Situated on the most eastern point of Australia is a beach town that goes by the name of Byron Bay. Captain Cook set anchor nearby the Cape in 1770 and named it after one of his fellow sailors John Byron. Before Cook’s arrival it was known as ‘Arakwal’ by the local Bundjalung people, which means “meeting place”. Timber was the first industry to start in the region, hence the names of the areas Skinner’s Shoot, Possum Shoot and Cooper’s Shoot, derived from the timber cutters “shooting” logs down the hills to the ships. 1870 brought gold fever to the region with up to 20 gold mining leases opened up on Tallow Beach’s black sands. Byron Bay was a region of industrialisation, a dairy factory, abattoirs, fishing and whaling, even a hazardous sea port that appears to have claimed a couple of boats still rusting away in the sea. The first jetty was built in 1886, a railway in 1894 and the famous lighthouse that was built on the cape in 1901. Sand mining went strong between the world wars, so did meat works and the slaughtering of whales. All these industries running hard meant unbearable smells in the area, and a lot of harsh environmental impact. Most industries wound down in the 1960’s recession and good surf turned the region into a tourist attraction. Alongside Nimbin, it furthered into an alternative lifestyle culture, which brings domestic and international tourists from all around into the region. Driving into Byron gives you nice views of rolling hills, green grass and a sea of blue in the distance. The pleasant feeling of wide-open spaces comes to a halt very quickly when you arrive into town. That thought of escapement from the Bruce Highway makes you wish you were back on it, bumper to bumper traffic, people everywhere and the smells of used socks and body odour coming from vans. Horrible roads, unnecessary traffic jams and pedestrians just crossing the road when they get the opportunity are fair indicators of extremely poor infrastructure. Bumper stickers with full 'Greenie' support litter old vans running on leaded petrol, with the occasional cigarette butt flying out the window. Walking through town you notice large amount of drug abuse in a few characters getting around. Tune into a conversation from locals and you might hear about how people move out here to find happiness and end up worse than what they were. When we were running along beautiful high cliff sides that meet the ocean at Lennox Head, we saw lifeline signs telling you that there’s still hope, it makes you realise its not the happy place that you hear all about. So, lets get on with happier stuff! If you get away from the crowded main beach, you’ll find some stunning waters to throw yourself in. We had a wicked day at Lennox Head beach, the waves can get a bit monstrous but stay shallow enough the water is perfect for beginner surfers and average swimmers like ourselves. A bit north of the main Byron Bay is Belongil Beach, preferred by locals, it’s away from the bigger crowds and the water is rather inviting. We chilled there and watched the waves but were far too dressed to jump in. If you get tired of swimming there is an almost endless amounts of walking to do through the hinterland region. We bought a book called ‘Byron Trails’ with 50 walking tracks around the area, its kept us busy with adventures. Between walking and swimming there has been some amazing food around, the subtropical climate grows just about every fruit and vegetable under the sun. Most good cafes use local produce including the coffee. Some of our eating highlights have been the jackfruit burger at the Main Street Burger Bar and the General Dawg at the Byron Bay General Store. The raw treats from Combi and beetroot cake from Spar (yeah I know right!) also served our appetites well. The Byron town centre transforms at night, the traffic dies down and street musicians open up. It makes for a pleasant strolling atmosphere to hear such a diverse range of music being played around the town, from soft acoustics, electronic mixers to trumpets and electric guitars. We’ve thoroughly enjoyed Byron Bay, the beaches, the food and the walking tracks have treated us well. It’s a chilled place if you make it chilled, but so are many other places, it’s just how you choose to experience it. Them realities of Byron I introduced to you earlier on are not to put the place down, but to understand that it is well sugar coated on advertisements and social media. It’s a nice place, but the hype might let you down.
