IN AND OUTBACK
A tranquil spot in the QUEENSLAND OUTBACK is one of the BEST PLACES in the country to FISH FOR COD. And getting there is HALF THE FUN, says Rob McFarland.
“IT’S FISHING,” SAYS DAVE Downie, pushing back his weathered Akubra. “Sometimes you catch one, sometimes you don’t.” Dave should know. As a fishing journalist for more than 40 years, he’s fished all over Australia and is acutely aware that the sport is as much about serendipity as it is about skill. Which is just as well because as a complete novice, my early casting attempts are laughably inept. However, thanks to Dave’s patient tuition, I finally succeed in getting the fly to land in the river. Eventually, it almost goes in the direction I’m aiming. We’re in ‘cod country’, an outback region of southern Queensland famous for Murray cod that can grow to a startling 45 kilograms. Dave tells us he recently pulled a 22-kilogram fish from this very spot on the banks of the Dumaresq River. Dave assures us the river is “full of fish”, but it’s reluctant to share its spoils today. Part of the problem is that it’s nearing noon; as Dave explains, “fish tend to shut their mouths in the middle of the day.” Today’s adventure started with a limousine pick-up from the Star Gold Coast at the rather un-holiday-like hour of 5.30am. The early start is necessary because it’s more than 300 kilometres from the coast to this outback fishing spot. To make the journey by car would take almost five hours, so the only way to get there and back in a day is by helicopter. Oh well, if you insist. Leaving from Gold Coast airport in a plush six-seater Airbus H125, we head inland toward Springbrook National Park. Flying at
under 200 metres, we skim over sprawling homesteads, eucalypt-covered ridgelines and exposed rock escarpments. At this hour, the undulating valleys are filled with early-morning fog, like vast forested cauldrons. To our left, just over the border in New South Wales, is the distinctive silhouette of Mount Warning. An hour into the flight, the scenery suddenly changes. The trees get shorter and sparser and the landscape lightens from a deep green to a montage of parched yellows and browns. We’ve hit the outback, and it’s been more than two years since the last proper rain. We land on the lawn of Dumaresq Homestead, a 365-hectare cattle farm with a spacious six-bedroom luxury farm stay. Over morning tea on the property’s shaded verandah, we meet Angela Esdaile, who, together with Dave, runs Go Fish Australia, a company that specialises in bespoke fishing adventures. Thanks to Dave’s encyclopaedic fishing knowledge and Angela’s extensive tourism experience, they can organise everything from luxury day trips like this one to more rustic multi-day adventures all over the country. The reason they use this property is because it has exclusive access to 11 kilometres of the Dumaresq River. From beneath the dappled shade of ghost gums and stringybarks, we spend the next two hours idly casting into the river’s tannin-stained waters, letting the fly drift downstream on the current before reeling it in and trying again. The process takes on an almost meditative quality and I find myself worrying less about catching a fish and more about enjoying the scenery. A selection of beers by Great Northern Brewing Company and a bottle of Starward single malt whisky certainly helps. While none of us catch any fish, one of the group manages to snare something even more elusive. A photographer is using a drone to take some aerial shots and the enthusiastic angler manages to accidentally snare it with an errant cast. “Let’s call that a catch,” says Dave, winking. We retire to the homestead for a gourmet lunch of Queensland produce. After a sumptuous selection of crabs, prawns and Moreton Bay bugs, we tuck into seasoned chicken and thick slabs of steak cooked on the barbecue. Queensland might not be as renowned as other states for its wine, but the accompanying drops from Sirromet Wines in Mount Cotton are all excellent – particularly the 2010 sparkling pinot. “Of course, the idea is that we cook whatever you catch for lunch,” says Dave, his blue eyes twinkling from beneath his Akubra. “But it’s a bit difficult to grill a drone.” We still have the helicopter flight back to look forward to – an exhilarating journey that will see us cross the Granite Belt and follow the Currumbin Valley toward the coast – but for now we settle back in our chairs, top up our glasses and speculate on the ones that got away.