August 28 Mackay

Today we decided to explore the area to the south of Mackay. Apart from the fact that there was more sugar cane we were amazed by what we found at the Dalrymple Bay Coal Loader. It’s the largest coal-loader in the southern hemisphere and is just huge although it’s difficult for the photos to do it justice. A few numbers might help!

In the photo, the distance to the top of the “T” section of the loader is 3.8 km while the top of the “T” is 1.2 km in length. The trains which bring the coal to the stockpile are 2 km in length and hauled by up to 5 engines. A train can be unloaded in 50 minutes and the facility can handle 25 trains a day.

Dalrymple Bay has occasionally been in the news for the waiting time ships experience. I don’t know what it is at the moment but mum said she could count 31 ships!

We had lunch at Sarina Beach – a nice, little seaside village which looks like time has passed it by. The beach is a site for turtle egg-laying and hatching – October to March, and has specially designed street lighting so that the turtles are not disturbed. Mum and I both agreed that we’d love to be here when the hatchlings are making their way to the sea.

We’d also love to be here when the mangoes are ripe. I imagine mangoes would be as cheap as chips as there are mango trees everywhere. Just about every farm, house, whatever, has a number of them and quite frequently they’re just growing along the roadside.