23 July 2011 - Palm Tree Caravan Park, Ingham, Queensland

Six months today! Six months since Chris and I arrived in Australia to start this great adventure. In many ways it seems longer than that, and in others, as if it were only yesterday. There is however no celebration other than the enjoyment of another perfect sunny warm winter’s day in the tropics, a delicious satay chicken prepared by the chief cook and hopefully the entertainment of the first Tri-nations Rugby Test between the Boks and the Wallabies.

We saw no point in stretching the boundaries by staying beyond our 48 hours at Bushy Parker Park at Rollingstone, as we had seen all there was to see there and were keen to see what the next location held for us. As we headed up the Bruce Highway, the great palls of smoke created by forest fires caused a haze to the west but no obstacle to our path.

The road up from Townsville had followed the flat narrow coastal plain, but as we neared the Hinchinbrook Shire, we passed over low hills and there ahead of us, the coastal plain widened out, all the way up the Herbert River Valley to the mountain range to the west.

The main town in Hinchinbrook is Ingham with a population of just over 5,000, 60% of whom are Italian or of Italian descent, having all immigrated in the early 20^th century when the laws changed regarding the abusive use of Kanakas in the sugar plantations. This ethnicity is celebrated annually with the Australian Italian Festival held here in May. We are here in July so again our timing is out.

To the east of Ingham lie the beaches of Lucinda, Forest and Taylors, the first of these home to an offshore sugar loading jetty, stretching almost six kilometres out to sea. It is unfortunately not currently operational, having been victim to Cyclone Yasi which laid waste to an area from here north west to Tully.

Ingham is home to the Victoria Sugar Mill, the largest sugar mill in the southern hemisphere, and of coarse the centre for the sugar plantations that cover the plain from just north of Rollingstone as far as …... we have yet to discover.

Apart from being the inspiration of an important annual festival, the Italians have left a legacy in the old cemetery, unusually on the must-do list for tourists. Here there are many elaborate mausoleums and chapels, most marked with Italian names and descriptions all in Italian, featuring tiles, marble, white stucco, and gothic style windows and doors. While this kind of morbid memorial spending is evidenced throughout Europe, it is more unusual in our neck of the woods, and therefore the novelty makes it worth the visit we made this afternoon.

We called firstly at the Tyto Wetlands Information Centre, which has a wealth of information about the birds in the region, and the restoration and preservation of existing degraded wetlands, and the replanting of naturally occurring vegetation and the creation of permanent lagoons over a 120 hectare area which is now home to over 230 species of birds.

We also confirmed that the only caravan park in town was in fact the Palm Tree Caravan Park and established the tariff we could expect. Falling just a dollar short of the thirty we find exorbitant, we decided to make it our temporary base and so made our way to the park and set up camp, after first proceeding further into the town and stocking up on badly needed fruit and vegetables.

Water lilies in the Tyto Wetlands

After lunch, we spent about an hour and a half wandering around the Tyto Wetlands, encountering crocodile warning signs but no crocodiles, crimson finches, wagtails, kookaburras, egrets (without the cattle), wood ducks,  kangaroos, wallabies, tourists from Western Australia and three people on horses. The water lilies in the lagoons are absolutely spectacular with their beautiful mauve and pink flowers standing high above the water surface on long stems.