Proserpine, to the south-west of Hydeaway Bay is a
great place to make a break if you are journeying
down the Queensland coast. Restaurants, Cafes,
Coffee shops and Food Outlets are a plenty, and
nearby is Lake Proserpine and the Peter Faust Dam,
home to some of the biggest barramundi you can
catch.
Proserpine was established around 1890 just after
the sugar mill was constructed and it experienced
high growth in the early 1900s as the local sugar industry grew and began exporting raw sugar via the
Proserpine Landing where it was sent to refineries.
The township is floated by the Proserpine Co-operative Sugar Mill (Now Wilmar Sugar Mill), which processes the region’s 2,000,000+ tons of sugar cane
each year for export.
Travelling by car through the Whitsundays wouldn’t
be complete without venturing to Airlie Beach. The
town is world-renowned as a party stop, and with
its well-presented streetscape, and tourist driven
economy, it’s a must visit place. Not only is it party
central of the Whitsundays, it’s also the best access
point for the main tourist islands like South Molle,
Hamilton, Hook and Whitsunday Islands. If you’re
planning on utilising some of the great available
tours on your journey, Airlie Beach is the best spot to
take them. Hiking, jet skiing, kayaking, ocean rafting and parasailing are all available from the one
place.
Travelling out from Airlie Beach, you will benefit from
visiting a little place called Conway Beach. Conway Beach is located 30 minutes from Airlie Beach,
and is a popular spot for fishing and wind-powered
sports such as kite surfing and land kiting. The two
kilometre sandy stretch of Conway Beach is positioned at the mouth of the Proserpine River, and is
an excellent location for catching mud crabs, barramundi, king and blue salmon, grunter, whiting,
flathead and bream.
Heading south towards Mackay there are a number of stop in towns that pay to visit, purely for the
sake of their quaint beauty. Midge Point, St Helen’s
Beach, Ball Bay, Cape Hillsborough National Park
and Shoal Point are all noteworthy places to visit.
As you head into Mackay, you will notice art
deco buildings, charming cafes and palm-tree
lined streets that make the city quite unique. The
Botanical Gardens, the Bluewater Trail and manmade Bluewater Lagoon are worth every minute
you spend there. There are breweries, art galleries,
museums, water-skiing and jet-skiing activities, and
like every other place in the Whitsundays, there
are pristine beaches.
Driving south from Mackay offers you options of a
visit to the Hay Point Dalrymple Bay Coal Terminal,
to see some of the biggest ships you will ever lay
eyes on, shipping coal for export.
Further south lies the quaint sugar town of Sarina,
which is located on Plane Creek, which flows into
the Coral Sea, but most of the urban development
is on the northern side of the creek, including the
Sarina Sugar Mill In Sarina, the most memorable
tourist attraction would have to be a large cane
toad statue, called Buffy, that is situated in the
town centre in honour of Sarina’s cane farming
history.