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. 

Brisbane City

Our first day of overcast weather so we took the train into the big smoke, Brisbane City.  For the last few days, while the weather has been so lovely,  we've been enjoying walking a lot of the coastal tracks and paths around the Redlands Coast, there's so much to explore!

At Oyster Point we came across a cool little fort some local kids had made in the bush.

A famous grand old lady, an icon in pub history!

There are any number of cafes along the waterfront promenades, you're spoiled for choice. 

So with light showers forecast for today we set off for the city. We hopped on the train at the Birkdale station and in about 40 minutes  we were in the centre of Brisbane city, easie peasie.

Just down from Central Station is Anzac Square and memorial gardens.

We then wandered through the city to the botanical gardens. The city was full of people buzzing about in shops and cafe's and there's any number of fancy schmancy shops.

We found a local coffee roaster to support as opposed to the numerous Starbucks coffee shops everywhere.

Not so sure what the strawberry coffee roast would taste like but our latte's were spot on. Fortified, we made for the gardens.

There's construction everywhere! Some pretty cool buildings popping up. The gardens feel like they are on the edge of the city and they run down to the river, so they are super accessible to the city office workers which is good.

The gardens are in immaculate condition and so pretty. On a sunny day they must be full of office folks at lunch time.  We walked to the rivers edge through the gardens and found a water ferry to travel up river to the south bank.

They don’t call it the River City for nothing. Brisbane is home to the longest river in south east Queensland.

There's something special about seeing a city from the water, the perspective of the buildings against the sky and the water...just lovely even on an overcast day.

The grand old buildings seem

 dwarfed by the skyscrapers.

The little hopper ferries had limited stops along  the river as many of the commuter piers are being strengthened or replaced after a massive flood in February, the third big flood in recent years.

We hopped off our ferry at South Bank and wandered through the gorgeous paths and plantings to the Exhibition Centre and then on to MOMA.  The South Bank development is fantastic, gardens, cafes, even a city beach and pool and in summer it hosts many events for the public to enjoy. Today rain threatened so we'll have to come back another day.

Even with a smattering of raindrops the river path was lovely. This city sure maximises it's waterways with bike paths,  footbridges, sculpture and great lookout points.

There looks to be a huge casino being built on one side of the river with a new footbridge across the river being built.... not yet joined up.

The Museum of Modern Art was interesting.  A fantastic building with large, airy galleries but quite a few were closed as exhibitions were being changed. 

We made our way back to Central Station across a river  footbridge.

There's quite a lot of public art as you wander about through the streets. 

We couldn't skip seeing City Hall so found our way there.

City Hall was built between 1920 and 1930 at a cost of almost a million pounds and at the time it was the second largest construction project in Australia, second only to the Sydney Harbour Bridge. 

It is located adjacent to King George Square and has a terrific neo classical facade, I bet it's stunning inside, have to save that exploration for another city visit. 

Time to get the train back to the Redlands Coast. A fun day in the river city. It felt really buzzy and everyone along the river paths and in the galleries and cafe's looked to be happy and enjoying the city....do they put something in the water here :)

Yellow Bougainvillea! So pretty.