Bundaberg The Heart Of Sugar Country

Newcastle Herald

Tuesday May 6, 2008

Chris Watson

T his is the heart of Queensland's sugar country and the

southern gateway to the Great Barrier Reef, with world

famous attractions including the Bundaberg Rum Distillery

and Australia's best known sea turtle rookery at Mon Repos.

A haven for nature lovers, Bundaberg is a region of beaches

and coral islands an easy four-hour drive north of Brisbane. It's

surrounded by eight national parks and 140 km of coastline, with a

hinterland offering a country experience complete with wide open

spaces and historic sites.

Bundaberg is widely known as the "salad bowl of Queensland"

for its ability to produce a large variety of small crops, also a major

drawcard for backpackers with working visas.

HOW TO GET THERE

Location: Bundaberg is 368 km north of Brisbane.

Airport: Fly into Bundaberg Airport (55 minutes from Brisbane).

Train: Sunlander and The Tilt Train link Bundaberg to coastal

centres including Brisbane and Cairns.

WHERE TO STAY

The region offers a wide variety of accommodation. Stay at a rustic

farm stay, bed and breakfast or country pub, rest your head at a

luxury beachside hotel or secluded resort, or enjoy camping and

caravanning in bushland.

DINING OUT

Bundaberg specialises in growing fruit and vegetables, freshly

harvested seafood, locally produced meats and exotic foods, with

spices like chillies and fruit purees.Dine by the river in a heritagelisted

building, enjoy a meal and beer at a country pub, or taste a

drop at one of the region?s wineries.

MUST DO!

? Visit the gems of the southern Great Barrier Reef - Lady

Musgrave and Lady Elliot islands and Fitzroy Reef lagoon.

? See, smell and taste your way through the Bundaberg

Rum Distillery and sample one of Australia?s most famous

beverages.

? Watch one of nature's miracles - turtles nesting and hatching at

Mon Repos.

? Take a walk around the botanic gardens and learn about the

history of the sugar cane industry in the Fairymead House

Sugar Museum.

? Drive a country loop through Biggenden, Gayndah,

Mundubbera and Eidsvold to experience country hospitality.

? Visit Monto and the spectacular Cania Gorge.

? Scuba dive and snorkel right off the coastline and beaches.

? Visit vineyards and wineries.

EVENTS

? Turtle watching (November - March)

? Gayndah Orange Festival (bi-annual)

? Wide Bay Australia International Airshow (bi-annual)

? Childers Festival of Cultures (July)

? Biggenden Auto Spectacular (August)

? Bundy in Bloom Springtime Festival (September)

? Mount Merry AnnualWoodchop (October)

? Bundaberg Arts Festival (October)

? Wide Bay Australia Bundy Thunder (November)

IDEAS AND INSPIRATIONS

? Bundaberg: A city dotted with restored heritage buildings

among modern architecture.The Burnett River runs through the

middle of the city, lined with parks, playgrounds and even a zoo.

Surrounded by a patchwork of sugar cane fields, Bundaberg offers

access to beaches and the southern Great Barrier Reef.The city

is known for its famous rum, and as the birth place of aviation

pioneer Bert Hinkler.

? Coast and islands: Escape the crowds of other coastal hubs

and head to Bundaberg to experience beaches, coastal towns and

the southern reef. Towns including Bargara, the Town of 1770 and

Agnes Water line the shores.

? Hinterland:With historic towns and rolling countryside, the

Bundaberg hinterland is a region with gems of history and heritage

among canefields.Don?t miss Gayndah, Queensland?s oldest

town, and Mundubbera, the State's citrus capital.

? Ladies of the Reef: Lady Elliot Island is a 25-minute scenic

flight from Bundaberg. Step off the beach and swim, snorkel or

scuba dive the waters and coral gardens, or if you don?t want to get

your feet wet, discover the wonders of the reef in a glass-bottomed

boat or semi-submersible. Lady Musgrave Island is accessible by

boat from either Bundaberg or the Town of 1770.

? Bargara andWoodgate: Bargara is a popular seaside area for

family holidays.The area has seen much development recently,

with five-star properties popping up along the beachfront and

a newly developed streetscape. Bargara boasts two open surf

beaches and two still-water swimming areas. Further south lies

Woodgate Beach, surrounded on three sides by national park.

? The Bundaberg Barrel: "The Barrel" showcases

Bundaberg Brewed Drink's most famous product -

Bundaberg Ginger Beer. An interactive tour tells visitors

of its origins, ingredients, bottling and packaging

through a range of activities and touch screens.

? Fairymead House Sugar Museum: Built in

1890 to an Indian bungalow plan, Fairymead

House was originally the home of the Young family,

owners of Fairymead Sugar Mill and Plantation.

During 1984, Bundaberg Sugar Company donated

the home to the city as a bicentennial gift.Relocated

to Bundaberg Botanical Gardens, the homestead is

now a sugar industry museum.

