Laidley Spring Festival

The Scenic Rim has picturesque roads, beautiful landscapes and country roads ready for exploration with plenty of scenic lookouts and cafes.

The Prince Consort - Four Legged Pub Crawl

Make no bones about it; there are plenty of places outside the four fences of home where city dogs can let their fur down. You know the drill, you face your dog’s accusatory glare as you leave and as soon as you get to the venue you see other people with their dogs. Then you start feeling guilty for leaving your furry pal behind. With an increasing number of cafes putting out a welcome bowl of water, bars where you can have a beer with your 4-legged best friend and a drive-in theatre for dogs to catch the latest movies, there’s even less reason to leave the pooch at home. Throughout August at The Prince Consort in Fortitude Valley, it's was Pawgust time. 

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The Wickham Street pub dedicated the entire month to pairing pints with pooches. Some of the special events on the agenda were a Paws and Pints session on Sunday, August 14, a fundraising brunch on Saturday, August 20 and the event we stumbled across at the last minute “Four Legged Pub Crawl”. Forget regular old pub crawls in Brisbane this one takes you hopping between three Fortitude Valley bars with your cute pooch. The Prince Consort's Four-Legged Pub Crawl was on Sunday, August 28 and took us hopping between three Fortitude Valley bars with our cute pup. Unsurprisingly, it finished off at the 230 Wickham Street venue itself, which is celebrating Pawgust all across the month. The walk started from the Triffid from there we walked up to Stone & Wood's Brisbane brewery, and then a little further over to The The Prince Consort.

Few dogs and owners meet at the first leg of the crawl, The Triffid. This World War II aircraft hangar turned music industry hub is one of the coolest hangouts that Brisbane has to offer The Triffid has carved out a legacy as one of the most beloved live music venues in Brisbane, but it’s also pup friendly. Bring your pup down for a couple refreshing afternoon pints, and send them on their merry way when the mosh pit comes a-calling. If you want a cool, relaxing Sunday afternoon with great live music and a late lunch this is the place to go. Atmosphere is relaxing; staffs were helpful and loved the pups. From midday to 7pm, dogs are welcomed in the outside areas (deck and beer garden)

From the Triffid we moved on to 99 Bridge Street and stopped at Stone & Wood's Brisbane brewery. Synonymous with sunny days and good times, Stone & Wood Brisbane has developed a reputation as one of the most lovable craft breweries. Stone and Wood are synonymous with Byron Bay, and while in Byron we visited their brewery with our pup. The Brisbane Brewery is tucked away in the heritage-listed Trails Ltd Ice and Cold Stores taking over a heritage-listed former warehouse and giving it an industrial fit-out. The venue features plenty of exposed brickwork, steel beams and polished concrete, but still has an open, airy feel, in part thanks to the roller doors that open to let in plenty of natural light. You’ll find 24 taps pouring Stone & Wood’s core range of beers, limited releases, and small-batch brews exclusive to Brisbane. To one side, there's the bar with the working brewery behind, and to the other, a canteen window where you can order food. At the rear is a merchandise wall. The staffs were fantastic, the food was amazing but as you would expect the beer was outstanding! Great experience in a repurposed building Oozing with character, will be back for sure. After awhile we hit the road again following Wickham street to our final destination The Prince Consort.

We entered through the ground floor and into an unassuming, typical English gastro pub that’s a little brighter and whiter than what you’d usually expect, but with the typical pub atmosphere and hospitality we all know and love. We headed outside into The Garden Bar to find a lush, open air beer garden, the perfect spot to soak up Brisbane’s weather with a beer or two. The Prince Consort is a massive, multi-level, heritage-listed hotel (circa 1888) featuring 8 unique, bespoke bars for drinking and dining, all under one roof. Most recently known as the Elephant Hotel, the landmark building has reverted to its original name and has been transformed to its former glory. We had a fantastic woodfire pizza and the woodfired salad.

The event was raising money for Animal Welfare League Queensland. The Animal Welfare League of Qld takes care of approximately 10,000 strayed and abandoned animals annually from South East Queensland. The AWL receives no Government funding for welfare work, relying predominantly on the community for support. Keeping track of the pooch-friendly events around Brisbane almost requires a separate calendar. We look forward to next August.

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Stroll on Moffart Beach, Breakfast at The Giggling Goat

A new day emerges in spectacular fashion as we head up the highway to the most chilled out place on Earth, Moffat Beach. The Sunshine Coast is exactly what you expect from Queensland, blue sky, bluer ocean, golden sand, bronzed surfers and tropical vegetation. Any of the Sunshine Coast’s beaches should serve up a beautiful sunrise, with the added bonus of being able to take a relaxing stroll along the beach. We love the peace and quiet Moffat Beach produces. With fairly calm conditions and beautiful rock platforms, Moffat beach is just outside the hustle and bustle whilst being close enough to enjoy.

