies, and the wet season with the storms coming through- Oh, that would be amazing … and the like. So, yeah. Yeah, yeah. Um, that’s my style of painting. Um, I would like to step into doing some portrait painting, but I’ve gotta go back and do another course.

So I’ve been painting now for… I was a printer by trade before I went into the railways, and I think that’s kinda given me the feel for color. Um, basically, yeah, it’s been, yeah, probably a good 30 years been painting for. Yeah. Not constantly. Once I kinda start, I don’t wanna get interrupted or disturbed.

Oh, one of those

painters. I have to stay- Right, okay … I have to

stay focused. Yeah, yeah.

So, you know, put the do not disturb sign up.

Start-finish, start to finish, or can you put it down and come back another-

No, probably… The thing is, if you go start to finish, you do miss things, you know? And you’re always, with oil paints, you can always come back and improve them again.

But I like to take me time. I like to sit back and, and view the painting and see if you actually picked up the right hues of the color reflecting through on it. Mm-hmm. And then I’ll continue on. So, um, I don’t know, maybe three days to do a painting. So that’s, um, pretty much constant. The, to get it all down and mapped out and where the colors are going, everything else, probably take about six hours or so to kinda s- trace it and looking at photos.

Copy, copy, copy, they say when you paint. Yeah. Yeah. So. And when you get out there and you’re painting in the outdoors, it’s, um, yeah, to capture the morning lights and so-

That’s right. Yeah, ’cause the, the colors change- Change … so much, even within 10 or 15 minutes- Yeah … don’t

they? They do, Bro- Barry. Yes. So, um, no, it’s, it’s been good and, um-

And of course then you’ve got, um- That’s why you pull up for a week-

or two-

That’s right … or three or whatever. And, and hence the reason why I wanna kind of go inland for that reason too.

Um, a few, a bit of my stuff I’ve done has been around the Murray River and stuff, and a lot of the old pioneers’ huts that were up there. You know, there was one recent stop what I, I took some photos of, and I’m yet to do the painting of it, um, was Gumbow, and there was like a, a riverboat, um, house that was…

Well, the guy used to go and get, chop down the red gum trees and collect the firewood for the paddle steamers. So he was selling- Yeah … the firewood to the paddle steamers. That’s it. Yeah,

of course.

Yeah. So that’s where- Gum- Gumbow

Creek. Yes, I know that …

that’s where he was making his living out of.

Wow, there you go.

That’s amazing. Yes.

But that’s that pioneer s- that’s that early Australian pioneer stuff, you know? Um, I love it, and, you know, if you can capture the old, the old cottages and everything else that go into it

Great friend of ours loves photographing doors.

Kelly just loves– All over the world.

Yeah. She’s, she’ll, she just treks off for a month, six weeks, and does a trek. She did the ‘Stans. Yeah. Afghanistan. She did that, and there’s so many doors. Just a door.

Well, even in Ireland, you know, I’m a Led Zeppelin fan. I love Led Zeppelin, always have, ever since for a long time. Mm-hmm. That Physical Graffiti album with all the doors that were taken and everything was all taken in Ireland, I believe.

Yeah. So, um-

There you

go.

Let’s go back to caravan parks.

As we wrap up before.

Any funny stuff you’ve had, like very humorous?

Oh, I think the worst part was being a new caravan and, and our first free camp for the night was, I had a tomcat that decided to visit and spray all the door.

Oh, lovely.

And the mat. So we had like an endless smell of tomcats right through there. So that was about one situation. Um, look, at Yarrawonga with the big dog, we find that because we’ve got a dog, and you do feel a bit victimised at some caravan parks because they’ll give you the worst areas

that you- Oh, yeah.

Don’t like that.

Just, yeah.

But, um, you know.

No, Ned’s a beautiful boy.

Yeah, he’s good. Yeah, so, um, he’s, he’s really good to travel with. He’s, he’s well-mannered and the rest. I can take him to any dog park or as long as the dogs are friendly to him. And my, my worst worry is that you’re gonna get those that don’t like him and turn on him.

And there was a guy here, um, not in the park, but out on the street just the other morning. I was walking him up there and, um, this dog didn’t like him at all. You know, this guy- Yeah … and I could see he’s got– He’s not holding his dog. He, he had no control. He, he’s belting it on the side, you know, trying to hold it back.

Sit, sit.

yeah. I thought, no wonder the dog’s not, hasn’t been socialised at all. Yeah,

no, that’s right. There are some dogs that just like dogs.

And people, and some only just like people.

Yeah, that’s right.

Yeah, exactly right. Hey, thanks for coming having a chat.

No worries,

bro. And when you come back through here-

at some point, hopefully we’ll still be here. Yeah … and we’ll have another chat. For sure. And see, and tell me about your stories as you’ve gone all the way around.

Yes, yes. So, um, well, I’m heading, not heading back to Victoria no time soon.

As the travellers move on, peace settles in. At least until the next character swings by, parks up, and can’t resist sharing a tale or two from the road. You know there’s always room for another yarn around here. Wayne and Vicky drop by with the dog in tow. Astro, what a big boy he was. And they rattled off a list of places they’d been.

This travel list was longer than my arm. He wasn’t pulling my leg either. Lots of places they’ve been to, but that’s a story for next time on Stopped for a While. Stopped for a While is brought to you by MacMouth Media, music by Ben Clayton, and a tip of the hat to Rob Laffer, Serenity Caravan Park’s very own legend.

If you’ve enjoyed spinning a few yarns with us, hit subscribe so you don’t miss the next one. You’ll find us at stoppedforawhile.com.au, plus Facebook and Instagram. Now it’s time for another cool drink. Thanks for pulling up a chair at Stopped for a While