2020 Far North Queensland
 

Townsville - Thu 16/07/2020

2020 Far North Queensland
Today is a big day. Our destination is Townsville 720 kms North so we get underway from Rockhampton at 07:00. We make it to Sarina, 300 Kms from Rockhampton, a bit south of Mackay and stop for lunch. We're in sugar cane land right now. The Mackay region produces more than a third of Australia's sugar and has five locally owned sugar mills. Sugar harvesting is highly mechanised and the cane is no longer burnt prior to harvesting in most of Queensland. Queensland has "Tourist friendly" laws and these laws permit campers to stay for up to 24 hours in roadside rest areas. They even provide showers and toilets at these stops. This means that Grey Nomads can find free overnight accommodation for their travels throughout Qld. Like all things free, demand exceeds supply. We stop here at Guthalungra at 2:00pm and all the good spots have gone.
We arrive in Townsville at 16:30 but our reserved accommodation is a disaster. It is a smelly pub with lax smoking and Covid enforcement and too many undesirables hanging around. Jenni does a quick phone around and finds this dilapidated motel right on the water front. It's location is perfect and the room is semi-OK. It will do. We lose our pre-paid $100 for the first hotel. Our motel is The Strand on the Strand, the main road past the ocean. Magnetic Island is visible in the distance. The Strand runs for about 3 kms from the Strand Rockpool in the North to the Port of Townsville in the South. Many of the trees date from the first European settlements.
This is the Long Board restaurant. The parklands and walkways run for the entire length of The Strand. Most overseas visitors read gruesome stories about Australian shark attacks and are filled with horror. Their research never tells them about the two other very real (and statistically more likely) dangers in Qld; sunshine and stingers. Box Jellyfish have caused at least 69 deaths in Australia since record keeping began in 1883 while those who don't die, suffer painfully. Since 1918 there have been 10 recorded shark attacks in Townsville waters, seven of those being fatal, with most local attacks attributed to the tiger shark. Fatalities have been recorded at The Strand, Ross Creek and Magnetic Island. Yesterday, I asked myself, "Is Rockhampton Australia's most beautiful country town?" Yesterday, the answer was yes but now, maybe not. Townsville's parks and gardens are also a joy to the eye.
Castle Hill, a volcanic pink granite plug, towers over the city. We visit the summit tomorrow. Tourists can take a vehicular ferry to Magnetic Island in the background and spend a day there. We are short of time and decide not to do this. It seems the island is so big that you need your own car to get around to enjoy all of the sights the island has to offer. This place, the C-Bar, is closed now but open for breakfast so we think, "Why not?" In the distance is Port of Townsville, the third largest seaport in Queensland. Townsville is the number one port in Australia for exports of copper, zinc, lead and sugar. Live cattle are also shipped from the port.
The port's Berth 10 was redesigned to accommodate the Royal Australian Navy's LHD (Landing Helicopter Deck) vessels. The port accommodates US Navy personnel on rest & recuperation and it is also the dock for the vehicular ferry to Magnetic Island. The Quayside Terminal was recently upgraded to service large cruise ships. This area is also home to The Villa Resort-Casino, the tallish white building visible in the distance. We walk to the southern end of the park and look back to the North. This Banyan Tree provides shelter for the restaurant's outdoor patrons. We do not eat here although it looks very nice; instead, we a book a table for 18:00 at the Long Board Restaurant directly opposite.
Around to our left are more Banyan trees. Historic 1888 photographs of The Strand show recently planted banyan trees and others only several years old. It seems that more trees of all kinds were planted along the waterfront during the early 1900's. The coast of Queensland points sharply to the NW in Townsville so we get a view of the setting sun. It is a bit weird to be on the Eastern coast of Australia and to watch the sun set in the ocean. This is a Pandanus tectorius tree or screw pine (but it ain't no pine). It is native from Port Macquarie in NSW to Northern Queensland. Its exact native range in other countries is unknown due to extensive cultivation; it may be an early Polynesian introduction to many of the more isolated Pacific islands on which it occurs. Pandanus tectorius is dioecious, meaning male and female flowers are borne on separate trees.
