Hervey Bay and Fraser Coast - 7-13 September 2011

Our last big stop was Hervey Bay at the big 4 caravan park, the Fraser Lodge Holiday Park, which was one of the most expensive caravan parks we stayed in.  However, spring had really sprung by the time we got to this part of Queensland. 

Ibis were nesting in the Cassuarina trees

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Tortoises on the creek

and tortoises in the creek

along with the eels and...

a water hen with a rather large, ungainly and demanding chick in tow.

We booked a day tour out to Fraser Island. The tour picked us up at the caravan park and, after a short tour of the town's Backpacker and hotel accommodation we were dropped at the ferry terminal at River Heads to walk aboard. The tour company keeps its specialized tour buses on the Island, plus a tractor for levelling roads, which is part of their deal with the Parks and Wildlife. The ferry, Fraser Venture, is comfortable and the vehicle stacker/coffee maker/ barman is skilled in all three jobs - no mess and no stress but the vehicles are packed in with millimetres to spare.

From the Fraser Island ferry terminal at Wanggoolba Creek we had a short walk to the bus which is a great big bus body on the back of a truck. We seemed to have time for most things within reach of the lower end of the Island. Going into Central Station was interesting as it is fenced and protected against the dingoes by electric wires across the vehicle ramps at the entrances. On the way back we saw a dingo very close to that entrance.

Dingo on 75 Mile Beach

Our guide was informative and, in addition to a comprehensive history of the island, he had a lot of local experience which made his comments much more live and immediate. His tale, of coming back from the annual fishing competition as the tide came in over the rocks area of the beach and letting his mate go over first because he had the lighter tinny in tow and then watching as the mate's Pajero trailer and tinny got lifted up and floated on a surge of water, was so well told he did not need to produce the video he has of the floating Pajero (which was deposited on the sand as the surge retreated and continued off up the beach).

 

Traffic on 75 Mile Beach

Anne here: From Central Station we travelled out onto 75 Mile Beach where some people took a short aerial tour of the island and we met up with them again at The Pinnacles coloured sands.  We also stopped at Eli Creek, which is a popular fresh water swimming area when weather and tide agree.   On the way back we stopped to examine the Maheno shipwreck and then it was off to a buffet lunch at Eurong Beach Resort.  After our leisurely lunch we travelled to Lake Mckenzie (a perched freshwater lake in the middle of the island’s dune) which had been on my bucket list since I saw a picture of it some years ago.  It did not disappoint.  The water colour progresses through the palest aqua in the shallows to the deepest blue fringed by the whitest quartz sand and rainforest greens of the forest.  Some hardy souls swam, but most of us paddled in the shallows.  At the moment due to unseasonably heavy rains in the early part of the year the waters are high as only evaporation lowers the water level.

The Pinnacles coloured sands

Wreck of the Maheno on 75 Mile Beach

Dingo taking a great interest in a wind surfer

Lake McKenzie, Fraser Island

The usual postcard shot of these 2 trees shows them out of water and lots of sand in the background

Tourists enjoying Lake McKenzie

Ferry docking at River Heads at the end of our Fraser Island tour

All in all the $350 price tag for the tour for two included ferry and park fees, lunch, the ranger guided tour and piece of mind - well worth it.  As we are not fishermen we did not need to stay longer than that.

Tin Can Bay was another destination on our ‘must see on the way back list’ and we shared our morning tea with a butcher bird at Barnacles cafe where wild dolphins come in for a limited feed of fish every morning at 8am.

The bay is almost a fishing village on the edge of the Great Sandy Strait and one can stand at the point and look across to Carlos Sand Blow and Rainbow Beach.  

The weather was rather bleak at this point, but we decided that the area was probably worth a stay in the local caravan park at some warmer point in the future. 

We did some chores, including shopping in Hervey Bay. This was our first chance to get to Aldi for some time as that chain has not penetrated far into Queensland. Among the purchases was a pair of simple chairs for the van to save lugging the more cumbersome comfortable chairs around and to allow us to eat at table more easily when we share a meal - especially on club rallies.  Sighseeing around Harvey Bay beaches was enjoyable and we found fish traps (probably aboriginal) and inspiring sunsets.

