Life's too short to stuff a mushroom. So . . . .: Hervey Bay Holiday

Holidays have always played an important part in our family life with planning, saving and anticipation for the next one already underway as we made the return trip home from the current one. If not for these holidays our children would have grown up not knowing most of their overseas family and we would not have had such memorable times with friends who lived far away. Many of these holidays were also spent camping in tents all around New Zealand with one being dedicated to finding an extinct bird for a determined offspring in the Bay of Islands. It remained extinct but we had a great time fishing, swimming and exploring a beautiful part of the country.

Urangan Beach, Hervey Bay

As much fun as we had on those trips, the memories and shared experiences we hold of them now are the most significant, giving us strength and connectedness that sustain us through difficult times. As a family, now including grandchildren, we continue to spend some of our holidays together and I treasure each one. Our latest holiday took us about 3 hours to drive 290 km north of Brisbane to Hervey Bay where we enjoyed beautiful mid "Autumn" weather with beachy temperatures of 27C during the day and comfortable nights. [ Being sub tropical, Queensland does not get the defined chances in season four times yearly, hence "Autumn".]

Hervey Bay is an excellent beach for young families as it is protected by Fraser Island and therefore does not have surfing type waves. It is is the main gateway to Fraser Island and is an important tourist destination with whale watching trips starting from here.

Young children can enjoy the warm, gentle surge of the waves for hours.

Hervey Bay was sighted by Captain James Cook in 1770 - there is a place nearby names the town of 1770 - and has evolved out of several seaside towns that have now merged into one sprawling town. These small villages, now suburbs, have English names such as Scarness and Torquay and also Pialba and Urangan.

The Urangan Pier is now a favourite fishing spot for holiday makers but in the past it was essential to the economic development of the area. Built using turpentine timber in 1916 extending 1124m out to sea it carried trains loading sugar, coal and timber onto ships for export. In the 1960s these exports stopped and the import of petoleum took over. When this stopped in the 1980s the pier was shortened to its present length of 868m and was threatened with demolition until the Hervey Bay Council took over responsibility of maintaining it as an historical structure.

Just imagine this pier 264 metres longer, ships tied up at the end and steam trains shunting down loaded with coal, timber and sugar!

One of the many fun things for children to enjoy is the water park. Not only is it fun but also educational with displays informing visitors about water and how to conserve it as well as to enjoy its theraputic value.

This splash bucket fall had children of all sizes entertained for hours. There was a separate part of the funpark dedicated to under 5 year olds. Remarkably the park did not have an entry fee!

The rocky foreshore at Point Vernon provided hours of entertainment for the children as they explored the rock pools, finding severed crab claws and then trying to find the suffering crab to return his lost parts! The playground nearby had its wonderful climbing ropes totally ignored!

We were amazed to see some kangaroos resting in the shade behind the golf course fence beside our accommodation while golf buggies and people pased by only a few metres distant. I was pleased that the fence was so high as there is a busy roundabout which carries most of the vehicles entering Hervey Bay at one part other side of the fence.

On our return trip we stopped at Maryborough, a mere thirty minutes from Hervey Bay, to see the miniature steam trains in Queen's Park. As it was the holiday period, many families were there to enjoy a ride and to listen to the bands playing in the bandstands. Many families made a picnic of the day with all generations relaxing and enjoying the event.

Maryborough, I was surprised to learn, is a railway centre with locomotives and other rolling stock being manufactured here.

Queen's Park is on the banks of the Mary River and while looking around I was surprised to learn that in the early 1900s it was suggested that due to the large mouth of the Mary River, the Capital Of Queensland should be located here. At that time, the Maryborough was a busy port with wool, timber and other products being exported from here.

This photo looks upstream.

Maryborough has a very famous daughter! The musical Mary Poppins has given us so much pleasure reading the stories, dancing and singing and watching the musical. The author of these books was Pamela Lyndon Travers and she was born in the flat at the top of the bank where her father was manager in Kent Street in August 1899. Apparently a gifted child, she worked as an actress, columnist and dancer but her legacy is the Mary Poppins story. It became a Disney film in 1964 and its catchy songs and dances have been in our lives since then. One of my first posts was about enjoying the musical with my granddaughter. This statue was erected outside the bank which is now a Heritage listed building, by P L Travers' friend Patricia Feltham. The author died on 9th August 1996 a very famous woman. Thank you, P L Travers, for the pleasure you have added to so many lives.