Our day started with a morning walk on the beach, along with others, including their dogs!
The big adventure for the day was a scooter ride along the waterfront and up on a bluff to Wreck Point Lookout, a 3.5 mile one way trip.
From the Lookout we could see a sailing class in Cooee bay on one side, and Lammermoor Beach stretching along the other side.
We got back with just a little juice left on the scooters!
We traveled north about 230 miles to the Oceanside town of Yeppoon. When we arrived at the apartment we will call home for 3 nights, we found electric scooters at our disposal! We had enough time before dark to take them for a spin. There is a paved walkway all along the beach, so we have ample space to travel into the main part of town.
Toys!
Practicing on the grassy swale between the apartment and the beach.
We went east to Hervey Bay, a collection of small towns that line the bay formed from Bundaberg south and then swinging around the coast of K’gari, the largest sand island in the world (710 square miles)!
The town of Urangan has a very long pier extending out into the very shallow bay. We walked out to the end and figure that it goes one mile out! There were fishermen & women along the pier and we could see huge schools of fish in the shadow cast by the pier.
We found a tiny 18 acre reserve along the bay, preserving a small remnant of the ‘vine forest’ that once blanketed the south Queensland coast. We walked through the dry rainforest, listening to the birds in the bush. The forest opened onto a pristine empty beach with osprey perched in the trees watching for fish in the shallow bay waters.
We headed inland to Mount Walsh hoping to hike to Waterfall Creek rock pools.
From a distance the mountain is imposing. When we reached the trailhead we realized it’s too imposing! We changed our minds when another hiker arrived, much better prepared than us, with hiking poles and leg coverings to protect from the snakes that most certainly are around!
These are the pools we were hoping to reach. We consoled ourselves by imagining that with the current drought, the pools are probably empty or slimy with algae!
We drove 27 miles to the town of Bundaberg, a hub of the most productive agricultural region of Australia, sugar cane being a primary crop, but orchards abound as well, with macadamia and avocado primary crops. We went to the Bundaberg Botanical Garden and learned about the sugar cane industry in the area. The Fairymead House was moved from the Fairymead Sugar Plantation outside of town to the Botanical Garden and restored as a museum.
The house was built in 1890 for the Young brothers who kick-started the sugar cane industry in the area after the government passed regulations that enabled interested parties to acquire land to grow sugar cane.
“Plantation” evokes some strong images, and those are well founded, even in Australia. Convict labor was relied on in Australia until ‘transportation’ of criminals to Australia ended in 1840. The large land-holding agriculturalists looked for other sources of labor and began the practice of ‘blackbirding’ Southsea Islanders, coercing or even outright kidnapping men, women and even children, to work in the fields in Australia, especially in the subtropical area of Queensland.
The house is a fine example of the ‘Queenslander” architecture. Large verandas, tall roof that is actually a huge air duct, creating draft that cools the interior, and raised off the ground, maybe to protect from the snakes? The stained glass skylight lets light into the interior, and the huge overhangs shade the house. It is only 3 bedrooms, 1 bath, parlor, formal dining room and casual dining room. The kitchen and servants room are separate, to the right of the entrance, for fire safety
A cute little steam train runs through the Botanical Garden. It is a restored ‘sugar train’ that was used to haul the cut cane from the fields to the refinery, repurposed for tourism now.