Explore Coastal Queensland
The tropics kick in at Rockhampton, 100km north of Gladstone, but with the exception of the Mackay region – a splash of green with a couple of good national parks – it’s not until you’re well past the tropic line and north of Townsville that the tropical greenery associated with north Queensland finally appears. Then it comes in a rush, and by the time you’ve reached the tourist haven of Cairns there’s no doubt that the area deserves its reputation: coastal ranges covered in rainforest and cloud descend right to the sea. Islands along the way lure you with good beaches, hiking tracks and opportunities for snorkelling and diving: Great Keppel near Rockhampton, the Whitsundays off Airlie Beach, Magnetic Island opposite Townsville, and Hinchinbrook and Dunk further north are all must-sees. Cairns itself serves as a base for exploring highland rainforest on the Atherton Tablelands, coastal jungles in the Daintree and, of course, for trips out to the most accessible sections of the Great Barrier Reef.
The region’s weather involves dry, relatively cool winters (June–Aug) and extremely humid summers (Dec–Feb) with torrential rainfall and devastating cyclones – February and March are the months when the worst systems, such as Cyclone Yasi in 2011, are most likely to hit.
Read More- The Whitsundays
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Bowen
Bowen
BOWEN, a quiet seafront settlement, was once under consideration as the site of the state capital, but it floundered after Townsville’s foundation. Overlooked and undeveloped, the wide sleepy streets and historic clapboard buildings made Bowen’s town centre the perfect film-set location for the 2008 Baz Luhrmann epic, Australia, standing in as 1930s Darwin. Nothing remains from the mass Hollywood intrusion except for the many tales of almost every resident whose world was briefly turned upside down. Stark first impressions created by the sterile bulk of the saltworks on the highway are offset by a certain small-town charm and some pretty beaches just off to the north. The main attraction for travellers, though, is the prospect of seasonal farm work: Bowen’s mangoes and tomatoes are famous throughout Queensland, and there’s a large floating population of itinerant pickers in town between April and January. The backpackers’ hostels can help with finding work, though nothing is guaranteed.
Bowen’s attractive beaches lie a couple of kilometres north of the town centre. Queens Beach, which faces north, is sheltered, long and has a stinger net for the jellyfish season, but the best is Horseshoe Bay, small, and hemmed in by some sizeable boulders, with good waters for a swim or snorkel – though the construction of an oversized resort nearby threatens to ruin the atmosphere.
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Ayr and the Yongala
Ayr and the Yongala
AYR is a compact farming town fast becoming another popular stop on the farm work trail. The highway – which runs through town as Queen Street – is where you’ll find the bus stop and all essential services, as well as two workers’ hostels that can find you employment picking and packing capsicums, amongst other things.
Ayr’s other attraction is easy access to the wreck of the Yongala, a 109m-long passenger ship that sank with all hands during a cyclone in 1911. It now lies intact and encrusted in coral in 18–30m of water, and is home to turtles, rays, moray eels and huge schools of barracuda, mackerel and trevally, making for a staggeringly good wreck dive. Be aware that the wreck is in an exposed location, and it’s not much fun diving here if the weather is rough; this is also a demanding site – deep, with strong currents and startlingly big fish – and it’s best not to go unless you’ve logged twenty dives or more.
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Magnetic Island
Magnetic Island
Another island named by Captain Cook in 1770 – after his compass played up as he sailed past – Magnetic Island is a beautiful triangular granite core 12km from Townsville. There’s a lot to be said for a trip here: lounging on a beach, swimming over coral, bouncing around in a moke from one roadside lookout to another, and enjoying the sea breeze and the island’s vivid colours. Small enough to drive around in half a day, but large enough to harbour several small settlements, Magnetic Island’s accommodation and transfer costs are considerably lower than on many of Queensland’s other islands, and if you’ve ever wanted to spot a koala in the wild, this could be your chance – they’re often seen wedged into gum trees up in the northeast corner of the island.
