CIRCLE OF FRIENDS LADIES HEAD TO EMU PARK...

 This last week, our Circle of Ladies group headed to Emu Park for our outing.  We headed to the main beach where we had a shared morning tea all together.   Everyone brings a plate to share and we always seem to have a lovely assortment of food and usually too much of it..

The setting on the beach front was lovely,  such a beautiful day,  The sun  was shining, the sky was dusted with clouds and the water was vibrant blue and just glistering in the sunlight.  A few of the ladies commented that this is the best they had seen the coastline.  It really was quite a special day..

Beautiful main beach at Emu Park...

The Ladies enjoying a morning at the beach..

Enjoying a lovely morning tea at the beach..

After morning tea, some of the ladies decided to head into town to check out the opp shops and the rest of us decided to do the lovely Anzac Memorial Walk.  Rosemary plants, which grow wild on the Gallipoli Peninsula, line the Emu Park's ANZAC Court and the Memorial walk, as as you walk along the path, the scent lingers in the air.  

 

This Emu Park Centenary of ANZAC walk is really a must see tribute to our ANZACs.  There are many ANZAC walk memorials around Australia, but Emu Parks is unique as it wraps around the coast, offering fantasic views of the coastline.  The coastal boardwalk meanders from the central sandstone historical pictographs up towards The Gatehouse, a moving floor to ceiling First World War storyboards including portraits of locals.    It then wanders further up past silhouettes and Battle Markers towards a stunning coastal lookout then wraps around and ends at the "Singing Ship". 

The memorial pays tribute to the ANZAC's in a way that offers visitors the chance to learn more about an important piece of history and remembers those who have given their lives for us.  It really is a must see..

In excess of 150 tons of Capricorn Buff sandstone was used to complete stages one and two of the Emu Park Centenary project.  The Memorial Walk forms a significant part of the Commemorative Precinct, which was developed during the centenary years of WW1 between 2014-2018.

 

 

  

The Memorial Court Precinct features a pictorial screen featuring the work of local artists, a grassed mound and landscaping which includes Gallipoli Pines.

From the Commemorative Precinct we walked up towards "The Gatehouse" building...

The Gatehouse was opened in 2016 and it features 26 floor to ceiling First World War storyboards including portraits of locals.  One well-know personality profiled is Annie Wheeler whose collection of letters resides at State Library of Queensland.  These elements were funded completely by the local RSL.  

 

The late Ross Coulter had a grand vision for the Emu Park Centenary of ANZAC Commemorative Precinct and it was tanks to the fundraising efforts of the RSL that this vision has unfolded.

 

These wonderful red poppies are etched into the concrete floor..

The purple poppy etched on the floor is in memory of the animals that served in WW1.

The Gatehouse

Messages from Annie Wheeler - one of the locals

 From the Gatehouse we wandered along the 175 metre long walkway which provides a timeline of World War One's many major battles of war. There are 41 World War 1 Battle Markers installed in the gardens surround the Gatehouse and the represent the Navy Imperial Forces, Australian Imperial Forces and the Australian Air Corps, all of whom served in the First World War.

 As you walk along the walkway you are able to read the  interpretive works telling the stories of how the war began, the story of Gallipoli, the legend of ANZAC, the details of the Gallipoli campaign, the Somme, Fromelle, the Lone Pine Battle and many other campaigns.  All very interesting to read...

 

There are several art pieces which include silhouetted figures of Australian soldiers which surround the memorial.  They were originally depicted on the original Centenary of Anzac Memorial and the figures are grouped together in twos and threes  and "walking up the headlands".  

The Memorial Walks ends with a viewing deck below the Singing Ship,  where we all stopped to view the amazing coastline.  A nearby tourist offered to take a photo of us all together...

From here we walked up to check out the Singing Ship....

View of the "Singing Ship" from the viewing platform below..

This majestic monument is set against the spectacular coastal vista of blue seas and Great Keppel Island in the distance.  It commemorates the area's legacy of the historical explorations of Captain James Cook, who discovered this bay in May 1770.   The unique design represents the billowing sail, mast and rigging of his ship "Endeavour".  Concealed organ pipes use the sea breeze to create  the musical sounds.

