Whitsundays Winter Getaway, June 2009

My very good and beautiful friend and her partner now live and work in Airlie Beach. After moving from Brisbane in Queensland, I haven't being coping so well with the cold winter temperature in Victoria, and with an opportunity to visit family in Brisbane, I was able to take a little side trip to heaven and spent 4 days up in the warmth of this lovely part of the Sunshine State.

There are 74 islands in the Whitsunday group in North Queensland. The transport and mainland accommodation and eating and meeting hub is Airlie Beach and it's commonly known as the Gateway to the Whitsundays. Airlie Beach is on the mainland in the centre of the 2,000km precinct of the Great Barrier Reef. Holidaymakers and backpackers from all over the world love it here because of the great climate, sailing, the proximity to the reef and the islands, nightlife and all you can eat or drink pubs in the town of Airlie. There's a market on Saturday mornings at Airlie Point which is good fun to wander around and shop, then you can head off to get a cool or cleansing ale at one of the local pubs or stop in and have lunch. There are heaps of tour operators running day trips or adventure tours out of shops on the main street, Shute Harbour Road and you can find cheap or upmarket accommodation here .. whatever your fancy or price range. You can charter yachts to sail around the islands and then choose to moor at many of the beautiful spots available or you can catch the high speed catamarans or ferries that visit the islands and the reef. There is so much to do, you really should get a plan so you don't miss out on anything.

This is winter in the Whitsundays and probably as bad as it gets!

The local Council has built this artificial lagoon right in town at Airlie Beach for use by the public and have a lifeguard on duty. During the hot and humid summers here, which of course also include the stinger season (October through to April), this lagoon is chock a block (full) with locals and tourists taking advantage of its cool and safe swimming. It also has a view out over the water at the sailboats and some of the surrounding offshore islands.

There are many safety signs along beachfronts, on the islands and near waterways to warn the public of the dangers of swimming without precautions in the stinger season.

We drove up to the top of Whitsunday Hill and looked out to the Coral Sea over the construction of the new Port of Airlie which is going to take a few more years to finish yet. There will be apartments, waterfront homes, retail areas and marina berths.

I wandered along the Bicentennial Walkway from town, around past beaches and the panoramic sea vistas. The pathways and boardwalks go for 3km connecting to each other, starting in town at Airlie Beach, past the lagoon, Abel Point Marina, Shingley Beach and linking up to Cannonvale.







Abel Point Marina stretches from the Point to Shingley Beach.






The Waterline on Shingley has beautiful views out over the marina and the Coral Sea and is fully air-conditioned. The food is absolutely fantastic and so fresh. You should try the seafood curry or the scallops or the crocodile tail entree or the amazing looking house specialty seafood platter, or, or, or!!!!! The wine selection is decently priced too.

Here's the website if you get a chance to get there - http://www.waterlineonshingley.com.au/

The atmosphere here is so relaxing, you feel like you are on an island, not the mainland.

Next was a day trip to Daydream Island. We caught the cat from Shute Harbour and within 10 minutes we were stepping onto the marina at Daydream.

Hello Paradise!! Hotel and suite accommodation, swimming pools, restaurants, cafes, shopping, tours, watersports, gyms, bars and spas and an open air cinema PLUS ... there is wedding chapel, mini golf and giant chess. Not bad for 10 minutes from the mainland.

The atrium

My favourite feature on this island is the Living Coral Reef Lagoons that meander through the island. The living reef is the largest manmade living coral reef lagoon in the world and was designed with conservation of the Barrier Reef's marine animals and corals in mind. The live coral and marine specimens have been collected under license and there are said to be more than 80 species of fish and 50 varieties of coral as well as starfish and anemones. I saw parrot fish, clown fish (known as Nemo's because of the animated movie), wrasse, barramundi, angel fish, red emperor, sharks and stingrays. You can hand feed the fish here including the sharks and stingrays which is pretty special. The water is pumped from the ocean and replenished all the time and when there is a lagoon staff member around, they are always helpful at answering your questions about the marine life in the lagoon.

The rays come right up to the water's edge to be fed.
Soft corals are growing and damsel fish love hanging around.

A juvenile Red Emperor showing his colours. Their stripes start out light and then darken and then go pink, then red. A bit like a mood ring!

Yes, that would be a shark with its ever present remora friend.

Starfish, seashells, soft and hard corals

The human's lagoon - sparkling clean - no chompies in here.

The pristine clear waters of Lovers Cove at Daydream Island.

Once you're all loved up you can get hitched at the Island's Chapel.

More stinger warnings on the island and some treated vinegar in case of stings.

