It was another glorious day when we set out to explore the hinterland of the Rainbow Beach and Noosa areas. We turned south from the Gympie road toward Kin Kin. The road is in good condition with bitumen through the fertile valleys and gravel through the rolling hills. Rain forests adorn the hills and market gardeners are active in the valleys.

Rolling Hills

Gravel road mountain pass

Long road

Farm house in the green valley

We came across a quiet little valley where the forest had been cleared and a rest area had been developed. We walked into the rainforest for a few hundred meters along a track and took some pictures of the tree canopy. It felt like another world.

Rest area in them thar hills

Inside the rain forrest

Filtered light under the green canopy

We eventually came across Kin Kin which turned out to be a charming little old village where one could sense the history of the area.  This history started with timber cutting and eventually moved on to dairy and small produce farming.  A coffee and some cake later we continued through this historically rich area on to Pomona. Behind Pomona a ‘Volcanic Plug’ overlooks the town. Volcanic plugs were formed by volcanic events some 5 million years ago. They are literally ‘Magma pimples’ that have been squeezed onto the earth’s surface by pressure increases pushing on cooling lava.

For more information visit the following sites:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kin_Kin

http://www.inkinkin.net/

http://www.noosacountrydrive.com.au/country-drive-villages/kin-kin

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pomona,_Queensland

The ‘Country Life’ hotel at Kin Kin

Churches to be found at every place

The General store

A galery of historical pictures at the General Store

The Art school at Kin Kin

The products of the Art school (insect)

Along the way we drove through several other villages on our way home. We returned late in the day to our caravan park.

The plasma plug overlooking Pomona

…and the Locals are very friendly.

El Questro is a very large property on which there are many spectacular spots that tourists visit. I did not have time to take in all of them. I will cover those that I had a look at.

The next morning I continued north along the Gibb River road. There were a number of Jump Ups to be negotiated. These are climbs to the top of mountain ranges many of which seem to run east to west. The final one offered a splendid view across the next valley. One could see right across the next valley to the upper reaches of Cambridge Gulf and the town of Wyndham. This town is a Nickle ore export harbor. I could also see a number of major rivers emptying into the Gulf.

View across Cambridge Gulf to Wyndham

A while later I reached the turnoff to El Questro.  Another good many kilometers I reached the grounds of this tourist resort and was impressed by how well developed it was. Great caravan and camping facilities. The general visitor area is impressive as well. The general visitor cannot get to the upmarket facilities.

After a while I carried on touring and went on to El Questro Gorge and to Zebedee Springs.Both destinations are spectacular. As I entered these gorges I could feel the air becoming warmer and more humid. It was like stepping into the sub-tropics. Palms replaced the normal vegetation and the water in the streams became clearer and warmer. Both these gorges were similar in the type of rock and vegetation. It was close to two km up the gorge to get to the spring. Many people were doing the same thing. The water at the spring came bubbling out of the rocks and measured 32 degrees Centigrade. The natural rock formations have created a number of pools where tourists enjoy a natural spa bath.

El Questro tour bus crossing the Pentecost River

Clear water

Start of Zebedee Springs gorge

Tropical climate, palms and stream with deep pools

The water comes out the ground at 32C.

Nothing like a swim!

On the return trip I had to negotiate the Pentecost River once more. That got the adrenaline going as the water was touching the top of the bonnet and I did not have a snorkel on my Patrol. I was aware that if the vehicle stopped I would have to wade through chest high water that was the home to many crocks.

Pentecost River, wider than 50 meters

Somewhere in there Crocks are lurking

Just across the Gibb river road is the turn off for Emma Gorge. This place is sensational. After walking half an hour up a hot canyon I reached this great pool that has a river trickling down an escarpment. The icy water is very refreshing and most people have a swim before heading back.

Canyon walls closing in

Petrified river bed; see the ripples on what was sand once

Yours truly having a swim

I returned to the Gibb River road and completed the last section to the Kununurra – Wyndham road. I decided to spend the night at the Wyndham caravan park which offers shady sites and clean facilities. Wyndham is located on the Cambridge Gulf. It has a large Nickle ore loading facility.

Wyndham ore loading facility.

Cambridge Gulf

 Fitzroy River

It was time to leave  Broome and say goodbye to my friends. The next morning, after a coffee I hit the road north into the Kimberley. Rugged country, tough country that is what I was expecting. Beautiful and stunning country that is what I got.

