October 2013 - Hervey Bay to Brisbane

We were very surprised by the size of Hervey Bay.  We expected something like Anglesea in Victoria but were met with Bunnings, BCF and many quilting and patchwork stores so it is a lot larger than we expected.

Torquay is one of the suburbs right on the beach and as there is no surf to talk of, the area seems to be very family and grey nomad orientated.

We have always wanted to have a ride on a jet ski and when we found that they had them for hire here, we decided to give it a go.  We booked it during the morning for mid afternoon to give our lunch time to settle.  Now, I just said that there is no surf to talk of, but the wind came up just after lunch and we were confronted with about a 1 metre swell.  Not to be put off by a few waves we got a quick briefing from the operator,  donned our life jackets, got a quick photo and off we went.  Fortunately the water temperature was nice and warm as we got a good soaking.  Going off shore into the waves had the water up over our heads but riding the waves back into shore was a lot of fun.  On the first run we got up to a whole 10 kilometres per hour, but after doing it a few times we got used to it and we were doing up to 30 KPH by the end of our half hour.  Going across the waves had our heart in our throats a few times but we managed to stay upright.

Whale watching is one of the biggest things in Hervey Bay and there seems to be an endless amount of different companies that operate tours.  

Tasman Ventura had been recommended to us by many others so we booked in for their morning tour.  Fantastic service, they picked us up from the caravan park, took us whale watching and even delivered us back to the caravan park. 

We left the marina at 8.30 and headed for Platypus Bay which is north of Hervey Bay and about two thirds of the way up Fraser Island.  It was a beautiful morning and we cruised for a whole hour at 45 kilometres per hour.  On the way we saw many logger head turtles as well as a couple of pods of dolphin.  

The first whale we sighted breached about a kilometre ahead of us so the captain made for that area.  There was a mother with a calf along with an "escort" whale, possibly a male.  It was such a sight to see such beautiful majestic wild animals right beside the boat.  The tour guide said that judging by the way the calf was circling that it was feeding from the mother.  A whale calf drinks 200 litres of milk from its mother every day.  The calf doesn't have to suckle the mother as the mother has muscles in her mammary glands that actually excrete the milk which is more of a fatty gel than a liquid.  This floats in the water for the calf to take.  Some mothers roll on their back to feed the baby, but most lay head up in the water.  The tour guide said that there is one mother that comes with a calf every year that always feeds with her tail sticking up out of the water.

The whale migration up Australia's east coast from the south pole is mostly Humpback whales which are black on top and have a white belly and are white under their tail.  

The white under their fluke (tail)  is just like a human finger print in as much that every one if unique and whales are identified by their fluke print.  When whale hunting stopped in 1992, it was estimated that only about 300 to 400 migrated up and down the east coast.  Today those numbers have grown to about 1,600.  Whale calf's are born during their annual migration and in Platypus bay, as despite its enormous size at birth whale calves are born without a protective blubber layer so they would freeze to death if they were born in the near freezing temperatures of the Antarctic waters.  The mother will take the calf back to the south pole for the arctic summer and teach it to fend for itself and then it is left to join another pod and fend for itself.  Females reach sexual maturity at about 7 years old and most will produce a calf every 2 to 3 years.

Humpback whales are known as baleen whales as they have no teeth to forage on prey for food.  They have hundreds of rows of fibrous bristle-like baleen plates suspended from their upper jaw instead.  These plates are made from keratin which is the same material as our finger nails.  This unique structure acts like a giant sieve that allows expelled water to pass through but traps small 4 to 8 centimetre long shrimp like crustaceans known as krill.  This food source is found in abundance in summer months in Antarctic waters.

As this calf was feeding, there wasn't a lot of playful activity so we travelled a bit further north and soon cane across another pod.  This little calf was having a great time burning off some energy and learning the ways of a whale doing tail slaps and pectoral fin flaps as it breached out of the water.

The captain of the boat did a great job of keeping the boat close to the whales.  We stopped at one stage and the whales turned around and swam back to the boat as if to say "come on, lets keep playing"  These animals are very inquisitive and often swim up close to the boat to get a better look.

All in all we would have seen 20 or 25 different whales for the morning and we were all disappointed when they said we had to leave and head back to the harbour.

Humpback adult whales grow up to between 14 and 18 metres long and weigh up to 50 tonnes where as a calf is 4 to 5 metres long at birth and weighs 2 tonnes.  They can cruise at speeds up to 7 kilometres per hour.

The gestation period is 11 to 11.5 months and then the mother weans the calf off after 11 months.

Migrating whales are seen every year along the east coast of Australia during June to October while they visit our shores to give birth and mate.

What a fantastic experience to get some insight into the life of a migrating humpback whale up so close.

Hervey Bay is also well known for its close proximity and easy access to Fraser Island and once again there are numerous companies operating tours to the island.

