What a fabulous day we had exploring Bundaberg. If you’ve never been to Bundaberg then it’s definitely worth the trip. Bundaberg is situated on the Burnett River which flows to the sea at Burnett Heads. The Bundaberg district is a ‘food bowl’ of Australia and as you drive around you see a patchwork of green, productive farmlands on the rich red volcanic soil.

Think Bundaberg and everyone probably thinks Bundaberg Rum or Bundaberg Ginger Beer but there’s more to Bundaberg than that. There’s also wineries, breweries and so much seasonal produce including avocados, pineapples, macadamias, strawberries, limes, mandarins, ginger, sweet potatoes, sugar cane and more. All growing in the rich red soil.

The Port of Bundaberg is located on the Burnett River and this is where you can catch a cruise to Lady Musgrave Island on the Southern Great Barrier Reef. Bargara, and Elliot Heads are the spots on the coast. Here you will find lots of holiday lets, van parks, BBQ spots, playgrounds and surf beaches.

This is the first time I have come across the narrow gauge railways that are used to haul sugar cane to the sugar mills from the farm gate. All over the region you find tracks and crossings marked with the usual train lights to let you know a train is coming. The engines pick up the loaded bins from the farm and take them to the local mill for processing. We were quite excited when we had to stop at one of these crossings as the red lights were flashing and we had to wait for the little train to go past. The narrow gauge railway lines are only 610mm wide.

Our first stop of our tourist day was the Mon Repos Turtle Centre. This state of the art facility showcases the incredible work that has been done and continues to be done to safeguard the survival of turtles. Much of the work is undertaken by volunteers and there has been significant success in protecting the turtles that come each year to nest on Mon Repos Beach. It has been a Conservation park since 1981 and research is ongoing to protect these wonderful creatures.

The centre has fabulous displays telling the story of turtles from the varied types of turtles, to their life cycle, to their battle with climate and man made changes and children are encouraged to touch everything. The centre includes a theatre that continually shows a movie experience about the work done at Mon Repos and the turtles coming to breed there each year.

Did you know that of the 7 species of turtle in the world 6 of them are found in Australian waters? Mon Repos is the largest nesting hub for marine turtles on the east Australian mainland coast.

Outside the centre there are two boardwalks that take visitors right down to the beach. It would be amazing to be there during the season from November to March to see these amazing creatures come ashore and using their flippers to haul themselves up into the sand dunes, dig their nest and lay up to 150 eggs, cover the nest and then make their way back to the sea.

We all really enjoyed learning more about these amazing animals.

Our next stop was to visit the Hinkler Museum situated in the Botanic Gardens on the northern side of the Burnett River. This meant we drove from Mon Repos back into town and across one of the two road bridges across the very wide Burnett River.

By the time we got there is was lunch time and we enjoyed a lovely lunch at Cafe 1928 in the Botanic Gardens before visiting the Hinkler Aviation Museum and Hinkler House. Wow, Bert Hinkler was an Aussie legend and what a fabulous museum dedicated to his amazing flying career. There was a cinema with a movie telling the story of Bert’s aviation adventures, and lots of interactive experiences. The kids loved the flight simulators and trying to take off and land various types of aircraft.

Bert designed and built his first aircraft, a glider, in 1912 in his parents backyard. Bert was the first person to fly solo from London to Australia in 1928 (hence the name of the cafe next door!). He was also the first person to fly solo across the southern Atlantic Ocean.

During the First World War Bert flew for the Royal Navy Air Service in Belgium, France and Italy. He was an ‘exceptional mathematician and inventor’ and made a lot of instruments that were used up until the Second World War.

In WWI, Hinkler invented a machine gun adaptor for air gunners. Back then, when the biplanes were flying upside down in combat, the hot, ejected shells would fall and burn the chest of the gunners as they fired. Hinkler’s invention had the ejected shells all flying off to one side instead.

Wikipedia

Sadly when he was just 40 years old Bert died in the Italian hills when he crashed on one his record breaking attempts. He was so highly thought of that he was given a full state funeral in Italy and is buried in Florence.

Next door to the Aviation Museum is ‘Mon Repos’ the Hinkler house from Southhampton in England. It was demolished and reassembled in the Botanic Gardens in Bundaberg brick by brick and visitors can tour the house that Bert and his wife Nance once lived in. It’s fascinating.

We had booked a 2pm tour at the Bundaberg Rum Distillery so we had to cut short our visit to the Hinkler Aviation Museum. I think we could have all stayed there for longer and I would have loved to see more of the Botanic Gardens. Oh well. Always leave something for next time!

We set off back across the Burnett River to the Bundaberg Rum Distillery.

What a fabulous tour led by very capable guides, Shaz and Kobes, who kept their presentation amusing with lots of ‘dad’ jokes. They were great. We learnt how a group of men met in a pub once to try to decide what to do with all the molasses that is produced as a by product from sugar cane production. They came up with the idea of making rum and the Bundaberg Distillery Co was born.

Rum is made from just three ingredients, molasses, water and yeast. We were guided through the working distillery and shown the molasses tanks, which you could smell as soon as you were near and then on through the process until the rum was in barrels. At the end of the tour you could taste 2 types of rum but as none of us were rum drinkers Richard gave away our tickets to other people who would appreciate the drink.

On our way back to camp we drove by the Port of Bundaberg, the beachside Bargara and then back to our farm stay.

We arrived back to camp around 5ish and Pa quickly got the fire going, Katie prepared beef stroganoff for our dinner, and the kids had a soccer game.

We had another convivial evening around the fire. We’d had a great day being tourists.