Category: Post Tagalong21

After Tagalong21…

About Crescent Head

There is a simple secret about Crescent Head: people heading north don’t like turning south and the only way to access this beautiful stretch of coastline is to drive to Kempsey and then turn south-east on Crescent Head Road. This “obstacle course” presents no problems to surfers – who are mooching up and down the coast looking for the perfect wave – but it has worked as a deterrent to holidaymakers. Thus this delightful, uncrowded and underdeveloped sleepy little coastal village is characterised by beautiful beaches and a headland which features one of the most spectacular cliffs on the eastern coast of Australia. The town is well-protected environmentally with the Goolawah Reserve and Limeburners Creek Nature Reserve edging it to the north and the south. The result: a little piece of coastal paradise (sourced from the Aussie Towns website – click for more).

What a glorious location where the Crescent Head Holiday Park is located (maplink). It’s situated on Little Nobby Headland and beside the Killick Creek. Our caravan site was rather special as it backed onto the Killick Creek Footbridge and in a few steps you’re over the bridge and onto a beautiful golden sand beach.

Slim Dusty Museum

The museum is only a short drive from Crescent Head, so if you’re ever in Crescent Head, do yourself a favour and make a visit to the Slim Dusty Centre in South Kempsey.

We spent a couple of hours just wandering around and learning about Slim and his life. We just loved the old caravan and purple Ford Fairlane they used to travel around this great country.

After Tagalong21…

About Evans Head

Nestled between the Broadwater National Park to the north and the Bundjalung National Park to the south, Evans Head is a charming combination of a vibrant fishing village and a quiet family holiday destination. Commercially the town is home to a substantial fishing fleet and proudly claims that it was the first prawning port in Australia. Today the town’s economy is driven by tourism, sugar cane, dairying and a substantial fishing fleet. The town has 6 km of safe surfing beaches, some fine coastal scenery, sandy river flats, and is a popular spot for rock, beach and ocean fishing. The population hovers around 3,000 permanent residents, many of whom are retirees, and expands to 12,000 during the summer school holidays (sourced from the Aussie Towns website – click for more).

Accommodation

We stayed in the Reflections Holiday Park – Evans Head which is located on the northern side of the Evans River (maplink). The sites were so hard to get onto, the concrete slab was probably about 1m off the road so the tow-bar actually couldn’t navigate the height very well. It took a bit of effort and “cheeky driving” to get there.

Dolphins!

The highlight of our stay was definitely the dolphins. Wow, were they fantastic! We had lunch at the Razorback Lookout which overlooks Shark Bay from a rather high vantage point. This is also the location of the local coast guard station, so a great view over the ocean is right in front.

The dolphins were playing in the surf and doing back-flips and frolicking around. We watched them for over an hour. We then drove back to the breakwater on the north side of the harbour and saw them from a different perspective. Totally awe inspiring – as you can see in the photos below…

Evans Head wasn’t as good as we thought (probably wouldn’t go back there).

After Tagalong21…

In October 2020 we discovered that our Bailey Rangefinder Comet Caravan was suffering from what is known as “Water Ingress” when we dropped it off at Jabrumke for a service. So we arranged with them to seek approval to have these issues addressed by Bailey UK under our 10 year water ingress warranty. This work was approved and so we arranged for the work to be completed after our Tagalong trip.

We were so extremely fortunate to be able to stay with great Bailey friends, Graeme & Lynne, for the duration of the work, which was expected to take about 5 weeks. While were staying with them we helped out with some renovations, painting and gardening.

This work required Jabrumke to remove anything which touches the floor of the caravan, which is just about everything! So our beautiful caravan was totally “gutted” and vinyl floor covering removed. We were invited around to have a look at the damage caused by the dampness which can be seen below. The black parts on the floor is actually “black mould” which is a very dangerous thing to have in any environment where you eat & sleep.

So 8 weeks later and we get our caravan back and it’s all fixed! Woohoo – back on the road again!

After Tagalong21…

So, after 8 weeks after leaving our caravan to be repaired at Jabrumke we finally got it back, re-packed it caravan and headed off to Coolum Beach Holiday Park for a week as a form of “shakedown” to check that everything’s been put back in the right place and it’s all working again.

The dreaded “Covid Lockdown” hit the area and we were forced to stay for 2 weeks. Not a bad location to spend lockdown in.

