SATURDAY – NOVEMEBR
16, 2013
BOTTOM LINE:
Tour Maryborough’s
historic district
Visit the Mary Poppins
Museum
Drive north to Bargara
on the ocean for a weeks stay
BACK STORY:
A Motel employee
opening a small door in the wall of our room and sliding in our complimentary
breakfast awaked us at 7:30am. Woo Who! We’ve
never seen such a thing…handy for the staff?
We hit the road early,
as I was excited to visit the historic area of the town. Leslie texted us a couple of days earlier to
say that she was able to attend the movie screening of Mr. Banks with Tom
Hanks. I hear it’s about Disney’s
efforts to get the rights to produce the movie, Mary Poppins. She said that some of the movie was filmed
somewhere in Australia. So, here we
were, staying in Maryborough, which we read is the exact town that the shooting
of Mr. Banks was done in and the town that the female author of Mary Poppins books,
grew up in!
 |
| Barb and Mary, "If you want this choice position" |
 |
| Author of Mary Poppins |
The historical district was delightful and we practically had the place to ourselves. The district is along the river, which provided ease of commerce. Unfortunately the area has been inundated with one flood after another including a bad one in January of this year.
 |
| Heritage Center |
 |
| Top white mark 1839, third white mark 2013! River in background thru trees (brown) |
One disturbing thing that we discovered was a newspaper article posted in the Customs House. The piece was in the mid 1800’s and about “Blackbirding” where unsuspecting south Pacific Islanders were lured or kidnapped and brought to Australia to be slaves in the sugar cane fields. Their lives were horrific with promises of being compensated and returned to their Islands after 3 years servitude. They were given little food and had to build their own huts to live in. At the end of three years they were put on ships and given less money than promised. The people were then thrown off of the ships and told to swim to their island…many of which were not close to their island of origin. It’s amazing how these stories of greed at the expense of trusting people repeats its self throughout history.
Our drive along the
coast to Hervey Bay was pleasant. We
stopped in the little coastal town to grab some fish and chips and view the
ocean. Most of the seafood cafes are
“take-away” with only a couple of tables outside for sitting. The place was packed so we knew it would be
good…and it was. To wash down the fresh
fish we ordered a milkshake. In
Australia you have a choice of a thick one, which has more ice cream and is
more expensive or the regular milkshake that has the full milkshake flavor but
is the consistency of a shake when it’s beginning to melt.
After lunch/dinner we
walked around a small farmers market/craft fair. I picked up a bag of four large mangos for
$10 to have for the week. On the
remainder of the drive into Bargara we stopped in Childers for a gourmet
macadamia ice cream at Mammino’s before reaching our destination.
We arrived to our timeshare
about 4:30. It is a small one bedroom with a tiny kitchen and living
space. There is AC, a pool, spa, BBQ,
laundry, a half tennis court and it’s clean.
Aside from that, there is no view from our room, so it’s a bit
claustrophobic. No worries, as we don’t
spend much time in our room anyway.
 |
| Front of Resort |
 |
| Back of resort facing east/ocean |
The remainder of our
evening was spent at the local IGA grocery store, buying supplies for cheaper,
healthier meals and watching Argo.
No comments:
Post a Comment