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Australia - January · 2024

Stage 1 of 6

2024 Australia - Jan - Gladstone

Grey rocks and spiky grass trees overlook wide green valleys and plains.
Tourism maps showcase Queensland's Gladstone Region and Gin Gin. A map sign details the Gladstone Region and Gin Gin. A tidy studio kitchenette with light wood cabinets, a white fridge and microwave sits beside a grey sofa. A sunny balcony view stretches over tin rooftops and leafy trees toward a distant blue mountain range. An orange and pink sunset settles over rooftops, a dark hotel tower and a quiet town street. An orange sunset glows behind a dark tower and a long green-roofed building amid scattered clouds. Grass trees send up tall flowering stalks from lush green Australian bushland under a blue sky. A small black and yellow spider clings to a single silk thread against a soft, blurred background. Two massive eucalyptus trunks frame a forested hillside crowned by a bare rocky outcrop. A compact green cycad cone rests among arching palm-like fronds and scattered brown leaves. A green botanical seed cone rests among dry leaves and fallen fronds. Forested ranges fall away toward a flat coastal plain under a sky of white clouds. A rounded green mountain dominates the foreground, with a coastal waterland and sky beyond. A rocky outcrop overlooks layered forested hills stretching to a hazy horizon. A bare branch frames forested mountains and plains reaching a far horizon. Grass trees and shrubs on the summit overlook verdant ranges and a distant plain. Green layered ranges fall toward a coastal plain and water on the far horizon. A forested ridge looks down on a port bay ringed by hills and islands. Dark forested hills drop to a broad flat plain meeting the distant sea. A stepped open-pit quarry sits among rolling hills under a cloudy sky. Green forest hills open onto flat coastal plain with a factory and tidal inlets. A bulk port with tan stockpiles and long jetties sits in a calm river estuary. A wide estuary with mudflats and sandbars twists through dense green forest. A web of shallow lagoons and channels spreads across a vast green floodplain. A tiny dark weevil beetle with speckled shell walks across an open hand. A small dark weevil perched on a human fingertip against a blurred rocky backdrop. A sweeping view over forested ridges and a distant coastal plain from a grassy mountain summit. A weathered cross stands on a boulder at the summit with green hills and a valley stretching below. A rugged rocky summit peeks out above a dense green forest canopy. A broad muddy river flows beneath a distant bridge beside a sandy riverside path and trees. Breaking waves wash over dark rock platforms on a sandy beach beneath a grassy headland. A blue-and-yellow macaw shows its bright feathers and strong beak in a detailed close-up. A white cockatoo with a yellow crest feeds in the foreground while a macaw blurs behind. A vivid red macaw with colorful wing feathers perches on a branch in profile. A close-up profile of a red macaw's face showing its pale beak and patterned white cheek. A blue-and-gold macaw shows off its golden chest and bright blue wings while perched. A tawny frogmouth with bark-like brown plumage perches on a log and mimics tree bark. A bright orange-and-yellow sun conure sits on a person's arm beside a black watch. A yellow-and-orange sun conure eats seeds from the palm of an open hand. A green parrot with a white forehead and red eye patch looks out through a wire mesh. Three orange-and-yellow sun conures sit in a row on a bare branch. A green-and-blue parrot with a vivid blue crown peers at the camera beside a wire fence. A sun conure with a fiery orange head and red face perches against a smooth background. A sun conure in profile shows a golden-orange head, red mask, and green wing. A bright yellow-and-orange sun conure sits on a ledge against a wire fence. A green conure with a scalloped brown chest perches calmly beside a person's head. A green conure with blue wings and a maroon tail takes seeds from a person's palm. Two orange-and-yellow sun conures share a ledge with a wire-grid backdrop. A green conure picks seeds from a person's open hand, with a wire fence behind. A bright green parakeet with a grey head looks toward the camera. A shaggy brown llama with a white blaze on its forehead gazes forward. A soft cream-colored alpaca stands outdoors