Kinka Beach

Leaving Emerald behind, we head due east back towards the coast. It is 300km to the large city of Rockhampton, and we follow the railway all the way. It is an endless stream of coal trains, as we drive through a series of small towns, with names that would be more at home in a western movie. Names like Comet, Dingo, Blackwater and Duaringa, all small and full of miners. Blackwater is the largest of the towns, and is a long established coal mining town. There is now a new Coal Centre in town, telling the good story about coal, from an industry viewpoint.

Rockhampton, Beef capital of Australia

We arrive at Rockie, and as the welcome sign shows, welcome to the beef capital of Australia. Rockie is a big country town, situated on the banks of the Fitzroy River, about 40kms from the coast. Why they built it so far inland is beyond me. It is flat and hot. Our destination, is the area known as the Capricorn Coast, so we drive around the town and follow the signs to Yeppoon, the main town of the coastal region. As the name suggests, the Tropic of Capricorn passes close by, but you wouldn't know, except for a lot of businesses that use Capricorn in their names.


Yeppoon has grown a lot since we last stopped here. Actually, we have been here a number of times over the years, flying in through Rockhampton. One of Australia's first Golf Resorts was built near Yeppoon more than 30 years ago. We holidayed there with my brother Neil and his family 15 years ago. I recall that Adrienne was pregnant at the time, with Liam, and that my nephew Simon had a penchant for bacon and tomato sandwiches, that were regularly ordered from the Pool Bar! We also attended the wedding of Darren and Erin there, in 2009, so we have a lot of happy memories of the area.

Coast at Kinka Beach

We found our caravan park, The Island View Caravan Park, about 10kms south of Yeppoon, at Kinka Beach. We were told about this park by a couple of people, and it also got a good review in a recent copy of Caravan World magazine. We liked it immediately. Lots of lush gardens and green grass. We found a great spot close to the pool area, and settled in for a week's rest. Unfortunately, John's chest infection had gotten worse, so we needed to find our first doctor, which we did with the help of the caravan park manager, and John was prescribed antibiotics and other vile medicine for the cough, and told to rest. 

The Singing Ship sculpture at Emu Park.

We didn't do a lot. We drove around the coastal drives, to Rosslyn Bay Marina, which is the gateway to Great Keppell Island Resort, and a safe haven for all the boaties in the region. It is a large marina, with a lot of expensive boats. We drove down to Emu Park, another lovely little seaside town. There are a lot of new housing estates in this area. We find out that a lot of people working in Rockhampton, as well as a lot of fly in/fly out miners,choose to live at the seaside, or have holiday homes at the beach.


The Singing Ship Sculpture, is a monument to Captain Cook. It has a series of holes in tubes, as well as bells and cables, and it really belts out a tune in a strong wind. Unfortunately it doesn't do requests!


Another lovely drive  we did was up to the village of Byfield. This is about 30kms north of Yeppoon. We had a lovely lunch at a place called Hideaway Retreat. We were the only ones there! We then went out to a famous local pottery gallery,Nob Creek Pottery, where the grounds were in a lovely rain forest, with old timber sheds acting as the gallery showrooms. We made a small purchase to avoid having to pay the $5.00 per person entry fee for non purchasers! Maybe this is the reason we were the only visitors here as well?

Synthetic golf at Zilzie Bay!

As John improved, we decided to have a game of golf. We had read about Australia's only synthetic green/tee golf course, situated at Zilzie Bay, near Emu Park. The report was glowing! The concept was to build a low maintenance golf course in a housing estate, with floodlights for night golf on 9 holes. The idea was born in the 1990's, when the housing boom was in full swing, a time when people would fall for anything! We arrived at Zilzie Bay, and it was like a ghost town. The housing estate had sold about 10% of the lots, and many of the homes, even though only up to 10 years old, were in poor repair, with no lawns and derelict machinery strewn around. The Clubhouse, was a Spanish Hacienda Design, with garish colours, and an equally garish Putt Putt Golf course. We decide we were here so we may as well proceed. The green fees were cheap, though by the time we had finished, we felt they were exhorbitant! What a farce. The greens and surrounds, as well as the tees, were synthetic grass. The flags were all lying on the ground, as the holes were clogged with sand. Some of the holes were the size of a bucket, and all frayed around the edges. In between, the fairways were real, dead grass, last mowed in 2003. The place was a dump and should have been condemned. What an experience. This was the most misleading tour brochure we have come across. Don't ever go to Zilzie Bay!




Whilst at Kinka Beach, we got new neighbours, a couple who were caravan park managers in Mackay, taking a bit of a bus man's holiday. The guy was an avid hang glider, which explained the long parcel strapped to the roof. It was a motorised hang glider, and he was looking forward to flying around the area. About 6.30pm on Saturday night, there was a knock on our door. Our neighbour was there all distraught. Her husband had crash landed and was at Yeppoon hospital with a possible broken arm or collarbone. She asked if we could look after their little dog, which we were most happy to do. Turned out he had dislocated his shoulder. He was in a lot of pain, so John spent a lot of Sunday, helping to repack the broken hand glider, and getting it back on the roof of the car. Their holiday was cut short, and it just reminded us again, how quickly things in life can change.


We had a lovely week at Kinka Bay. Our last night we enjoyed a simple Fish 'n Chips at the Causeway Kiosk, just down the road. The place was crowded every time we went past, so we assumed it was good. It was!! The weather forecast was all doom and gloom, with wind and flooding rains forecast for the next week, so we decided to head down to Bargara Beach near Bundaberg, to weather out the holocaust. A big town has a lot more to do in bad weather! So next morning we hit the road again, slowly heading south.