Gladstone area

  

We took it easy this morning by not rushing around. Our departure from the Karavan was not until after 0900.

Our track this morning was a continuation of the tour of Gladstone that we commenced late yesterday afternoon. As we visited the Port of Gladstone with its Marina and the Auckland Hill Lookout our first stop was the City Centre.

The first thing we noticed was how quite the City Centre was. We parked in a side street and walked roughly north along this street. There were not a lot of people on the street at all, however we did notice a lot of the quiet buildings had the names of various Liquid Natural Gas (LNG) companies as well as other support industries like employment agencies.

Not a lot of specialty shops on the street but included several pharmacies, hotels, numerous restaurants and coffee shops. Not unusual for us, we found a reasonable café and had the morning coffees.

Following the coffee break, we visited the Grand Hotel the ascertain if we could watch the Super Rugby semi final between the NSW Waratahs and the NZ Blues to be played in the shaky isles later in the day.

Queensland Alumina from Barney Point

We wandered back to the Mazda and then drove the short distance to Barney Point. This was the birthplace of Gladstone, formerly known as Port Curtis. Barney was an advocate for Gladstone to be the capital of the North Queensland. It was approved by Queen Victoria but this was rescinded later in the year. Barney was to have been the Lt. Governor of the new colony.

While getting to Barney Point we had a call from our special KK friend, Di. She just wanted to be sure we were getting into a coffee! We had to tell her that was a little while before. Great to speak to her and catch up on her and Trev.

Queensland Alumina

Next we drove along the foreshore towards the massive Queensland Alumina plant. As we were unable to get on a tour we did the next best thing. This was to go to the specially constructed lookout with numerous information boards not only explaining the process from bauxite to the aluminium ingots. This is a very intense process that has changed minutely since its first operation back in the late 1800s.

Queensland Alumina, along with other companies in the past, have helped, and still are, Gladstone to develop into the large community it is today. One item they have worked on is to recycle all the waste water from Gladstone into the alumina plant and thus saving a very large amount of fresh water from being fed into the alumina plant. Obviously, they and all the other companies are involved in major employment opportunities in the area along with the mines and associated bodies.

Gecko Valley Winery

Following our informative time at the lookout, we drove further on our little tour. We past by the Tondoon Botanic Gardens and drove along the edge of them into the Gecko Valley Winery. We did not know what we might find as it looked quite basic as we climbed up and down a washed out gravel track. Then we arrive to find this magnificent winery and café waiting for us.

Gecko Valley Winery

We had to sample their wines which we did find to our liking. As we enjoyed the tasting, we purchased several bottles of a lovely chardonnay and a bottle of a magnificent Honey Mead. I guess these will not last too long. While there we had our lunch, Prue had smoked salmon foccaccia and I had a salami foccaccia. These were followed by another reasonable cappuccino. This is owned and run by a mother and her daughter and is a credit to them.

Part of the new Gladstone development area.

Our final leg of our tour was around the southern areas which are being rapidly developed for homes. It appears that all infrastructures are in place. This is an amazing area of growth with so much happening not too far away and in the city itself. So many industries see Gladstone as their service centre. No wonder the airport is so busy.

We went to the Grand Hotel in Gladstone to firstly watch the Waratahs get beaten by the Auckland Blues in the first of the qualifying final games in Super Rugby. Secondly, we had a nice dinner with several drinks during the game. Then home early.  Not sure if I may be succumbing to a cold. May be I should be having more red ‘anti-oxidant’ wine!