In Indigenous Bundjalung mythology the story of the Three Sisters is told to children to warn them of the dangers of swimming near rocks. It is said one of the sisters became caught in the strong current, the other sisters ventured in to save her, but they all drowned and were turned into the rocks we now see at the heads. Although occasionally possible at low tide it is still quite difficult to access Kings Beach from the Three Sisters walking track so we venture around the alternate route through the paperbark forest down a heap of steps to this secluded white sandy beach. An enjoyable chat with a long-time local gave us a fascinating insight into the changing culture of Byron Bay and of his life in the region. Administered now primarily by the 'Greens' disappointingly improvements to infrastructure have all-but ceased with the poor quality road conditions a perfect example. He went onto mention the contention surrounding Kings Beach, which is known locally as a 'Gay' beach, much to the disapproval of local indigenous who have fought over the years to have the beach access points closed. Deaths in both the 'for' and 'against' camps resulted in the 'heat' surrounding the topic diminishing and nothing further has been done. We took a walk along the beach, admiring the serenity, but felt way too over dressed in our shorts and t-shirts and way too heterosexual so made a subtle dash for the stairs and left everyone to enjoy naturally, this peaceful parcel of paradise. Needless to say we opted not to take photos at Kings Beach for obvious reasons.
In local Indigenous Bundjalung mythology, Flat Rock was created by the Dirawong a Goanna spirit. The Goanna and the Rainbow Snake had a fierce battle. The Goanna after giving birth left her eggs at Boulder Beach seemingly out of harms way, the Rainbow Snake however found the eggs and decided to wait for the Goanna to return. The Goanna was nevertheless exhausted after giving birth and fighting the Rainbow Snake that she lay down on the beach. The tide came in and she drowned hence creating Flat Rock. It is said the Rainbow Snake still waits for the Goanna to return and that fishermen are often tossed from their boats by a 'freak wave' caused by the Rainbow Snake at Boulder Beach. Using our 'Byron Trails' book we decided to jog the track from the Pat Morton Lookout (a great place to watch surfers tackle the notorious break) down to Flat Rock, about 5kms one way. The track traverses grassy headlands along the cliff edge and negotiates pebbly rocks at Boulder Beach before smoothing out onto a paved path that we were told had only recently been completed, much to the praise of locals. It was at times challenging yet stunning to be bathed in glorious sunshine jogging a gorgeous coastline. Shovel smashed the jog finishing it off bounding up the final ascent, back to the lookout, but I decided to end my jog there and slowly walk up the remaining section admiring the views. It is said the 'right-hand point-break' at Lennox Head is one of Australia's 'most famous' waves with the 7 kilometre beach being declared a National Surfing Reserve in 2008. A National Surfing Reserve (NSR) is an "iconic place of intrinsic environmental, heritage, sporting and cultural value to a nation." To be demeaned a NSR site the quality and consistency of waves, the sacredness of a site to the surfing community and the environmental management plan are all assessed. At the time of writing there are currently 19 NSR sites around Australia. After our jog Shovel and I with boogie board in hand headed straight for this famous surf. The waves still receding from high tide were ferocious to say the least, living up to the reputation, but we persevered for a few hours and managed to ride a few pearlers back into shore.
