We "lived" here for a day.
Firstly, this is the Leichhardt Hotel in Morgan Street, the main street of Mount Morgan in Central Queensland.
We never really lived in Mt. Morgan (certainly not this hotel), even for a night as visitors but we were there in spirit. Here is the story!
When we began planning our 2021 driving holiday of Queensland, we decided to spend a night in Mt. Morgan. We had been here several times before but never stayed and because its a heritage town with photographic opportunities, we wanted to spend more time. So Plan A was hatched and accommodation and car hires duly booked online for the three week trip. It was not to be...sort of.
First part of the story is that 10 August 2021 was Australian Census night (of all times in COVID! - that is the way of these things though). Now this year, the vast majority of the Census was to be done online, no Census callers delivering papers and following ups days later. In addition, we were permitted to fill it out in advance if we were confident of where we would be that night. So of course, this is what we tried to do because we were going to be in Mt. Morgan, right? Not as I said above in this hotel but in a cabin in the Caravan Park up the road, there being few accommodation options in the town.
First thing that went wrong was that we must have been one of the first to go online and fill out the boxes which indicated we would not be at our normal residence as that is when we ran foul of "the system". It did not like this and our submission crashed. Then followed a series of phone calls to the Census people (number cunningly disguised by the way) with broken call backs from "Managers" and IT staff. To cut a long story short, we and they did sort it but no great help from the bureaucrats! And it was THEIR census! We even got several Census registration numbers!!!!! But we were to be official residents of Mt. Morgan for the night.
Nearing the original holiday departure date, South East Queensland was thrown into a quick, sharp lockdown. Go to Plan B, redo all bookings with fingers crossed for the new date. We came out of lockdown and the new dates were good weren't they?No, of course not, we were told to not leave South East Queensland and go to regional areas of the State for two weeks. Enact Plan C, redo all the bookings again, let's hope that that directive lifts in time.
We shouldn't complain, we were after all far better off than millions of our fellow Australians who were sick, dying and in lockdown for months. But there was one little catch - we were no longer going to be in Mt. Morgan on the 10th August. Call the Census people again and explain - surely we are not the only ones in this position? Explain the whole history again and even why we have multiple Census registration numbers. All good Mr. Western Thunderer (funny name that!!!), we have put some electronic link in to your usual abode BUT you are still in Mt. Morgan as far as we are concerned, but we have your back and you won't be fined. (We hope).
So that's how we ended up in Mt. Morgan for a night! Just apparitions really. But we did pass through a month later, heading south not north. And one day, we may even get to stay there!
That's our story and we are sticking to it.
We "lived" here for a day.
Firstly, this is the Leichhardt Hotel in Morgan Street, the main street of Mount Morgan in Central Queensland.
We never really lived in Mt. Morgan (certainly not this hotel), even for a night as visitors but we were there in spirit. Here is the story!
When we began planning our 2021 driving holiday of Queensland, we decided to spend a night in Mt. Morgan. We had been here several times before but never stayed and because its a heritage town with photographic opportunities, we wanted to spend more time. So Plan A was hatched and accommodation and car hires duly booked online for the three week trip. It was not to be...sort of.
First part of the story is that 10 August 2021 was Australian Census night (of all times in COVID! - that is the way of these things though). Now this year, the vast majority of the Census was to be done online, no Census callers delivering papers and following ups days later. In addition, we were permitted to fill it out in advance if we were confident of where we would be that night. So of course, this is what we tried to do because we were going to be in Mt. Morgan, right? Not as I said above in this hotel but in a cabin in the Caravan Park up the road, there being few accommodation options in the town.
First thing that went wrong was that we must have been one of the first to go online and fill out the boxes which indicated we would not be at our normal residence as that is when we ran foul of "the system". It did not like this and our submission crashed. Then followed a series of phone calls to the Census people (number cunningly disguised by the way) with broken call backs from "Managers" and IT staff. To cut a long story short, we and they did sort it but no great help from the bureaucrats! And it was THEIR census! We even got several Census registration numbers!!!!! But we were to be official residents of Mt. Morgan for the night.
Nearing the original holiday departure date, South East Queensland was thrown into a quick, sharp lockdown. Go to Plan B, redo all bookings with fingers crossed for the new date. We came out of lockdown and the new dates were good weren't they?No, of course not, we were told to not leave South East Queensland and go to regional areas of the State for two weeks. Enact Plan C, redo all the bookings again, let's hope that that directive lifts in time.
We shouldn't complain, we were after all far better off than millions of our fellow Australians who were sick, dying and in lockdown for months. But there was one little catch - we were no longer going to be in Mt. Morgan on the 10th August. Call the Census people again and explain - surely we are not the only ones in this position? Explain the whole history again and even why we have multiple Census registration numbers. All good Mr. Western Thunderer (funny name that!!!), we have put some electronic link in to your usual abode BUT you are still in Mt. Morgan as far as we are concerned, but we have your back and you won't be fined. (We hope).
So that's how we ended up in Mt. Morgan for a night! Just apparitions really. But we did pass through a month later, heading south not north. And one day, we may even get to stay there!
That's our story and we are sticking to it.