Stone walled fish traps on the Hervey Bay coast

A Hervey Bay sunset

One night stands - Bowen, Clairview and Tannum Sands - 4th-6th September 2011

Anne here - We now began to trek south in earnest to meet our deadlines.   We could have done with an extra day to visit Wallaman Falls, but I have put the seven 'waterfall' national parks in North Queensland's coastal hinterland back on the bucket list until we can do a visit during the wet season.  

Our first stop was at Bowen staying at the same Top Tourist park on the Fort Dennison side, although we have decided we will not stay here again – the cleanliness of the amenities did not match the price demanded.   We unhitched and went for a drive.  Once again we had reached town on a weekend and after 1pm Saturday nothing is open.  The lure of the beaches was strong and we visited Horse Shoe Bay, Rose Bay and Port Dennison again.

Rose Bay, Bowen - Qld

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Looking across from the Port Dennison jetty to the marina, Bowen

It was disappointing to find the dugongs have moved on – I suppose the sea grass in the area is exhausted.  Only a lone turtle remained and he was floating, an indication of illness.   I did try to ring around to get him some attention but the local vets were not available and the turtle hospital at Reef HQ Aquarium in Townsville did not have an after-hours number listed for marine animal emergencies.

Next morning we travelled on to Clairview, between Camilla and St Lawrence. The Clairview Beach Holiday Park is opposite highway and railway line, but right on the beach and relatively quiet.  There is a licensed bar and they have a set meal menu at night. It would seem a very popular place with anglers year round as the beach, estuary and islands have a great reputation for their great fishing. The park ships in water used for drinking and showers, but the rest is bore water.  It was a pleasant enough stop-over with one of the locals feeding the lorikeets and another showing off the tricks his dog could do.  Jim got a chance to swap helpful tips with one of the caravaners parked next to us.

Looking north along Clairview Beach

Looking south along Clairview Beach

In the morning we headed south, stopping briefly at Malborough to fill up with diesel.  We stopped at the local park for lunch and found this bird which the locals called Lazy Jacks, but are really Apostle Birds

Apostle Bird at Marlborough, Qld

Tannum Sands is south of Boyne Island and Gladstone and a place we visited briefly and marked for a future stop. The caravan owners had taken over four days before and the amenities had been recently renovated.  We took the opportunity to do the washing.  It is really a very quiet, clean caravan park with the odd Eastern Grey Kangaroo and Kookaburra and really worth more than one day, but we were hurrying south towards Hervey Bay.

Eastern Grey Kangaroos at Tannum Sands

The Kookaburras visit the neighbours at Tannum Sands

Ingham - 1-3 September 2011

The Canecutter Way took us down from Paronella Park through Mena Creek, Japoonvale and Silkwood to the Bruce Highway and then we went on to Ingham (as promised when we did not have time to stay on the way up). The area around Silkwood took some really heavy damage in the cyclones and will take some years yet to recover. We bypassed the winery at Murdering Point - in part because we have been almost tee-totalling this trip.

Ingham’s Palm Tree Caravan Park is a beauty, drive through sites, and the best little amenities block we have found on the trip, free clean BBQs plus a TV of watchable size in a well equipped and laid-out camp kitchen, a laundry and a handy dump point. The town provided good shopping opportunities and a haircut for me at $17.00 (cheapest I’ve had this century). Our weekend there coincided with the Aero and Veteran Motorcar Show at the local aerodrome and as Anne had hit the usual Caravan Park Trifector (Highway, railway and aerodrome) we had free ringside seats both at the caravan park and in the Tyto Wetlands.  Anne here: I could have added RAAF base testing jets + industrial area as in townsville. It was glorious to get back and clean up after the hot dry dusty tip to Undarra and back - Washing, cooking and getting clean occupied at least a day of my time and asthma did not make it any easier. 

Ingham airshow rehearsal
(double click on photos to enlarge)

I took the camera walking through the Tyto Wetlands and took a few shots of the planes doing aerobatics, some birds, wallabies and the sunset both as it set and its colour on some distant hills. One of the locals was doing his daily constitutional walk (pretty fast walk) through the place so we had a couple of conversations and he took me to see a wagtail nest. I noticed a lot of ant nests in the trees too. They are quite large, about the size of a 1 kilo bag of muesli.

