Chasing Horizons #33: Where the Reef Ends and Surfing Begins - Queensland, Australia

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Where the Reef Ends and Surfing Begins

Watch out for 'roos

I continued on down Queensland's East coast on the McCafferty's/Greyhound bus. After leaving Airlie Beach we drove through what seemed like a sea of sugar cane fields. After a two-hour drive, we arrived in the large town of Mackay, which boasts, not surprisingly, to have the largest sugar-loading terminal in the world.

As a tourist destination it's nothing special, but I was heading off the beaten track to a little place called 1770, and the buses that would get me to this coastal backwater were flaky at best. I had the rest of Sunday to try and kill in this town. I had heard that you are practically assured to see the duck-billed platypus at the nearby Eungella (pronounced young-galla) National Park. Nevertheless, my inability to arrange this trip beforehand meant that I would have to give the old platypuses a miss.

There wasn't much to do in Mackay until my next bus departed at around midnight. The town is stuffy but spacious, with wide streets, palm plant lining the meridians and strip malls. It was like any town you would find in the old British Empire. It reminded me very much of a place called Boksburg, just to the east of Johannesburg, the small South African town I grew up in. There wasn't much to on a Sunday so I found the local cinema and watched the latest Harrison Ford movie (K-19 The Widowmaker). After the movie I wandered around a bit to kill some more time. I found a lively pub and grabbed a bit of pub fare to eat. I also had the misfortune to witness on TV probably the worst game of rugby ever been played. The Springboks played awful to lose against Scotland. If I was in the UK to watch that one I would have asked for my money back.

Overnight, whilst pushing on down the coast aboard the Greyhound bus, a huge tropical storm broke. The Queensland Tablelands were in the grips of a devastating drought and there was a blanket campaign in progress to inform the public and to raise help. I have no idea how the Joe Public can help in "fighting" this devastating plague but the adverts assured us that it was a "fight they couldn't afford to lose". I hope the torrential rains of 18 November went some way in breaking the drought.

At dawn on Monday morning, we were in lush green countryside, with green pasture land, rolling hills and tall gum trees. At an intersection called Fingerboard Road, I was informed that this is where I needed to leave the bus. I was apprehensive as the bus departed leaving me at a roadhouse in the middle of nowhere. After a short wait, a land cruiser arrived and its friendly driver introduced himself as Skip and informed me he would be transporting me 30km to the coast.

The two towns of Agnes Water and Town of 1770 are located in an area known as Discovery Coast. The town is named by my old mate Lieutenant James Cook after Wednesday 24 May 1770. On that date Cook anchored the Endeavour about three kilometers off this part of coast. Cook went ashore near Round Hill Head. It was only the second time during the voyage that he had set foot on Australian soil and his first in Queensland. Hence, the Town of 1770 is often referred to as the birthplace of Queensland.

Cook had with him an entourage of "gentlemen" passengers lead by a most extraordinary man. Joseph Banks, a botanist, was born into a life of privilege. Rather than succumb to the extravagant lifestyle of a wealthy man he craved knowledge and studied botany at Oxford. At the age of 25 Banks supplied an estimated �10,000 of his own money to equip the expedition aboard the Endeavour. The primary mission of astronomy and the transit of Venus across the sun interested Banks little, it was the secondary mission that held Banks' interest; to record all manner of plant and animal life encountered. Banks assembled botanists, a surgeon, an astronomer and an artist for the expedition. Cook had to resist Banks' many requests to make landfall for the purposes of further study; he nonetheless took an increasing interest in the collections being assembled in the ship's hold.

