1995/11 Australia trip - Bundaberg and Rockhampton |
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Then it was a blast as fast as we were allowed (100KPH and they do enforce it) up the Pacific Highway to Bundaberg. This is a really pretty town, with a main street planted with flowers down the centre and all the shops are quite old but well cared for. The main business in the area is sugar cane farming, and this seems to be doing quite well.
Our main reason for visiting was to tour the Bunderberg Distillery where the famous Bundy rum comes from. So we joined a few others for a tour, and got to see the vats where the molasses and yeast ferments (amazing heat and smell) and then followed it through the distillation process, the casks where it is aged, and the bottling plant. We ended up in their bar, where you get to sample the goods.
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Bundaberg Rum Distillery (4.01) |
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I’d been cruel enough to arrange for Sandie to drive the next leg, so I got to drink my rum and her liqueur. The rum is quite different from Bacardi. It doesn’t have the oily taste, more like a sweet rye whiskey. As we were leaving, we saw this tree full of lorikeets. Apparently, they wait for a chance to get at the molasses. When they do, it ferments in their stomachs and makes them drunk and they stagger around on the ground, being too gummed up to fly. Hence the Australian saying of “pissed as a parrot”.
Well this parrot slept most of the afternoon as Sandie drove north to Rockhampton, and then down to the coast at Emu Park and Kinko Beach. By this time it was dark, but the owner saw us in “after hours”. It was only 7.15 but it gets dark here at 6.30, and most things close up soon after.
We were woken up early on Saturday, as the campground was full of peacocks. Perhaps the owner really wanted emus, but they’re protected, so he settled for peacocks. The campground was a bit more civilized than those we’d had so far. Potted palms and louvered doors in the bathrooms!
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Emu Park (4.01) |  |
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However, the beach was gorgeous: miles of sand and a view of the Keppel Islands offshore. We had a good early walk out with the curlews and oyster catchers, but there was no swimming here, just lots of warnings signs on how to restart someone’s heart after they’ve been stung by the box jellyfish.
We went back to Rockhampton after breakfast to visit the Dreamtime display at the Aboriginal Cultural Centre. Sometimes those kinds of places can be disappointing, but this one had a really good tour. An aboriginal took us around a load of trees and shrubs showing what they were used for, and giving us a taste of leaves and berries.
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Dreamtime (7.20) |  |
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Then a Torres Islander (islands between Queensland and Papua/New Guinea) showed us the things her people made with pieces of the coconut tree. She said that her great grandparents were not really headhunters, but they would save the heads of anyone they killed and trade them to the New Guinea people in exchange for stone axes.
Then we were taught (with varying success) to throw a boomerang, and we finished up with a recital on the didgeridoo. All in all, an interesting morning, but one that played hell with our schedule. So we had to settle for somewhere closer to stay the night.