YEPPOON - EMU PARK (29 - 31 AUGUST)

Queenslanders love giving their coastal regions appropriate names, or at least names which have catchy (tourist?) associations with the area in some way or another.  And so, having travelled from the 'Cassowarry Coast' in the north, though the 'Whitsunday Coast' we have now arrived in Yeppoon, a delightful town located centrally on the 'Capricorn Coast', so named, with unimpeachable logic because the Tropic of Capricorn runs right through its centre (the area, that is, not Yeppoon).  In fact, Yeppoon is but 60 kms or so north of the tropic which actually crosses the coast immediately south of Rockhampton.

 

Leaving the Bruce Highway just north of Rockhampton, the 40 km journey north-east to the coast traverses grazing country typical of this area.  Also typical of this region, both inland and along the coastal bays, are extraordinary volcanic plugs....steep sided,  conical  juttings which just seem to pop up out of an otherwise flat plain or seabed.

 

 

 

 

Traffic conditions did not allow us to stop for a better shot of these natural phenomena, which I found completely fascinating.

 

The Poinciana Tourist Park, our home for the next three nights, presented us, for the first time this trip, with the challenge of getting onto a very tight site.  Mind you, we had been expecting to have to deal with this sooner or later.  Caravan parks right along the eastern seaboard which do not cram vans into every available square inch are the exception.

 

Cement slabs on a site provide a great annex area, particularly during wet weather, but this benefit carries with it the challenge of backing the van in so the wheels are almost touching the pad edge and the van is parallel to it.  This is precision stuff at the best of times I can assure you, but when the necessary swing room is restricted by a very narrow frontal roadway and nearby parked vehicles, things can get very exciting indeed, particularly when managing a rig of our combined length.

 

After a couple of failed attempts in one direction, I had to take the van around the park and come at if from the other way, and even then could only moor after our neighbour had shifted his vehicle. 

 

This, I soon discovered, was standard operating procedure on these sites.  In fact, over the course of our stay I assisted three new neighbours onto their sites with some newly acquired aplomb and their gratitude.  One direct benefit of this mutual assistance scheme is that meeting new neighbours on a positive footing is assured and indeed I had no trouble invoking them to re site their vehicles overnight to allow for our early departure when that day came.

 

But what surprised me most as I was messing about getting on site was that when all the nearby heads popped out to watch the fun of our arrival (as is also standard park procedure) I realised for the first time that I have finally acquired the degree of manoeuvring competence that I no longer give a hoot who is watching.  This has been a frustratingly long time coming and many embarrassing moments in the making I can assure you! 

  

Relationships with fellow campers can often make a stay much more pleasant, or the converse.  In Yeppoon we were fortunate to meet, and later share a delightful, extended happy hour with Garry, a most erudite and interesting chap with whom we found we shared many views in common.  It is sometimes really refreshing to yarn about things other than caravan parks and travel.    

 

We found Yeppoon to be an interesting place  The area was first settled in 1865 by the Ross family who began the grazing and farming activities which continue to this day.  Early attempts to establish sugar cane plantations in the area failed due to the combination of inconsistent rainfall and poor soil and some earlier mining activity has since petered out.  The local economy is now centred very much on fruit production ....pineapples and mangoes... and the cattle and wool industries.

 

And, of course, tourism.  Yeppoon is located on Keppel Bay, across which, oddly enough, one can find Great Keppel Island, a well known tourist mecca which is accessed by boat from Rosslyn Harbour situated at the southern end of the main Yeppoon beach strip. The outline of Great Kepple can just be seen on the horizon in this rather poor attempt to photograph the marina.

 

Great Keppel is the largest of the some 27 islands dotted in Coral Sea off Yeppoon. It lauds it over many of its smaller neighbours with names including 'Pumpkin' and 'Humpy' Islands.  I mean, how could islands with names like those possibly hope to compete on the island social scale with 'Great Keppel'?

Yeppoon is also known for its beaches, of which there are several such as Lammermoor Beach,

 

 

 and the Main Beach, here shown looking north past the Yeppoon SLSC,

 

  

but, as I have noted previously, we who have grown up with the benefit of the clean white sands of Adelaide and South Australia generally, remain somewhat (politely) scornful of the dark sand and low tide mud flats which pass for beaches on this part of the coast. 

  

 

 

  

But the tourists and those seeking a better lifestyle keep coming and the coastal strip between Yeppoon and Emu Park, some 15 kms to the south (more of this later), is currently the scene of several quite large housing estate developments on both areas of flat land and the various hillsides which are almost a signature of Yeppoon.

