Sunday, December 16, 2012

REVISITING THE PAST

It's been a good week... the weather has been perfect... Lovely ocean breezes.  Quite cool in fact for Summer.... We have barely used our airconditioner this week.  I really hope that all of summer stays like this. 

On Friday we spent the day being tourists in Bundaberg... Visiting a lot of the places we frequented when we were teenagers.  Some places have changed a lot,  some places not so much.

We thought we would visit some of the beaches.  Although we are staying at Bargara, we are staying in a small caravan park here.  When I was a teeneager, we would spend six weeks every year camping down at Bargara in a caravan at the other rather large caravan park.  We tossed us this time whether we would stay there, but in the end opted for the quieter and smaller park, and we have LOVED our time here.  Very very relaxing. 

We started the day off with a leisurely breakfast.... not a cooked one today... Cup of tea and a bit of toast.

The one time Steve enjoys cooking is when we are on the road...
Anyway we wanted to drive around to Nielson Park and see the Bargara Beach.  Most weeks in summer would see me ( in particular) swimming and surfing here.
Still a lovely beach and not crowded. 
 Being here this week has helped me to see the town of my youth in a new light.  It is funny how you don't appreciate it when you are young and live there all the time.   We have caught up with friends this week who have told us that they have not even visited some of the places that we have been too this week and they have lived here for a very long time. 
 From Bargara we drove around to Mon Repos.  As kids camping at Bargara we would take a short cut through the bush to get onto this beach.    Mon Repos is now famous for the turtle breeding season, and is quite a famous rookery where very serious research is done.  It is also quite a tourist attraction to visit the turtles and it costs quite a bit to go see them.  As teenagers, we would visit this beach weekly in summer to go see the turtles.  Quite often a group of us would actually buls a bonfire on the beach and sit and talk and share together..  Something that never would be allowed now....
Visiting the Information Centre at Mon Repos
Mon Repos Information Centre and Beach
 We went for a walk down the boardway and for a walk along the beach at Mon Repos...
The beach at Mon Repos -  long sandy stretches of beach with few rocks. 
 From Mon Repos we headed around to Burnett Heads.  Along the way we saw the most beautiful flame tree ( think that is what they are called)  It was magnificent and so vivid in its colour. 
Beside the road.
  The canefields around the Bundaberg region are dotted with stone walls, built by South Sea Islander labourers who worked on the district's sugar plantations.  Before being cleared by South Sea Islander labourers, the paddocks in the area between the Elliot and Burnett rivers was strewn with volcanic rocks. The rocks were used to build structures such as the iconic stone walls which scatter the region. Some have been moved or destroyed, while others including  one at Mon Repos are heritage listed.
 We saw evidence of one of these stone walls on our way from Mon Repos to Burnett Heads
Stone Walls and Flame tree
 It is kind of sad that a lot of these fences lay in ruin now and are not maintained.   I would love to see more of them tidied up and maintained as they really do serve to remind us of the rich history and culture that these South Sea Islanders played in the early years of the city of Bundaberg. 
 Burnett Heads has definitely changed.  It is much bigger than I remember it and there are lots of new housing estates there with homes right along the ocean front.  One of my fondest memories of this beach were the Sunday School picnics that were held here each year.....
Beaches around Burnett Heads. 
The mouth of the Burnett River and the stone walls
 One of my memories of Burnett Heads was the old Burnett Heads lighthouse.  Even though it has now been replaced with a new modern one, the old one has been relocated to the park where we held our Sunday School picnics right next to the Caravan Park.  I was keen to get some photos...
Historical Burnett Heads Lighthouse.
 When I went over to take some photos, I noticed that they had a kind of mini gym there, so we got stuck into and did our daily exercise.  Steve was way more energetic than I was
Getting energetic at Burnett Heads.
 Since we have moved, they have built a new bridge which now allows you to get from Burnett Heads to the Port of Bundaberg.  There is also a really nice marina built along here as well, so we were off to explore it as well.  We were pretty impressed by some of the HUGE boats that were there. 
Huge Aluminum House Boat
 Steve was pretty impressed with this huge aluminum house boat that was dry docked.  He thought of his good mate Daryl that passed away a couple of months ago, and so in memory of Daryl, we took a photo of it.  He would have really enjoyed seeing this. 
Port of Bundaberg
It has probably been almost 35 years or more since we have been down to the Sugar Terminal at the Port.  Unfortunately for us there were no big ships in loading sugar, so we just went for a wander around and took a few photos. 