We spent a pleasant couple of hours walking our pup along the beach to the rocks at the southern end of the beach. Low tide is the best time to visit so the rock platforms are exposed, easier to get about and plenty of interesting shapes and textures in the rocks. For keen walkers they’re a Moffatt to Kings Beach journey which is part of Caloundra’s Coastal Pathway, a breathtaking nine-kilometre stretch of paths, meandering along Caloundra’s beaches from Bells Creek in the south to Point Cartwright in the north. 

There’s more to explore in both directions and, as in any Sunshine Coast seaside destination, cafes, eateries and picnic places abound. We headed back to Eleanor Shipley Memorial Park, which provides ocean views over the beach. Peaceful and serene with shade provided courtesy of the pine and pandanus trees that line the shore a perfect spot to chill and people watch.

Breakfast calling we headed to The Giggling Goat Emporium, located in Dicky Beach, which is a casual cafe that serves up a variety of tasty eats. The Giggling Goat is a superb breakfast place.  Aside from the good quality food and coffee they are dog friendly.  They go so far as to baking pumpkin and bacon biscuits for our four legged friends. We arrived, the cafe was just coming abuzz with customers and tables were disappearing quickly.

We ended picking the Corn Fritters with poached egg and bacon and the Mega Breakfast - two pieces of sourdough toast, two eggs poached, two rashers bacon, one sausage, one hash brown, grilled tomato, sauteed spinach and mushrooms, and a side of tomato relish. The food was very quick to come out and everything looked amazing. The portion sizes were good and everything was plated very well.

The Giggling Goat is a great little cafe that serves delicious food with amazing customer service and I highly recommend going there! You will definitely be glad that you did!

After some breakfast we headed to Shelly Beach which is one of the Sunshine Coast’s hidden gems. This lovely stretch of oceanfront is unpatrolled and not suitable for swimming meaning you’ll rarely see a crowd on the shore. In fact, you’ll often have the white sands and oceans views all to yourself.  Facing directly east, this is the perfect place to enjoy a tranquil sunrise or reconnect with nature on a solitary beach stroll.

Best Cafes Sunshine Coast: Our Top Picks

Whether you’re visiting for the weekend, or you’d like to holiday on the Sunshine Coast, there’s an abundance of local cafes that you can’t miss

Café Vie

2 Main St, Buderim QLD 4556

One of the best vegan café Sunshine Coast locals love to rave about is Café Vie. With a stunning interior where high ceilings, white walls, polished concrete floors and natural light meet along with food that’s sure to impress.

Criminal Coffee Co

6/110 Sixth Avenue , Maroochydore, QLD, Australia

If you’re a fan of Peaky Blinders and excellent coffee, then Maroochydore’s Criminal Coffee Co needs to be added to your café bucket list.

White Picket Fence

140 Bulcock St, Caloundra QLD 4551

Archways, indoor plants, and delicious food to graze on, White Picket Fence is a cute, Instagramable café tucked away in Caloundra. 

Monica’s

11/43 Maple Street Maleny 4552

A top breakfast spot in the Sunshine Coast hinterland, Monica’s is a homely café with walls adorned with worldly treasures and indoor plants cascading down and lofts with leather couches and pouffes. 

The Velo Project

19 Careela St, Mooloolaba QLD 4557

If you love farm to table eats, then you must stop by the Velo Project. Simple honest food made with love, the team focuses on high quality, supporting local farmers suppliers and sustainability.

Check out our Instagram Movie

Tara Festival of Culture & Camel Race

Up early, caravan packed and hooked up we took the road less travelled and ended up in the peaceful Queensland Outback town of Tara. Accessed off the Moonie Highway and Warrego Way, Tara is literally is “off the beaten track”. A road trip is always an exciting thing, the time away from the everyday and the banal and perhaps a surprise or two along the way. We watched the city skyline of Brisbane disappear behind us as we entered the city that almost stole Brisbane’s capital status, Ipswich. It is not long and you are passing through the Lockyer Valley, the salad bowl of Queensland, home to top quality local producers that work hard to create unique and exciting products. Situated adjacent to the Lockyer Valley, on the Great Dividing Range, is Toowoomba and where the Southern Queensland Country experience begins where you can slow down, breath deep and enjoy a taste of life in the country. The Toowoomba region has a lot to offer visitors, renowned for its magnificent parks and gardens, scenic views and provider to gourmet food and wine culture. It is a region of unparalleled beauty, offering the contrasts of the seasons; the colours and characters of the countryside; rich heritage and the release from big city pressures to enjoy country pleasures. Or you can take the Toowoomba Bypass which is a 41-kilometre bypass which runs to the north of Toowoomba from the Warrego Highway to the Gore Highway via Charlton, skipping around Toowoomba all together