Some 140 km north of Broome there is a turn off that leads to the lower reaches of the Fitzroy River. There are no signs at the turnoff except for the Boab trees (baobab in Africa). The road quickly turns into a track that goes on forever.  Eventually one reaches the banks of the river. It is wide, especially at high tide. You can see the course of the river for a few kilometers. There are a good few tents and caravans camped in the bush on the banks of the river as the insiders know that this is a killer Barramundi spot. The place is littered with massive Boab trees and it is dead quiet here; very relaxing. There are heaps of big crocks in the river as well. Luckily the bank along the river is very high.

The land is privately owned/leased and there are many mobs of Brahman cattle running around so you have to be careful on the tracks as the Brahmans loom over your vehicle and do not always get out of the way.

Fitzroy river

The tracks follow the river bank for miles. I did carry on towards the mouth of the river and eventually found a great camping spot under some trees where I could set up my camp and roll out my swag. Conditions were perfect for open air camping. Had a look around the general area and as the pics will show, the river banks alternated with grassy areas and treed sections where one could find shade and shelter…and ants and other surprises. Read on.

Home sweet home (:-))

I walked around and found a few fishing spots. Finding firewood was a bit harder as it was late in the season and much wood had been harvested already. I made a fire, cooked some food and turned in. I was getting comfortable in the dark but it was very humid so I stuck my one leg out from under the sheet. I was just falling asleep when I heard and felt that ‘plop’ as something wet and cold attached itself to my leg that was resting in the fresh air. It felt like something slimy had sucked it self onto my leg. Not one to panic I Reached out for the torch (I never sleep in the bush without a bright torch and heavy stick next to  my bed). As the light switched on I saw the two eyes of a green Australian frog look at me from my leg; see pic. He left me and continued hopping around the camp for the rest of the night. Talk about strange sleeping partners.

My sleeping mate!

Several hours later I was woken up by the snorting and hoof thumping of a mob of Brahman cattle. Turns out I had set up camp on the trail for their nightly migration along the river bank. They were about to walk over me when the camp smell and the car spooked them. Once again my torch saved me. I switched on the bright light in the middle of the night and that shocked them and spooked them. They turned and fled as one.

I got up early and did some exploring and fishing for the mighty Barra. After losing most of my lures I eventually caught a decent size Barry on a crappy old lure I had purchased at Kmart for less than $4 some years ago. I apologise for the bad pic, but just to make sure I did catch & land one Barra.

I need to explain that I ate very well as I have a 40ltr car fridge that allows me to carry milk and meat etc for days without spoiling. The fish was tied to a tree branch with some rope and within an hour the ants had found it and had navigated to the fish via tree n\and rope, I had to wash them all off and store the fish in the fridge.

After another brilliant evening in the bush I departed early the next morning. I planned to get back to the main road to Derby and head for the Gibb River road. This iconic outback road heads north a few kilometers outside Derby.

One of the defining mountain ranges of Central Australia are the MacDonnell ranges. They run east to west for 644 kilometers with the town of Alice Springs almost in the middle. Along that range of mountains are many places worth visiting. One could spend 2 weeks exploring places of interest in these mountains. However I chose to visit Standley Chasm in the West MacDonnells as it is truly magnificent.

The website below says of this place: ‘The narrow chasm is truly spectacular. At lunch time, when the sun is right above it, the steep walls light up in orange and the bottom of the chasm fills up with tourists.’.

Please view these 2 websites for a few more details of this major tourist attraction.

http://www.outback-australia-travel-secrets.com/west-macdonnell-ranges.html

http://www.outback-australia-travel-secrets.com/east-macdonnell-ranges.html

After a good night’s rest in Alice I took off for Standley Chasm which is 50km west. I travelled along Namatjira drive which is named after the famous Aboriginal painter Albert Namatjira. The website tells me that the highest point in the ranges is over 1500 meters above sea level. The turn off is a distance from the actual hills that house the Chasm. The site contains a shop that provides food and beverage for the weary traveler. Don’t forget that this is Central Australia and it does get very hot here.

There is a path that leads into the Chasm. What struck me most is the diverse flora and foliage on the hillside leading into the Chasm. Many trees with amazing shapes and many coloured trunks are to be seen. Speckled amongst those are ferns, palm like plants with pale palm leaves and diverse shrubs. You can probably tell by now that I am no botanist, but I enjoyed the diversity of the plant life on display.

