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Yeppoon
Great spot, but busy in holiday periods.Sarina > Rockhampton > Yeppoon > Gladstone > Bundaberg (not all in one day!!)
23
rd November to 7
th December 2011
Leaving Sarina we had mixed feelings (again!), we had a great spot on the beach which all of us had enjoyed, particularly Jackie, so we were sorry to leave this campsite, but we are headed towards Rocky and Yeppoon which we were looking forward to. Our first stop was Camilla beach about 70 klm south of Sarina. Camilla Beach is a free campsite in the bushline behind the beach, don’t get too excited here and camp on the sand as the tide can come right up to the bushline. As with a lot of this part of the coastline there was ample evidence of damage caused by Cyclone Yasi, but this will all recover with time. The track in can be pretty sandy but it is a pretty spot.
Onto Rockhampton (Rocky) with stops at Clairview, St Lawrence, and Marlborough, where we were both expecting to see the Marlborough Man ride up on his horse and open a pack of ciggies and do his thing (you probably need to be over 50YO to know what we are talking
Yeppoon
Main Beach with town behind, great setting. about here, sorry youngun’s!). There are a lot of small communities off the main drag which we should all make an effort to visit instead of just ‘blasting’ down the ‘black top’ to our destinations, they can be fun and quite interesting (mostly!). We had thought about staying in Rocky but the lure of Yeppoon was always too great for us and we figured it was only 30 odd Klm into Rocky from Yeppoon so we could travel in each day if needs be (and as it happened that is what we had to do!). So we had booked for 4 nights at Kinka Beach, on the coast between Yeppoon and Emu Park, and right on the beach.
We turned off at Parkhurst, bypassing Rocky, and as we drove into Yeppoon and then along the amazing coastline to Kinka we knew then that this was going to be one of ‘those stops’ on this trip of ours! And that is just what it turned out to be, this part of the world, including Rocky, is fantastic, we just loved it. Trish had some reoccurring eye issues that meant we had to seek out some specialist help again so we
ended up here for 10 days driving into Rocky most days for monitoring. Situated on Keppel Bay along the Capricorn Coastline, Yeppoon is at the northern end of the ‘scenic highway’ that travels down the coastline 21 klm to Emu Park and along the way you pass some of the best beaches you could wish to see. This coastline is a big tourist area so Yeppoon and all the little towns along this stretch of coast are geared up to cater for the beachside holiday goer. Yeppoon is the centre of the activity and offers a myriad of cafes and restaurants, accommodation and shopping. Rosslyn Bay Harbour is the home to Keppel Bay Marina, the largest Marina in Nth Qld, and the departure point for ferries to Great Keppel Island. There was a good Fisherman’s Co-Op here that sold fresh local caught fish which we enjoyed. Beaches along the coast here worth spending a day at included Lammermoor, Kinka, Mulambin and Kemp. The two main beaches are Yeppoon main beach and Emu Park, both of these beaches are patrolled and can get very busy.
Rockhampton is a city that I felt was reinventing itself. With hundreds of thousands of
acres of great grazing land along the coast here for cattle and plenty of water from the Fitzroy and other rivers; the region was quickly settled. The Fitzroy River provided a suitable source for a port and a settlement quickly grew to become known as the ‘Beef Capital of Australia’. The discovery of gold at Canoona and later at Mount Morgan in the 1880’s saw Rockhampton grow to become the major port and town supporting the development of Central Queensland. Today Rocky has become a sophisticated, cosmopolitan city with many attractions. Quay Street is a ‘must see’ in our book, and is equal to other Australian gold cities like Ballarat for the number of Heritage listed sandstone buildings of historical significance all of which face the old port area along the Fitzroy River, fantastic.
Other places and things we did which we enjoyed were a trip up to Byfield National Park and Nine Mile Beach (permits required), the Rocky Botanic Gardens that have recently been given a Heritage listing and the Singing Ship in Emu Park. Eventually we dragged ourselves away from this amazing region (Xmas was approaching and we had places to be!) and headed next for Gladstone.