It has been whistling in the wind now for over fifty year.  It was built and unveiled in 1970 to mark Captain James Cook's visit to Keppel Bay in May 1770.  The sculpture was designed locally and built by hand.  It stands more than 12 metres tall on Constitution Hill. 

A Bajool housewife, mother and art teacher, Peggy Westmoreland designed the Singing Sin in 1969.  Her diary revealed that she had won a competition to design the memorial.   She had thrown her design in the rubbish bin and it was just good fortune that her husband John Westmoreland, fished it out of the bin and said "not you've got to finish this, you've got to put this in girl" and she did. 

The reinforced concrete ship "sings"as wind moves through pipes that were designed by physics lecturer George Cain.  "When Peggy heard the hum of wind coming through the open neck of a soft drink bottle, she realised that pipes could sing in the wind's breeze.   George Cain took the concept and he experimented with different pipe lengths, different hole lengths for the airflow in the pipes in a wind tunnel on the old TAFE building.  He also put it on the back of a utility and his brother used to drive along at about 60kph and he would experient with all the different pipes.  

Engineer David Thomas made the ship steadfast atop of a hill that is battered by sea, air and storms.  It was was the perseverance of Steve and Isabel Kele (hence the name of the par) that inspired it to happen.  It was hard slog and labour by this pair who used a pulley system, to pull the cement which was mised by Isabel in little buckets and pulled up to the scaffolding whilst the sea winds would be whipping Steve around the face.  

The ship is a symbol of creativity, or ordinary people coming together and doing such marvelous, extraordinary things by using their own ingenuity.  Art and science roles were fused together to bring something to the coast that is both outstanding and an everlasting tribute to the creative spirit.  

This monument is one of it's kind in Australia and it is right here on our Capricorn Coast..

 

One of our ladies has been enjoying painting rocks and she bought up an assortment to day to hide on the Capricorn Coast.  and she hid quite a few of them in this area....
 

My now it was almost noon and as we had a lunch table booked at one of he local Cafe's Ocean Brew for a 12 noon meal it was time for us all to head back...down the road to our cars.  

 

The Centre piece of the stunning War memorial at Emu Park

Dianne had made a booking at this beautiful seaside location called "Ocean Brew".  A few of us have been here before and had thoroughly enjoyed our meal.  They set up a table for us in one of their back rooms and we pretty much had the area to ourselves.  

If you want somewhere nice to eat out on the Capricorn Coast I can highly recommend Ocean Brew.  The meals are reasonably priced, fast, and the food tasted delicious.  The staff are friendly and everything is cooked on the premises and made by them...

The menu is quite comprehensive and we had a wide variety of meals on offer.  I chose one of the house specials for the day, Savoury Mince on sourdough.  It was just like my Mum used to make and was delicious.  The portion was a good size also... in fact I couldn't eat it all..

The fish and chips were nice, with the fish being freshly caught.  Marg and Coral shared a vegetable lasagne with chips and salad, as the one meal was way to big for just a single person. 

Joyce didn't feel like a meal, so she ordered a freshly bakes scone with whipped cream and jam..

Marg and Coral shared this meal

My savoury mince and soughdough

A couple of the girls ordered rissoles with mashed peas and potato and said it was divine...

Ann ordered the seafood - prawn cutlets with chips and salad..

Ocean Brew also houses a small art gallery and I in particular was very take with some of the beautiful mosaic work hanging on the walls. 

Some of the lovely mosaic artworks that were on display...

There was also some pretty impressive artwork made from coral and shells on display also.   They were priced for sale and were around the $300 mark.  Not sure if they were  really my cup of tea, but I can appreciate talent and the hours of work that would go into something like this and they did prove that there are some talented people around.

This ended out outing for the day with most of the ladies heading back into Rockhampton with a stop off at Saint Christopher's Chapel on the way home.

Saint Christopher's Chapel.

St Christopher's Chapel was erected by American servicemen in 1943 and is now heritage-listed.  It  is situated at Nerimbera and is an important piece of our Central Queensland history.  Saint Christopher, a patron saint of travelers, is an appropriate namesake for the little bush chapel which was built by the American servicemen during WW11.  

The Chapel was constructed from locally found stone and bush timber by the 41st Ship and Shore Division and served as a non-denominational place of worship for soldiers far from home seeking spiritual comfort.

