If you drive out West Toowoomba way, but a bit farther out and north a bit, you will come to a small Queensland town called Peranga. Some sources say that the population is around fifty. There is a post office (open one hour every morning for mail collection but really it’s a house); and there’s a Police Station, which really is a Police Station because it has a sign outside saying so, also it has an office and a police officer. I know because Chris and I stayed there last week with my niece, her policeman husband and youngest son.

My phone had no signal or Internet so there was no contact with the outside world (which made a pleasant change) but plenty of contact with wildlife and locals in their cars (two of the three cars I saw were driven by very friendly folk who waved and smiled – the other car was the police car driven by Chris the policeman!). And none of them seemed to find it odd that I walked in the middle of the road as I took photographs. Country folk are extremely understanding.

The houses were old Australia style and charming, and weather-beaten sheds were even more so. The late afternoon sunshine bathed the countryside in a golden light which made picturesque long shadows under windmills, trees and cacti. The sunset glowing at the bottom of Nelia’s garden was breathtaking against the silhouettes of the trees.

Peranga was all I thought it would be…. except for one thing – actually, there are only around thirty people living in the town. I have it on good authority from the policeman.