Had a little road trip this past week.
Headed off from the Sunshine Coast, through Gympie, one of Queensland’s old gold mining towns.
The Gympie Region - Perfect for Day Trips and Holiday Makers Cafe ~ Gift Shop - Gold Mining and Historical MuseumWe tend to use it as a jumping off place to other destinations like Rainbow Beach or the Mary Valley Rattler to Amamoor. In this case, it was just morning tea on the way through.
Next stop was Maryborough which was where we were booked in for the night. Too early for that, so we had a wander round the old CBD which features quite a few historic buildings and is also where an old boss and good friend of mine bought into a tyre business. Sadly he died back in the late 90s.
Maryborough - Wikipedia,_Queensland
With time to spare we set off for Hervey Bay which was for a long time not much more than a fishing village and jumping off spot for Fraser Island. Now a massive tourist area and home to a lot of retirees from southern states. Found a nice café at Pialba for lunch before driving along the beachfront as far as the very long Urangan Pier before heading back to Maryborough. From the Pier we could see the disastrous fire currently destroying large swathes of the beautiful Fraser Island. At last count, 40% of the island has burned, thanks to an illegal camp fire a few weeks ago.
Next morning we set out north for Bundaberg our next overnight stop. The plan was to wander around town then head north to Agnes Water and the Town of 1770 the next morning.
We had morning tea in Childers scene of the horrendous backpacker fire about 20 years ago.
Childers Palace Backpackers Hostel fire - WikipediaIt’s a lovely little town in the middle of sugar cane country and one of the biggest Queensland Nut farms you can ever imagine. Macadamias to the rest of the world.
World's biggest macadamia grower Phil Zadro says he is always looking to expand his Australian and overseas properties | Queensland Country Life | Queensland
Picked up a pack of 6 massive lamingtons for $1 each. They’re normally about $4 each and smaller. For the uninitiated, lamingtons are cubes of sponge cake, covered in chocolate icing and shredded coconut. Real melt in your mouth stuff.
Anyway, we arrived in Bundaberg pretty early and decided to head north to Agnes for lunch. There’s an awesome tavern there. We had lunch and toured Agnes and 1770 which is only about 10 minutes north. It’s a long way from anywhere (about 90 minutes each way from Bundaberg).
These pics were taken on a previous visit to Agnes (in 2010 as a cyclone travelled down the east coast).
And a couple from later the same year on my way to Carnarvon Gorge with my son. These are of the waterfront at 1770. ) Yes. That really is the name.
Back to Bundy for the night (the motel I’d chosen here was pretty ordinary. More run down than the web pics showed and the attached restaurant was no longer in operation.).
In years past, Maryborough was the centre of attention in the area with timber and sand mining on Fraser Island but over the last 30 years or so it has stagnated with Harvey Bay and Bundaberg taking off.
Maryborough’s population is about 27,000, Hervey Bay, 52,000 and Bundaberg, 70,000.
Bundaberg’s CBD is vibrant and alive, with wide streets and plenty of businesses crowding into the ground floors of some epic older buildings.
It’s also the home of one of my favourite tipples.
Bundaberg Rum - Wikipedia
We wandered down to the coastal township of Bargara for coffee before setting off south for home. Lunch in Maryborough and home by mid afternoon.