against a wooded fence. A pure white dove perches peacefully on a tree branch. A golden pheasant with blue and red plumage pecks at the forest ground. A golden pheasant stands on the ground looking down at its colourful plumage. A white dove rests on a blue metal railing against a dark background. A peacock with a glistening blue neck stands near a large tree trunk. A cream-white crested hen suns itself among scattered wood chips. A white dove sits calmly on a metal railing above blurred water. A close view of a peacock's iridescent blue-green head and feathered crest. A peacock stands among pebbles, showing vivid blue-green plumage and patterned wing feathers. A bright green parakeet gazes up from under a wooden beam with a red beak. A green parakeet with a red beak perches among sunlit leaves in a tree. A green parakeet with a black and pink neck ring stands in profile. A green parakeet with a red beak perches close to a tree trunk and leaves. A male golden pheasant shows brilliant red and gold plumage. A white and grey speckled pigeon gazes to the side. A bushman in a duster coat walks past kangaroo warning signs. A yellow-green parakeet with a red beak rests on a branch. A pale blue parakeet with a red beak perches upright. A bright yellow parakeet with an orange-red beak sits on a log. An ostrich head shows a pink beak and feathery grey plumage. An ostrich faces left, showing a pink beak and blue-grey skin. Close profile of an ostrich head with an open beak and wispy grey feathers. Profile of an ostrich with an open beak and blue-grey neck skin. A dark shaggy emu standing in a sunlit sandy enclosure. Two white cockatoos look through a black wire mesh grid. A frontal close-up of an ostrich's face with its beak open wide. Close-up of an emu's head with a dark beak and feathery grey-blue neck. Two emus stand on dirt in an enclosure with a chain-link fence behind. A green and rusty off-road SUV parked on grass with a white bird nearby. A turtle swims through cloudy green water with its head raised toward the camera. A white pigeon stands on the ledge of a weathered wooden pigeon loft. A pale pigeon with brown speckles perches beside a wooden bird house. An art figure wearing a gas mask stands against a corrugated metal wall. An old black engine boiler with iron wheels and a rusty chimney sits on display. Two small brown birds perch together amid tall green grasses. A paved path meanders through a dense, sun-dappled forest of palms. A broad fan palm grows beside a shaded path with a green plant label. A vivid green mossy trail winds through a dense sunlit woodland. Tall trees and palm fronds fill a dense, sun-speckled rainforest. Many thin aerial roots hang from branches above a shaded forest floor. A pair of kookaburras sits side by side on a leafy tree branch. Two kookaburras perch on the bare branches of a eucalyptus tree. A single kookaburra perches close-up on a slim branch, looking left. Green grass slopes toward a calm pond ringed by tall trees. Smooth pale eucalyptus trunks stand along a grassy bank beside water. White eucalyptus trunks frame a still river wrapped in dense green bushland. A lone bird glides across a calm pond fringed by palms and lawn. A kookaburra rests on a smooth branch among tangled eucalyptus limbs. Lavender water lilies open among green pads on still pond water. Several purple water lilies open together above dark pond water. A bird swims across a pond thick with pale lily pads before a boardwalk. A multi-level timber viewing tower rises among dense green palms and ferns. A crisp yellow leaf floats on water blanketed with bright green algae. A grey Kia Sportage stands in a sunlit forest car park. Seen from the side, a grey SUV waits in a wooded parking area. Glass cases hold rows of antique mantel and longcase clocks. A weathered timber cottage with white-framed lace windows sits on a lawn. A rusted-iron-roofed cottage carries the sign Woods Cottage. A historic parlour pairs wicker chairs with a bouquet of red roses. A checkered-clothed table and cast-iron stove fill a rustic kitchen. Iron-framed beds, dolls, and a dollhouse fill a nostalgic nursery. An aged wooden outhouse with a simple bench over a dark pit. A vintage farmhouse kitchen laid with gingham cloth and old crockery. A heritage parlor furnished with wicker chairs and an old writing desk. A weathered timber cottage with a rusty iron roof and garden hedges. A wood-panelled