  

 

 

 

  

The beach front area in the main part of the town is well served by a promenade

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

which runs north from the much vaunted Keppel Bay Sailing Cub (shown here looking south along the beach)

 

 

 

 

 

  

 

 

 

to the Yeppoon Surf Club, where our attempt to join the local lads in a quite one or two at the advertised hour on Friday afternoon was met with disappointment....those who run the bar were all off this particular afternoon helping out at another volunteer venue.  

 

 

 

 

So, not to be completely stymied in our attempt to socialise with the locals at the end or their working week (and our last night in town), we toddled off to the sailing club to avail ourselves of its much advertised ambiance where meals and drinks were purportedly real value for money.   We duly signed in as temporary members and made our way up to the crowded, noisy bar only to discover that a stale piccolo of average bubbles could be had for the exorbitant sum of $8.20 and a schooner of Squires for a mere $6.50...and this was happy hour, and in Queensland where booze prices are usually much cheaper than in SA.  Meals were even better.  The cheapest steak (250 gm rump) to be had in what was nothing more than pleasant but average dining area was over $30.00 whilst the quite unremarkable seafood basket came in at a staggering $39.00.  God only knows what one would be charged in the heady exclusivity of the Commodore's Room.

 

The club, I am sure, uses its position overlooking Keppel Bay to the Island group as its justification for this exorbitance, but frankly the views from the Port Elliot SLSC balcony over Horseshoe Bay or across the Gulf from any number of surf clubs along the Adelaide Metro coast are of equal if not greater merit.  We had our one drink and left!

 

 

 

 

The main shopping strip of Yeppoon runs off the Esplanade (which typically itself houses various pubs, cafes and apartment blocks)

 

 

 

 

 

 
 

  

 

 for a kilometre of so and provides a more than adequate range of goods and services. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The northern side of the road is bounded for some distance by a lovely park area, and we noted during our wanderings that a great deal of work was being done to extend the tree and garden plantings along the central parking areas of the main drag.  Well done Yeppoon! 

 

 

 

  

Central Yeppoon also throws up some interesting examples of varying times.  Compare this wonderful old corner emporium, for instance,

  

  

with the ultra modern town hall a mere stone's throw away.

  

  

Notwithstanding the level nature of the beach strip, and some limited suburban areas, Yeppoon is anything but flat.  Indeed, its hilly topography lends it a real charm and some striking views.  From some of the higher vantage points around the township I was reminded of the seven hills of Rome (this analogy did gain some  significant impetus from the fact that I was currently reading one of Colleen McCullough's four wonderful historical novels about the goings on in ancient Rome!).  From almost every spot in the central business district one can look in any direction to see houses on hillsides

 

 

ranging in style and age from the old original weatherboarders to blocks of modern apartments.

  

 

And everywhere, pine trees.  What a delight for us denizens of Glenelg and Brighton (but not sufficient to invoke homesickness he hastily adds!)

 

The southern end of the Main Beach ends in a tidal inlet which winds its way some distance inland through the low lying parts of the town in a mass of mangroves and mozzies.  Its entrance was the site of the original town harbour (now replaced by the Rosslyn marina) and still provides a place of refuge for a trawler or two and assorted sailing craft.  It all presents a rather sad scene these days and, as we discovered, is the current subject of some extensive (and we suspect) heated debate as to its future.  And it is definitely tidal!  The daily windows of opportunity to put to sea are decidedly limited.

  

 

Let me leave Yeppoon with an indulgence of my sense of the quirky and different. 

 

Rather than present a photo of the local RSL (as is my usual want), in this case I decided that the Yeppoon RSL sign was much more deserving of note and just the shot (pun intended) when there is no room to install a decommissioned Leopard tank or the like. 

  

 

And finally, never let it be said that the folk of Yeppoon are anything but fussy and parochial when it comes to their ice supplies.

 

 

 

I never quite got to the bottom of this, but did have every confidence in the quality of the ice in my drinks!

 

 A day trip south along the coast took us through Mulambin and Kinka Beaches and past Causeway Lake to Emu Park some 15 kms away.  This delightful little seaside village, which in many ways reminded us strongly of parts of old  Victor Harbor and its surrounds, began life many years ago as the seaside playground of the rich and famous of Rockhampton.  Some of the older buildings remain, such as these at the top of the main street,

 

 

which itself has been redeveloped into a local shopping and cafe area of some charm and certain practicality.

We lunched in the well established outside dining area at the local bakery









before walking down to the seafront to the Captain Cook Singing Ship Memorial.  I had read about this edifice and must confess to a certain scepticism as to the tone to be heard through the swinging pipes and the general ambiance of the area, but I am happy to admit I was wrong on both counts.