Australian Aborigines extracted the slender, edible seeds for food. The tree's leaves are used as flavouring for sweet dishes and to flavor a variety of curries. Polynesians use the leaves to make baskets, mats, outrigger canoe sails, thatch roofs, and grass skirts. It's 18:00 so we go into the Long Board for dinner. It's a sort of Mexican restaurant but with a not-entirely-authentic menu. During Covid restrictions we mostly stayed at home so this tracking procedure is new to us but quite fast. It helps health authorities trace an outbreak of Covid to "Patient number one." The only personal details it collects is your name and mobile number.
Jenni ponders the drinks menu and buys an adult alcoholic drink. I order my drink from the kiddies' menu. The meals are interesting and I'm sure a Mexican national would not recognise the menu. My meal is a huge, single pulled pork enchilada . . . . . . while Jenni orders an assortment of tacos with non-traditional fillings. When we finish dinner, we go back outside where it is properly dark. I really like the way they illuminate the Banyan trees in Northern Queensland. Then it's back to The Strand where we get a reasonable night's sleep.
It's now Friday morning and, with plenty of time left to get to Atherton, we go to the C-Bar for breakfast. At the moment we have driven 2250 kms from home and Atherton is only a piddling 350 kms away. We ask a waitress (call me old-fashioned) to take our picture. I order a muesli dish and Jenni has fresh fruit. This is a long board being paddled upright in the calm waters of Cockle Bay.
We go to the top of Castle Hill and many people are walking up the hill (5.2km return) instead of driving; this is plainly stupid. This is a picture of a young woman running up the stairs to the summit. Can't see the woman? She reached the top before I could get my phone out to take the picture. On the opposite side is the modern day equivalent of last century's images of factories belching smoke - the ugly signs of progress. Townsville has a population of 180,000 and is Australia's largest urban centre north of the Sunshine Coast (Darwin is only 132,000). The headland almost directly in front of me is the Townsville Town Common Conservation Park.
Townsville is in the dry tropics adjacent to the central section of the Great Barrier Reef. The city is also a major industrial centre, home to one of the world's largest zinc refineries and a nickel refinery. Directly below us is the Townsville Sports Reserve and the road beside the reserve leads directly to the Strand Park and Strand Pier. The sandy waterfront appears on the right although it continues up the left of the picture. Our breakfast spot is to the right of the picture out of frame. The Port of Townsville is becoming increasingly important because of its proximity to Asia and major trading partners such as China. Captain James Cook visited the Townsville region on his first voyage to Australia in 1770, but did not land here. In 1846, James Morrill was shipwrecked and lived in the Townsville area among the Bindal people for 17 years before being found by white men and returned to Brisbane.
During WWII, the city was host to more than 50,000 American and Australian troops and air crew, and it became a major staging point for battles in the South West Pacific. A large United States Armed Forces contingent supported the war effort from seven airfields and other bases around the city and in the region. The first bombing raid on Rabaul, in Papua New Guinea, on 23 February 1942 was carried out by six B-17s based near Townsville. Castle Hill is formed of a pink granite intrusion dating from the early Permian about 300 mya when Australia was part of Gondwana. I also read an alternative explanation that during the Great Flood (Noah's Ark etc.) that the floodwaters washed the surrounding hillside away leaving the rock exposed. I report, you decide. Townsville has several large public assets such as the largest campus of the James Cook University, the Australian Institute of Marine Science headquarters, Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority, a large Army base at Lavarack Barracks and the RAAF Base Townsville . The Australian Army's 3rd Brigade is based at Lavarack Barracks in Townsville. The 3rd Brigade is a high-readiness brigade that has been deployed frequently at very short notice on combat operations outside mainland Australia.
In front is the is the Queensland Country Bank Stadium , home of the North Queensland Cowboys Rugby League team. Ross Creek (where shark attacks have been recorded) is visible in front of the stadium and the large river in the background is the Ross River. Townsville is named after Robert Towns who was a businessman, merchant, colonist, shipowner, pastoralist, politician, whaler and civic leader. He was an importer of sugar and tea; an exporter of wool, whale oil, cotton and other commodities; and pioneered the cultivation of cotton in Queensland. This is the headstone removed from his grave in Sydney. Leaving Castle Hill, some people are walking back down the hill while other people walk up. This is something you do only if you're young and outrageously fit. We now resume our journey and head north to Atherton. 2029-07-13FNQld-4
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