March 12, 2009

Storm surge and wind gusts expected for Capricorn Coast region

The Bureau of Meteorology has announced that residents of the Capricorn Coast may experience
dangerous surf conditions, tidal storm surges and damaging wind gusts over the next 24 hour period.

The announcement was made as ex-Tropical Cyclone Hamish (located 270km northeast of
Gladstone) continues to track northwest at 20 kilometres per hour.

Rockhampton Regional Council will continue to monitor the system and does not wish to alarm
residents, but rather notify them to prepare their homes for severe wet weather activity.

Should residents require assistance in regard to storm damage or flooding they are requested to call
the State Emergency Services (SES) Call Centre on 132 500.

We ask that residents do not call the local offices of the SES as they have limited phone lines, and the
volunteers will be working to capacity providing assistance to the community as assigned to them by
the SES State Call Centre.

Requests for storm damage assistance such as for sandbags or tarps etc. should be directed to the
SES, not Council, on 132 500.

Please ensure your homes are made storm safe by clearing any objects and items that may become
airborne in a storm.

Take extreme caution around fallen trees or limbs as they may be concealing live power lines.

- ENDS –

We went the Tanby Road way, as the Scenic Route is too long. On the way to Emu Park we detoured down a road that looked interesting. Suddenly we rounded a corner and looked down on the a big beach (bigger than Yeppoon Main Beach, see photo below) with nobody on it! It was fairly amazing, because the beach is so big yet very tucked away. I looked at all the houses as we drove back up, and it seemed as if a 1/3 of them had boats. One even had a tractor in their front yard!

Continuing on our way, we arrived at Emu Park where we chose Bell Park to have lunch at. While mum was serving, I wandered around and took the photos of the trees that you can if you read on.

After lunch (which was very nice) I looked around down on the ground and saw the bits of rubbish below. I decided that with a bit of artificial contrast added later, they would make nice pictures. Tell me if if I was right by leaving a comment.

We then went over to the beach where the sand was so hot that if I didn’t have shoes on my feet would have been burnt! There was an old pipe and jetty on the beach, and they are perfect for photographing. I took a photo too (surprise, surprise!).

As the beach was proving to be a bit too hot, so we walked up the hill to see the singing ship. For those who don’t know what the singing ship is, I have written the explanation that follows:
The singing ship is a monument, built to honour Captain James Cook who discovered the Keppel Bay area when he was exploring the East Australian Coast. The ship is called the singing ship because of the sounds it makes when the wind blows. To make these sounds, lots of pipes that vary in thickness have been been attached to the supporting pole. To illustrate this, I took some photos of the singing ship that can be seen below. The photos have been modified.

Once the singing ship had been admired enough, we walked down the road towards the surf lifesaving club. About halfway there, someone saw a person with a parachute coming down to land on the beach. We ran the rest of the way, but we still missed the landing. Below is a photo of the parachutist coming in to land. On that day alone we saw about 4 parachutists floating down from the clouds!

And that just about concludes our day at Emu Park. We also went to look at some of the new developments, such as Seaspray, but they weren’t very interesting. I was, however, amazed at the size of the Seaspray sales office.