Sited atop a hill with a good view across to Great Keppel Island, this impressive memorial to the exploits of Captain Cook along the east coast of Australia has at its front a series of suspended pipes.

As the wind blows through these loosely hung pipes, they emit tones which vary in pitch and volume depending on its strength and direction.  Its was a touch blowy on the occasion of our visit, and the result was indeed both eerie and, dare I say it, somewhat thought provoking.  At the risk of waxing a shade too lyrical, I was prompted to spend some time listing to this music of the sea and wind and contemplate the extraordinary feats of men like Cook and his ilk.....a bit like my reaction at the Burke and Wills Camp 119 outside Normanton (what now seems so many weeks ago).  I am sure those who designed and located the monument would have been delighted!  But enough of this reverie...more of Emu Park.

The mix of old cottages and new, up-market holiday homes and apartments can be seen everywhere on the hillsides of Emu Park (look closely..old to the left and lower centre, new on the right hill crest line...I really must explore a new camera when I get home)

with no really jarring notes that we saw anywhere. 

 


And, of course, I just happened to come across the local RSL in our wanderings.  This view of the rear of the building shows the delightful outlook to be enjoyed by those







 

sipping a cool beverage on the front verandah.  It was a demonstration of real willpower that I was not to be found amongst their midst some hours after this photo was taken!

And I do crave your indulgence, but the local surf Club was also on my list.  I found it to be a much more attractive building than its big brother in Yeppoon,

and the outlook from its front balcony was infinitely more scenic, to the north across to GKI






 

and to the south, across what is actually a real beach, to a few of the small islets of this area.







But our exploration of Emu Park was to turn up a real surprise in the form of a somewhat nondescript and unobtrusive memorial tucked in on the main street between the old museum building and the bakery.

For some reason the name King O'Malley rang a 'South Australian bell' in my mind...and so it should have...he was a member of the SA House of Assembly between 1896 and 1899.  So what on earth is a memorial to this chap doing in Emu Park?

What a story.  I wish I could claim to be rattling this off from memory, but the truth is I am retelling a combination of that which I read on the plaque and later looked up on the net.

In 1888, O,Malley, an American, contracted tuberculosis at an early age after the death of his young wife from the same affliction. For some unknown reason he took to ship and landed at Queensland's Port Alma, whence he took up residence in a cave at Emu Park (as you do when potentially terminally ill).  As luck would have it he was there befriended by 'Coowonga', a local aboriginal whose ministrations, including a diet large in seafood and local herbs, saw our lad miraculously shake off his TB. 

And again as you do, O'Malley expressed his thanks by promptly taking off and walking the mere 2,100 kms to Adelaide (no idea why) where his flamboyant oratory and passionate teetotalism saw him enter public life as the Member for Encounter Bay in 1896.  With his defeat in the election of 1899, he took off again, this time to Tasmania where he succeeded in sufficiently bluffing the locals into electing him onto the burgeoning Federal political stage as a member of the House of Representatives. 

O'Malley's staunchly conservative politics (he was, for example, ferociously opposed to the Billy Hughes WW1 conscription push...they had a massive falling out!) saw him again defeated at the Federal level in 1917.  He was never to be successful in the polls again.

But what a character, and one who has left his mark on the Australian political and commercial scene in ways which reverberate to this day.   At the somewhat minor, but I think enormously interesting level, it was O'Malley, as part of his then push to Americanise the English language (it was going on even then for goodness sake...and they haven't given up to this day...sidewalks and french fries indeed!) who removed the 'U' from the name of the newly formed Australian Labor Party, a victory for his cause with which we still live.

On a much more important note, O,Malley was almost single-handedly, and in the face of significant opposition, responsible for the establishment of the Commonwealth Bank of Australia and for the selection of Canberra as the site for the federal capital. 

As a footnote on O,Malley, all those 'King O'Malley's Irish Pubs' are actually named as a sarcastic aspersion cast on a man whose opposition to the consumption of alcohol, which he termed in his own colourful way 'stagger juice', was vehement.  Would you believe he actually managed to have the laws relating to the employment of barmaids altered on the basis of his view they were all "hired for their physical attributes rather than their prowess in drawing ale".  A male feminist in the late 1800's.  What a contradiction!!

We left Emu Park with the firm conviction that this was one place to which we will undoubtedly return.  And if ever we decided to live here, this will be the only place for us!

Well, so much for Yeppoon and its surrounds.  We are about to (reluctantly) move along on the big push to Hervey Bay.  We have had many reports of endless sections of roadworks on this stretch of The Bruce, many of which create long delays.  I am less than enthusiastic!