Nimbin derives from the term “Nimbanjee” a protective spirit that is a part of the Whiyabul Clan’s dreamtime, which is of cultural importance to the local Bundjalung People. Nimbin’s lush green attractiveness brought loggers to the region in the 1840’s, once the sources of cedar wood dried up in the early 1900’s the land was utilised for dairy farming and banana growing to take full advantage of the sub tropical climate. The 1960’s recession brought economic woe to the rainbow region until 1973; the Aquarius Festival changed it all. The Aquarius Festival brought together university students, alternative lifestyle practitioners, hippies and your usual partygoers. After the festival, while many ventured home, hundreds stayed behind to bring the next revolution of Nimbin as an “alternative lifestyle” community, or as what others may call it “the drug capital of Australia”. Today, it’s alternative reputation still lives on. After a drive from Byron Bay that took us through Lismore and many windy roads, we snapped a shot of the Nimbin rocks and parked ourselves in the local car park. A few steps into our walk we get offered some local produce, we gave it a miss. Getting out into the main street of the town, most things were painted green and filled with rainbows. On one end of the main street, the dealers hang out and spectate the tourists, harmless but a bit on the nose. Walking along we browsed around the Hemp Embassy, even if alternative lifestyles aren’t in your interest it's worth a look around to learn a bit about Nimbin’s famous counter culture. Further along is the Nimbin School of Arts Gallery, which gave us a different perspective on Rainbow Region life. Gorgeous paintings filled the 100 plus year old walls from local artists, and a friendly volunteer resident gave us an insight into what life is like here, that its not just a haven for drugs but a retreat for creative arts. After a perspective change on locals we dropped into another Gallery, which spoilt us with more great local art from Nimbin and surroundings. Before heading out we ate at the Phoenix Rising café, the food wasn’t too great but the music (a harp and drums) made for a chilled atmosphere and reminded us of our dear friend Kat, the Cane Juice Lady from Innisfail. We drove another way out of Nimbin and went up into the mountains of Nightcap National Park, filled with 20,000 acres of rich sub-tropical rainforest. The drive was endless of twists, turns and stunning levels of green flora. We got to our destination in Nightcap, which was the Minyon Falls. Popular for a lot of tourists, these falls are 100 metres high and give you views all the way out to the Byron coastline. The run of water over the rhyolite cliffs made it spectacular to watch from all angles. Off to the west of the falls was a walking track that did a loop to Quandong Falls and back along a fire trail. The track gave us more views of the Minyon Falls and took us out to the edge of Quandong falls. It was quite a relaxed walk and a good distance of about 4.8 kilometres. After being satisfied with waterfalls and cliff edges, we coasted our way back down the range into Byron Bay to blue seas after a day of green. It was nice to get away from the riff raff of busy Byron Bay and get into the quiet towns again. The mountainous rainforests are always nice to drive and walk around; it’s a great change from seeing taillights and people running out in front of you. Nimbin is reputable for its drugs, but still worth a visit for its unique character and creative vibe, the dealers are easy to ignore and the locals were great to spin a yarn with.
Arriving at the Broken Head Caravan Park just south of Byron Bay had us wishing we were back in Advancetown. Although a relatively short distance of only 115kms along the Motorway past the Gold Coast and into the New South Wales Northern Rivers region, taking just a few hours to complete, we begrundingly spent the rest of the afternoon sweltering in rancid humidity, attempting to level poor Florence on an uneven caravan site. Advancetown was a superbly flat site and a beautifully presented park, whereas Broken Head is a dingy park with a crabby reception lady and wonky sites. What makes up for it all however, is that the park is located right on the beach at Broken Head point. You take the good with the bad as they say...
To access the Green Mountains section of the Lamington National Park or "Woonoongoora", located in the Gold Coast Hinterland we took Lamington National Park Road. This is the only road into this section of the park and a road of about 20kms in length, which is narrowly weaved into the mountain side and consists of many sharp turns, blind corners, wallabies, rock falls, head-on vehicles and stunning views. Our aim was to walk the 17 kilometer Toolona Track that traverses Toolona Creek deep in the gorge, but after a few kilometers of scraping leeches off our shoes we reassessed and headed back to find another less leechy track. This experience reminded me of the time we attempted Smiths Track in Tropical North Queensland that resulted in the same outcome. The land leech will lay dormant in dry conditions, burrowing beneath the soil, inactive, waiting for moisture. Once they become wet however they puff up and rise to the surface to begin feeding. Recent storms and persistent rains in the area had made the Toolona Track very wet and moist, ideal conditions for hungry leeches. Morans Falls is a 6 kilometer return track that zig-zags through breathtaking dense rainforest culminating in views of the 80 meter Morans Falls and other various forest communities. Information signage highlights 5 different types of vegetation are to be seen; tall open eucalyptus forest, open woodland, subtropical rainforest, dry rainforest and tall open brush box forest. After our morning admiring nature's beauty we took a drive towards the beach for Heven Yah Gelato. We'd read about this hip gelato joint in a magazine and were keen to give it a crack as the owners, Gold Coast locals had sourced authentic gelato making receipts from Portugal. The gelato did not disappoint. Most definitely the best we had both tasted. We then hit the water, at Mermaid Beach for a white-foam swell session. The conditions were magic, but the view down towards Surfers Paradise errie, as skyscrapers shrouded in sea-mist, dwarfed the coast line, providing us with the gentle reminder that we weren't in Kansas anymore.
