Oct 4 ...Rockhampton / Tannum Sands

Well, a BIG tick for Gladstone which was a real surprise. It was quite an interesting and nice city ... but I am getting ahead of myself!

Leaving Sarina we had quite a pleasant drive south and on the way we saw lots of LONG coal trains. I also saw some wild camels!!! the first on the trip. As we got closer to Rockhampton we started to hear on the radio about the fires burning in the area and it did indeed get progressively more smoky. Not only are there bushfires, many of which are out of control, there was also some late burning off taking place recently and things are still smouldering. Add to this the cane fires and local industry, and visibility is greatly reduced.

All we had planned to do in Rocky was drive up Mt Archer to the lookout, and despite a thick white haze, we still did. On a clear day this vantage point would be amazing as it is a 360 degree view, but we were not able to enjoy this experience yesterday, so we have noted it down for a future “must do”.

We decided to have lunch by the Fitzroy River down in the town centre so we found a nice shady park and had a relaxing break watching the boats.

Rockhampton in the smoke haze from Mt Archer

The Fitzroy River, Rockhampton

Looking around we noticed many beautiful old buildings in the street running parallel to the river so after lunch we went for an exploratory drive. Quite honestly, the city centre was full of stunning architecture from a past era. It was wonderful to see that they had all been preserved and were well cared for.  

All of this in just one lunchtime! 

Another 100kms further on from here we came to Gladstone. The road from the north came in through the Industrial Area and it really gave a poor impression of the city. We had expected something similar to Port Headland and it seemed this was to be the case. We found our way down to the south and our Park for the night.

The Kin Kora Park in Gladstone was great. We had an excellent site in the shade of two huge jacaranda trees which had, unfortunately, finished flowering. The whole park was full of trees and these were full of birds which were all singing away.
It was also at the end of the airport runway and RIGHT beside a rail line, so there was plenty of action. Most of the residents were “workers”, many of whom left at 4am to go to work, and the others were all up before 6am anyway; and the roar of a jet engine tended to lose its appeal around 1am. Add to that the endless coal trains that travelled past all night and we were pretty much over the initial excitement by morning. We decided to move out to Tannum Sands for our second night but I still felt it was a very nice park.

Today dawned with clear skies despite the fires in the hills.

We had booked on a free tour of the port at 10am so we headed in to the Tourist Office to wait for the bus. We had done something similar in Port Headland, except it was not free, and we were very disappointed, but this turned out to be first class. We had a big, comfortable bus and a knowledgeable tour guide. The driver took us all around the coal storage and loading facility while we were told lots of facts.

This was the largest coal facility we have seen, it is actually the fourth biggest coal export port in the world; it was also well organized, spacious and “clean”. We first saw where the trains unload the coal; each of these trains are approximately 1.7km long and 30 trains are unloaded each day. The coal falls through the bottom of each wagon into an underground pit where it is taken by conveyor belts to various stockpiles, depending on its grade. Then we drove around the stockpiles and watched the dozers push it all to where it could feed onto other conveyor belts that took the coal to the ships. 

From here we went over to the docks where there were three ships fully loaded and one in the process of being loaded with coal. During the morning we saw all three ships put out to sea and a similar number come in to be loaded. It was a very busy port  and there are 6 different docking areas which contribute to making the port over 31kms in length. But, the Gladstone Port Corporation (GPC), which is obviously VERY wealthy, has also spent a lot of money in the community and around the port. They have reclaimed huge amounts of land and created some beautiful parklands that included picnic areas and a beach, and after our tour we went back there for morning tea.

The general docks

From the port, the bus took us through the town centre and up to Auckland Hill Lookout from where we had excellent views over the coal loading docks and the general docks. From the latter they load calcite, grain, fuels and containers. Each is privately operated but all docks are owned by the GPC. 

Morning Tea in Spinnaker Park

A busy port

The tour took about 75 mins and we were very impressed. There is a different free tour on each day and next visit we will plan to do some of the others. Afterwards we went back to the Tourist Office to buy a lovely glass shell ($70) for our lounge room at home. I loved it and I especially like to have something nice to remember each trip by.

We then embarked on a self drive of Gladstone’s lookouts, the first of which was Round Hill Lookout. This was another with 360 degree views of the whole city, its surrounds and all out to sea. The huge Curtis and Facing Islands were clearly visible as were many of the smaller islands. It is these two large islands that make Gladstone such a protected harbour. There were a string of ships on the horizon waiting to come in to the port and we had clear views of all the industrial areas.

Round Hill Lookout

After a quick look at Barney Point beach we drove out to the Alumina Lookout. This was built by QAL (Queensland Alumina Limited) and it overlooks the plant with noticeboards explaining the process and other interesting facts about the corporation. This place was huge, and ugly, and smelly, but it employs more than 1000 people and again it makes big contributions to the city. The bauxite is refined here to alumina, which is a powder, and about 30% of this is transported a few kilometres south to another massive plant which smelts it into aluminium. The rolls of aluminium are then shipped overseas as is the other 70% of alumina.

The Alumina Plant

Whilst this was all very interesting, it was now mid afternoon so we made our way down to Tannum Sands. The park here is again very nice, right near a lovely beach; we again have a good site, AND, it is very quiet...no planes, no trains, and regrettably, few birds.  After doing some shopping we walked up to the lookout overlooking the beach area and it was a lovely view on a perfect afternoon. 

Picnic huts at Tannum Sands

Tannum Sands Beach

 Gladstone is growing quickly but a lot of effort is going into its appearance as well as its industry. The water in the harbour all looked clean and there were a lot of green spaces including parks and gardens. We did see the area where the new coal seam gas facility will be and where all the dredging is taking place. There is quite a lot of controversy about this, much of which we agree with, but it all seems to be going ahead. So Gladstone will be getting bigger for a while yet but all this makes it an interesting and pleasant place to visit.

Finished off the rhubarb pie today and it was superb, possibly the best I have ever eaten. Have now started on the fruit cake and it is equally as good. I wish I could get back to Mackay to buy some more!