HERVEY BAY

After leaving Cania Gorge we headed east back towards the coast and Hervey Bay. On the way we stayed overnight at a free camp at Apple Tree Creek which was just 7 km's outside of Childers. It was quite fortuitous that the Apple Tree Creek Hotel was only 200 metres from the camp so off  we went for a lovely meal.

Childers is a small country town and is probably remembered most for the back packer fire that occurred in 2000. It is situated on a ridge overlooking fruit and vegetable fields. It has many beautiful historic buildings.






As it was a relatively short drive to Hervey Bay the next day we decided to go via the historic town of Maryborough which is situated on the Mary River. Maryborough has a number of heritage listed buildings and is also the birthplace of P.L. Travers the author of the Mary Poppins stories.












Then after wandering around Maryborough for a couple of hours and soaking up the atmosphere we headed off to Hervey Bay

 

To our amazement Hervey Bay was a much larger town than we thought. We had pictured a small beachside town on the water but this was far from what we thought. Although it retains the beachside town feel along the Esplanade the rest of the place is just like any other town. We were told by one of the locals that the population in Hervey Bay now is larger than Bundaberg!

Our caravan park was on the water in a suburb of Hervey Bay called Torquay.

Sunset at Torquay Pier.

August in Hervey Bay is Whale Festival time celebrating the annual return of the magnificent Humpback Whales that come back every year.



We decided to take a tour out to see if we could see these large creatures. We had a great day as did see some of the whales close up. It was very hard trying to capture these creatures on camera.

We went out on a boat similar to this one.



























There are lots of statues around the town celebrating whales.
 





















Dusk over the Marina at Hervey Bay.