Fraser Island is the world's largest sand island and an area of remarkable natural beauty. It is 123 km long and covers an area of 166,038 ha. and  was listed as a World Heritage Area in 1992 to recognise the island's internationally significant natural features.

Growing on seemingly infertile sands are a great variety of plant communities ranging from coastal heath, mangrove forests and swamps to subtropical rainforest.

The many archaeological remains found on Fraser Island record thousands of years of culture and tradition, and provide important links to their past for the Butchulla aboriginal people.
We took the barge from River Heads which is just south of Hervey Bay to Wanggoolba Creek which is on the west side of the island. From there we were picked up by Fraser Explorer Tours in a 4 wheel drive bus and taken across the island to Eurong  Beach Resort.

What a fun bus trip which could most easily described as a mixture between a roller coaster and a bucking bull.  The "roads" are just deep ruts in the sand and I fully respect the drivers ability in negotiating these tracks as they are narrow with trees close on both sides.  Obviously they need to keep the momentum of the bus going to get through the sand so its not for the feint hearted.  I think in a couple of places the seat belt is all that keeps you in your seat.  It was great fun and everyone on the bus had a good time.  Maximum speed on these roads is 30 KPH so it took almost an hour to cross the island and Eurong was a very welcome toilet stop.

From here we traveled north along the east coast of the island on the famous 75 mile beach.  

This beach is treated like any other highway in Queensland and all road law applies.  Speed limit of 80 kilometres per hour and it is as smooth as any bitumen highway in Australia.  It is the only highway in Australia where you can park and go fishing in the surf as many people were doing.  We were there during the September school holidays so there were many campers all along the beach.

About 20 kilometres up the beach is the Maheno shipwreck site.  The Maheno was one of the fastest steam powered ship of its time and because of its speed it was seconded to the navy during the second world war as a supply ship.  After the war it worked the Australia New Zealand route until it was replaced by a more efficient diesel powered ship.  It was sold to the Japanese for scrap who removed its propellers and then commenced to tow it back to Japan for wrecking.  They ran into bad weather off the east coast of Australia which broke the tow line and without propellers they had no control, so she ran aground on Fraser Island and that is where she lay rusting away ever since.  It is said to be the most photographed pile of rust in the world.  It is hard to imagine the size of this ship as two thirds of it is buried in the sand.

From there we continued another 3 or 4 kilometres along the beach to the coloured sands of The Pinnacles.  This is a part of the island that has been effected by wind and rain erosion that has resulted in exposing different layers of sand that are said to contain 72 different colours.  One has to use good imagination and perhaps even a spectron microscope to see all these colours, but there is a very noticeable difference in the colours of these sands to the sand on the beach.

From this point passengers  could take a scenic flight over the ocean and then across the island to get a birds eye view.  Two light aircraft take off and land on the same beach highway that the vehicles and pedestrians use.  We didn't fly but folk who did said that it gave a different prospective of the island.

Eli Creek was our next stop on our way back to Eurong for lunch.  As swimming in the sea along the east coast of Fraser Island is not recommended for children because of the rips, Eli Creek is a favourite swimming hole for visitors.  Eli Creek, like all other creeks on Fraser Island start from an aquifer which constantly leaks beautiful fresh water.  Eli Creek carries 4.2 million litres of this water per hour to the sea.  

We were told that as it was only knee deep we could walk up the board walk and then come back along creek or visa versa.  Whoever said it was only knee deep must have been 8 foot tall, as Judy was over her waist in a lot of places.  Didn't matter though as the water was nice and refreshing on a warm day.  We walked up the creek to the board walk and when we got there we found that you needed to be an Olympic high jump champion to bet from the water level to the first step on the board walk, so we enjoyed the walk back to the ocean in the creek.  Lucky the bus driver didn't mind us getting back on the bus with wet cloths.

By 1.30 we were starving and the all you can eat buffet lunch in the restaurant at Eurong  was much appreciated.

Back on the bucking bronco bus ride to Central Station helped to settle the lunch down.  

This is typical of the roads on Fraser Island

Central Station is so named as it was the central campsite when logging was carried out on Fraser Island.  Now days it is a camping site and a point where various walks start.  Our tour guide took us along a board walk which follows part of the Wanggoolba Creek that carries about 1 million litres of water per hour from the aquifer out to the west side of the island where the barge pulls in.  

The water is so clear here that you have to actually stop and look into the creek to see the water above the white sand bed.  Rain that falls over the island takes 30 years to filter down through the sand into the aquifer and out into the creeks, so this could be the purest natural water in the world.

 This area is a lush sub-tropical rain forest and there are many different species of plants that grow here.  Everyone who has a fern house at home tries to grow stag horns and here they are growing wild everywhere that you look.  

