the woolshed at jondaryan

We visited on the Friday of the Chinchilla Watermelon Festival. It was deserted so we wandered around with our map and the signs as our only guide. It is a large place so it took us 2 hours to stroll around. Each building is nicely presented with plentiful artifacts from the era. Wool shed itself has fleas. Modern Cafe was a pleasant surprise, petting zoo was basic but animals were friendly. It would have been nice to have had a tour or for something to have been active (e.g. Blacksmithing). Nice idea but being dependent on volunteers means that a midweek visit is not the same experience as a weekend visit.

Loved the tour of the farm given by the local historian, he has been there for 41 years and really knows his stuff.

We camped in the unpowered area with our 4 year old daughter. The unpowered area is simpy huge but there are virtually no trees in the middle oval. Since it was 38 degrees when we stayed there camping without shade was not an option. Along the river is nice with plenty of trees and shade. Only problem is it is a very long walk to the amenities block. We chose a beautiful spot by the river that was the closest to the amenities. After 5 hours of driving and setting up camp we could finally relax only to be told a couple of hours later we had to move in the morning as a wedding was being held close to where we were set up. Upon check-in it was never mentioned that we couldn't camp in that spot. The lady spent considerable time showing us on the map the entire non-powered area and we said we wanted to be close to the river and amenities. We did receive an apology and six pack of beer for the inconvenience however it can never compensate for the hassle of having to pack up our campsite and set up all over again. The wedding photographer said the same thing happened to her when she camped there. Why hasn't management learnt from these earlier mistakes? Why don't they rope off the area and put up a 'do not camp here sign' when weddings are planned? The river was refreshing if you are prepared to get completely covered in mud. The Woolshed would be a good attraction but there was no sheep shearing or damper making when we were there and much of it was not open or operating.

Just spent the October long weekend in our caravan at Jondarayan. Beautifully clean amentities and a really historical camp kitchen.Loved the tour of the farm given by the local historian, he has been there for 41 years and really knows his stuff. The wool shearing is great to watch.Had a great weekend. Thank you

Something for the whole family here. Parents will enjoy the guided tour; the guide knows his local history back to front and there is a lot of it. Kids will enjoy the sheep shearing demonstration, horse-drawn carriage ride and baby goats. Buildings such as the woolshed, old school room, boundary rider's hut and others give one a great feeling for life on the station in its heyday.

Thank you for your review. We are sorry to hear that you were disappointed by your stay with us. We have raised this issue with the operations staff for further improvements. Again, thank you for letting us know about your experience at the Woolshed. Kind Regards, Marketing, The Jondaryan Woolshed

$19.50 for a powered site makes it the cheapest site we've stayed at. Beautiful views, lots of bird life. Clean amenities, three hooks in the showers (perfect number!), roomy sites and very peaceful. Only blip was the girl who checked us in - must have been having a bad day!

Okay There's Jondaryan ... 650,000 sheep shorn in 1880. The aroma of lanolin, wool and shearers' sweat in that shed !!! But, there is more ... There is the NEW cafe ... attached to the Northern end of the Great Shed ... Five Star NEW cafe cuisine gazing out across those red gums Comfortable recycled timber chairs and stable wooden tables; Fresh fresh home-made cuisine The burger meat home made mince lamb and local condiments; the waffles with grilled banana, bacon [lashes of bacon] and maple syrup were sumptuous; Apple strudel obviously made in the new kitchen, with cream and tease of strawberry and chocolate note; and the coffee [long black] was superb ... [So difficult to find decent coffee and a barista in Queensland ... lo and behold the General Manager here is a barista, and she's good !!!] Adequate fine wine list, NOT organised by the local wine rep. Well done NEW cafe Jondaryan !!!

We stayed in the caravan park attached to the woodshed complex. All the amenities that we needed and plenty of time to walk around the old woodshed and machinery. History all around everywhere you walk. The schoolhouse brought back memories of our school days in the desks and books that were set out. All the people and guides were very helpful.