The ladies of Mermaid Point.

These funny little birds with long legs and huge eyes are bush stone curlews, found all over Daydream Island. They co-habitate with the tourists, cockatoos and currawongs.

Oh, and the local wallabies who mostly like to sunbake on the warm sand and munch on the resort's lush lawns.

Catamaran sailing boats on Mermaid Beach

My day at the island is over, so off on the boat back to Shute Harbour and Airlie Beach.

The swing moorings in Shute Harbour are very protected and coveted by those who have managed to get one.

Caloundra, Sunshine Coast, Queensland, Australia - 2008

The view from our apartment at Kings Beach Caloundra out to the shipping lane.

This poor brown snake was found on the beach very tired after being washed out to sea in a storm. The ranger suggested it may have come from a tiny island about 200m out from the beach. All it wanted to do was find a nice warm rock to hide under. PS - they are usually very agressive and poisonous.

Brisbane, Queensland, Australia - 2004

The Brisbane River near the Botanical Gardens.

Moreton Bay Fig Tree.

Kangaroo Point

Road Trip - Outback Queensland - 2005

Out came the trusty Reader's Digest Book of the Road, described as 'the complete driver's atlas and touring guide to Australia'. We plotted our course from home in Cedar Creek and off we went for a 3 day long weekend trip.

The first leg took us up the Warrego Highway [54] through range to Toowoomba, Oakey and Dalby then Chinchilla, Miles and then to the Channel Country and the town of Roma, known for agriculture and gas fields.



Then we took a right turn onto the Gregory Highway [55] and travelled through Injune (lots of kangaroos here, you have to be very watchful on the road at night) up to the Carnarvon National Park and visited beautiful Carnarvon Gorge where you can see beautiful cycads that have been round as long as dinosaurs, palms and ferns and in the sandstone overhangs, Aboriginal paintings. Deep erosion made the canyon which is in part of the Great Dividing Range.



Quite amusing was seeing our local mate Graeme of Watugo Tours at the National Park. He runs outback mini bus trips out of Samford and just happened to be there when we were. Small world!










Native flowers





After that we headed back to [55] and on through Central Queensland to Rolleston then to [60] the Dawson Highway to Moura, the coal, cattle and grain centre of the shire with the saleyards moving thousands of cattle each year. There are also 6 huge silos that can hold 192,000 tonnes of grain and you can see them 30km from town. The major industries in the Dawson and Callide valleys and its ranges is coalmining with open cut mines near Moura and Biloela. Banana was the next town, not named for bananas but after a trained bullock that could decoy wild cattle into pens whose name was Banana. Biloela the next town is a rural service town and was settled around 1850.






A slab hut at a museum along the way.

Next, we started to chart back towards home and from Bioela took [17] the Burnett Highway, down to Thangool (small crops and lucerne) and further down through the Coominglah State Forest towards Monto (dairy cattle, pigs, grain lucerne and timber). In Monto you can still find gold flecks if you pan in the local streams.




Small towns along the way were Three Moon, Mulgildie, Cynthia, Ceratodus (named after an extraordinary species of lungfish that occurs naturally only in the Burnett and Mary Rivers of Central Queensland) and then Eidsvold and onto Mundubbera.



Travelling further down we crossed the Burnett River in Gayndah (orange crops) and then continued on to Ban Ban Springs, through Tansey, Boonara until we reached Goomeri. Goomeri has an annual pumpkin festival and is a very pretty place. Vineyards and olive groves and popular here as well as good home cooked tucker. After chowing down at Goomeri we continued on to Murgon (agricultural, beef, dairy, leather and wine) on [49] the Bunya Highway through Wondai, Tingoora, Wooroolin and Memerambi to Kingaroy, 'the peanut town' and home of one of the most memorable Queensland Premier, Sir Joh Bjelke-Petersen.



The 'home stretch' was next. On to the D'Aguilar Highway to Nanango (on the divide between the Brisbane and Burnett Rivers), and then the Burnett Highway through Yarraman, over Cooyar Creek, down through Blackbutt, Benarkin and its State Forest joining the Brisbane Valley Highway near Harlin where the Brisbane River comes down heading into Lake Wivenhoe.



Drove through Toogoolawah and stopped in at Esk where settlement began around the 1840s and there are some graceful old buildings showing Queensland style architecture. We had refreshment then off along the edge of Lake Wivenhoe through Rockville, a left turn up to Billies Crossing
and then a right turn along Northbrook Creek towards the Brisbane Forest Park and Maiala National Park at Mount Glorious and the D'aguilar National Park which sits atop the Samford Valley. Home.