About Rainbow Beach

Rainbow Beach is a town in transition. It was once a quiet and idyllic holiday, fishing and retirement getaway but, in recent years, the holiday developers have moved in and the boast that it is an ‘eco-tourism’ destination has had to take in multi-storey beachside apartments and a feeling that it is rapidly becoming upmarket and fashionable. It still promotes itself as the ‘Gateway to Fraser Island’ (more correctly ‘The Southern Gateway to Fraser Island) as there is a regular and reliable barge which makes the crossing from the far northern end of Inskip Point (sourced from the Aussie Towns website – click for more).

Qualifying for Covid Rules to return to Victoria

Due to Covid being rampant in our wonderful country we needed to meet the Victorian Government’s rules for returning home. This meant we needed to have been in a “green zone” in Queensland for a minimum of 14 days before taking a 24 hour dash through NSW to the Victorian Border. At the time Coolum Beach was still classified as a “Red Zone” so we planned to travel further north then head towards Goondiwindi before making the “dash” home.

We’ve been to Rainbow Beach before (maplink) and loved it so it was a natural first pick for the start of our 14 day trip. So we packed up at Lyn & Graeme’s in Narangba, (finally) said bye bye and headed off on our special trip. The Big4 Breeze Holiday Park was our destination in Rainbow Beach (about 2 kms out of town). This time we picked a caravan site which was closer to the water to “take in the views”, which was fantastic. The only thing we didn’t count on was two pesky things – the midges (sand flies) and the sticky black sand.

Those who know me know that I love sunsets and Rainbow Beach never disappoints. These are the 1st nights photos.

Here’s more sunsets – sorry but I just cannot help myself 😁

Poonah (maplink) was the next stop on our 14 day “green zone” schedule. We booked into Poona Palms Caravan Park for 4 nights, on a waterfront site overlooking the Great Sandy Strait waterway which separates Fraser Island from the mainland.

This is a lovely location, with not much to do, BUT if you’re in town on a Friday night then you must get down to the Poona Community Hall for the dinner put on by the Poona Community Progress Association. It’s a fantastic night, a great meal, cheap and just over the road from the caravan park.

Classic Cars meet

There was a small Classic Cars meet while we were there which added some interest to our stay.

About Maryborough

Maryborough is known as the ‘Heritage City’ and although it isn’t as grand as Queensland’s two premier ‘Heritage Cities’ – Rockhampton and Charters Towers – it actually predates them both by decades. The city can boast a large number of beautiful historic buildings and the original settlement site – now nothing more than a series of plaques – is a fascinating insight into the evolution of an important centre. Today Maryborough is a city driven by the surrounding sugar, grazing and timber industries and catering for the tourists who pass through on the journey north to Cairns (sourced from the Aussie Towns website – click for more).

Accommodation

We were really happy that Maryborough was chosen to help fill in our “14 day Green Zone” requirements to get home to Victoria. There was so much to see in do and we only had 2 days to do it in. We selected the Wallace Motel and Caravan Park as a central location.

Portside Cafe & Restaurant

We caught up with some travelling buddies, Greg & Lyn, at the Portside Cafe & Restaurant for lunch. What a great place with fantastic food and very friendly staff. Totally enjoyed it. It is located in the Portside area at 103 Wharf Street (maplink) and prices a reasonable. Photos below are from Google.

Mary Poppins Museum

We had no idea that the famous story about Mary Poppins was created in Maryborough by P.L. Travers (born Helen Lyndon Goff). We came across the Story Bank building, which is where Helen Lyndon Goff was actually born. What a great discovery this turned out to be as the Story Bank is actually a museum primarily dedicated to the Mary Poppins story. It is located in Kent Street (maplink) and admission is $15 per adult (Sept 2021 price)

Bonds Store Museum

The Bond Store was an essential part of Her Majesty’s Customs Service at the Port of Maryborough at the peak of immigration and trade in the mid to late 1800s. The building provided safe and secure storage for goods that attracted a tax including important essentials such as cigars, tobacco, rum, wine, spirits and opium.

The Bond Store was one of the 1st brick constructed buildings in Maryborough (about 1863) is now a heritage listed building. We really enjoyed the stroll through the museum with lots of historical facts explaining the Bond Stores history. It is located in Wharf Street (maplink) and admission is $5 for adults (Sept 2021 price).

Maryborough Military Museum

This Maryborough Military and Colonial Museum contains a massive amount of Australian military history and you will be amazed how the volunteers who established and run it have crammed so much into one small space. It’s totally worth a visit and the volunteers were more than willing to explain the origins of the exhibits.