Heron at Tyto wetlands

Pretty-faced Wallaby

sunset at Tyto wetlands

Looking towards the sunset at Tyto wetlands 

Lookingaway from the sunset at Tyto wetlands

Spring has sprung - Willy Wag-Tail nest with eggs at Tyto Wetlands

Another couple in the park were singing the praises of the Palmura circuit so we took an afternoon and drove down to the giant Roman arch stone bridge over Little Chrystal creek which was built in the 1930s.  We also visited various waterfalls and popular local waterholes and picnic places, but Anne was in no condition to climb up and down hills due to asthma so we abandonned it after a while.

Roman Arch stone bridge over Little Chrystal creek

(This photo from visit.Queensland.com.au)

another waterfall on the road into Little Chrystal Creek.

We did our usual exploring of the beaches (Forrest Beach, Taylors Beach and Lucinda) with views out across the Hinchinbrook Channel to Hinchinbrook Island. We drove out past the Victoria Sugar Mill Ingham(where they have a collection of the old sugar trains) to Lucinda where the 6km long offshore sugar loading jetty was damaged in the cyclones so there is a lot of sugar being trucked out by road and rail.

Sugar train in operation Victoria Sugar Mill

Sugar world shuttle Victoria Sugar Mill Ingham

Victoria Sugar Mill

Another of locos at Victoria Sugar Mill

We noticed a variety of birds foraging in the train tracks inshore of the vast loading facility – even the honey-eaters were there.  In the recently harvested cane fields surrounding Ingham we found flocks of brolgas and some Swamp(Marsh) Harriers.

Chestnut-breasted mannikins at the Lucinda Sugar Loading Facility

Swamp (Marsh) Harrier taking off from among a group of pied herons ( they appear to ignore each other) in a recently harvested sugar cane field

The same bird in flight over the fields

Brolgas working over sugar cane fields Ingham

Paronella Park - 31 August 2011

Paronella Castle ruins

Paronella Park is indeed special. José Paronella a very energetic Spaniard came to cut cane in Queensland, made some money, bought a run-down sugar farm, built it up and sold at a profit, repeated that formula until he was very very rich, went home to find that his fiancée had married another (he had not written in 12 years), married the younger sister, toured Europe looking at gardens and castles, came back to Australia in 1929 and bought 30 acres of rainforest with two waterfalls next to a road. Over the next few years he and his wife built Paronella Park. He used the major waterfall to power a hydro electric generator that has been restored and now generates more power than the complex requires so feed some into the grid.

The Main Falls at Paronella Park

The building that houses the generator

The castle he built had all the trappings of a castle including a ballroom with a huge mirrored ball and a stage for visiting entertainers. There were fountains flowing from cleverly channelled waterfall water, a swimming and rowing pond with ‘pet’ fish, turtles and eels, tennis courts, picnic tables and refreshment rooms, change areas, delightful walks in the forest and marvellous vistas of the waterfalls.

The top of the castle

The back of the castle and the fountain

Close-up of the lilly pond and fountain

The fish and Tortoises line up to be fed

Mircobats in the park

He hand-dug a long ditch and recovered it to form a tunnel, complete with ticket office, to bring people from one area to a small freshwater spring fed second waterfall which he had named after his daughter,Teresa.

Teresa Falls

This waterfall provided hot and cold running water and flushing toilets in his house. The tunnel was intended as a huge aquarium but when that proved unfeasible he grew mushrooms which were sold at local markets. Unfortunately he used the local sand in his concrete and the high silica content attracted water which rusted the metal of the railway line he used in his suspended floors, roofs and columns hence there is a tremendous problem of concrete cancer that will slowly destroy what is left by the fires, years of neglect by previous owners and the climatic incidents such as cyclone Larry. Although even Larry had a benefit in that it knocked down a huge old tree that had grown to interrupt one of the lines of sight of the waterfall through the ground-floor arches of the castle.

An avenue of Kauri Trees planted by Jose that provides a vista back to the waterfall

Another avenue affording a view to the waterfall

The swimming area and the outdoor dining area

One of our guides at Paronella Park is a local and his enthusiasm for the place clashes with that of his grandmother who came there frequently as a girl and a young woman. The grandmother remembers the park and the Paronella family in their glory. It is at once sad to see the decay and uplifting to listen to the people enjoying and marvelling at this wonderful place so effectively brought to life by the people who work there.  

If you would like to see more of Paronella Park, here is a link:
http://www.paronellapark.com.au/index.html

We were fortunate to capture a number of unusual birds on film while we were there:

Forest Kingfisher

catbird - difficult to catch on film - so fast.

Metallic starlings