The hills on both sides narrowed into a gorge of sheer rock devoid of plant life. The walls rise up straight as the gap wound its way through the mountain. Often it seemed that the two sides of the chasm were reciprocal; that is to say they mirrored each other and could have fitted into one another.

It was glorious. I took many snaps, some of which I am sharing here. After that I wound my way back and had a cup of tea. On the way back to Alice I once again took in the splendid West MacDonnell Ranges. Day 5 was to take me north west of Alice onto the Tanami track.

•  4 Weeks  -  10500 Kilometers:
• Home – Alice Springs – Tanami Track – Broome – Gibb River Road – Kimberley – Katherine – Home

What a trip this has been!  When I look at the pictures it seems like it happened yesterday.

So let me take you through this unique experience and through some unforgettable country!

Day 1 Start of the journey

‘Home’ is in the Victorian Highlands, in the Melbourne / Ballarat / Bendigo triangle. We live near the town of Trentham, 115 km northwest of Melbourne in country Victoria. This adventure was always going to be a lengthy trip with great distances to be covered quickly between points of interest where I would linger longer. As I had driven to Alice Springs a number of times before, the strategy was to get going early and get the first 2000 km done as quickly as possible. I had seen Ayers Rock, the Olgas and Kings Canyon before, but never been to the Finke River.

The real start of this adventure was the Finke Gorge National Park where I wanted to explore the river course and follow the river bed from one end of the park to the other. This ancient landscape has the claim of being the oldest river bed in the world.

I left at 4:30 am in my trusty Nissan Patrol and wound my way in the direction of Adelaide. 75km short of Adelaide, at Murray Bridge, I headed north towards the Barossa valley so that I would not get caught up in the busy Adelaide districts. The destination for the evening was Port Augusta just over 1000km from where I started. I reached that in the late afternoon and had a well-deserved rest. Port Augusta is a crossroad for traffic travelling from/to Adelaide, Flinders Ranges, Alice Springs and the Nullarbor Plain.

For the last 100+ km the road north to Port Augusta has the Spencer Gulf on the one side and the southern Flinders Ranges on the other. This makes for great scenery. The old part of Port Augusta is quaint with many historical buildings. The landscape becomes increasingly sparse.

Spencer Gulf in the distance

Day 2 Breaking the back of the distance

Early the next morning I collapsed my tent, packed things away and headed off for Coober Pedy along the Stuart Highway. The first stop was  Coober Pedy itself,  some 540 km north. I had been in the region a few times before. Thus I did not want to explore and so continued north after a quick refuel and a pie, which is an icon for hungry travelers in Australia.

The area around Coober Pedy is littered with chalk colored mine dumps of varying sizes. The largest are the size of small hills. These are the remains of prior mining attempts where people have dug into the earth to find Opals. Everybody knows about these multicolored gems that polish up spectacularly and cost a small fortune. Every here and there one can see the rusted remains of long abandoned plant and equipment.

This all faded away as the long straight Stuart highway ran away into the north. It may come as a surprise to many that the landscape is not always barren. There are many areas where shrubs, trees and grasses paint a lovely picture of landscapes splattered with specs of green and brown. It is clear that animals do live here. If one is lucky enough to travel here after some rains the landscape displays a carpet of many colored flowers and blossoms. This is the land of the massive ranches or cattle stations.

Trees along the road with mount Connor in the distance

By the late afternoon I had arrived 20 km south of the turnoff to the Ernest Giles Rd. This road is where I could turn west for the rear entrance of the Finke Gorge National Park. Armed with nothing except my Map of the Northern territory I could start my outback adventure for real the next morning.

I pulled off the road and drove a few hundred meters into the scrub and set up my camp for the night. I had covered just over 2000 km. As I sat around a small camp fire I heard the silence wash over me. Not a sound, just nothing to be heard. It is the most beautiful feeling. Most people do not travel at night out there. So there are no vehicles to be heard. If you look up you can see a billion stars up there just beyond the reach of your fingertips.

Day 3 Doing the Finke River

I got up to another great sunny day in central Australia. After the normal morning stuff I continued for the last 20 odd kilometers north before turning west onto the Ernest Giles rd. It was a real joy to leave the main road and get into the red dirt country again.