The museum houses a VC awarded to Lieutenant (later Major) Herbert James, 4th Battalion, Worcestershire Regiment for gallantry at Gully Ravine, Cape Helles, Gallipoli on June 28 and July 3, 1915. It is one of only 39 VC’s for the Gallipoli campaign and the only one in Australia outside the Australian War Memorial. It also has two of the most historically significant medal groups to Australian soldiers for the Vietnam War – 1964 to 1973. It is located at 106 Wharf Street (maplink) and entry is $15.00 (Sept 2021 price).

TIP: You can buy a Portside Pass for just $25.00 per adult (Sept 2021 price) which grants you access to the Story Bank, Bond Store and Maryborough Military and Colonial Museum.

A stroll through Queens Park

A walk through Maryborough’s Queens Park, located at 16 Sussex Street (maplink), was also a bit of a surprise. We spent a good couple of hours taking in the Maryborough War Memorial as well as the beautiful gardens, which were established in 1873 and were added to the Queensland Heritage Register in 1992.

About Murgon

The tiny township of Murgon is more famous for its proximity to the famous Aboriginal reserve, originally known as Barambah Aboriginal Reserve and today known as Cherbourg, than for any specific attractions it may have. The town itself has an unusual Dairy Industry museum. The median strip in the main street is named in honour of Flo Bjelke-Petersen (Queensland’s well-known pumpkin scone cook and wife of a former state premier) and there is a sign announcing that it is the home of Australia’s champion cheese. In the 1980s, when Joh Bjelke-Petersen was the Premier of Queensland, the town proudly announced ‘Come to Murgon – Gateway to Joh’s Country’. It is entirely appropriate that nearby Goomeri holds a Pumpkin Festival each year (sourced from the Aussie Towns website – click for more).

Accommodation

A lot of people we had met along the way told us about Barambah Bush Caravan Park (6.5kms south of Murgon) so we checked in for 2 days. We soon realised that we should have booked for a longer stay as it was a top spot. It sits on 200 acres, including 140 acres of natural bushland with heaps of walking trails (we got lost – for a while).

Bird Feeding time

The park manager runs a daily bird feeding session at 5:00pm which is brilliant.

Here’s their 90 second promo video (from YouTube)…

Boat Mountain

One of the interesting places to visit is Boat Mountain Conservation Park (located 12.8kms north of Murgon). It’s name comes from the fact it looks the hull of an upturned boat. We took the shorter route to Braithwaites Lookout which provides expansive views over the plains.

More things to do…

Bjelke-Petersen Dam is just 8.5kms down the road from the bush camp and you should drop in to Moffatdale Ridge winery on the way for lunch and a tasting (maplink).

About Goondiwindi

Pronounced ‘gun’ rather than ‘goon’, Goondiwindi is an attractive Darling Downs town which has become important because of its unique position at the junction of the Cunningham, Newell, Bruxner, Barwon and Leichhardt Highways on the border between New South Wales and Queensland. The town spreads around the old Customs House and along the banks of the Macintyre River (sourced from the Aussie Towns website – click for more).

Accommodation

We just needed a couple of days in Goondiwindi to qualify for our entry permit to Victoria, so pulled into the Showgrounds and glad we did. This will now be our “go-to” accommodation in the future. $20/night for power and water is a bargain these days (maplink).

Why we made the “rush home”

Due to Covid lock downs in various QLD, NSW & VIC it had become difficult to travel. We found out that we could reach home in Victoria if we had been in a “green zone” in QLD and got through NSW, to Victoria, within a 24 hour period, with printed permits and keep a detailed log of places you stopped (e.g. fuel & rest).

We got ourselves organised for the rush home, getting permits for entry into NSW & Victoria printed off at the local library. So we left Goondiwindi and crossed the border at 10:30am, travelling down the infamous Newell Highway, stopping at Forbes at 8:00pm for a sleep. Back into the car at 4:30am and off we go, keeping our detailed logs as we travelled; crossing the Victorian border at 9:34am (exactly 23 hours!) to discover there’s no-one there to check our logs & permits etc! WHAT A LOAD OF CRAP!

Anyway we arrived safely at our home in Melbourne with no-one stopping us in 1345kms! (maplink)

Glad to be home but ready to start planning our next adventure (including Bailey Tagalong22) 😄