room with an upright piano and a wind-up gramophone. A quilt-covered bench tucked into a dark timber corner with a tea set. A rustic bedroom holding a quilted bed, washstand, and a pedal bicycle. A long timber dining table dressed with a lace runner and roses. A heritage bedroom bed covered in an heirloom white lace spread. An aged timber cottage with a rusted iron roof and a shady veranda. A weathered lounge chair rests on the wooden veranda of an old cottage. Looking out from a timber veranda across a garden and a neighbouring building. An old rusted crawler tractor stands under a large spreading fig tree. Vintage farm machinery and stationary engines fill a rustic timber barn. A blue Fordson tractor with orange wheels stands in a corrugated shed. A bright red vintage tractor leads a lineup of antique farm machines. An antique blue Fordson tractor parked among older farm machines. A red tracked Ferguson tractor displayed beside a Farmall model. A vintage red Farmall F-12 tractor parked in a shed. Horse saddles, a white chair, and antique tools in a timber room. A draped lace canopy over a bright patchwork quilt bed. A long wooden dining table and china dresser in a historic room. A simple bed with a bright patchwork blanket and a wooden chest. An enamel jug and basin in a rustic stall washroom. Vintage timber table dressed with a checked cloth, teapot and enamel jugs. Log cabin dining room with crockery shelves and a checked table setting. Rust-covered tracked tractor resting on gravel beside wooden fences and trees. Old weatherboard garage sign reading Arnold's with a red Mobilgas pump. Weatherboard cottage with a red corrugated iron roof and green veranda foliage. Rustic plank-walled dining room with a red checked table and hanging oil lamp. Wooden dresser displaying white plates and a hanging glass lantern in a timber room. Outdoor bush kitchen with an old cast iron stove, copper kettles and hanging pans. An old timber shed under a rusty red roof shelters dusty farm tools. Weathered ploughs and rusting farm implements rest on grass beneath tall trees. A classic orange Allis-Chalmers tractor stands on grass beside a timber fence. Heavy draft horses with feathered legs stand together along a paddock fence. Rows of timber pews face a white-clothed altar in a warm yellow church. A preserved old schoolroom holds wooden desks, a piano, and chalkboard maps. A faded old map traces the coastline of Queensland across a wall. A mannequin in a blue uniform stands beside cabinets and framed photographs. A heritage hospital ward with vintage iron beds, crutches, and mannequin nurses. A museum information board recounting the story of the Westwood Tuberculosis Sanatorium. A vintage white cabinet filled with glass jars and metal pitchers in a heritage display. A recreated doctor's consulting room with a dark roll-top desk and a seated mannequin. A long historic sunroom corridor with benches, framed pictures, and a mannequin by the windows. A heritage dispensary with white cabinets full of bottles and a wooden bookcase of old books. A recreated historic operating theatre with a surgeon in scrubs and instruments on a glass table. Old rusted wheels, gears, and engine machinery rusting away in a wooded outdoor setting. A rusted green locomotive cab with worn controls and a faded seat. A weathered red road roller and a small red cab sit rusting among gum trees. A weathered wooden workshop shed shelters old machinery beneath a rusted roof. A restored red and black steam engine displays its large spoked flywheels. A circular corrugated shed supported by timber posts houses old machinery. A green diesel engine with a flywheel shares a shed with other vintage machinery. An International branded red and green engine shows off a large spoked flywheel. A red and green International engine with two large flywheels rests on a timber skid. A large green Ruston diesel engine with its generator stands displayed in a machinery museum. A small stationary steam engine with a copper boiler and bright orange drive gears. An old rusted steam engine stands on spoked iron wheels behind a wire fence. A green boiler with a tall rusted chimney stands among trees beside a metal shed. A weathered timber lean-to shelters old tools against a rocky earth bank. A vintage tracked armoured vehicle in camouflage stands under a timber shed roof. A preserved camouflage light tank with rusted tracks is displayed