Hervey Bay,
After a long drive from The Gold Coast, some poor weather conditions and not without a few trials and tribulations we arrived at Breakfree Shores, Hervey Bay. The entire east coast of Australia has suffered several cyclonic depressions over the last few months and is still receiving a lot of rain. The Mary River has been particularly affected and after turning off the highway towards Maryborough we came to an impasse, as the road was completely flooded. It had become part of the river and was totally blocked off due to the depth and flow of the water. Hence, we had to make a major diversion. After getting instructions at the local petrol/gas station we made our way to Hervey Bay with a convoy of vehicles following us. Pray we don’t all get lost???? Actually it was only one, but the plural sounds more dramatic.
Our unit at Breakfree was very large and the balcony, where we sat for all of our meals, overlooked the ocean and beyond to Fraser Island. The resort was very nice with two swimming pools and two tennis courts which we made use of. There was a Marina on the opposite side of the resort with some shops, cafes, boat club etc. One evening we had a nice meal at the Café Balaena, seafood of course. We didn’t eat out much as we discovered the Urangan Fisheries just along the road, where the fishermen bring in their catches. We had Mud Crabs, Balmain Bugs, King Prawns, Coral Prawns and delicious Hervey Bay Scallops. Jim also had half a dozen fresh oysters.
In the mornings we walked along the Esplanade from the resort, which was very nice and quiet, along the pier and back which was almost a kilometre in length and then further on. People use the pier for exercise and fishing. It used to have a railway running the entire length to ship to load the ships with goods for overseas. The Esplanade itself, runs for about 18kms.
We visited the Hervey Bay Botanic Gardens and Orchid House. Admission to the gardens is free but there was a charge for the Orchid House, two dollars fifty per person and included coffee or tea and cake!!!!!
The weather cleared somewhat so we decided to chance the Fraser Island trip for Wednesday. Fraser Island is the world’s largest sand island and a world heritage site, designated in 1992. It was quite an amazing experience. The main highway around the island is the beach and it is also a runway for small aircraft to land and take off. On the beach we saw The Mahena shipwreck which is now only around a quarter of its original size. It was built in Scotland, a mini version of The Titanic. The island is totally sand but has rainforests and lakes. The nutrients, for the plant- life come from fossilized vegetation from millions of years ago, when the island was joined to the mainland. The lakes are referred to as perched lakes as they have no rock bottoms, they have no water feed other than rain and just perch on the sand. The island is made up totally of dunes, which are constantly changing and the lakes are formed from collapsed dunes. These freshwater lakes could also disappear with the evolution of the dunes. Nothing is constant here except change. The island does support wildlife including dingoes, wallabies, reptiles and birds. We saw a monitor lizard but no dingoes or wallabies and few birds. It was quite eerie. It was a very full day, Jim swam in the lake but I declined. We left at 7:30 am and got back around 7pm.
Our penultimate trip was Maryborough, birthplace of Pamela Lyndon Travers, author of Mary Poppins. Maryborough had been severely affected by the recent floods. The Mary River peaked around 10.7 metres, nearly 36 feet and flooded the lower parts of the town where many of the buildings were still closed. We went to the market and saw some of the Heritage Folk, including the Town Crier. We also paid a visit to Mary Poppins and saw P.L. Travers birthplace, which was on the top floor of the bank building where her father was the bank manager.
Finally we went back to see the bats. Each night thousands of fruit bats (flying foxes) would fly over our balcony at dusk, towards Fraser Island. They are nocturnal and some of them roost, or camp as they say here, in the trees along The Esplanade near Scarness. We had seen them before but Jim wanted to photograph them with his telephoto lens. They are so funny they hang there upside down in the trees and they chatter and squabble causing quite a cacophony of sound. Such cute little faces......
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| View from the Balcony looking away from Fraser Island |
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| Our balcony in the middle |
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| View of Fraser Island from the resort |
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| Jim tasting a King Prawn |
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| The lady at the fisheries with our Mud Crab - freshly cooked |
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| Bird at the Botanic gardens |
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| The Orchid House |
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| Jim at the Botanic Gardens |
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| Tooana Tooana Creek flowing into the sea |
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| The Pinnacles - Fraser Island |
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White Bellied Sea Eagle with fish in one claw
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| The Mahena Shipwreck - Fraser Island |
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| Jim after a swim in the lake at Fraser Island |
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| Departing Fraser Island |
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| Maryborough Heritage Town Folk |
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| The Mary River - floodwaters receded |
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| Barbara sharing Mary Poppins umbrella |
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Mary Poppins
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| The Bank Building - Birthplace of P.L. Travers |
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| Red fox faced Bat |
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| Black fox faced Bats |