This area was also heavily logged for Kauri Pine which were used for ships masts as they are straight, strong and flexible.   

Satinay trees were also heavily logged here  because of their excellent resistance to decay by sea water and were used for piers all over the world, including the Suez Canal.  A Satinay trees age is estimated by the width at its base and logging of these giants was stopped when it was found that a tree estimated to be over 1,000 years old had been cut down.  This tree once stood in the bush on the north end of the island and we didn't visit this area but apparently there are photos of 20 people standing side by side on the remaining stump to show just how big it was.  We saw Satinay trees that are estimated to be 300 and 500 years old.  Fraser island is only one of the very few places in the world where Satinay trees grow, and although there is some regrowth, it will take a long time to recover.  

The presence of King Ferns which are now unique to Fraser Island, once had global distribution and are recognized in fossils in coal seams dating back 350 million years.  There is a stand of 40 of these King Ferns growing right beside Wanggoolba Creek and this is the only place in Australia where they are known to be growing.

Last stop on our tour was Lake McKenzie or Boorangoora as it is called by the aboriginals.  This is an inland perched lake which is not fed by the aquifer but only gathers water from the rain.  Annual rainfall varies across the island, from 1200 mm on the coast to 1800 mm inland and the heavy rains at the beginning of  this year has the lake at the highest level for years.  The lake has been formed over many years with leaf litter from the surrounding forest which has gathered on the bed of the lake to form a waterproof layer above the sand.  The lake covers about 160 hectares and is 12 metres deep in the centre.  It is a 160 metre walk from the parking area down to the lake and the cool water made for a very refreshing swim.

The track into and out of the lake seemed to be the most challenging for the day, at one stage I thought we would all need to get out and push but the driver managed to get us safely through.  I am glad I am not mechanic for this bus company as although the drivers are very skilled and the MAN buses stand up well to the challenge, I think there would be a lot of drive line and suspension repairs required.

Back on the barge at the end of the day we sailed into a colourful sunset back to the mainland.

I am glad that Fraser Island has been world heritage listed as it is such a unique place and we as Australians have something to be proud of that needs to be preserved for generations to see.

The Hervey Bay Botanical Gardens are well worth the time to visit.  They have a beautiful tropical rain forest section as well as a theater stage surrounded by a big water feature full of lilies and turtles.  

The lawns are beautifully manicured and all the flower gardens are very well kept.  We were talking to the curator and she was telling us that she looks after the whole area with only occasional help from other council employees.  She said that they can have up to 8 weddings each week in the various sections of the gardens.

We really enjoyed Hervey Bay for it's good bike tracks, as we were able to ride about 8 kilometres each morning before breakfast and take in the different sites over the 2 weeks that we were there, but after having had enough of the beach and the lousy neighbours that were camped in a tent beside us in the caravan park, we decided to move on once again towards a bit of peace and tranquility beside a lake.

Boondooma Dam is about 230 kilometres south west of Hervey Bay so we decided to give it a go.  Once again, we could not have had a better "absolute waterfront " site.  Not a lot of grass but a nice sandy site just 8 metres from the waters edge.  Time once again for fishing and red claw.  Not a lot of fish being caught by anybody in the park, but we were kept busy emptying and re-baiting opera house traps and catching nice amounts of red claw.  

We originally booked in for 3 nights, but the days were a nice warm 30+ degrees with just enough breeze to keep cool so we extended our stay out a few more days.  Boiled red claw or red claw BBQ-ed in garlic butter,  Hmmm, not sure which we like best.

Having lost my glasses at Boondooma, we headed to Kingaroy for an eye test and wait for new glasses.  Fortunately I found a local optometrist not attached to any franchise who was able to fit me in on the day we got there and had my new glasses back from his supplier in 2 days.  All the franchise folk said 1 to 2 weeks to have them back.  To add to the bargain, they were well priced and the best pair of glasses I have ever had.  Thanks to Malcolm Lee See in Haley Street Kingaroy.

I am glad we stayed in Kingaroy for those few days as it gave us a chance to clean up after our week at the dam and also gave us the chance to have a look around.

Visitor Information Centers in Queensland are awesome.  The Kingaroy centre houses the Peanut History Museum in one end and an art gallery in the old council chambers at the other end.  We went for our usual quick look to see what attractions there are in Kingaroy but ended up staying for almost 2 hours.  We wanted to learn about growing peanuts and the museum was the perfect place.

The peanut is native to the Andes foothills of South America and came to Australia with the Chinese during the Gold Rushes in the 19th Century.  Peanuts are not really nuts but a legume, which means they grow underground.  Planting generally takes place from October to January as they need a minimum soil temperature of 18 degrees (measured at 9 am) for germinating.  They produce small yellow flowers which self pollinate.  The ovary elongates and grows down into the soil on a "peg" where they then start to swell and form a pod which takes about 5 months to mature.  The peanut pod actually develops underground but not on the root of the plant. 

