North Queensland

After a few days in the Atherton Tablelands, we headed for the coast and began our long journey south to Melbourne for the ferry across Bass Strait, and home. First port-of-call was Rollingstone, 40 kms north of Townsville, voted Queensland’s favourite caravan park. It’s certainly one of ours, as we spent a good deal of time there last year, and it made such an impression on us that we stayed again a year later. This time, however, we noticed an alarming difference that was again due to the influence of climate. The beautiful Rollingstone beachfront had been eroded by an encroaching shoreline. The park was smaller by about a metre along its eastern boundary. Strategically placed sand bags were slowing the process, but seemed so futile. It was quite alarming.

The eroded beachfront of Rollingstone Caravan Park.

The day we left Rollingstone, we received warnings of an out-of-control bushfire to the north. Fortunately we were heading south, so we were in no danger, but we later met a couple who had a tense few hours as they travelled from the north through dense smoke towards Rollingstone. After we pulled into the coastal town of Bowen for a few days, there was some disturbing news on the radio – there had been three fatalities after a car and caravan collided with a petrol tanker just outside Bowen. We had passed that very spot only an hour before. Photographs of the scene were sobering, to say the least.

Bowen is an obvious favourite destination for retired travellers. We met several of them, many from Tasmania, who spend up to three months in Bowen each winter. It has several lovely beaches, with Horseshoe Bay being the best because it has small coral outcrops just off-shore, and the lack of any crocodile warning sign means that you can swim and snorkel there - a rarity in northern Queensland. Sadly however, the large amount of dead coral was evidence of storm damage and coral bleaching. On top of Flagstaff Hill on the outskirts of town was an interpretation centre that had been closed for over a year, after being badly damaged by Cyclone Debbie. It seems that climate change is haunting us throughout this trip. Drought, bushfires, coral bleaching, hurricanes, super high tides – all making their mark as we travelled through the outback to the sea.

Horseshoe Bay, Bowen. Somewhere out in the bay is a whale.

Continuing south, we left the coast at Rockhampton and headed for the Newell Highway, which would be the quickest route through NSW to Canberra. This meant that we had to drive through the lovely little town of Mt Morgan, just outside Rockhampton, and we couldn’t do so without stopping at another favourite little caravan park from last year. The owners of Silver Wattle had changed from Mark and Sarah to Dave and Deb, but the hospitality and friendliness had not. It was a charming few days, but with only three weeks until our boat sails from Melbourne, we had to concentrate on heading home.

Mt Morgan.