Woodgate Beach has been on our radar for years. We met a couple in Blackall in 2010 who lived there. They waxed lyrical about the beauty of the beach and the amenity of the town, which is essentially a home for those who have retired and others who are on holiday.
In the past we have by-passed the area in favour of time spent on the Great Sandy Strait and at nearby Hervey Bay where we had been catching up with friends, but this year we took the conscious decision to visit alternative towns as we travelled north, particularly some about which we had heard much.
True to style, I'm about to by-pass the familiar territory we traversed en route, north out of Brisbane and on to the Bruce Highway, through Gympie, Maryborough and Childers where we turned east to the coast.
One stop I must mention, however, is a small establishment on the Tin Can Bay Road about 20 kms east of Gympie. The Goomboorian Cafe and associated small bush caravan park is a 'blink and you'll miss it' spot, as this aerial photo demonstrates (thanks to "commercialpropertyguide" ) but for any pie loving gastronome 'in the know', a trip through here demands that a stop is made.
The Goomboorian lamb shank pies are as delicious as they are different. I was introduced to the delights of these melt in the mouth pastries with their generous fillings of shredded succulent lamb shank meat whilst staying at the nearby Standown Park last year. Crisp crusts, ample gravy and a hint of mint.....they are sensational, and for these I'll always make a departure from my normal reluctance to eat pastry. Thankfully the freezer could accommodate six of these beauties for 'ron'.
So, having sung the well deserved praises of the kitchens of Goomboorian, on to Woodgate, where, after making our way along a goodly section of the five kilometre Esplanade,
we pulled up at the entrance to the large caravan park which is located right across the roadway from the beach.
Given that we really did use our time here to explore the town and the area in detail, snapping away ferociously, editorial logic and convenience demands that I present this town as a series. Today it is the Woodgate Beach Tourist Park, the winter venue of two to four months for many, but for us our home away from home for a mere ten days.....this year!
Let me again rely on my old friend Google Earth to provide some perspective. As you can now see Woodgate Beach is actually on the western shore of Hervey Bay and lies about midway between the town of the same name and the larger city of Bundaberg to the north. The protection offered by the northern half of Fraser Island means that the large pounding swells of the Pacific are blunted, as are the worst effects of the prevailing south-easterly winds of this time of year, and the fine sand of this part of the coast is a real feature of the beach at Woodgate.
But more of that later...for now our digs. The Woodgate Beach Tourist Park is nothing if not large. At this time of the year, there were empty sites aplenty, but this situation changes rapidly with the approach of June. The Mexicans pour in here in their dozens, and, as we were told by more than one fellow camper with experience of this park, things can be come quite clicky. We deliberately chose 'the shoulder' for our first real visit, and were glad we did so. It gave us clear air and the chance to have a very good look around without hassle.
Here at Woodgate, park management does take advantage of their position. On one side of the entrance roadway is the park cafe (sub-let we believe) where one can take one's ease over breakky, morning coffee and cake, a light luncheon or partake of an evening meal by 'candlelight'. Take-away is also on offer. We cannot attest as to the quality or prices....we preferred to toddle down the Esplanade to the nearby Woodgate Club.
The park cafe caters for not only those in residence, but the general visiting public as well. From what we saw on the weekend in particular, it is a flourishing business (apart from when the weather makes everything outdoors miserable as it did on occasion).
The large park office building also houses a reasonably stocked convenience store and provides a fuel service for those who have not had the forethought to fill at Childers, Hervey Bay or Bundaberg (many long-termers here make a fortnightly pilgrimage to these larger towns for re-supply). The fuel in particular comes at a cost....a premium cost. We had no need to top up our tanks fortunately.
The park convenience store is just that....convenient. It seemed to contain all the fundamental necessities of camp life, but again we cannot comment further. We gave our custom to the folks of the town IGA.
As we hove to at the office, we were more than impressed with the gardens which surround the cafe seating area and with the quality of a few cabins which have a prime position here at the front of the park.
With our dues paid and directions to our site tucked under our belts, we made our way slowly down the quite narrow entrance roadway,
turned left through one of the more shaded sections of the park,
and thence continued past the pathway to one of the two large ablution blocks
and onto our site about midway towards the rear of the park.
But more of that later...for now our digs. The Woodgate Beach Tourist Park is nothing if not large. At this time of the year, there were empty sites aplenty, but this situation changes rapidly with the approach of June. The Mexicans pour in here in their dozens, and, as we were told by more than one fellow camper with experience of this park, things can be come quite clicky. We deliberately chose 'the shoulder' for our first real visit, and were glad we did so. It gave us clear air and the chance to have a very good look around without hassle.