Heading back into town, we passed several familiar places, including my uncle's house.  He had a cane farm, and we spent many happy hours there playing in the red soil.  Bundaberg and the surrounding area is very flat, but it does boast of one hill, the Hummock which at one stage in it's life was an active volcano, hence all the basalt rock around the coast line of Bundaberg.  We stopped and I got a couple of great shots of The Hummock.  I love the contrast, of the green fields, the rich red of the earth in these shots.  
The Hummock in the distance...
We continued into town and on our way in we passed my grandparents (on my dad's side) old place.  I have lots of happy memories of my childhood here.....
My grandparents house
 We would all meet here for Sunday lunch each week, our family and my Aunty Joan and her family with their seven children... Grandad Stewart had an enormous strawberry patch.  He used to sell his strawberries by the side of the road, and we were all allowed to help him pick them after lunch.   He had made little tin buckets for each of us to collect our strawberries in.  We would always get filthy dirty as the soil here is that rich red soil.  
 From here we ventured into town and paid a visit to here....
Schneider's Cooperage
 It is probably looking a little tireder than I remember,  but we sat and watched the Coopers at work making the barrels.  They had some beautiful wood products in there for sale, but we resisted the urge and only bought a couple of these.....
Mannino's Home made Ice creams
 I had read about these ice creams.... they are actually from Childer's and a bit of a tourist attraction there, so thought we would have to try them out.   Mine was definitely the nicer of the two... Very rich and very creamy and quite expensive as well....
 From here we drove into town.  I had to take some photos of a few special places...
City of Bundaberg.


 All of the pictures above have some significance to our childhood and growing up years.  I had to take a photo of our favourite cake shop.  There is no other cake shop like it... they do the BEST donuts.  It used to be owned by good friends of ours ( whom we have managed to catch up with this week)  They also made awesome sausage rolls.    They sold it over a decade ago now and we have been informed by others in town that it is not quite as good as it used to be, although the donuts are still pretty awesome....

The Moncrieff Theatre was another of the projects my Dad was involved in when he was the Mayor of Bundaberg...  We had our wedding reception in the Civic Centre, and I worked accross the road from Buss Park and often spent my lunch hours here. 
The Civic Centre and Buss Park
Bundaberg City Centre
 One of the memories I have of Buss Park is the gardens of  marigolds that they had.... Well over 30 years later they are still planting gardens of marigolds.  At least they look bright...

 There are some beautiful old churches right in the heart of town.  We attended Steve's nanna's funeral in one of these churches just a couple of months ago.  The other church was where I attended a youth group when I was growing up....
Anglican and Uniting Churches.
 By this stage we had been out sightseeing for pretty much the whole day.  On our way back to the coast we did a little detour so that I could photograph my other grandmother's house.  I spent many many many happy days at her place.  In fact we would often stay over or when Mum and Dad went overseas we would stay with her here.  She was a wonderful grandmother,  very much like my own mother, and I have truely been blessed to have had her influence in my life. 
My grandmother's house... it is looking a litte sad these days and in need of a good paint.
Our last stop off was a drive up to The Hummock to see the views once again.  The view at night is equally as good as the days as you can see all the lights of the city. 
Views from the Hummock
We got home after 5pm,  not much time to spare before we got to meet up with some friends of ours that we hadn't seen for quite a number of years.  They came and joined us for tea and we had a lovely time catching up with them. 

It's been nice travelling around and doing the touristy things in our old home town... Decided that we needed to stay an extra day...

Tonight we are off to see all the Christmas Lights.....

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