Another Spring Carnival in Melbourne has come and gone. I wasn’t born a racing man. While I went to school with guys steeped in the Sydney scene at Royal Randwick Racecourse, I was never hooked. I have a couple of mates in Hervey Bay, Dave from “the Shire” in Sydney and Macca from Alice Springs.
The Valley’s last turn Read More »
Life on Fraser Island was very isolated and lonely before access improved with combustion engines, regular flights, and ferries to transport cars and trucks. Communication was only by boat, telephone, radio, and aeroplane. In the case of accidents, help was six hours away by boat in Maryborough.
The first breakthroughs in communication came with the spread of telegraph technology.
Early communication on the island Read More »
In the early 20th century, Hervey Bay was not the bustling regional hub we know today. Instead, it was a picturesque cluster of seaside villages along the foreshore, stretching from Urangan in the east westwards to Torquay, Scarness, Pialba and finally Point Vernon. As tourism grew, particularly during the long summer holidays, safe swimming became a serious concern for both visitors and locals.
The rise and fall of Hervey Bay’s swimming enclosures Read More »
On the morning of Wednesday, July 22, 1970, Jack and Eileen Reville were going about a typical day at their successful Fraser Island tourism business. They readied their tour boat, the Island Queen, for a scenic outing with 46 tourists — mainly elderly holidaymakers — to the island.
Fraser Island’s darkest day – the 1970 tourist bus tragedy Read More »
Sir Reginald (Reg) Barnewall’s ambitious dream of developing a resort on Fraser Island is a fascinating chapter in the island’s history. In the 1960s, Barnewall envisioned creating a high-end resort that would attract visitors to the island’s natural beauty, which was then known more for its timber industry and fishing than for tourism.
The greatest piscatorial event in the world Read More »
At 9.00 pm that night, it came bucketing down nonstop. It was so loud that it was hard to hear anything. By 11.00 pm, I thought it was pointless to go to bed and looked outside to check this downpour, with thunder rumbling and lightning flashing around us.
A resident describing conditions in Gympie on Friday night, 25 February 2022.
A rain bomb hits Gympie and surrounding districts Read More »
Introduction
“They became men overnight”. A reference to young 19 year-old crewmen that had only been in the Navy for six months and rose to the occasion in the rescue operations after Voyager collided with HMAS Melbourne.
Tomorrow marks the day, 60 years ago, of the worst peace-time tragedy for the Royal Australian Navy (RAN).
The tragic loss of the Voyager Read More »
“I’ll put a girdle ‘round the earth in forty minutes”
William Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream
While travelling around the country, I came across yet another little-known wartime story which again highlights the heroics of Australians. This time it involves midget submarines and divers cutting underwater telegraph cables to thwart the Japanese communication efforts towards the end of World War II.… Read more
Every Fraser Island visitor has seen or knows about the Maheno wreck on the eastern shore about five kilometres north of Happy Valley. These days it is a tourist attraction and photographic stop. It must be the most photographed piece of rust in the world. The rusted remains, however, bear no resemblance to the luxury liner that plied its trade between Australia and New Zealand and the war-time hospital shipping the Mediterranean.… Read more
The slow disappearance of one of Fraser Island’s tourist icons Read More »
The COVID-19 pandemic has made us drastically change our travel plans. After only six weeks, we made it to the NSW-Vic border but returned to Queensland to sit out the nationwide lockdowns. Given some states maintained their border closures at the drop of a hat, we decided to remain in Queensland until things settled down and everyday life returned.… Read more
A summer of house sitting Read More »
