The Huge Coal Port at Hay Point

On the way back from our lovely tour of the Sarina Sugar Shed we made a quick stop at Hay Point.  There’s a lookout with a great view of one of the largest coal export ports in the world.

Look at all that coal!  I can’t begin to describe how much coal we could see.  They export something like nine million tonnes from this port every month.

The coal is transported to the port through a rail system.  When we left Mackay a few days later we travelled inland and drove by some of the mines and could see the rail system.  This is all such an enormous operation, it boggles the mind.  Look at all those huge piles of coal.

There are two export terminals here.  The coal is transported by conveyor systems out to sea to allow for loading in deep water.  We could see the conveyors moving down the track to shift the coal.  I think we counted fourteen ships either at sea or being loaded while we were there.  Those jetties extend out for kilometres.  Huge, this place was huge.

As interesting as it was for us adults, it really didn’t hold the kids’ attention too well.

But hey, there was a wind sock, so that helped.

There was one of those telescope-y things they have at tourist places, so we did get a look through that to see some of the action close up.  That was good, too. 

As I took a picture of this I thought it seemed familiar.  We saw another of these at the Sydney Harbour Bridge, though it didn’t have the heritage designation.

Although it wasn’t one of those great, fun, interesting stops for the kids, anytime in the future when coal mining comes up we can say ‘Remember when we saw all the coal at Hay Point?’ and it will all seem a little more real to them.  I hope.  So much of this trip is like that!

Sarina Sugar Shed

Seeing all this sugarcane in Queensland really made us want to find a factory tour to do.  That proved hard with the various ages of our kids, many of the factories have age or size requirements which our younger kids don’t meet.  So when I found out about the Sarina Sugar Shed I knew I’d found the right one for us.  It’s a hands-on mini-sugarcane mill, perfect for families.  We got there just as a tour was starting.  The tour includes a short video, a look at some old machinery, viewing of the mini-sugar mill, and a tasting at the end.  It was a hot day and when they took us outside to look at the machinery they gave us these lovely rainbow umbrellas for shade.  They were so colourful, the kids loved them.  They really should sell these in their shop.  TurboBug had to hold one, though the thing was as big as he was, which meant one of us had to hold onto the top for him!

They had several examples of old machinery that showed how sugarcane planting and harvesting has evolved over time.  Each machine had improvements over the last.  This one is a harvester.

This one is a planter.  They’d feed the sugarcane into the chute and it would chop them, spray them, and drop them.

You know how the eye on a potato is where a new shoot comes from?  That’s how sugarcane works too.  Each section of cane has an eye (they alternate sides), they plant the mature cane directly in the ground for the new cane to grow from.  See the eye in the picture below?

This was a small patch of cane near the machinery to show it in different stages.  See the cane they’ve laid along the front of the box?  The cane is cut into pieces about 40cm long, called setts, for planting.  Each sett can make up to twelve sugarcane plants.  Sugarcane is harvested from June to November and they often work around the clock during those months.  In Queensland the cane takes 9-16  months to grow.  Further south it can take 18-24 months. 

There is a real sugar mill is next door.  It had not been working that day but they were starting it back up that afternoon.  That oddly shaped building had water pouring over the sides of it as part of the temperature regulation.  Australia is the 3rd largest supplier of raw sugar in the world.  There are 24 sugar mills, 6 bulk storage ports, and over 4000 sugarcane farmers.  

They have a mini sugar mill set up on site.  It was fascinating.  All the machines have cute names and they show short videos of each one in use.  Look at the juice coming out of that crushed cane!  He brought the cane over for us to chew on, too.

Samples.  Of freshly squeezed sugarcane juice.  They told us that the sugarcane plant stores extra energy as juice so sugar content will vary from farm to farm.  Farmers are paid on the sugar content in their crop.

Mmmmmmmm.  (Still recovering from that fall!)

There were other things to try, including molasses.  Most people tried the juice, not so many takers for the molasses.  [Side note: when I first moved to Australia I needed molasses for a recipe and couldn’t find it at the supermarket.  When I asked I was told I might need to go to a feed store!  Not what I had in mind.]

They had little jars of sugar in all its various stages of processing. Every single part of the sugarcane plant can be used.  The cane that is left after juicing (bagasse) is used to power the mill.  It’s the only crop in the world that can be used to power its own processing, so it doesn’t rely on fossil fuels.  Other residue can be used as fertiliser.  They talked us through the whole process: the cane is juiced, cleaned, boiled, seeded, boiled again, and dried.

So with all that sugar information you may be wondering how sugarcane first came to Australia.    Can you guess?  Okay, you weren’t wondering but now you are, right?  Are you ready? 

It came on the First Fleet, they brought it with them from South Africa.  So sugarcane has been a part of Australia for as long as Europeans have.

This mini-mill produces their rum and liqueurs.  They don’t process their cane into raw sugar, that’s only done next door in the mill.