I soon saw the road signs for the Henbury meteorite craters along the way. Never having heard of these craters I was intrigued enough to make a detour and find out more. The official description reads:

“Walk into an other-worldly landscape shaped by a meteor hitting the earth at Henbury Meteorites Conservation Reserve. Located 145 kilometres south-west of Alice Springs, the reserve contains 12 craters that were formed when the Henbury Meteor, weighing several tonnes and accelerating to over 40,000 kilometres per hour, disintegrated before impact.”

I followed the signs to the park and did the walk around the craters. The path takes one along the crater walls around the bigger remaining craters. It was interesting to read about how small a meteorite had caused such havoc .Very interesting, especially as I had intended to visit the Wolfe Creek crater later on this trip.

Map in hand I headed west again until I had worked out the small unsigned road that would take me to the rear end of the Finke Gorge National Park. The trick was to turn left at a little sign that said ‘muddy well’. The track (there are no roads here) was about 40km long and took me across a salt pan and after that through several stands of an indigenous needle Pine trees. There were many twists and turns that prevented any speedy progress. Of interest was the abundance of melons that lie around the area. I cut one in half but it was very bitter to the taste.

Many people think that central Australia is flat as a tack with very low altitudes. This is not so. There are many hills and very long mountain ranges. The average height of the landscape is 500 – 600 meters above sea level.

After an hour or so I reached the gate at the rear entry to the park. So far so good, as long as one avoided the wash outs in the track. After a few more kilometers I reached the Finke river and that presented a totally new problem. The washed out bedrock of the river presented with layers of granite displaying ledges that were up to over 50 cm in places. In other places the ledges were very narrow. I had to pick a path across the river bed and then fill up the gullies with rocks so that I could get my Patrol across. The crossing took at least half an hour. I decided to stop for lunch beneath some shady gum trees after that.

If one looks along the course of the river one can see many water holes that seem to survive the drought. The river is bordered by sandy river banks on both sides with very large gum trees offering shade. The banks then run up into craggy hills that are very old; around 1500 million years old. One can see immediately signs of severe weathering where the rock formations have crumbled and turned into dust and small debris.

I took a number of pictures of the river banks and the hills. When I looked at the downloaded pictures on the computer I got a good surprise. What I had not noticed when taking the pictures was the Dingo skulking in the grass and watching me from a safe distance.

I drove along the track which follows the river course and made very slow progress. The track on the river bed runs over round rocks for many kilometers. This is low range second gear work and is also very hard on the springs. Progress is very slow and it took many hours to get through the park. Some people had set up camp and were enjoying the scenery. I had planned to get to Alice Springs by the evening. So I kept going.

At the entrance to the park is a rock painting of some tubers. Aboriginals used their art also to communicate to other wanderers about the types of food that are available in the area. This is an example.

I left the park and headed towards Alice Springs. Along the way the West MacDonnell ranges cut a delightful scene in the late afternoon sun.

Time at James Price Point (JPP)

My good mate Watto and I decided to spend a day visiting this spectacular destination on the Dampier peninsula. We got away fairly early and turned onto the road to the Dampier peninsula and JPP. When we left the bitumen and rode onto the red dirt the immediate impact was sensory. The color of the sky and the landscape changed and became more vivid. One also noticed immediately that the bush was dry. Much of West Australia is enduring a prolonged dry spell.

James Price Point shot to prominence when Woodside Petroleum wanted to level hundreds of acres here to build a harbor and gas refinery. It caused an international outcry and many hundreds of people involved themselves to either protest, camp and obstruct at the site, lobby politicians or collect signatures to send to their local members of Parliament. Even Sea Shepherd was  involved.

As you can see from the pics this place has stunning colors, has a thriving marine life and is close to the breeding ground of Southern Right Whales. At the southern end of this area turtles emerge during winter to lay their eggs on the beach at night, see pic.  Beautiful reefs exist just 50 meters from the beach where a multitude of shells live. I have seen massive clams, textile cones and many cowries when I dived there 2 years ago.

And this is the area that politics and business were happy to sacrifice for profit when there are alternate options available!!!

On this visit, my third, there are  signs still standing, maintained by dedicated protesters / campers who come here year after year to relax, soak in the natural beauty and just chill. I am sure they keep an eye on things too.

