The CMCA RV Park in Bundaberg is adjacent to parkland and just a stones throw from the main shopping area/business district At $6/night member price and with access to potable water and dump point it is ideal for our last stop in centralQueensland.
We have been extremely lucky with the weather since the downpour in Charleville and temperatures remain in the high 20s, so it is going to be a few days getting to know new areas of the city as well as reacquainting ourselves with some familiar places.
Bargara is one of the latter. It has been quite some time since we were last up this way and understandably the town has grown significantly since then. Despite the holiday resorts that have sprung up and the large chain shopping centre, the esplanade precinct still has a small village feel to it with pretty parkland right by the ocean. We did a quick drive around the back streets of the town, but there was never any doubt that we would choose to eat our lunch on the foreshore, gazing out over the sapphire water.
to us, but has been in operation since the 1960s. Dedicated to marine turtle research, it supports the largest number of nesting marine turtles on the east coast of Australia, as well as the most significant nesting population of loggerhead turtles in the South Pacific region. Our visit was outside of turtle season so there was no opportunity for an encounter, but we still enjoyed wandering around their interactive display as well as the video presentation of what is being done to protect the future of these beautiful creatures.
Another new destination for us was The Bundaberg Barrel – we didnt think twice about booking a little tasting as we have always enjoyed these refreshing drinks. There were 14 different flavours of their brewed drinks to try and they were quite generous with the serving so you could really appreciate the taste of each. At the end of the tasting we could each choose to take home. John was amazed when he tried the Apple Cider variety – it had the smell of green apple but the taste of red. We both thoroughly enjoyed their traditional lemonade with its flavour reminiscent of home made
lemonade. The lemon/lime/bitters was my favourite – it was better than any pub drink we have ever had. There was an interactive display for us to go through which included a name this smell wall where a puff of fragrant air blew across our face and we could try to name the principle ingredient. Further into the display room they have a pseudo production line for their ginger beer – before we even spotted the thumbs of ginger waiting to be minced the aroma was rather heady. We could follow the production of the ginger beer all the way through to bottling, packing and shipping - again, another brilliant display. has its own ginger plantation – not sure how big that is, but with their premium flavour being exported to over 67 countries worldwide we assume it is substantial, but interestingly they dont have a sarsaparilla root plantation so this is one of a very few ingredients they import.
A visit to the Hinkler Hall of Aviation certainly filled in a morning. Once again there were interactive displays as well as a detailed account of Herbert Bert Hinklers aviation career which started out as a
young boy obsessed with Ibis birds and their shape and form as they flew. A cleverly crafted diorama depicted Bert and his crew on nearby Mon Repos beach from where, in 1912, he attempted his first piloted flight of a home made glider. His career literally soared from there and in 1921 he flew from Sydney to Bundaberg taking 8.5 hours the 1,100km journey. He famously flew his AVRO Baby under the spans of both the rail and road bridges over the Burnett River in Bundaberg as a way of announcing his return to his birthplace. In 1928 Bert Hinkler made the first solo flight from England to Australia, arriving in Darwin after 15 ½ days. The restored AVRO Baby – a single engine staggered biplane with a 7.
