The Whitsundays

The road southbound from Port Douglas to Townsville was familiar for us, having travelled it just a few weeks before. This presented an opportunity to repeat our stay at Rollingstone caravan park, and it also happened to be a weekend, which meant that they’d have live music in the outdoor bar on the Saturday evening. Neal and Debbie followed us, and within a short time agreed with us that this was a splendid place to stay for a few days. And the bonus was that the live music was again supplied by Anu and Lawrie, who entertained us on ukuleles a few weeks before. They were happy to see us again, and even called in to see us the following morning before leaving for home back to Townsville.

Anu Grace and Lawrie Bycroft, wonderful musicians from Townsville.

Ever onwards to the south had us following the coast, while Deb and Neal turned right at Townsville for Charters Towers and their way home to Perth through central Australia. Our destination was Airlie Beach, which was a mission that we’d set ourselves six weeks before. On March 25^th, the area around Bowen, Proserpine and Airlie Beach was pounded by Cyclone Debbie that left destruction and hardship in its wake. We thought that the least we could do would be to stay and inject a little business to help the recovery. Of course the gorgeous location of Airlie Beach being central to the Whitsunday Islands was an added bonus.

Airlie Beach is a large town that has some very trendy shops as well as the stock-standard range of commercial stores and fast-food outlets. However tourism as its main commercial focus. The forecast for later in the week was ominous with rain on the way, so we immediately did a trip out to the Whitsundays the following day. We sailed around many of the islands that make the Whitsundays so famous – Hayman, Hamilton, Daydream, and Molle Islands. The resorts on Hayman Island were still closed following the cyclone, and while the other islands were open for business, we could see many buildings surrounded by scaffolding while still under repair. We spent some time on spectacular Whitehaven Beach, seven kilometres of absolute white sand and crystal clear water on Whitsunday Island. It reminded us of Tassie’s own Bay of Fires north of St Helens, apart from the hundreds of tourists that, like us, had also been deposited on the beach.

Whitehaven Beach on Whitsunday Island, with evidence of Cyclone Debbie.

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We learned about Cyclone Debbie after speaking to many locals. The winds began about 4pm on the Sunday and blew for the following 30 hours, and reached more than 250 kilometres an hour. I find it difficult to imagine the power of that ferocity. Then came the rain, as relentless as the wind but lasting for days longer. Six weeks later we can still see the aftermath, even with the massive clean-up and rebuilding. Most buildings have been restored  but we see many trees that have been broken off just a metre from the ground or stripped of all their leaves. The trees have unleashed new life by sprouting new offshoots, and the fresh green signifies survival.

A few kilometres beyond Airlie Beach is Shute Harbour, a tranquil bay that also accesses the Coral Sea and provides moorings for many leisure vessels. Debbie was not kind to Shute Harbour. We saw many buildings covered by tarpaulins, windows boarded up and surrounded by safety fencing, obviously unsuitable for habitation. Most remarkable where the large boats and yachts that were lying high and dry, many metres above water level. The tidal surge during Cyclone Debbie swept them into the mangroves on the shoreline and destroyed then in the process. Their fate now rests with what insurance the owners can get and whether they are salvageable. It was very sad to see.

Cyclone Debbie's destruction of Shute Harbour.