As this was my first visit in two years it was interesting to see the changes from the heyday of the protests. The major camp at the turnoff to JPP had totally disappeared. The smaller camp 2km from the coast had fallen into neglect. It had been used by campers during the winter season but was empty now. Campers fill this area during the winter months year after year. At JPP itself a few campers remained. By end of September it is getting quite hot already and the winter campers, who came to enjoy the benign weather, had gone back south over the last month.

We saw a Fish Eagle sitting in the tree and it was in no way concerned by us. The aboriginal elder / spokesperson (Janet) was no longer at JPP. She had left the place months earlier to return to Broome to live with family. I have included pics of the great spot she had used for years. Only a broken down panel van remains.

Our friend Dave still remains. He has been coming here for 9 years I think. He still rates this as one of the top spots in this area. See pics of his camp. He is known for finding dinosaur footprints amongst the rocks at low tide. There are some really good fishing spots in this area. Dave manages to catch a feed quite often.

We drove north along the coast on the gravel road to explore more of JPP. Pics of some of the stunning coastline below. At low tide many reefs emerge from the water and reveal great fishing spots. There is vehicle access to a great beach which leads to the next rocky point 9 km up north.

Also see this link:   https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=144528419227958&set=ms.c.eJw9ybkRACAMA7CNOOw43%7E%3B6LUQQodYLkLJlXK2gL1%7E%3BQAez%7E_zyWzP73k8Y74OgNsQCw%7E-%7E-.bps.a.105255276488606.1073741827.100010124012478&type=3

Unfortunately I had to head back home after two more days. It was great to catch up, catch some fish and recharge my batteries.

By then it is pretty warm up here. We had 36 C most days but a cool breeze drops the temp by a bit at night. Pic below is at the turnoff to the Dampier peninsula and Cape Leveque.

I made a bean and beef curry the other night that went down with the  housies. Last night I made a massive fresh salad and we all had some chunky T-bone steaks and/or Rump steaks. Looks like we struggled to finish the meal. We had ice cream after; yum.

In the footy finals the wrong team won. Thankfully there is always next year.

Went fishing with my friends at Broome Port on the long jetty that services the port. The Broome tidal variance is up to 10 meters, so there is substantial depth at the right times. We caught some Queen fish. They came through for a time and we managed to hook a few. Back at home Jacko managed to convert the fillets into some beautiful sashimi (hope spelling is ok). This was enjoyed by all of us the next evening.

There is some big stuff swimming around the pier. We saw a massive shark jump out the water twice. It must have been 3meters +. There are some very big groupers at the jetty as well. They grab your fish if you don’t reel them in fast enough. The largest one is said to be the size of a VW Beetle.

Yesterday morning we did a spot of fishing on Cable Beach at low tide. It was very quiet, but I managed to reel in a massive stingray. It had green dots on its wings. We released it before we thought of pics. So sorry.   Back here in Broome it is beautiful to see the Boab trees that are grown on nature strips and in gardens.

I rode to the Cable Beach Club Resort to have a look at their accommodation options. I had been asked by good friends to find out more about the level of luxury and price for their premier accommodation. This resort is known as the best and most luxurious facility in Broome. I was not disappointed and walked away very impressed with their offerings. I thought I’d share some pics of the Suite here:

The Villas here

One of the four restaurants here.

I had not been to this most beautiful part of Australia for 2 years now. The time has come to visit some good mates up there once more. It is generally accepted that Broome is the southern end of the Kimberley region in the north west of Australia. For my money the Kimberley region is the most magnificent region in Australia. It is one of the few regions in this country that is still largely untamed. It is stunningly beautiful. It has a great diversity of landscapes from 320 million year old coral reefs that stand as mountain ranges to billion year old, ochre colored mesas that are crumbling to dust and reflect mind blowing colors at sunrise and sunset.

This will be my fourth visit to this area. I look forward to time spent fishing, camping on the beach, boating, yarns around the camp fire and the odd beverage. Broome is the southern delimiter of the Dampier peninsula which sports a number of Aboriginal settlements and has the famous Cape Leveque as its westernmost tip. Broome itself owns the world famous and stunning Cable Beach. I cannot wait!

OK, I will confess. I am sitting at Perth airport waiting for my connecting flight to Broome. Look at my destination pic below; the magnificent Cable Beach, Broome

Inconvenient, bothersome and unhappy were some of the thoughts we had. I pulled off the road and changed the tire. Drove to a tire place and was informed that the tire had started separating, inner layer from outside casing. So a new tire was needed. Ok, $100 later I had another new tire. I also lost more than an hour on the trip.