indoors. A stainless steel basin bench with taps stands on grass among trees. A long museum room lined with glass cases filled with antique dolls. Dozens of owl figurines crowd the glass display shelves. A vintage metal printing press stands on the museum floor. A large antique printing press stands before a wall of old photographs. An antique printing press shares a room with a green foot-powered machine. A long industrial hall displays numerous antique printing presses. A classic red fire truck is parked in a brick station with ladders on top. Two restored antique fire trucks are parked side by side in a garage. A classic navy Ford Model A rests in a cluttered barn workshop. A World War II style olive green military jeep stands inside a metal shed. Rustic shelves overflow with vintage push mowers and old tools. A cream weatherboard building stands beneath trees covered in red blossoms. Leather horse collars and harnesses dangle from timber posts. Leather harnesses and saddles fill a dim timber tack room. A red Cobb & Co passenger coach sits in a heritage barn. A collection of vintage horse-drawn carriages fills a wooden hall. A glossy black classic car parked on a gravel floor inside a weathered timber shed. A red Ford roadster with a black canvas roof and wire wheels displayed before a corrugated metal wall. A green Model T tourer and a maroon vintage car share a corrugated metal shed. A pale classic sedan with a tall chrome grille stands inside a dark timber barn. A cream roadster with a maroon hood dominates the foreground of a busy vintage vehicle hall. A green Ford Model A roadster with wooden-spoke wheels stands before a Mobilgas petrol sign in a museum. A blue Ford Model A roadster pickup with a wooden bed sits behind a red rope and a Keep Off sign. A deep maroon open-top Ford Model A stands on display beside other vintage cars and a motorcycle. A classic yellow car with a black canvas top sits amid a busy workshop filled with tools and parts. A red weatherboard cottage with a tin roof stands on a grassy lawn beneath leafy trees. A wooden footbridge crosses a leafy garden pond framed by ferns and purple blossoms. A traditional carved stone lantern rises out of an algae-green garden pond. Dappled sunlight plays across the carved cap of a stone lantern by an algae-covered pond. A duck paddles across a green pond under a wooden footbridge in a leafy garden. A dense clump of bamboo rises from a lawn beside a paved path, with tall evergreens behind. Closely packed bamboo culms in green and yellow are covered with carved names and initials. Closely packed bamboo stalks in shades of green and yellow, many carved with words and symbols. A sago palm's leafy crown crowned by a pale cone glows against dark green foliage. A large, warty tan cycad cone sits at the heart of dark spiky fronds. A grey obelisk stands in a formal garden surrounded by palms and clipped hedges. A bright golden cone nestles among dark green cycad fronds in the sunlight. A dark tree trunk holds curtain-like hanging roots in a leafy filtered canopy. Slender palms cast long shadows across a lawn beside a tranquil pond. A grove of fanned palms stands on a green lawn beside a wide blue waterway. Tall palm trees stand over a green lawn beside a peaceful river. Many slender palms dot a grassy riverbank under a bright blue sky. A white spoonbill bird stands in lush grass beside a pond. A small group of spoonbills forages in tall grass near the water. Spoonbills walk through green grass beside a plant-filled pond. Spoonbills gather on a grassy bank above a water hyacinth-covered pond. A stone lantern stands on rocks beside a green pond in a Japanese garden. A sunny shopping street lined with palms, storefronts, and parked cars. A storefront plastered with protest posters and painted justice slogans. A large billboard showing four miners and a coal export slogan. A narrow city alley passing beneath a bridge-like brick structure. A white heritage hotel building with a cupola and theatre sign. A white modern house raised on stilts near a rocky shore. A white two-storey colonnade building framed by palm fronds. A shaded paved walkway flanked by royal palms and an arcade building. A city alley leading through a concrete bridge with shops and bins. A grand colonial-era building with a balustrade parapet stands behind tall palm trees. A white three-story hotel is wrapped in ornate cast iron lace verandas. A