DON’T miss the lovely little town of Alpha. When travelling from the west, just make sure you keep going straight where the road sign indicates Emerald to the right. You’ll find yourself in Alpha’s main street!

The street is a picture, with large albizzia trees creating glorious shady areas.

Make your first stop in town the tourist information centre. It’s open during the mornings only, so make sure you drop in early.

The Rowley Roberts Tourist Centre is voluntarily run and is a driver reviver stop, offering tea and coffee on the mornings of school holidays and public holidays.

Rowley Roberts’ son Luke is a well known artist in both Europe and Australia and has won awards for his paintings.

Visitors to the centre can see a display of local petrified wood, including an unusual piece of petrified palm leaf. You can also look around for some petrified wood to take home. These pieces are popular with people who want to polish them up.

The lapidary section at the centre is of interest to many visitors. If you have found your own piece of petrified wood, you can organise for someone to help you cut and polish it. So for a small charge, you can have a very personalised souvenir of your visit to Alpha! Talk to the people at the tourist information centre about this option. The evenings are a good time to use the equipment.

While in the area, enjoy a bushwalk through a designated area (the tourist information centre will give you information on it). Natural attractions include two different jump-ups, with their layers of volcanic soil in different colours giving them great visual interest. On the walk, you can also count 19 varieties of trees.

Any time is a good time to take yourself on a tour of the town’s murals. There are 27 murals to see around Alpha, and for art on a different scale the art gallery also shows three exhibitions a year. Recently, the Alpha Cultural Group has revitalised its passion for pottery, and an exhib­ition of local works will be displayed at the Jane Neville-Rolfe Art Gallery during winter.

For a taste of nature, make sure you visit the garden off Tennyson Street. The garden, which includes many native species, was started in 1994 by the council and Central Queensland Native Flower Association to see what flowers could be grown for the cut flower industry. Gardens were set up in five towns and the Alpha garden is the only one still going. It was taken over by two private residents.

The town’s history is also being preserved. The Tivoli Museum, which is on the same allotment as the visitor information centre, is currently being upgraded.

Alpha is rather a sporting town. There are tennis courts, a pool and a golf course with sand greens. There are lots of equestrian interests too, from pony clubbing to rodeo to racing.

Also of interest is the school, which teaches to Year 10 and allows students studying Years 11 and 12 by correspondence to use the school facilities as part of their schooling.

Alpha is the administrative centre of the Jericho Shire and has a population of just 350 people. The main industry in the region is beef cattle - mostly Brahmans.

This region is known as Mitchell country, named for Sir Thomas Mitchell who went through the area in 1846. Alpha was born when the original railway settlement, Pine Hill, was found to have insufficient water. The town is situated at Alpha Creek, which actually does a horseshoe bend and runs underneath the town. Because of this, quite a few bores can be found in town.

The Spirit of the Outback train passes through Alpha on its two trips from Brisbane to Longreach each week and makes a short stop both ways.

While you’re in town, stock up on groceries and other supplies at the 5-Star, open weekdays from 8.30am to 5.30pm and on Saturdays until 1.00pm.

If you’re looking for accommodation, John and Elaine Triffitt at the Alpha Caravan and Villa Park are especially welcoming and offer air-conditioned en suite cabins along with drive-through sites for people bringing their own vans.

Tilstons Garage has fuel, tyres, mechanical repairs as well as meals and souvenirs.

Browse around Alpha Gateway, which sells products ranging from fuel and oils to household goods and fresh bread and milk.

Alpha Distrit Tourism and Development Association Inc Shakespeare Street, Alpha Phone (07) 4985 1050 Email: alphatour1@bigpond.com Snow’s Bread Phone (07) 4985 1334 Pies, cakes, pastries

Stock up at Alpha Meats and Deli, where you can buy hot chooks, fresh meat and frozen seafood (and just about everything in between!).

Be sure to stop in at the bakery, Snow’s Bread, which has won awards for its pies in Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne.

By day, you can sometimes see chital deer camped down by the creek (there are occasionally koalas down there too). Some nights, the deer walk down the main street of Alpha!

If you’re a campdrafting fan, be in Alpha for the Alpha Campdraft, which is always held during the last weekend in March. It’s an opportunity to see fantastic horsemanship and meet the friendly locals of Alpha at the same time! There’s entertainment on Friday and Saturday nights, and full catering and bar facilities.

From Monday, May 21 to Wednesday, May 23, join the locals at the Alpha Show and see the fat cattle, handicrafts, other exhibits, equestrian events and dog show.

Something special this year is Back to Alpha from September 20 to 23. Events include a “meet and greet” at the Alpha Golf Club on Thursday. The school roll will be called on the Friday, and a mini-campdraft will be staged during the event.

When leaving Alpha, you can help prevent the spread of weeds by using the vehicle washdown facility on the Clermont Road.Stock up at Alpha Meats and Deli, where you can buy hot chooks, fresh meat and frozen seafood (and just about everything in betwee