Would you believe it, 10 km from our destination Dawn heard a bang and just saw smoke when she looked out the window. The spare tire that we used to replace the bad one with, had also exploded and was smoking as I drove. Pulled off the road again and put the new tire on. Just as well we had it fixed. So to-morrow morning early I will have to buy a new tire before we continue our trip. Another $100.  I can hear the gods laughing as I write this.

There is an interesting tree at the caravan park. I have seen a few of these along the way in Queensland. To me the trunk looks like the boab tree like one sees in the Kimberleys WA. However, the foliage looks very different. I have searched on the internet to find out that this tree is called the Queensland Bottle Tree. See pic attached. It really is a beautiful tree

The Qld bush along the way sports many trees > I was expecting the countryside to be very much drier and sparser. I have pics of some great vistas. The countryside here in NSW is just splendid. It is green and stunning where it was very dry when we went through here 10 weeks ago.

The road along the Newell Highway is very busy (as expected). There are hundreds of big rigs heading up and down. They varied in size up to the road trains that were up to 4 trailers long. The Newell is a major arterial way that connects the big centers of south eastern  Australia. Some other big haulers had massive loads that took up the whole width of the bitumen. They were preceded by police patrols that forced all else off the road.  See pic.

If you were to draw a line from Rockhampton to Yeppoon and then to Emu Park (and Zielzie) and back to Rocky, you’d have put a border around some of the most scenic and interesting countryside in Queensland. There are a number of geological features called ‘plugs’ where rocky outcrops appear to have been forced out of the ground. They look almost like pimples on the landscape. These were created by volcanic activity millennia ago.

I am constantly amazed by the foliage. There are many spectacular species of old trees like the Fig tree below. The area is very easy on the eye. One bay follows the other as you head south from Yeppoon. There are at least 15 bays and headlands. One never tires of walking on the beach at any tide. As the bays are very shallow you can walk into the sea forever it seems. Every day we have 23 degrees C. Only a slight breeze…  Yeah I know, it is really tough to endure!!

  and another tree:

However, I am really surprised by the interesting history of the area as some of the links below might indicate:

The town of Rockhampton was created in 1853 by the Archer family. Soon gold was discovered and a 50 year gold boom endured. The largest mine was at Mount Morgan. Initially sheep were farmed and these were later replaced largely by cattle. This area still is a major cattle area. These industries attracted the populations in the early days. These days there is a substantial coal mining industry as well. In the process Rockhampton has become the capital of central Queensland.  The wealth from the gold boom resulted in riches that afforded the building of the many beautiful buildings that have been preserved and adorn the town and river frontage.

In the early days roads were constructed to Yeppoon and Emu Park. There was no road from Yeppon to Emu Park as the Causeway lake at Kinka beach presented an insurmountable barrier. A railroad was built to Emu Beach where the wellheeled had their coastal homes in this slice of paradise.

Some of the history at the link below:

http://library-resources.cqu.edu.au/cqcollection/manuscripts/short-manuscripts/rockhampton.pdf

This summarises some of the main industries of the early days like Beef, gold mining and natural wealth. Gold was found throughout the region and in places was very lucrative like at Mount Morgan.

Some old images showing early Rockhampton at:

http://www.themorningbulletin.com.au/news/old-images-show-how-much-rockhampton-cbd-has-grown/1894214/

A summary of early development can be found at

http://ajthompson.com.au/capricorn-coast/history-rockhampton-environs-early-settlement.htm#.VcHpAfmqqkp

The history of Yeppoon is similarly interesting:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yeppoon

A quick summary can be found here:

http://queenslandplaces.com.au/yeppoon

Further info includes Emu Park where we have been a few times now:

http://www.cqhistory.com/places/yeppoon.html

I have just had a look at a list of shipwrecks to be found off the Qld coast. There are literally hundreds of them. In some cases Queensland towns derived their names from the name of a shipwreck in their vicinity, for example: Coolangatta at the Gold Coast

http://oceans1.customer.netspace.net.au/qld-wrecks.html

Needless to say the above is just the tip of the iceberg.

I spent some time on top of Mount Archer. The hill overlooks the city from about 9 km  away. It shows off the big Fitzroy river snaking through then landscape. There are some stunning views for 360 degrees.