Gladstone is primarily a mining town and the Port of Gladstone is the fifth largest multi-commodity port in Australia and the world's fourth largest coal exporting terminal with over 50 million tonnes of coal exported from here each year. So, needless to say you probably have a picture in your mind already of how this town looks…well you would be right but you do need to add the ‘tropical touch’ and then it is not so bad as it sounds. Then there are the ‘residential areas’ just outside of Gladstone such as Boyne Island and Tannum Sands which have grown in popularity because of their long stretches of beautiful beaches, so take a closer look here, it is not all mining and coal dust.
Next stop was Agnes waters and the town of Seventeen Seventy (1770) so named as Captain Cook landed here in, you guessed it, 1770. These twin towns are being hyped as the ‘new Noosa’ but they are waaaay better than Noosa (at the moment). Devoid of ostentatious high rise and exorbitant shopping and fashion, the beaches here are pristine and beautifully unspoilt. Yes, there are some ‘flash’ houses around, mostly in Agnes Waters, but
the ‘serenity’ of the area still remains …let’s hope it stays that way! We could happily return here and sit in a comfy chair outside our van at the caravan park in 1770 and just watch the world float by, an incredible place, with a fantastic pub.
After an amazing break in 1770 we headed on to Bundaberg; me with lots of anticipation as I had planned to visit the Bundaberg Distillery. Bundaberg sits on the Burnett River, and is about 15klm from the coast at Bargara where we stayed in a park, again, right on the beach. The first Europeans in the area were timber getters and farmers who arrived in 1867. Timber was the first established industry in Bundaberg. In 1868 a sawmill was erected on the Burnett River, the Burnett Sawmill operated for over 100 years at its East Bundaberg location and was the oldest operating sawmill in the Bundaberg area until it ceased operating on 26 May 2010. Experimental sugar cane growing in the district followed and a successful industry grew with the first sugar mill opening in 1882. Bundaberg is now dependent to a large extent on the local sugar industry. Extensive sugar cane
fields are found throughout the district and value-adding operations, such as the milling and refinement of sugar, and its packaging and distribution, are located around the city. A local factory that manufactured sugar-cane harvesters was closed down after it was taken over by the US multinational corporation Case New Holland, a story we hear frequently in Australia. Most of the raw sugar is exported from a bulk terminal located on the Burnett River at Burnett Heads. Bargara is a beautiful beachside residential area and had a fabulous ‘village’ atmosphere with little cafes and restaurants fronting the beach. The Mon Repos turtle rookery is located on the coast just east of Bundaberg or north along the coast from Bargara where we were staying and it was also nesting season whilst we were here so we had to go one night to see what it was all about. Mon Repos is the largest loggerhead turtle rookery in the South Pacific and offers nightly tours during the season. We also saw Flatback and Green turtles the night we went, so the whole experience was incredible. It is an amazing sight to see these huge creatures heaving their way up the beach to find
Rockhampton
Fitzroy River. a safe spot to dig a nest and lay their eggs, what a privilege to see them, and what an effort it was for them.
Another of the city's exports is Bundaberg Rum, made from the sugar cane by-product molasses, a favourite tipple of mine and many other Australians. A tour through the distillery was a highlight for me and I could only imagine how it would be to dive into one of those 50000 Lt vats! Commercial fruit and vegetable production is also a major industry of the area centred around Childers, often called the fruit and vege bowl of the North. Avocados, Beans, Button Squash, Cherry Tomatoes, Citrus, Cucumbers, Custard Apples, Gherkins, Mangos, Pineapples, Potatoes, Pumpkins, Rockmelons, Snow peas, Strawberries, Tomatoes, Zucchinis, Capsicums, legumes, sweet potatoes and watermelons are all grown in abundant quantities. Most of these crops are worked on and harvested by backpackers. The Childers Palace Backpackers Hostel fire on 23 June 2000 killed 15 backpackers: nine women and six men. The Palace was rebuilt in its original 1890’s style and on the second floor is the most beautiful and moving memorial to all of those backpackers that died in the fire, well worth a
Rockhampton
Historic Quay Street, looking east. moment to stop and remember.
Bundaberg, and the Coral Coast has a lot to offer and see but we had to move on to Hervey Bay where we were going to stay with Tom and Barb, our friends we travelled to Kakadu and the Tiwi Islands with whilst we were all at Tumbling Waters outside of Darwin….ahhh those days are also great memories.
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Matt
non-member comment
My kind of bar!
Bundy on top and every Bundy known to man in bottles on the shelf!