two-story corner building with arched windows faces a street intersection. A row of ornate heritage shopfronts lines a street filled with parked cars. A wide night street stretches past a lit brick bank building and a petrol station. A tall hotel tower crowned with neon rises above a green-roofed building at dusk. A dark city skyline shows glowing chimney stacks and a red-lit apartment tower. A bright moon glows behind clouds beside a red-lit apartment building and a power pole. A grand two-storey hotel with a leafy veranda glows under warm evening lights. The Grand Hotel's decorative veranda shines brightly under an evening sky. A tropical street and plaza glow with lantern lampposts at night. A modern building shines in blue light amid white columns and greenery. A tidy lawn sits between planters and a vine-covered metal screen. A full moon drifts through clouds above lit apartment buildings. A row of globe lamps hangs through an arched shopping arcade. A public building glows violet behind white columns and a pergola. A florist shop glows warmly at night with a blue pickup truck parked out front. A lamplit commercial street stretches into the night past palm trees and a low plaza building. Two cream pickups park outside a colonial building with arched windows and blue shutters. A modern building is washed in vivid blue and purple light against the night sky. A bright orange star emblem glows behind glass in a modern wood-paneled facade. A bold orange star emblem is mounted on a wood-paneled wall beside an open doorway. An empty hallway stretches past glass-partitioned rooms and framed posters under flat ceiling lights. A covered shopping walkway glows at night with a 'Runway 7' sign and a white Jeep. A row of brightly lit shops at night, one with a leaf-illustrated 'My Little Potted Garden' sign. A lit entrance corridor reading 'nab ATM' with a glowing star logo beside the wall. A floodlit rooftop tower with a flagpole and Australian flag under a dark night sky. A two-story colonial facade with an ornate iron-lace balcony strung with warm fairy lights. A quiet night street lined with palms, parking signs and a balconied brick shopfront. A lit corner bank with an orange awning reading '78 Goondoon St' over glowing windows. A corner pub with an ornate lace balcony and warm string lights, marked by green TAB signs. A two-story pub with a white lace balcony, string lights and palms on the footpath. An illuminated apartment building with rows of balcony railings glows under a dark night sky. A fluorescent bank emblem glows bright red on a white building facade at night. Three tall chimney stacks rise from an industrial power plant against a pale, hazy sky. A distinctive mountain towers behind a highway bridge and dark coal stockpiles. A modern apartment tower rises above leafy houses in a quiet suburban neighbourhood. Houses dot a wooded hillside above a green sports field and a curving road. Weatherboard homes nestle among trees above a broad grassy sports oval. A pebble-built cairn with a bronze plaque stands beside a palm-lined road. A pebble-built monument displays a plaque honouring the explorer James Cook. A tree-clad point of land juts into the ocean beneath a cloudy sky. Dark boulders and white waves edge a small sandy bay backed by green hills. Fishing boats and sailboats float on a calm bay before a tree-lined beach. A single-masted catamaran drifts on a calm bay before a wooded shoreline. Tree limbs frame a view of tide pools, rocks and turquoise water in a cove. A timber deck with a bench and railing overlooks the surf below. Seawater and foam pound dark rocks below a steep bush-covered headland. White surf pounds across rugged black rocks on a wild coast. Churning white surf rolls in beneath a grey overcast sky. A narrow trail curves between huddled trees flattened by the wind. A jagged rock tower stands in the surf at a rugged headland. Leaning out over the headland, a quiet sea stretches to the horizon. Windbent branches reach down toward waves crashing on the rocks. Surf lines roll far out beneath a heavy grey sky. A tiny rodent sniffs the pavement beside a discarded waffle cone. A small mouse with a long tail stands on a grey stone path beside a dropped waffle cone. A small mouse stands alert with its whiskers forward on a grey concrete floor. Red brick distillery buildings with a welcome sign face a green lawn under a blue sky.
Journal Notes