I took 2 international visitors here to spend a few hours at an Aussie attraction. I don't know if we received the normal tour as it was raining on the day we went, so maybe we had a longer history lesson than normal. Our guide gave a lot of information about the history of the buildings, and a lot of history about the past owners, which was not very interesting for the international visitors, and I only found a few parts interesting such as the shearers strikes. My friends told me that they had difficulty understanding a lot of the slang the guide used; but I loved it.We saw the blacksmith at work, and had a tour through the shearing shed, but some of the displays were not working. Our guide also gave a demonstration of shearing a sheep which was interesting. The main reason I took my friends was to see some Aussie animals, and we did get to feed a few small roos and a beautiful wallaby. I bought a bag of food at the reception, but we were not given much guidance on how to get into where the roos were. I just kept opening gates until I came to their paddock. None of the gates had signs so not sure if I was supposed to or not. I just followed the old rule about gates - always leave them as you found them. My friends did get some beautiful photos with the roos so the day was good for them. Overall I would say the highlight of the day was feeding the roos. A lot more here for Aussie tourists than international tourists, imo. Maybe small children would enjoy the other domestic animals (chickens/goats/ducks). A beautiful, well kept facility.

We visited the wool shed for New Years Eve where they put on a bush dance and buffet dinner. The night is full of energy whipped up by the band who do there best to organise dancers who have two left feet (me included). The farm is set up with ample camping facilities both powered and non powered sites available. The amenities are clean and in good condition. If you don't mind being a little bit away from the amenities there is some good camping sites next to the creek. During the day there is lots to see that shows you how life was on the farm during the early 1900's and I recommend having a cup of billy tea and damper for morning tea. Not a bad place to take overseas visitors who are interested in how country life was in the 1900's.

Whilst we were in Oakey we decided to make a day trip to the Woolshed as the Golden Shears festival was on. Being new to the community we thought we would see what the locals were going on about. Was a fun day out!! It is really interesting and they put on such a good show!! There was camp oven cooking, lots of historical exhibits like an old school building was set up how it was back in the 1900s and they role played an actualy school day, also baking and how the women cooked back then, how the men used to live and how they went about there daily duties and what they used etc. You can also see shearing, farm animal feeding, train rides.. a whole heap of things. It is just awesome the effort everyone goes to. If your ever out that way - and the Golden Shears are on - its a must go !!!

Went to the Jackie Howe festival and it was great. Lovely food, plenty of entertainment and beautiful weather. Well worth a visit for the festival and to support the Woolshed and local businesses. We'll definitely be back next year.

Although on the day that we visited many of the exhibits were not working, the cheese factory, beehive, shearing, craft cottage etc, we enjoyed walking around the historic displays.We ordered coffee and damper at the cafe, coffee was out of a machine and the damper consisted of one piece of sliced damper with golden syrup....not good value!Visit a school, bank, shearers quarters, craft cottage, blacksmiths workshop, boundary riders hut, sawmill, machinery pavilion and railway station, some dating back to the 1880's.

We stayed as part of a large corporate group but only for one night. The accommodation was a "rustic cabin" which I thought was going to be cold (being the middle of winter) but it was very cosy warm. Rustic charm is certainly in the room with four single beds (one set of bunks in #7) and lino floors but for what we needed it worked perfectly (somewhere to sleep for a few hours after partying a little too long). The room was small for four adults but we were only in there to sleep so it didn't matter. It was not a cabin on it's own but a room within a large cabin of four rooms (#6 the largest with a fridge and kettle and more floor space). There are a couple of cabins on their own and you can also stay in the "Shearer's Quarters" with are very rustic - down to gaps in the floor boards.The bathroom facilities are those used by the campers and are very clean and new - lovely! We were only a few steps away from the bathrooms.The function we attended had a great atmosphere starting at the Damper stop with one of the locals belting out a few tunes on the guitar followed by some whipping lessons. Then over to the Swagman's bar for sunset drinks and a shearing demonstration. Dinner was in the large shed with nice food and great entertainment.The camping area looks great (especially down by the creek). There are several old building recreating our past which I wish we had more time to go through. Draft horses provided a "maxi cart" service for us also.