Then they took us to the tasting room.  Where they had a fairy floss machine that she actually turned on and made fairy floss for anyone who wanted some.  I have never liked cotton candy (as I call it) but my kids did not inherit that trait.  They also had tasting for the adults, various sauces and liqueurs that they sell in their gift shop.

We hadn’t planned on getting TurboBug his own fairy floss, but he kept taking bites from everyone else’s so I asked her to make a small one for him.  Small.  Not one nearly as big as he is.  Sigh.  He ended up having more than anyone!

In the back of the room were a couple of really well-done school projects that I just loved.

Then my kids nearly got destroyed by fires from the cane fields.  Which is funny, since they told us they rarely burn fields anymore in the Mackay area.  She told us they usually let the fields rest before replanting.  We’d seen some burning in Innisfail, though.

Then they got to drive the sugar train.

TurboBug ran over as fast as his feet would go, he could barely wait for his turn!

One last pic of the pretty purple flowers outside!

The funny thing about all of this is that a few months before our visit we had drastically reduced the amount of sugar we were eating.  It’s snuck back in a bit, as sugar does, but we still consume less than we used to.  Now we know more about it than ever!  Our tour guide had such a pride and enthusiasm for their work, it was a delightful tour. 

Platypus Viewing at Eungella

Finally it was the right time of day for platypus viewing!  They are active at dawn and dusk.  We headed to the township of Eungella where the Broken River has three viewing areas.  It was a popular spot.

The first creatures we saw were turtles.  We even saw a tiny baby turtle but he didn’t show up in my pictures.  The kids were excited to see turtles after our recent turtle feeding experience.

Later in our walk I found this sign that talked about how turtles can absorb oxygen through bottoms and smell through bumps on their chins.  Wow!

We waited and watched, trying to keep quiet since there were other people around and they were all very quiet.  I didn’t see a sign saying that platypuses are sensitive to noise until we got to one of the other viewing areas.  We must have missed it at this first one.

We didn’t have to wait long.  Look!  A platypus! (I didn’t have my zoom lens, so this is as good as it gets!)

They only surface for 10-20 seconds at a time, then dive in search of more food.

We had the best luck at the first viewing area we visited, and I managed to get just one on video. 

 

We followed the very nice boardwalk to the next viewing area, which was under a bridge.  We didn’t see any platypuses here and there was no one else around so we kept moving to the third spot.

The trail included a nice boardwalk and some cute decorations along the way.

There were more people at this end, all silently watching the water for movement.  A lady told me they’d seen a very large one and a very small one here.

While we waited I learned that platypuses store food in cheek pouches and come back up to the surface to eat.  They mash their food more than chew it.  I also learned they hunt with their eyes, ears, and nostrils shut!

We waited for as long as we could manage after our long day.  We did see one surface a couple of times, but we still had a good drive back to Mackay so we didn’t hang around too long.

We found this next to the trail, I’m sure it wasn’t an actual seat but it was the right size for the kids and they all wanted a picture in it.

So, so happy we got to see some platypuses in the wild!  Somewhere we were I saw a platypus crossing roadsign but didn’t get a picture, I was hoping there would be one here but no such luck.  Since it had been such a long day and we were getting back into town late with no good prospects for dinner we treated ourselves to Subway sandwiches, an rare treat that we all enjoyed.   It had been a long, lovely day!

Sky Window Lookout in Eungella National Park

As we made our way from Finch Hatton Gorge to Eungella we stopped at the Sky Window Lookout, we’d heard that on a clear day you can see all the way back to Mackay.  Given that we were an hour from the coast it sounded like the view would be stunning.  It’s also popular for bird viewing, though we were too noisy that afternoon to have much hope of seeing many.

The lookout is a short loop with a couple of stops along the way.  At the first we could see the road we’d just been on.

The next offered those stunning views back to Mackay.  We could just make it out in the far distance.  See those patches of green?  That’s sugarcane.  The nearby sign said the valley had once been mainly dairy farms.

Time for some funny poses.  The kids were complaining a lot that afternoon, we were trying to distract them from their unhappiness.  How dare their parents make them get out of the car after that long walk and swim!

SkeeterBug snapped a pic of the rest of us.

I’m including this picture because I don’t think I’ve mentioned the bush turkeys before.  The first place I remember seeing them in abundance was in Sydney at the caravan park we were in.  We see them all over the place, I remember them being quite noisy in Cooktown as they settled in each night.  TurboBug happily exclaims ‘booosh turkey’ when he sees one.

Right as we were leaving this little guy had a fall in the carpark.  He landed hard and when I went to him all I knew was he’d hit his face.  I was afraid he’d landed on his nose and feared what I’d find.  No broken nose thank goodness, and before long it was obvious which part of his face had taken the full brunt of the fall.  Poor guy.

Then it was finally time to go look for that platypus…