To avoid the 'hustle' that is Surfers Paradise for our next adventure we headed for the hills. After a lovely breakfast with Shovel's Nan, although she might not have thought so as we took her to a largely vegan cafe, I'm pointing the finger squarely at Shovel who made that decision, sorry Barbara, we kept to the Motorways cruising into the Gold Coast Hinterland. The drive was 'hustle' free and our caravan park although again predominately permanents couldn't be nicer. We feel much more relaxed here and the mountain scenery is the perfect setting for this peaceful park.
On one of our days in Ipswich we thought we would get some city exposure in and take a drive into Brisbane, the ‘River City’. Queensland’s capital city was named after the Brisbane River it was built around, which was named after a Scotsman Sir Thomas Brisbane Governor of New South Wales 1821-1825. The area was a prime location for Sydney’s Colony of secondary offenders, which formed a penal settlement in 1824. Today ‘Bris-Vegas’ has a population of 2.4 million; remains of its early 1800’s architecture are still around. The city is reputable for it’s unique ‘Queenslander’ style architecture which is present in a lot of the earlier original suburbs closer to the CBD. Our drive into Brisbane was a bit of a culture shock, piled up peak hour traffic and navigating through unknown streets with an uncertain destination reminded us of what we’ve been missing out on for two years. We arrived happily at the car park and were excited to put our best shoes on and explore the urban delights. The start of the day we went on a quest to find a Reuben Sandwich, a few Google bum steers finally got us in the right direction, leading us to a walk from Fortitude Valley over to South Brisbane. The South Brisbane area has changed dramatically over 10 years; more eateries, supermarkets and boutique shops have filled up Grey Street. We found our eating destination, Pourboy, not far from the South Bank train station, this place cured our hunger with a pretty decent sandwich. With some fuel back in the tank we caught the train down the road to browse through the Gallery of Modern Art. The GOMA is the largest gallery of contemporary and modern art in Australia, it was filled with many displays of cinema, photographic and painted forms of arts. It was a nice surprise to see a display of Torres Strait Island Art, easily assumed to be similar to Aboriginal art, it is a completely different form of artwork and unique to the remote island life that is embraced there. Gumby visited Horn and Moa Islands and a Torres Strait Island Museum back in 2016. After getting our fix of art, we took the train back to Fortitude Valley for something completely different, Mini Golf. The Valley is reputable for being a suburb of hard partying through the night and rancid odors of hangover in the day. During the day there is an old Church that opens at mid-day, that offers a blessing of pizza, rounds of mini golf and a jukebox loaded with rock and roll, it goes by the name of Holey Moley. We dropped in for a round of nine and putted our way around holes themed with Pac-man, The Simpsons and even through the legs of a donkey with Donald Trump on its backside. We ended our day with a KX Pilates session in a trendy suburb called Newstead, which had a lot more nicer feel (and smell) than its neighboring Valley suburb. Although classy, it still had a good vibe with people out exercising, clean streets and well-manicured apartment buildings. Gumby introduced me to the reformer pilates, I had a ball and she was lit up with excitement doing her first session in two years. Although a huge day trying to keep up with the pace of the city, we had a lot of fun in Brisbane. We were enriched with food, art and a diversity of atmosphere. The Pilates session was the perfect way to top off the day, we walked into the relaxing city night after the class feeling beyond fulfilled from today’s excitement.
|
The JourneyChoose Curiosity The Catalogue
November 2023
The Tags
All
|