General

Gladstone is a coastal city in Central Queensland, built on the deep, sheltered waters of Port Curtis between the mouths of the Calliope and Boyne rivers. The urban area counted about 45,000 inhabitants in 2021, and the wider Gladstone Region, governed from the city, reaches along the coast from the Boyne Valley to the beaches of Agnes Water and the Town of 1770. The city lies 517 kilometres by road north-west of Brisbane and 108 kilometres south-east of Rockhampton, at the point where the coast road and the railway of Central Queensland meet the sea.

The town spreads over the low hills that ring the harbour, so that many streets look out across the water to the islands of Port Curtis. The heart of Gladstone is the commercial strip along Goondoon Street, which climbs from the old harbour shore past the heritage hotels and banks of the late nineteenth century to the modern civic quarter. Around it lie the residential suburbs of the 1960s and later, their timber houses raised among palms and flowering trees, and at the water’s edge the parklands of the harbour foreshore open onto the working port.

The economy of Gladstone is built on the port and on the industries that line its shore. The Port of Gladstone is the largest multi-commodity shipping port of Queensland, exporting coal, alumina, aluminium, cement and other bulk goods from the resource regions of the interior. Behind the wharves stand some of the great industrial plants of Australia: the alumina refinery of Queensland Alumina Limited at Parsons Point, the Boyne Island aluminium smelter, the Gladstone Power Station and the plants of the harbour estates, whose lights and stacks mark the skyline by day and night.

Industry and coast live close together here. The suburbs of Boyne Island and Tannum Sands spread along the beaches south of the river mouth, the fishing and pleasure boats of the harbour work the waters of Port Curtis, and the islands of the bay, Curtis Island and Facing Island, shelter the channels that carry the largest ships. The city is the service centre of a region of cattle stations, coal mines and coastal towns, and its shops, hospitals, schools and harbour facilities serve an area far larger than the urban area itself.

The harbour has shaped the character of the town since its foundation. Gladstone grew slowly for a century as a port of the cattle and meat trade, then rapidly after 1963, when the first of the great processing plants was built on the old meatworks site at Parsons Point. The result is an uncommon mixture: a working industrial port of national importance, a quiet country town of wide streets and verandahs, and a gateway to the southern Great Barrier Reef, whose waters begin at the islands of the bay.

History

The Gladstone region has been inhabited for tens of thousands of years. The Gooreng Gooreng people held the coast around the harbour, the Toolooa and the Byellee occupied the country of the Boyne and Calliope rivers, and the Meerooni lived along the shores to the south, and their camps, bora grounds and shell middens lined the bays and river mouths that later became the port.

European ships passed the harbour long before it was settled. James Cook sailed the Endeavour along this coast in May 1770, passing the entrance of Port Curtis by night, and Matthew Flinders, on his circumnavigation of Australia, became the first recorded European to sight the harbour in August 1802. He named it Port Curtis after Admiral Sir Roger Curtis, who had assisted him at the Cape of Good Hope. John Oxley examined the harbour and the surrounding country in November 1823 and thought little of it, judging the entrance difficult and the land too dry for settlement.

In 1847 the British government attempted to found the colony of North Australia at Port Curtis. Colonel George Barney was appointed to lead the settlement, but the expedition went wrong from the start: the barque Lord Auckland, carrying soldiers and convicts, ran aground on the shoals of Facing Island in January 1847, and the settlers spent seven weeks on the island before being brought to the mainland at the place now called Barney Point. There, on 30 January, Barney was sworn in as Lieutenant Governor of a colony that had already been revoked in London, and within two months the whole venture was abandoned, at a cost of some fifteen thousand pounds to the Imperial government.

Permanent settlement followed slowly. Francis MacCabe surveyed the harbour and town site in 1853, a school opened in 1861, and in 1863 Gladstone became a municipality, the first mayor being William Henry Pershouse, elected in 1864. The town was named for William Ewart Gladstone, the British statesman who was Colonial Secretary when the North Australia venture was planned and later Prime Minister of Britain; a marble statue of the nineteenth century still stands in the town museum. Growth was slow for decades, until in 1893 a meatworks was established at Parsons Point and the port began to ship frozen meat and cattle from the pastoral interior.

