Mackay and Eungella National Park
We spent 2 days in Mackay. The most culturally exciting thing that Mackay has to offer is that some famous opera singer (name already forgotten) spent 1 whole year here before deciding she didn’t like the climate and moving back south. One year! And you get to walk around the house that she lived in the that whole year…exciting stuff…
Thankfully for any non Australian old school opera fans there is also Eungella National Park nearby. Walking through this rainforest was a great experience, especially as we got to go platypus watching at the end! To be fair, Mackay is also a sugar growing region, and driving through field upon field of cane is a very relaxing experience, and the little railway lines and massive processing plants make for interesting distractions.
Overall 2 days were more than enough for Mackay so we took an 11 hour bus ride up to Mission Beach.
Thats a bit unfair on mackay,
the city has plenty of great beaches and lies only a short boat trip from the Barrier reef.
There is amazing seafood to be had in & around Mackay as the fishing just off the coast is fantastic.
Further – with Airlie Beach & the Whitsundays only just over an hour away, Mackay is the perfect landing spot before heading out to the Islands.
You abviously are not an outdoorsy type of person?
Hi Simon,
thanks for the comment!
I wasn’t intentionally having a go at Mackay (we were only there for 1 day and spent most of it at the national park), I was just having a go at the bizarre tourist attraction of the opera singers house!
For a traveller relying on public transport the beaches nearby are not very handy and we preferred to see the great barrier reef from Agnes Water (Lady Musgrave Island).
For me Mackay was a fairly “average” town… nothing too exciting. But had more atmosphere than either Rockhampton or Bundaberg!!