9 February 2000
Today we spent looking around Bundaberg. There is plenty to see here and we didn't get to see it all (such as the Rum Distillery and the Sugar Mill) but we did see the coast and beaches at Bargara (pronounced baGARa, not BUGGera as Patricia would have it), and I ask myself what is wrong with Queensland Beaches? The ones at Bargara consist of substantial areas of black rocks as big as (or bigger than) footballs with small sandy areas in between the rocky ones. While out on the coast we also looked at Burnett Heads and Port Bundaberg. Burnett Heads, despite its grandiose name, is simply where the Burnett River (which the city of Bundaberg is on) meets the sea. The country around here is very flat, so there are no headlands as there are, for example, around Laurieton and Port Macquarie. Port Bundaberg is claimed by the tourist brochures to be the first Australian stopping point for many international ships. I think this may be wishful thinking on their part, but there is a fuel storage depot, a couple of large sugar bulk stores to receive and discharge sugar (I think they hold around 3,000,000 tonnes) and the local fishing/trawling fleet.
From Port Bundaberg we went to the highest point around here - Hummock Hill (height 2 metres, perhaps a bit more, but only just) - to get a view of the surrounding countryside. It certainly was very pretty, with the green sugar cane at varying heights according to when it was planted contrasting strikingly with the rich red soil.
On the way back to the city we saw a turn off to Elliott Heads and so went out to see what was there. Again, these are not "heads" in the usual sense but it was a very pretty spot all the same and superior, in my opinion, to the coast at Bargara - although still rocky in parts. However I was a bit put off by the warnings of stonefish!
After Elliott Heads we drove to the other side of the city to the Botanical Gardens. Although fairly small these are very well kept and contain ponds (we lost count of the number of inquisitive tortoises who came up to look at us as we moved over the wooden walkways - there must have been dozens of them in the pond), walkways and a steam train which runs on a narrow gauge railway (complete with station) and which takes passengers around - but unfortunately only on Sundays. Also in the Gardens was a magnificent, stately old "Queenslander" (a beautiful old style of house peculiar to Queensland) known as Fairymead House and which had been the homestead at the Fairymead sugar plantation and mill, and had been donated to the city by the Bundaberg Sugar Company as a bicentennial gift. It now houses a very interesting sugar museum which, I am sure, would be very much enjoyed by Uncle Harold.
Also in the grounds of the Botanical Gardens is the reconstructed home of Bert Hinkler. Hinkler was a pioneer aviator born in Bundaberg who is unfortunately probably not as well known as he should be. His exploits, in the view of many (particularly Bundabergians), are every bit as deserving of recognition as the much better known Kingsford-Smith and Charles Ulm. The house was originally built for Hinkler and his wife in Southampton, England, near where Bert was chief test pilot for the Avro Experimental Works. It was dismantled brick by brick, shipped to Australia and reassembled in 1983-84. A wonderful tribute. The rest of the afternoon we spent wandering around the city admiring and photographing the many beautiful old buildings and churches.
Tomorrow we retrace our steps northward and then swing west, hopefully to reach Emerald for tomorrow night's stay. From there it should be onwards to the Northern Territory, which we should reach a few days later.