Gladstone: one wide expanse

Gladstone harbour

We enter the central Queensland coast and are astonished by the industrial might of Gladstone harbour and its port. Everything here is big.

More on this shortly, but first we should mention our brief stay at Woodgate, a long stretch of beach about 36 kilometres from Childers, protected from big seas by Fraser Island.

Call us sentimental, but we simply had to revisit the place where we had memorable holidays with our kids back in the 70s.

To put things in perspective, Woodgate beach is where Carol’s now deceased uncles Len and Cecil Dossetto, who had sugar cane farms in Childers, built holiday homes.

Back in the old days we used to stay with Len and Marj, Cecil and Dot, and their kids. Marj now lives in Brisbane, Dot in Childers, but their families still use the holiday homes.

We parked at the Woodgate caravan park and didn’t really expect to see anyone we knew.

To our surprise we found Marj and her son-in-law Reg Cotton at her house, which Reg was freshening up with a bit of paint. It was back to old times, with Marj the matriarch insisting we all dine together each night.

Another delightful surprise was the arrival of Reg and Lyn’s vivacious daughter Katherine and her fiancée Jordi Oakley, who had been working in Esperance, WA. Jordi’s new job is marine pilot in Gladstone, where we were headed. As pilot, he will go out to meet incoming ships and bring them into port.

Right: Marj and Katherine. Below: Marj, Reg, Kath, Carol and Jordi.

You can’t eat bites

Reg is a mad fisherman like our son-in-law Doug and I couldn't turn down his invitation to go fishing near Burrum Heads on his boat. Needless to say Reg caught fish while I only got bites. “You can bite eats but you can’t eat bites,” said Reg sagely.

To cap off our surprises, we received a visit from Carol’s cousin Wayne Dossetto (Dot and Cecil’s son) and his family, who live in Bundaberg, on their way to the Sunshine Coast for a holiday.

As we hadn’t seen Wayne and his wife Cathy for several years -- well before they brought their three beautiful children into the world – we had much to talk about.

Right: Carol, Wayne and Cathy, and their children Max, Brigit and Charlotte.

Before we get to Gladstone, I have to mention that before our hurried departure from the Sunshine coast, we failed to contact my niece Fiona Jones, so here’s a recent picture.



My brother Pat's daughter Fiona, husband Jeremy and baby Conner.













From Battle of the Bulge to Battle of the Boyne

Our next stop was Tannum Sands, an affluent and picturesque seaside hamlet 22 kilometres south of Gladstone, separated from the twin town of Boyne Island by the Boyne River.

Here we made good use of beautifully landscaped walking paths built by the local authorities and industry, to try to work off what has been stealthily enlarging our waistlines.

We couldn’t get a wireless signal in Tannum Sands to access the Internet. But we did have free use of the computers at the local library on Boyne Island, which meant crossing the Boyne, which I felt had a bit of resonance.

What we saw on a walk: Above, the beach at Tannum Sands and right, mouth of the Boyne. Below, A bat colony, a welcome and warning sign, and a black cockatoo.



































During our stay we did two worthwhile tours in Gladstone.

The first was of the Queensland Alumina Ltd refinery, an ochre-coloured behemoth that uses vast quantities of caustic soda to turn bauxite from Weipa into white alumina powder. Its massive cylindrical structures reminded Carol of the Temple of Karnak in Luxor, Egypt.

The second was a Port of Gladstone tour, which took us through the RG Tanna coal port, a massive and compelling complex of coal trains, conveyors, Caterpillar D11 bulldozers, dumps and cranes.

Coal, coal and more coal

In what could be a project manager’s dream (or nightmare depending on your point of view) we saw a Capesize vessel (around 220,000 deadweight tonnes, too big for the Suez and Panana Canals) being loaded.

Right: RG Tanna coal port

Remember the line from the old song:

‘You load 16 tons and what do you get,
Another day older and deeper in debt…’

In the old days, a strong man could shovel 16 tons (in the old measure) of coal in a day. In Gladstone a bottom-dump coal train can unload 6000 tonnes an hour, and they work 24 hours a day.

Our guide said the port was exporting 70 million tonnes of coal each year. Plans were well afoot to build a similar terminal at nearby Wiggins Island, which will double coal exporting capacity.

Given the part that coal burning plays in greenhouse gas emissions, can anyone tell me how this fits with the Rudd Government’s carbon reduction policies?

Anyhow, the port tour also took us through the parklands and gardens of Spinnaker Park and the Marina, which are in pleasant contrast to Gladstone itself, a fairly drab city.

Right: millionaires' row at the Marina

Before we departed for Rockhampton and Yeppoon we had a farewell lunch with Katherine (below) at the Tannum Sands pub and reported what our port guide had said about marine pilots.

“Their job is rated as difficult as that of a jumbo jet pilot.”