Mike Yardley: Road-tripping Townsville to Yeppoon

After savouring the Pacific Coast Way’s succulent and scenic delights in North Queensland, I pointed the car south for the 700km ride from Townsville to Yeppoon. The drive time, from point to point, clocks in around 8-9 hours, so you will certainly be keen to slice and dice the trip over several days. Truth be told, there are substantial chunks of the drive that are quite mundane, devoid of the lush tropical scenery that is laid on thick up north. Instead, drier, flatter, dustier farmland dominates the landscape, as your purr along the highway. Keep an eye out for some snug country pubs like Leap Hotel for some local hospitality. 

Two hours south of Townsville, hop off the highway for coastal splendour galore at Bowen. You’ve entered the Whitsundays region and Bowen is beloved for its award-winning beaches and secret coves, caressed by turquoise seas. If you have a fetish for ticking off Queensland’s Big Things, Bowen is also home to the Big Mango artwork – not to be confused with Frosty Mango and Mango Man, just north of Townsville. There’s no stopping mango mania in this hood.  For a hike to remember, definitely make a beeline to the drop-dead-gorgeousness of Horseshoe Bay and strike out on the Rotary Lookout track, which serves up the most sublime panoramic vantage point of the Whitsunday Islands and Horseshoe Bay.  

The Big Mango in Bowen. Photo / Mike Yardley 

Just down the road is Airlie Beach, which is a convenient hopping-off point if you want to treat yourself to some island time in the Whitsundays. I luxuriated in Hamilton Island’s seductive embrace last year, which makes for a sensationally good island sojourn. Two hours further down the Pacific Coast Way brings you to the Mackay region. I opted to go wild, staying overnight in the Cape Hillsborough National Park. This ruggedly beautiful park is a striking spot of beach and bush beauty, laced in wonderful walking tracks. Enrobed in a coastal forest of towering eucalypts and cool melaleucas, accommodation options cater to all budgets, but I stayed in a beachside deluxe studio within Cape Hillsborough Nature Tourist Park. Wildly popular with families, I was lulled to sleep by the roar of the ocean, with the forest spilling out onto Casuarina Beach just metres from my door.  

Before hitting the hay, I feasted on takeaway calamari and chips from the tourist park shop – although I ended up feeding most of the fries to the insistent kookaburras perched on my deck. But the biggest reason to spend a night here is for the sunrise wildlife show. Every morning at sun up, a huge mob of eastern grey kangaroos and agile wallabies bound down from the bush and onto the beach for their catch-of-the-day breakfast. They will hop around noshing on the mangrove seed pods and fresh seaweed, washed up overnight. But they are incredibly skittish and will only linger for about 20 minutes before bounding off back into the bush. National Park rangers arrive every morning in the dark to enforce crowd control and you’ll be staggered just how big these crowds can swell. It’s a novel experience.  

Roos on the beach at Cape Hillsborough. Photo / Klook

South of Cape Hillsborough, I called into the city of Mackay, for another dip with Art Deco architecture. Like North Queensland’s Innisfail, a major cyclone devastated the city centre a century ago, and many Mackay buildings were rebuilt in Art Deco style, brimming with symmetrical designs, vertical fins and chevrons. The sugar boom in the 1930s further fuelled the Art Deco building love affair. My favourite specimen is the Australian Hotel, which was built to resemble an Art Deco ocean liner, moving through the water.   

Speaking of sugar, the Mackay region is Australia’s sugar capital producing more than a third of the nation’s sugarcane crop. Look out for those cane trains! Just out of the city, I called into Sarina, home to the Sarina Sugar Shed.  Housed alongside the town’s enormous sugar mill, Sarina Sugar Shed is a miniature version of the operational sugar mill, open for guided tours of how sugar cane is processed – and the whole journey from plantation to plate. They demonstrate the process of taking the raw sugar cane plant and turning it into both crystallised sugar ready for refining and ethanol for alcohol production.  

Sarina Sugar Shed goodies. Photo / Mike Yardley 

Immediately on arrival it was the wafting scent of sweetness that permeates the air – the natural fragrance of sugar cane.  And no trip to a sugar shed would be complete without sampling some finished products, including freshly crushed sugarcane juice. The shed doubles as a showcase of their on-site handcrafted gourmet goodies, including liqueurs, chutneys and sauces. They’ve even got their own on-site rum distillery. It makes for a great little layover. 

I fuelled up with plenty of confectionary, ahead of my final three-hour drive from Sarina to Yeppoon. Fringed by the Southern Great Barrier Reef, Yeppoon is perched in the heart of the Capricorn Coast, taking its name from the Tropic of Capricorn and sharing the same latitude as Rio de Janeiro and Mauritius. As a first timer to this instantly agreeable seaside town, Yeppoon soon emerged as one of my favourite destinations along the Pacific Coast Way.  There’s an easy-going, appealing spirit to Yeppoon and its embracing locals.  

Foreshore delights in Yeppoon. Photo / Mike Yardley 

Nestled within a system of 13 golden beaches strung along the Capricorn Coast, you certainly won’t be competing for towel space in Yeppoon. I stayed at Oshen Holiday Apartments, hugging the cliffs, with dreamy views across the coastline with crimson sunsets to cap off the day. Yeppoon Main Beach is fully patrolled and the foreshore along Anzac Parade brims with recreational amenities, beach-chic boutiques and hospo temptations. Dinner? Go to VUE Wine Bar & Restaurant. The duck spring rolls with plum sauce is divine, as is their wealth of local seafood dishes. Feel like a cheeky pizza? The prawns and chilli pizza is particularly good. The crown in the jewel is the Yeppoon Lagoon. Kath and Kim would enjoy saying that name! This enormous infinity edge lagoon-style pool is free to use, year-round, fully patrolled by lifeguards. It’s the most spectacular facility, jutting into the foreshore, with open views of the Keppel Islands.

Oshen Apartments accommodation in Yeppoon. Photo / Mike Yardley 

Just around the corner, take a jaunt to Cooee Bay. It’s greatest claim to fame is the annual “Cooee” championship, which sees contestants open their vocal cords at the summit of the hill at Wreck Point. It’s held every August to find the longest, loudest “Cooee.” As you do. The Keppel Bay waters gently lap the sand of Yeppoon Main Beach and it’s an easy 30-minute ferry ride away to the fringing coral reefs of Great Keppel Island. Yeppoon is an enchanting stepping-stone to the Southern Great Barrier Reef. Before boarding a ferry at Keppel Marina, treat yourself to a cranking breakfast at The Waterline, a gorgeous al fresco setting overlooking Rosslyn Bay.  

Escape the everyday on the Pacific Coast Way, flanked by the rainforest and the reef - a one million year old garden and the world’s largest pool. www.queensland.com 

Mike Yardley is Newstalk ZB’s resident traveller and can be heard every week on Saturday Mornings with Jack Tame.