The modern city dates from the 1960s. A severe cyclone damaged the town in March 1949, and in 1963 Queensland Alumina Limited began to build its alumina refinery on the site of the old meatworks at Parsons Point, the first of the great plants of the Gladstone industrial era. The port was deepened and expanded, the Gladstone Power Station generated its first power in 1976, and the Boyne Island aluminium smelter was opened in 1982, so that within two decades the quiet harbour town had grown into the principal industrial port of Queensland.

Geology

Port Curtis, on which Gladstone stands, is one of the finest natural harbours of the eastern coast. It is a broad, shallow bay of the Coral Sea, its entrance narrowed and sheltered by the long sand islands of Curtis Island and Facing Island, which break the ocean swell before it reaches the shore. The channels between the islands carry the deep-draft shipping of the port, while the inner bay spreads into wide flats of mud and sand that fall dry at low tide.

The rivers that frame the city bring the sediment that builds those flats. The Calliope River enters the bay north of the town and the Boyne River from the south, and both wind across low coastal plains through tidal channels, mudflats, sandbars and lagoons, fringed with mangroves and salt marsh. The Boyne, which John Oxley named in 1823, carries fine silt that colours its water brown, and its estuary, where the river meets the tide below Boyne Island, is a broad landscape of winding channels and wetlands.

Fresh water for the city is stored on the Boyne River at Lake Awoonga, some 30 kilometres south-west of Gladstone. The first small weir of the 1950s was raised again in the 1980s and finally, in 2002, to the present rockfill dam of more than 650 metres length and 54 metres height, holding a reservoir of some 777,000 megalitres. The lake supplies the town and the industry of the port and has become a renowned fishing water, stocked each year with barramundi and other native fish.

The wealth of the region lies beneath its interior. The coal burned at the Gladstone Power Station and loaded at the port comes by rail from the Bowen Basin fields of Central Queensland, among them the Rolleston mine some 200 kilometres away, and the alumina of the refineries is shipped from the bauxite deposits of Weipa on Cape York Peninsula, more than 2,000 kilometres to the north. The coast itself is an old, weathered country of low forested ranges and grassy ridges, where the eucalyptus woodland of the hills is scattered with grass trees and cycads and looks out over the harbour flats to the sea.

Things to See

The centre of Gladstone is Goondoon Street, which runs uphill from the old harbour to the modern town. Its finest buildings belong to the late nineteenth century: the Grand Hotel with its broad lace-iron verandahs, the corner pubs and banks with their arched windows and balustrades, and the painted theatre facade of the Criterion Hotel, all of them strung with lights in the evening, when the palms of the footpaths glow against the dark. Further up the hill the civic quarter is anchored by the Gladstone Regional Centre, its modern facade washed in violet light at night, and covered arcades and plazas link the shops of the town centre.

The working heart of Gladstone lies below the town, along the shore of the harbour. The Port of Gladstone, the largest multi-commodity port of Queensland, lines the channels with its wharves: coal loaders with their great stockpiles, alumina and cement terminals, tank farms and long jetties reaching into the bay. From the harbour foreshore and from the heights behind the town the scale of the industry is plain, and at dusk the lights of the power station and the processing plants draw a second skyline along the water.

Behind the city, the low forested ranges offer the classic view of the port. A walk through eucalyptus woodland, where grass trees raise their tall flowering stalks and cycads carry their great cones among the fronds, climbs to bare rocky summits with wide views over the harbour, its islands and the flats of the river mouths. A small cross stands on one of the summit rocks above the valley, and from the lookouts the channels of the port, an open-cut quarry working in the hills and the winding estuaries of the plain lie spread out below.

South of the city, the Boyne River winds through its tidal plain to the sea. A sandy riverside path follows the brown water beneath the bridge of the coast road, past the flats where the river meets the tide, and the calm reaches of the lower Boyne carry small boats between the trees. The river, which gave its name to the island suburb of Boyne Island at its mouth, is the southern boundary of the harbour landscape.