More than a hundred years before, in 1642 and 1644, Captain Abel Janszoon Tasman had sailed around, and roughly charted, most of Australia. He named the landmass New Holland, but the eastern coast of the island continent remained uncharted and unknown, and it was Cook's intention to fill in that 3000km (2000 mile) gap. When land was spotted, Banks wrote in his journal, "The country this morn rose in gently sloping hills which had the appearance of the highest fertility. Every hill seems to be clothed with trees of no mean size..." It soon became evident that there were greater discoveries to be made on land. Joseph Banks and his retinue were able to move about freely and collect vast quantities of plants, none of which had been recorded by Europeans before. Cook was so intrigued by the large collection of botanical specimens collected by Banks at one stop along the east coast of Australia, he named the natural harbor Botany Bay.

Banks returned to England with a vast collection of meticulously recorded and catalogued specimens and to fame that somewhat overshadowed Cook. He went on to be knighted and socialize in royal circles. He revitalized the Royal pleasure grounds at Kew and turned them into to one of the world's greatest botanical gardens. Banks was also instrumental in recommending and establishing Australia as a prison colony - which, compared to the inhuman conditions suffered in the barge prisons of pre-industrial England of the early 1800's, was at least a chance for many people to begin life anew. Sir Joseph Banks died in 1820, his library, herbarium, and vast collections of specimens, engravings, drawings, botanical paintings, and manuscripts were bequeathed to the Natural History Museum, where many of them may still be viewed today.

Although still a relative backwater, well off the beaten track, I had heard nothing but good reports about the twin towns. After the frenetic time spent in Airlie Beach and the Whitsunday's I needed some R&R to recharge the batteries. I had a place to stay at Cool Bananas in Agnes Waters for a couple of nights. This was still part of the Peter Pan deal, which was turning into very good value for money. It was still early morning when I checked into my dorm room so decided to get right into it and promptly had a lie down for a couple of hours.

Bustard Point Lighthouse

Later I explored Agnes Waters and found it a quite little town with a few shops, takeaways, B&B's and one pub of note. I attempted to visit the small museum down the road from Cool Bananas but it was closed. I did, however, find some computers at the local library so was able to catch up with some writing. The beach also boasts the northernmost surf in the state and the Great Barrier Reef starts offshore and the calmer waters between the shore and outer reef are dotted with spectacular cays and islands.

On the second day of my stay, I hired one of the hostel's relatively new mountain bikes. On the outskirts of Agnes Waters are some major building developments of residential and holiday accommodation, which means that the well-kept secret of this area is being discovered and will soon be a fast growing boomtown. I peddled into the less commercialised and picturesque seaside Town of 1770. This was certainly the most tranquil spot I had visited on the Queensland coast. There are very few houses here and a few places offering tours around the shores and out to the reef. The town is flanked on one side by a channel leading to the large Round Hill Creek and the other by the Coral Sea. It leads up to a steep hill which I found tough going to cycle up and into the Joseph Banks Environmental Park situated on the point of the headland. I managed to cycle almost to the viewing platform through well-preserved fauna and flora and rugged granite outcrops. The views from here were fantastic, the countryside was full of wildlife and natural beauty and offered scenic vistas in every direction. To the north across the bay I could see the famous Bustard Point lighthouse. The name Bustard was given by Cook because it was here his landing party shot a scrub turkey and feasted under some mango trees at the point.

On my return journey, I decided to cut through the Seventeen Seventy Camping Ground and make my way through sandy dunes and acacia scrub to get to the beach. The beach made a sweeping arc back around to Agnes Waters nestled on the far side of the bay. The tide was half out, leaving the sand hard and flat. It was a novel way to cycle back to my hostel.

Biking on the beach

Not much happens at night in these parts. The Cool Bananas has a cool outside social area alongside the dorm rooms. The hostel does have a guy with a guitar come play most evenings and the music is a tad loud for those wanting to turn in early. There is also a fair selection of videos to watch. But time stands still for no one and all too soon it was time for me to move on further down the coast.

On Wednesday, 20 November I packed up and left Agnes Waters at the ungodly hour of 6am. Skip, the same guy that had brought me into town, picked me up in his Land Cruiser and took me the 30km back to Fingerboard Road to hook up with the McCafferty's bus. It was time for my next adventure.


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