Continuing along the Warrego, the next stop is Dalby. Dalby is the regional centre of the Western Downs located just over 200 kilometres west of Brisbane. With plenty of local history and culture to experience, from Pioneer Park Museum and a local Heritage Trail to exploring Bunya Mountains National Park, there’s no shortage of things to see and do. From Dalby we headed to Tara via the Moonie Highway, where we passed Lake Broadwater Conservation Park, southwest of Dalby. Only three and a half hours from the city lights of Brisbane, we found ourselves in camel country, aka Tara and home to Tara Festival of Culture & Camel Races. This town of about 2,000 people sure knows how to draw a crowd, with 12,000 festival attendees camping at the showgrounds and racetrack.

We arrived Thursday, due to flooding rain on the weekend and were welcomed at the front gate by volunteers who checked us in, issued our festival wrist bands and directed us to our Camping Zone. Any more rain during the week leading up the Tara Festival of Culture and Camel Races could have spelt disaster, but Mother Nature was forgiving on this occasion. We setup quick and sat and watched the parade of caravans passing and laughed at the half a dozen that got bogged. Seems that the drivers didn’t listen to instructions of engaging 4WD, plus a couple didn’t even know how to engage 4WD. The go-to fashion was boots, flared jeans, flannel shirts and cowboy hats.

Event Day 1, on Saturday morning there was a street parade in which all the children of the community participated. It was Book Week parade with a cultural, international theme. A large number of countries were represented, and the kids were dressed in all sorts of colourful and imaginative costumes, providing a delightful display. The festival gates opened at 5:30pm, with the Carnivale show at Origin Main Stage up first, followed by the fireworks. We missed the fireworks due to making sure Shari (pup) didn’t get spooked. After the fireworks there was live music with Jacques Van Lill .

Stage Day 2, Saturday had the camel racing up first and following up every hour, with yabby racing in between the camel races. Night’s entertainment was the Rooftop Express Show. After runaway success around Australia the Rooftop Show brought the Heroes of the Outback to Tara with some highly refined and visually enchanting stunts, true blue Australian comedy and awe-inspiring horsemanship. Its loveable bush characters and amusing storyline encourages crowd participation and family fun. The Rooftop Show was followed by James Johnston, who has had a career as successful as it is diverse. At 25 James has performed on some of the biggest stages and toured throughout the world sharing his craft. 2009 saw James compete in the Hit show Australian Idol finishing 3rd. After James the Origin Main Stage came alive with The Wolfe Brothers.  Nick and Tom Wolfe, have become renowned over the past few years for their jaw-dropping live shows and steady ascent to Australian country music's upper echelon.

Stage Day 3, was camel racing every hour camel with yabby racing in between.  Rooftop Express Show was inside the racecourse, bogged. All weekend there were Latin dancers and drummers, Caribbean steel band, a Chinese musical duo, a Reggae/ Latin and soul band, Indigenous performers, country musicians, Haka dancers, Polynesian and belly dancers, as well as some buskers.

Things to consider:

Don’t pay for the Bullant Communcations  WIFI – Total waste of money.

You must check out the Woolshed bakery – it’s easy to spot, it’s the building with the old wool press on the roof and inside you’ll find more reminders of Tara’s proud fine wool connections in the shearing themed dining area.

Tara Lagoon is absolutely beautiful at sunset, stroll or cycle it’s riverside walkway, or drop in a line as the sun sets spectacularly across the lagoon. If you’re keen on freshwater fishing, the locals say this is a top spot and there’s budget priced camping too.

Tara and its surrounds are a treat for the senses. For a true insight into the life of our diggers, visit Meandarra ANZAC Memorial Museum. Don’t miss Monty’s Garage Vintage Car Museum for classic 1940s automobiles.

Lace Embrace Boutique

Kim purchased some Tara Camel Races earrings from Lace Embrace Boutique, for a memento of the trip.

The Festival dates for 2024 are 2^nd August till the 4^th August. We will be attending again and looking forward to spending longer to check out the local towns

Check out our little clip

Tony and Kim acknowledging the Traditional Owners of the Western Downs;

The Barunggam to the west of Dalby, the Iman (Yiman) around the Wandoan area,

the Bigambul around the Tara area, and the Jarowair around the Bunya mountains area.