Sunflower Trip

Over the years, I have been lucky enough to tick off places that I have always wanted to go from my bucket list. I’ve done Sydney. I’ve been to Uluru.  I’ve  walked the harbour bridge and toured the opera house.

This trip is another bucket list one. Going to the sunflower fields.

Why the sunflower fields though? What’s the attraction I hear you ask? Well, let me tell you.

My late husband always bought them for me. Every single week. They sold sunflowers at our local supermarket and they were always stunning. I always associate them with him. After he passed away, I wrote a poetry book (Ramblings of a forty widow – available on Amazon!). Sunflowers were on the cover, it just felt right. So, needless to say, as lovely as supermarket sunflowers were, they were not going to cut it, I wanted to go to the real thing.

I had been liaising through social media (thank you Instagram and Scenic Rim Flower Farm) and finding out all I could. Then, I just googled sunflower, flower farm and before I knew it, I had a list of places to go.  Then it was just a case of pulling it all together.

The route

Friday 5th November was our day of choice and as usual, the route we chose was “off the highways” as much as possible. When we are going away, we like to see as much as we can. The route we chose took us out to Kilcoy via Peachester and the Glasshouse Mountains and then down to Somerset Dam before we reached our destination of Woodend, Ipswich.

It was very weird to be away from home and constantly see signs for Brisbane. I suppose for me, I didn’t feel like I had gone ‘away’ but it was an area that we hadn’t been to before and we had plans!  Saturday was our Sunflower field Day. Sunday was exploring the Scenic Rim! 

Where we stayed 

The place that we had booked was located on Stayz. The address was 3 Campbell Street, Woodend. It was beautiful house. A traditional Queenslander internally but missing those beautiful ornate railings you can get on the outside. It was a three bed, 1 1/2 bathroom property. Beautiful kitchen , dining and lounge room. Accessible garden and lots of little added extras that made the property homely.  Everything you needed in a kitchen was there, including the TimTams! The bathroom was stocked with Shampoo and Conditioner as well as little extras like cotton wool, hand cream and extra soap. Towels and Linen were provided and keys were located a lockbox outside the property which, when you put all these things together, made the stay comfortable. My only complaint would be the seating in the property. They had been well used and were not as comfortable as I perhaps expected. 

Staying in a city was also something different as Dad and I usually find ourself in the middle of nowhere close to some remote beach, but this was something different and we embraced that change. 

Shamefully, I never took any pics of the property but here is the Stayz link for you to check it out. 

Stayz Property

Sunflower fields

The main reason for our visit was to visit the sunflower fields. 

Kalbar Sunflower trip

Check out the link and the social media links for the flower farm that hosted us. 

What else did we do?

When you are camped out on the doorstep of the Scenic Rim, the best thing to do is to drive and explore. In hindsight,  the best place to stay would probably have been further south than Ipswich, but these are the things you live and learn on a trip. 

When driving out, we made a basic plan. By basic, I mean ‘lets head for here and see what happens!’  When you are on the road with a photographer looking for the perfect images and a writer looking for inspiration, “the plan” doesn’t last long.

We found ourselves swinging off the main road every time something grabbed our attention. Did that ‘no through road’ have anything of excitement to see? Did that ‘no through road’ have another road  leading from it that might show something? There was only one way to find out. 


We drove around during the weekend, touring the circuit of Ipswich, Gatton, Willowvale, Aratula and back to Ipswich. There were lots of opportunities for photographs along the way, even for me and my iPhone!


The one tourist place that we did want to go was Rosewood Railway. Unfortunately due to staffing issues and covid, it was closed indefinitely. 

Rosewood Railway Facebook Page

The Scenic Rim is just that! Scenic. Its well worth a visit, I will be going back.