Once ready for harvesting between March and May, the bush needs to be pulled from the ground without damaging the kernels and avoiding excess soil adhering to the roots so the go through a process called cutting.   Farmers use a modified cultivator which has a "U" or "L" shaped attached to the front which is pulled through the soil 10 to 15 cm below the surface which loosens the soil and cuts the tap root, just below the peanuts.  In the old days the bushes  were pulled from the ground by hand which was a long and arduous task.  One man holds the record for pulling 1/3 of an acre in 55 and 3/4 minutes.  

Necessity is the mother of invention and soon enough various types of machines were invented to pull the bushes from the ground.  Once the bushes are pulled from the ground, they need to cure so they are piled into "stooks" which were stacks built in a manner to keep the weather out so the peanuts could cure over a 4 to 6 week period.  Once dried, the peanuts are then taken to a threshing machine to separate the nuts from the dried out bush.

Like all industries, equipment has been developed over the years to make the job easier and there are a lot of good examples of the older peanut farming equipment on display in the museum.

Peanuts grow well in the Kingaroy district because of the rich, loose volcanic soil, and about 90% of the 60,000 tonnes of peanuts grown annually in Australia are produced in Queensland.

The peanut silos in Kingaroy which were built between 1928 and 1948 are 40 metres tall and can hold up to 15,000 tonnes of peanuts.

Of course the other thing that Kingaroy is famous for is that it is home to Sir Joh and Lady Flo Bjelke-Petersen.  Sir Joh of course was the premier of Queensland for 19 years and was the local MP for over 40 years.  

Sir Joh's son John and daughter in law Karen now live on and run the family farm which is about 5 kilometres south of Kingaroy.  Their farm is called Bethany which means "place of rest".  As farming is a tough way to make a living anywhere in Australia, John and Karen have built holiday cottages on their property and also run farm tours 2 days a week.  We took the tour to learn a bit more about farming in this area and also to learn more about the man who coined the phrase "don't you worry about that" along with many other comical sayings.

John took us up to the highest point on their farm where he told us the history of the family and the farm.  He told us that the reason they have a hyphenated surname was that in Copenhagen where his grandfather came from there were too many people with the Petersen family name, so as they lived in Bjelke Crescent, they became known as the Bjelke-Petersen family.

Sir Joh was a hard worker and earned the respect of the people in this part of Queensland when he purchased 4 tanks (without turrets) from the army after the war and started a business clearing the land around the area with his tanks.  He found that the tanks weren't so good for felling big trees so he dumped the tanks and bought bulldozers.  He was also an accomplished pilot and operated an aerial spraying business before moving full time into politics.

John grows cattle, avocado, plantation trees and peanuts on the farm but said that all these crops put together still don't give then the same income as the holiday cottages and the farm tours.  He said that farmers must diversify to survive and keep their land in the family.

The afternoon finished with pumpkin scones and a coffee under their memorial tree which was planted in 1929 in memory of Christian which I think was Sir Joh's fathers brother.

The highlight of the afternoon was meeting Lady Flo who still lives on the farm.  Judy was beside herself as Lady Flo had her recipe book for sale and she signed a copy of it for Judy.

An International Glider competition was on during the time we were in Kingaroy.  It was interesting to watch the gliders being towed into the air by the aeroplanes.  I always thought the gliders were only airborne for a short period after being released from the tow plane, but one of the glider pilots told us that on the previous day they covered 500 kilometres in about a 7 hour period which is standard for an international competition like this one.  

For the last week before we fly back to Melbourne we based ourselves at Caloundra on the Sunshine Coast which give us a short run into Brisbane to get the caravan into storage and then get to the airport.

No visit to the Sunshine Coast area would be complete without a visit to Steve Irwin's Australia Zoo.  This is a beautiful place and the gardens have developed into a real paradise and giving shade all around the zoo.  

Lots of big crocodiles on display as well as other animals from around the world.  They have recently had 2 male tiger cubs born at the zoo but we just missed out by 3 days from seeing them as they were still too young to let them out to the public.  

They do an informative tiger show and we were surprised just how agile these animals can be.

The show in the" Crocoseum" with the crocodiles as well as the Jabiru and Condor was fantastic.  

The birds are well trained as they free flight in from their enclosures within the zoo.  

Of course their biggest 16 foot crocodile called Acco was the star attraction.

Steve built an animal hospital in memory of his mum who was an animal welfare pioneer.  The work they do at the hospital with injured wild animals helps you to understand why the entrance fee into the zoo is so high. 

After visiting the zoo, I pondered just what more Steve Irwin would have done for animal welfare and conservation should he still be alive today.