Home Hill - Seaforth

In the dark of night, we’d thought we’d found a nice quiet spot on the outskirts of town, turned out it was the main road to the sugar refinery. Didn’t get much sleep. Couldn’t raise a real coffee anywhere in town, so headed on out.

The scenery is starting to change. We’re certainly out of the rainforest and still in the tropical timber with the corkscrew palms or pandanus dotted around the place, but its not as lush as it used to be.

The drive is not attractive as further north, but the water is turning more turquoise in colour. Headed to Bowen. This place was poised to boom on our last visit some 6 years ago, but it still looked like the biggest dump we’d seen some years ago. They have lots of lovely old queenslanders around the town, and the lovely old pubs on each corner etc, but the drive in is past old dumps of rotting buildings, tons of signs showing the best parts of Bowen, but still doesn’t have an appeal to reach the seachangers that search further north for retirement and lifestyle options.

We next headed to Airlie Beach. This place was chockers with backpackers and the like all cramming their way around the quaint little main street and struggling to get out to Shute Harbour to get on a ferry to the islands as its so far out of town. We drove out to Shute Harbour to check again what’s happening to discover the community against a huge mega story development proposed for the area. You now have to pay even to park up on the hill which is a huge hike down to the boats. The new overnight multistorey carpark was about 1km walk to the ferry terminal and cost $10/day to use!

There were many of these types of ads dotted around the community. There is a huge proposal for another developement taking prime beachfront land from the hands of the community. See www.saveourforeshore.com.au for more info. They must have some money as they have taken billboards around town, as well as many of the advertising banners in the main street.

You cant even dream of a parking spot in the main street. We are just so over traffic lights and huge traffic jams that we just want to get away from them. We didn’t even want to hang around the harbour and check out the marina. It was just so overcrowded and uninviting anymore. Really sad to see towns developed out. It no longer has the appeal that drew many of the locals there in the first place. I guess many will be leaving if this big development ends up going through. I don’t think they have the road infrastructure to cope with the traffic.

We moved sadly on to the next small dot on the beachside map. It was Laguna Quays and Midge Point (our dogs namesake attracted us to that one). It was such a weird place. Laguna Quays was a golf course type development that looked deserted. We didn’t venture in, but drove by. The next bend saw a huge palm tree lined boulevard with lovely stone entrances that were completely overgrown. This was a place that had a huge vision, but for some reason it just never happened! There were a few for sale signs that we drove past as we continued on the next 10kms to Midge Point.

On arrival we noticed the traditional holiday town of old asbestos and basic queenslander style houses. But on arrival at the beach I was shocked by the smell. It smelt of poo. Steve said it was rotting seaweed, but on arrival at the water there was no seaweed in sight! Who knows. Steve went for a walk and I relaxed in the van.

We then moved on to the next stop on the map, wondering if there was such a thing as paradise still left in QLD and I think we found it! Seaforth. It was a cute lovely beachside holiday place nestled amongst stunning treed hills. With just a caravan park, a shop and a petrol station. We passed about 5 “trendy” new houses on the main road, but basically it was a boating and fishing paradise. Lots of boat launching spots and water activities. There are a few islands not far off the land and who knows what around the corner.

The view of where we parked for the night...

Steve couldn’t get out of the van fast enough. He pulled his kayak down off the roof and then threw a line in off the beach. He didn’t know what to do first!