One of our objectives as we made our way up the Queensland coast this year was to investigate new destinations. This is what had brought us to Poona. But this is not the only town on this part of the Great Sandy Straits. Nearby Maaroom, Boonooroo and Big Tuan deserved a visit.
Unfortunately by the time we got around to doing this, the weather had set in for the worse, so this was not the day for walking about. We really just wanted to 'get the feel' of these small towns for future reference as a result of which the photographic record is limited to a few shots Liz took from the Cruiser window.
All these towns lie a short distance north of Poona, off the Maryborough Road.
Maaroom lies in the opposite direction to Boonooroo off the Maryborough-Cooloola (they like their letter 'O' up here!) road, so it was a left hand turn for us.
In no time we had turned down the narrow, scrub lined Granville Road which took us the 6 kms or so
into Maaroom, where our arrival was heralded by another of the upright Fraser Coast town signs.
The first thing we discovered about Maaroom as we drove down the hill into the town is that there is not much to it and, as we could see from here, it is very close to Fraser Island.
At the end of Granville Road we turned left onto the Esplanade
and checked out the quite extensive boat ramp on the tidal creek on which part of the town is set. This is a pretty impressive facility for such a small town, and indicated that some large boats find their way into the water here. Even now, when the tide was ebbing fiercely, the water left in the creek appeared quite deep in the centre channel.
As we made our way further along the Esplanade, past what are typical houses of this section of the town, Maaroom tossed up a real surprise.
On the grass between the road and the mangroves lining the creek we spotted these two eastern grey kangaroos. They were completely unperturbed by our passage.
One did keep a wary eye on us, but beyond that these local roos maintained a pose of complete indifference to our presence. We concluded that these marsupials are an integral part of the Maaroom scenery.
As we drove out of the town after this 'whistle stop' visit, we did concentrate on the local caravan park. The shop/cafe which is part of the park infrastructure looked OK
as did the park itself from what we could see from the road.
There is another section of Maaroom which we did not drive through.....we had seen what we came for.....the water front and the caravan park. Despite the grey weather we had liked what we saw. This small, predominately 'holiday' town is now on our list of potential future stop-over points.
After back-tracking along Granville Road we toddled off to check out Big Tuan,
where the town sign is at odds with the road signs and the name all the locals use for the town. No-one quite seems to know why the prefix 'big' has been attached to the town name, and here on this sign, the local authority clearly decided to dispense with it.
Whatever the correct name for this town, it is certainly a pretty spot. Lovely gardens are the norm
and here all the houses we saw were large
and modern.
Given the state of the tide and the weather, it was hard to really judge the ambiance of the water front here in Big Tuan,
but one thing was clear.......this is another town on the Great Sandy Straits where tidal movements are significant.
From what we found during this very brief tour is that Big Tuan is certainly the 'up-market' residential area of this part of the world, quite unlike what we saw at Boonooroo.
This is obviously the 'working' town of the district. Here the tidal creek was home to a few commercial fishing trawlers, something we had not seen elsewhere.
Boonooroo is spread out all over the place. Tidal nooks and crannies abound. Nothing here held any appeal for us.
The town does support a good golf and bowls club, and from what we have been told the meals on offer at the golf club are good value, but I'm afraid Boonooroo did nothing for us. The caravan park was uninviting as was the waterfront area. This town is off the list!
So, if and when we make a return visit to this area, it will be either Maaroom or Poona, (quite probably a stint at both) and definitely later in the year.
I should add at this point that we also took the opportunity to visit Maryborough whilst at Poona. Prior to this we had merely driven past the town, and whilst the purpose of this visit was re-supply, what we saw of the marvellous old buildings and the obvious history of this large town
on the banks of the broad Mary River has left us determined to spend some several days here in the future.
So that brings our Poona sojourn to an end. It seemed fitting that on our last evening here we were treated to a brilliant sunset and the promise of a change in the weather.
Before we move on, another snippet in the life of the ship's cat. Max loved Poona. He was particularly taken by the trees near our site.
The trunks on some presented an impossible tangle of wood,
but Max found the tree at the back of our site just to his liking. Unusually for him, he was up it like a shot.
In fact at one stage he became so adventurous that 'his handler' had to tighten her grip on his lead. We had visions of the Black Panther biting off far more than he could chew and a rescue exercise involving long ladders and severe owner embarrassment!
But it was good to see Max making the most of his surroundings. And of course all this exercise could lead to only one outcome!
Next we are off to Hervey Bay for a few days to catch up with three old surf club mates before we visit a town through which we have driven previously but never stayed...Childers.
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