Seen from the sea, the island’s apex, Mount Cook, hovers above eucalypt woods variegated with patches of darker green vine forest. The north and east coasts are pinched into shallow sandy bays punctuated by granite headlands and coral reefs, while the western part of the island is flatter and edged with mangroves. A little less than half the island is designated as national park, with the settlements of Picnic Bay, Nelly Bay, Arcadia and Horseshoe Bay dotted along the east coast. Shops and supplies are available on the island, so there’s no need to bring anything with you.
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Hinchinbrook Island
Hinchinbrook Island
Across the channel from Cardwell, Hinchinbrook Island looms huge and green, with mangroves rising to forest along the mountain range that forms the island’s spine, peaking at Mount Bowen. The island’s drier east side, hidden behind the mountains, has long beaches separated by headlands and the occasional sluggish creek. This is Bandjin Aboriginal land, and though early Europeans reported the people as friendly, attitudes later changed and nineteenth-century “dispersals” had the same effect here as elsewhere. The island was never subsequently occupied, and apart from a single resort, Hinchinbrook remains much as it was two hundred years ago. Today, the island’s main attraction is the superb Thorsborne Trail, a moderately demanding hiking track along the east coast, taking in forests, mangroves, waterfalls and beaches.
- Mission Beach
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Innisfail
Innisfail
INNISFAIL is a small but busy town on the Johnstone River and a good spot to find work picking bananas. Innisfail is worth a quick stop anyway as a reminder that modern Australia was in no way built by the British alone: there’s a sizeable Italian community here, represented by the handful of delicatessens displaying herb sausages and fresh pasta along central Edith Street. The tiny red Lit Sin Gong temple on Owen Street (and the huge longan tree next to it) was first established in the 1880s by migrant workers from southern China, who cleared scrub and created market gardens here; many of Innisfail’s banana plantations have been bought up recently by Hmong immigrants from Vietnam.
- Cairns
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Sugar cane on the Tropical Coast
Sugar cane on the Tropical Coast
Sugar cane, grown in an almost continuous belt between Bundaberg and Mossman, north of Cairns, is the Tropical Coast’s economic pillar of strength. Introduced in the 1860s, the crop subtly undermined the racial ideals of British colonialists when farmers, planning a system along the lines of the southern United States, employed Kanakas – Solomon Islanders–to work the plantations. Though only indentured for a few years, and theoretically given wages and passage home when their term expired, Kanakas on plantations suffered greatly from unfamiliar diseases, while the recruiting methods used by “Blackbirder” traders were at best dubious and often slipped into wholesale kidnapping. Growing white unemployment and nationalism through the 1880s eventually forced the government to ban blackbirding and repatriate the islanders. Those allowed to stay were joined over the next fifty years by immigrants from Italy and Malta, who mostly settled in the far north and today form large communities scattered between Mackay and Cairns.
After cane has been planted in November, the land is quickly covered by a blanket of dusky green. Before cutting, seven months later, the fields are traditionally fired to burn off leaves and maximize sugar content – though the practice is dying out. Cane fires often take place at dusk and are as photogenic as they are brief; the best way to be at the right place at the right time is to ask at a mill. Cut cane is then transported to the mills along a rambling rail network. The mills themselves are incredible buildings, with machinery looming out of makeshift walls and giant pipes that belch out steam around the clock when the mill is in operation. Cane is juiced for raw sugar or molasses, as the market dictates; crushed fibre becomes fuel for the boilers that sustain the process; and ash is returned to the fields as fertilizer.
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The wet tropics and World Heritage
The wet tropics and World Heritage
Queensland’s wet tropics – the coastal belt from the Paluma Range, near Townsville, to the Daintree north of Cairns – are UNESCO World Heritage listed, as they contain one of the oldest surviving tracts of rainforest anywhere on Earth. Whether this listing has benefited the region is questionable, however; logging has slowed, but the tourist industry has vigorously exploited the area’s status as an untouched wilderness, constantly pushing for more development so that a greater number of visitors can be accommodated. The clearing of mangroves for a marina and resort at Cardwell is a worst-case example; Kuranda’s Skyrail was one of the few projects designed to lessen the ultimate impact (another highway – with more buses – was the alternative). Given the profits to be made, development is inevitable, but it’s sad that a scheme designed to promote the region’s unique beauty may accelerate its destruction.
