To be honest it wasn't a peanut stop, it was something a lot more fundamental than took me into the rest rooms in a park on the outskirts of Nanango. But close by was a caravan selling peanuts. And close by the van was an old guy munching on peanuts. Yes, I call him an old guy so he was pretty ancient. It was an interesting park and I said so to him and that was all he needed to launch into the history of the region. Somehow I ended up strolling around the park's features with him, both of us munching on peanuts.
The park had been established in 1998 to mark the town's sesquicentennial year. It featured stockyards, out buildings, troughs, etc hewn from timber using the methods of the pioneers.
He told me Nanango means large watering hole or 'place where the waters gather together'. Because of the water supply it was an ideal place for the original aboriginal people to gather for the bunya festival. Yep, even back then they liked a good festival. People came from all over Queensland and Northern New South Wales to feast on bunya nuts. I've checked up on his story and he had it right. He wasn't even exaggerating when he said 'thousands' came to the feasts even though the fruiting of the bunya pine was a bit erratic. Somehow they spread the word and arrived at the right time. That really fires my imagination.
These days people come to fossick for gold, he said. I took that with a grain of salt but have since found a reference to gold mining here from 1850 to 1900.
And I heard plenty about the benefits of peanuts! As I left I looked over my shoulder and he was striding off back towards town, a walking advertisement for consuming peanuts on a regular basis.
The greenest grass for miles around at the Nanango Golf Course.