Further south along the Discovery Coast, the road reaches Agnes Water and the Town of 1770, built on the headland of Round Hill where the coast turns. Here, on 24 May 1770, James Cook made his second landing in Australia and his first on the shore of what is now Queensland, at Bustard Bay; a stone cairn on the headland marks the landing place, and the lookouts named for the botanist Joseph Banks open over the bay where the Endeavour lay. The ocean shore below is a wild coast of dark rocks, surf and a lonely sea stack, and the little town is the closest point of the mainland to the southern Great Barrier Reef.

A hundred kilometres north of Gladstone lies Rockhampton, the largest city of Central Queensland. Its Rockhampton Heritage Village, at Parkhurst on the northern edge of the city, is a township museum of some forty buildings gathered on eleven hectares: pioneer cottages and homesteads, among them Woods Cottage, a slab-and-iron church, a schoolroom, a recreated doctor’s surgery and pharmacy, and an exhibition on the Westwood tuberculosis sanatorium, the 64-bed hospital opened in 1919 for the miners of Mount Morgan and later devoted to tuberculosis. Sheds and halls hold collections of stationary steam engines, vintage tractors, fire engines and early motor cars, among them a Cobb and Co coach and a restored garage of the petrol age, while the grounds keep emus, ostriches, llamas and aviaries of parrots and cockatoos. The Botanic Gardens of Rockhampton, laid out from 1873 below the Athelstane Range by a curator trained at Kew, join the village in spirit: palm avenues and fern gullies, a garden of bamboo and carved stone lanterns, and lagoons where waterbirds feed.

In the sugar country south of the city, the town of Bundaberg has given its name to the most famous rum of Australia. The red-brick distillery at Bundaberg East, its gate carrying the welcome sign of the visitor entrance, stands where the Bundaberg Distilling Company began to make its dark rum from the molasses of the local sugar mills in 1888, and the polar bear of the brand, introduced in 1961, has carried the name of Bundy around the world.

References

  1. Hough, R. (1994). Captain James Cook. London: Hodder and Stoughton.
  2. Beaglehole, J. C. (1974). The Life of Captain James Cook. London: A. and C. Black.
  3. Wikipedia contributors. Gladstone, Queensland. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gladstone,_Queensland
  4. Wikipedia contributors. Port of Gladstone. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Port_of_Gladstone
  5. Wikipedia contributors. Queensland Alumina Limited. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Queensland_Alumina_Limited
  6. Wikipedia contributors. Boyne Smelters. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boyne_Smelters
  7. Wikipedia contributors. Gladstone Power Station. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gladstone_Power_Station
  8. Wikipedia contributors. Lake Awoonga. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Awoonga
  9. Wikipedia contributors. Boyne River (Central Queensland). en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boyne_River_(Central_Queensland)
  10. Wikipedia contributors. Boyne Island, Queensland. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boyne_Island,_Queensland
  11. Wikipedia contributors. Agnes Water, Queensland. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agnes_Water,_Queensland
  12. Wikipedia contributors. Town of Seventeen Seventy. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Town_of_Seventeen_Seventy
  13. Wikipedia contributors. Rockhampton. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rockhampton
  14. Wikipedia contributors. Rockhampton Botanic Gardens. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rockhampton_Botanic_Gardens
  15. Wikipedia contributors. Rockhampton Heritage Village. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rockhampton_Heritage_Village
  16. Wikipedia contributors. Westwood, Queensland. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westwood,_Queensland
  17. Wikipedia contributors. Bundaberg Rum. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bundaberg_Rum
  18. Wikipedia contributors. Bundaberg. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bundaberg
  19. Wikipedia contributors. Curtis Island (Queensland). en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curtis_Island_(Queensland)
  20. UNESCO World Heritage Centre. Great Barrier Reef. whc.unesco.org/en/list/154/
  21. Bundaberg Distilling Company. Bundaberg Rum. www.bundabergrum.com.au/