? Hinkler House Memorial Museum: A tribute to one of

Australia?s greatest pioneer aviators, Bert Hinkler, who was

born in Bundaberg in 1892.Hinkler House, or Mon Repos as

Hinkler called it, was dismantled by volunteers from Bundaberg in

England in 1982, shipped to Australia and rebuilt in Bundaberg. It

now stands in the botanic gardens. In 1911-?12, Hinkler flew gliders

from Mon Repos beach, he worked as an engineer and test pilot

with A.V.Roe in England, inWorld War One flew as a gunner over

France, Germany and Austria and was a test pilot for a gyrocopter,

the forerunner of the helicopter.His greatest feat was in 1928

when he flew solo from England to Australia in the small plane Ibis,

which he designed and built in the backyard of his English house.

On January 7, 1933, Hinkler crashed on the Prato Mango Alps in

Italy.He is buried in Florence.

? Mystery craters: One of Australia?s most baffling

phenomenons, Mystery Craters at South Kolan is believed to be at

least 25 millions years old, a rock formation that baffles the world.

It is a series of craters in various sizes discovered in a group on a

rock formation.

TURTLETIME

The Bundaberg region offers the most accessible place in

Australia to witness the nightly nesting ritual of a number of turtle

species from October to March every year.

Mon Repos, just 15 km from the city centre, has the largest

loggerhead turtle nesting rookery population in the South Pacific.

Flatback and green turtles also nest there and eight to 10 weeks

later, baby hatchlings emerge from their eggs buried in the sand.

During the season, experienced rangers conduct turtle information

nights and guided tours to the beach.

THAT'S ODD

Queensland is home to the lung fish, a living fossil from the

Triassic period 350 million years ago.The Bundaberg region is the

only known habitat in the world for the rare Ceratodus, or lung fish.

FAST FACTS

? Did you know Mon Repos is French for "my rest", and is the

namesake of the turtles' nesting spot?

? Mon Repos is home to the largest concentration of nesting

marine turtles on the eastern Australian mainland.

WORLD HERITAGE

Bundaberg is the southern gateway to the Great Barrier reef,

which in 1981 became Queensland's firstWorld Heritage

Area, listed for being an outstanding example of a reef system,

representing the major stages in the earth?s evolutionary

history; significant ongoing ecological and biological processes;

superlative natural phenomena; and important natural habitats

for conservation of biological diversity.

Stretching more than 2000 km along the Queensland coast and

covering 35 million hectares, the Great Barrier Reef is the world?s

largest coral reef. It is home to an abundance of marine life

- including more than 1500 brilliantly coloured species of tropical

fish, 4000 species of molluscs, 400 species of sponge and 300

species of hard corals.

Seagrass beds provide a home for the dugong, a mammal

species internationally listed as endangered.The reef

also contains nesting grounds of world significance for the

endangered green and loggerhead turtles. It is also a breeding

area for humpback whales, that migrate from the Antarctic to give

birth in the warmeer waters.

The reef's islands and cays support bird species by the

hundred, including reef herons, ospreys, frigate birds and

sea eagles.The reef is also of cultural importance, containing

archaeological sites of Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander origin.

Examples include Lizard and Hinchinbrook Islands with their

galleries of rock paintings.

The reef can be accessed from numerous regions in

Queensland including Bundaberg, Gladstone, Capricorn, the

Whitsundays, Mackay, Townsville and Tropical North Queensland.

It takes 90 minutes to two hours to reach the outer reef on water

from Queensland?s coastal ports.

Many diving and snorkelling opportunities provide visitors

with the best way of getting close to the reef?s wonders. Tour

operators offer professional accredited dive courses, introductory

reef dives and for the experienced, extended dive charters

incorporating night dives or guided ecology dives. Plus, there's

semi-submersible craft, glass-bottom boats and a variety of landbased

reef attractions.

Those wishing to stay overnight on one of the reef's 600

continental islands can choose camping in a national park to

luxurious lodges.

THERE'S A BEAR

The Bundaberg Distilling Company was born in 1888 and today

is one of the region?s largest tourist attractions, drawing more

than 70,000 visitors each year.

Last year the company completed a $24 million expansion

to meet increasing demand, and part of that upgrade was the

Bundaberg Rum Bondstore, a new visitors' centre.You can tour

the distillery, through the molasses storage shed, distillation area,

bond stores and bottling plant (lasting about one hour), and after

that work your way through an interactive area, a self-guided tour

about the history and evolution of Bundaberg Rum over the past

120 years.

Adjacent to the bondstore is the historic Spring Hill House with

a gift shop selling merchandise including Bundaberg Rum Royal

Liquor, which is only available at the distillery.

Distillery tours run on the hour every hour from 10 am to 3

pm Monday to Friday and 10 am to 2 pm Saturday, Sunday

and public holidays.The bondstore is open from 9 am to 4 pm

Monday to Friday and 9 am to 3 pm Saturday, Sunday and public

holidays.

DIVE SITES

A site worth visiting isWoongarra Marine Park, and there's

spectacular snorkelling at Lady Elliot Island.

For more information on Bundaberg, Coral Coast and

Country visit www.bundabergregion.info

The Bundaberg rum distillery draws

more than 70,000 visitors a year

© 2008 Newcastle Herald

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