Here at Woodgate, park management does take advantage of their position. On one side of the entrance roadway is the park cafe (sub-let we believe) where one can take one's ease over breakky, morning coffee and cake, a light luncheon or partake of an evening meal by 'candlelight'. Take-away is also on offer. We cannot attest as to the quality or prices....we preferred to toddle down the Esplanade to the nearby Woodgate Club.
The park cafe caters for not only those in residence, but the general visiting public as well. From what we saw on the weekend in particular, it is a flourishing business (apart from when the weather makes everything outdoors miserable as it did on occasion).
The large park office building also houses a reasonably stocked convenience store and provides a fuel service for those who have not had the forethought to fill at Childers, Hervey Bay or Bundaberg (many long-termers here make a fortnightly pilgrimage to these larger towns for re-supply). The fuel in particular comes at a cost....a premium cost. We had no need to top up our tanks fortunately.
The park convenience store is just that....convenient. It seemed to contain all the fundamental necessities of camp life, but again we cannot comment further. We gave our custom to the folks of the town IGA.
As we hove to at the office, we were more than impressed with the gardens which surround the cafe seating area and with the quality of a few cabins which have a prime position here at the front of the park.
With our dues paid and directions to our site tucked under our belts, we made our way slowly down the quite narrow entrance roadway,
turned left through one of the more shaded sections of the park,
and thence continued past the pathway to one of the two large ablution blocks
and onto our site about midway towards the rear of the park.
Given that we'd never darkened this doorstep before, we were not in a position to express any preferences, and merely set up where we had been told to. I was a little put off initially by the fact that this section of the park is very sandy underfoot, until I had the time to take a good look around when I discovered that this is par for the course at Woodgate Beach.
We can do sand....out came the smaller of our two C-Gear floors which provided a good clean entranceway to the large slab over which we extended the awning. Grit is a real bugger in a van, and I was determined to make life comfortable.
As it turned out our site had a couple of real advantages (apart from a rear neighbour who initially insisted on taking short cut through it to the bins across the road....that soon stopped!). As the weather turned sour on us for a day or so, we luxuriated in the shelter of a thick row of palms at our rear. These provided a marvellous windbreak.
Larger trees beyond this hedgerow and at the front of the van were ideal for shade on the hotter days,
and our site next to a park cabin meant that we did not really have a neighbour on the 'business side' of the van. The only drawback came in the form of a distinctly marginal TV signal, but this was a small and insignificant price to pay for the other conveniences.
These site boons extended to the fact that the large
and well appointed camp kitchen with oodles of seating
and good cooking facilities was but a short step across the road from us.
We did take advantage of the BBQ plates here on one occasion.....marinated steak and chicken is something of a challenge on the slotted hot plate of the Baby Q....in fact it is downright impossible!
As is the case in most good parks, the camping sites are all to be found near the camp kitchen. We could see across this area from our 'front verandah'.
Despite the difficulty sandy soil presents in terms of grass maintenance, some attempts were being made in several sections of the park. This nearby patch was, in golfing terms, GUR (ground under repair) and remained vacant throughout our stay.
The Woodgate Beach Tourist Park is really a park in two parts. The rear section is comparatively open, sandy and with limited shade, whilst the front section supports lush garden areas and much more dense overhead foliage.
A gateway off the main road at the rear of the park allows ingress for the larger of the visiting vehicles. Given the narrow pavements of the front entrance, this is almost obligatory.
The 'biggies' are accommodated in the broad expanses of this area of the park (not that this was at all crowded during our stay). This patch is also available for those wanting comparative isolation.
Here too we find one of the several shaded BBQ points,
and the larger and more modern of the two park amenities blocks. Liz used this one and reported it as being very functional.
I preferred to walk though the usually vacant camping area to the other set of ablutions which, whilst older were equally functional.
As I mentioned earlier, the front section of the park is quite different to the rear, and not surprisingly, was more popular. Here beautiful gardens border most of the roadways,
and good shade is a feature of most sites.
A walk out of the park under the canopy of large trees along the exit roadway
took us past another row of very well found park cabins with the azure blue sea sparkling invitingly on the horizon.
For those with a limited budget, park donga accommodation is available, and as we checked this out we came across one of the most extraordinary sights we have seen in in a park....a fully equipped mobile roaster oven on its large trailer. So? It had been towed all the way from Western Australia!
And before I conclude this tour of the Woodgate Beach Tourist Park, I must include another van with a difference. As I was wandering around happy snapping, this tiny little mobile home appeared through the trees. We have both agree this rates as one of the smallest we have ever seen. It probably comes as no surprise to learn it sheltered a sole occupant only.
Well, that's it for the park. In my next few offerings, we shall explore the delightful township and the nearby parklands, make the most of the sensational (for the east coast) beach and two nearby creeks, meet some of the locals (including another incredible coincidence), and have a close encounter or two with the plague like 'Woodgate Rats'.
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