Mackay

Mackay is a large town servicing a productive region of sugar cane fields and coal mines. Most of the city centre at the time was destroyed by a cyclone in 1918, but the replacement mainly art deco buildings give the streetscape an attractive look, and we did an interesting heritage walk. The Sunday market, however, was just about the most pathetic we have come across, and it took us no more than a few minutes to walk past every stall and decide there was nothing of interest.

Mackay is on the Pioneer River, and the river valley stretches 80km westwards to the Great Dividing Range. It's a very pretty drive through the green cane fields, until an abrupt change of scenery when the road climbs very steeply to the township of Eungella, surrounded by the Eungella National Park. On the way we stopped at Finch Hatton Gorge and walked to Araluen Falls.

Eungella NP protects the largest continuous stretch of rainforest in Australia, and has a variety of walks of differing lengths. The highlands of the national park were noticeably cooler than the steamy coastal town of Mackay, and we enjoyed walking under the forest canopy, with occasional spectacular views down the valley we had driven up. We usually take sandwiches when visiting national parks, but decided that we would instead have lunch at the local pub, which was perched on the side of the hill with a breathtaking drop to the valley below, they even had a launch ramp for hang gliders, which is apparently quite well patronised on weekends.

On another day we headed to the coast about 40km north of Mackay to Cape Hillsborough National Park, which protects a diverse range of lowland and coastal habitats. The walks we did had interesting information boards on the factors that shape the various plant communities, and the lives of the aborigines here before Europeans arrived.

Mackay has several golf courses in town and around the region, we managed to have 3 games at different courses in the week we were here, making up for missing out at Airlie Beach last week.