Jondaryan- where is it, and secondly, how do you pronounce it?

Jondaryan Station was one of the large pastoral runs held when Queensland was in its infancy as a state. At it's peak, the station had 300,000 sheep of their own, and about as many acres of land covering a huge part of the Darling Downs west of Toowoomba, across to Dalby.

The famous woolshed itself was built in 1858-59 and is the oldest continually running woolshed in Australia. Roof beams used to make it were brought out from England as ballast, strapped to the sides of sailing ships, apparently. In 1939, the government's policy was one of decentralisation, and Jondaryan Station was one of the last of these great pastoral runs to be resumed and broken up by the government.

Woolshed balls and bush dances were an annual occurence in the huge woolshed, and in the 1970s a number of locals formed a group to try to preserve the woolshed, and some surrounding buildings, and so the museum complex began, and grew from there.

We will be using the Evanslea shed, a huge old wheat storage building for our projects over the event.

Jondaryan is pronounced "John - dairy - ann" as in a boy's name, a place where cows are milked, and a girl's name.

The woolshed complex is 3km southwest of the town of Jondaryan, which is on the Warrego Highway about 9 km west of Oakey, or 42 km west of Toowoomba. The Warrego Highway runs from Ipswich, near Brisbane, west through Toowoomba, and out past Roma to Charleville. It is an easy half an hour's drive from Toowoomba, and Toowoomba is about 125 km from the centre of Brisbane, or about 1 1/2 hour's drive, depending on the traffic.

During our event, they will also be holding a whip-plaiting school, as part of a series of heritage trades schools they frequently conduct on the complex.

Here is a link to an interactive map of the area

Here is a link to the Shire town maps

How to get there:

If you are driving, the instructions above should help, as long as you can find south east Queensland and Toowoomba.

If you are flying, the best airport is Brisbane.With sufficient advance notification, we'll try and meet and collect everyone who needs it.

If you happen to prefer to be independent, you can hire a car from the airport, or catch the "Airport Flyer" bus from there straight to Toowoomba, or take a cheaper option, and get a shuttle bus to Roma Street Interchange in the city, and then get a Greyhound coach to Toowoomba and thence to Jondaryan. There is at least one near each end of the day, if not more often.