Hervey Bay

 We've been enjoying Queensland coastal life so much  we decided to head north, 300kms north, and  check out Hervey Bay. 

Really great roads here for long distance driving. Once out of the Brisbane city limits it was easie peasie.

We passed  pass field after field of sugar cane. Fun fact, approximately 95% of the sugar produced in Australia is grown in Queensland. Around 85% of the raw sugar  is exported and generates over $2 billion in export earnings.  In the news is a  sugar factory at Maryborough which closed two years ago, the end of 126 years of crushing, which now looks to be reopening with a new Japanese Australian joint venture as a bio-energy hub making  renewable diesel from sugarcane with crushing resuming in 2023. It will be great for the community with jobs being available again. I hope it works out for them. 

Hervey Bay is known for whale watching.  The whales  rest here as they pass through  on their annual migration to their breeding grounds on the Great Barrier Reef. We didn't see any but the beach and water were stunning.

We saw what must be the longest pier in Australia, the Urangan Pier.  Built in 1913 to transport cargo,  like sugar cane,  between rail and  deepwater ships.  The pier was closed in 1985, and 239 metres of it was demolished!  The locals rallied and saved the remaining 868mtrs for the community - fishing looked popular!

There's a range of beaches to choose from -  Torquay, Pt Vernon, Scarness....many with great beach facilities for families and there's also a range of tourist camp sites. We passed so many caravans on the journey and  having checked out the beachfront camp grounds we can see the attraction. There are cafe's, shops, a local hospital -   much more than we expected to see. 

We didn't get to Fraser Island which sits just off shore. Another fun fact, Fraser Island is  the worlds largest sand island and nature park. Looks like we'll have to come back again and get across to the island.

Lovely to have family in Queensland as we go about exploring. We stopped to visit my Aunt at Tewantin on the return journey.

A great little road trip and I'm assured the pic below is how the whales look from the beach as they migrate north.  We got lucky a few years back at Stinson Beach in San Francisco seeing whales just off the beach ....so we can't complain.