When the war ended, many people in the Central Queensland area were ready to move on from wartime memories and St Christopher's Chapel fell into disrepair.  In 1947, Henry Beak, a third generation Central Queensland and owner of the property neighbouring the chapel, began to personally care for the site.    It was a little while after the war that people started to realize it's uniqueness and the Beak's spent a lot of time trying to coerce people into looking after the chapel and maintaining it..

In 1988 the Livingstone Shire Council assumed the responsibility for the maintenance of the Chapel and the grounds from the St Christopher's Chapel Trust.  

Meanwhile, Dorothy and I remained on the coast as we had a meeting at Ann's place at 1.30pm.  As we still had a little time up our sleeve, Dorothy and I decided to hit the shops in the main street.  Whilst Dorothy checked out a couple of the shops I noticed the Emu Park Museum across the road.  It looked like it was a pretty good little set up so decided to walk across and check it out...

This little Museum is a not for profit organisation and it's  volunteers have been providing information and valuable assistance about the area to the public since it opened in 1984.   The main building was a court house and then a police station in Mt Chalmers before being relocated to Emu Park in 1986.  The Museum collection comprises of historical data of the town and district from it's inception and includes lots of photos, artefacts, a library of rare books, collections of sea shells and coloured sands, rocks, crockery, relics, coins, family histories, military memorabilia, dolls and tools.

 

There is also railway memorabilia from the days the railway ran from Rockhampton down to the Capricorn Coast. 

It was quite interesting to wander around and take it all in.  Having lived here all these years, it is the first time I have checked it out.  You could definitely use a lot more time to read the stories..  One interesting fact I noted was that King O'Malley the founder of the Commonwealth Bank of Australia recuperated at Emu Park after suffering a serious life threatening illness..

Just down the road from the Museum was the start of the Emu Park Lions Historical  Trail.    This trail consists of Eric the Emu and his 20 strong family of Emu's scattered around Emu Park all depicting the history of the area.   Each Emu has information and a QR code in regards to the particular snippets of history or information of the area in which it is situated.  They are all within walking distance of each other and to walk the trail gives you a good glimpse of this lovely beach side town.  

You can pick up a brochure and a map of the different sites from the Emu Park Museum, and they have a beautiful book with all the sites and information which is available for purchase also.  

The walk is not only enjoyable but it also highlights just how busy this town was at the turn of the centuary with the many holiday makers, beach outings and picnics.

One of the other interesting things to notice with the emus is that they start out a very light rusty red, but as they have aged they have become a lot darker.  In the late afternoons they almost look black like some of the old man emus that roamed freely around this are up until a few years ago.

By the time I have finished checking out the Museum and the Emus, Dorothy had made her purchases and was heading back to the fabric store where we were meeting Ann.    I quickly wandered back to catch up with the girls.  We were all keen to check out the lovely little patchwork shop in Emu Park.  She has some of the most beautiful fabrics and also has the thicker bias binding that I have been using for my peg aprons.  

 Dorothy was keen to pick some nice fabric to make hooter hiders for one of her daughters who is expecting her first bub in October.  I picked up some lovely Australian Christmas material.. (As if I haven't got enough already}.

The amazing corner shop that has a bit of everything.

We love this fabric shop and visit it on a regular basis.

Ann and Dorothy picking out matching materials.

New Christmas materials arriving..

 Once we had made our purchases, it was back to Ann's place for our monthly Encouragement Meeting.  We were to meet our other friend Narelle who is on the committee with us.  Normally our meetings are held back in Rocky, but since Dorothy has been so house bound for the past four weeks with her leg and with us mostly meeting at her place since she hasn't been able to drive, it was nice for her to get out of the house and come to the beach..

The view from Ann's dining room table is absolutely stunning and I could understand if she never wanted to leave her place.  You have a full view over the ocean and the many islands that dot the horizon.

View from Ann's dining room..

We had a few things to discuss this month and also some little Father's Day gifts to make for the Dad's at church.  It was after 3.30pm before our meeting was finished and then I drove Dorothy home before heading home myself.  It has been a big day out.  I left home this morning at 8.30am and didn't arrive home until around 5pm.  A big day but a good day.....