Winters Way is of the road built to the Bunya Mountains from the Kumbia side, created by teams including Charlie Winter and his boys. Winters Way sign is on the Bunya Mountains Road, about 9.7km from Bunya Hwy.
When I first came across the Winters Way brown sign in 2017, I looked around near the sign and couldn’t find anything. Searching the internet, I found a photo of a plaque bolted to a rock and information on the bunyamountains.com.au website (the page no longer exists but there is a Wayback Machine link below) talking about Charlie Winter and his boys. I didn’t see the rock, the plaque, or had a clear idea of where it could be located. I originally wrote the following:
The location of this destination is where the sign is located on the Kumbia side of the Bunya Mountains. The plague may be in a different location altogether, such as near the Burtons Well campgrounds. Winters Way referring to the road up to the Bunya Mountains, it is quite possible the road itself is the destination. If you find the plague’s location or know where it is, leave a comment so we can update this information.
No one left a comment but good fortune came in 2024. After chasing fireflies in the Bunya Mountains, we found a few more brown signs and I took Fiona to Burton’s Well to go on the nearby walk. The walk was closed due to track damage from bad weather, but we found the Winters Way stone. It is located at Burton’s Well
.
The wording on the plaque is as following:
On the Kumbia side of the mountain, the Bunya Mountains Road Club was formed in 1927 to organise and provide funds for road building. Kingaroy Council agreed to provide a surveyor and do the earthworks if the club members did all the clearing. After much hard work by locals including a lot of fund raising, a number of teams including Charlie Winter and his boys, hand cleared the rainforest. They were helped at the top of the mountain as they were able to utilise the old logging trails that transversed the top of the mountain range. The Dalby & Kumbia Roads joined up in 1931. The Kumbia Road was the first road on the mountain to be sealed.
Links
http://bunyamountains.com.au/about-the-bunya-mountains/history-bunya-mountains/
