Yeppoon Australia Day 2010 Fireworks Display

There was a great turnout tonight for the 2010 Australia Day fireworks show on Yeppoon main beach. Every year, Ergon Energy sponsors the fireworks, which generally start at around 7:45pm and last for 10-15 minutes.

On past Australia Days the fireworks have been launched from a boat anchored just off the main beach, but this year all the action took place at the northern end of Main Beach (near the Surf Lifesaver building). Event organisers and SES personnel made sure the crowd stayed well back from the launch trailer.

Below are some additional pictures of the fireworks display. I took almost a hundred photos, but the lack of a tripod meant that only 20-30% turned out ok.

As of the latest BOM Tracking Map, ex-Tropical Cyclone Hamish has been downgraded to a Tropical Low. Currently the low is moving up the coast again (almost doubling back on its tracks) in a north west direction. Dangerous weather is expected for the Capricorn Coast (RRC Media Release).

Tropical Cyclone Hamish from bom.gov.au.
View a timelapse animation of Cyclone Hamish.

The BOM has stopped issuing track maps.

Rising Creeks by Jylan Wynne

From 9am on Tuesday morning to 9am on Wednesday morning, Yeppoon and surrounding districts had over 80.6mm, or 3.1 inches of rain. This is enough to flush out all the creeks and leave a lot of water lying around on the ground, but so far there has been no major flooding like in February 2008.

The Capricornia district forecast from the Bureau of Meteorology has this to say about Wednesday and the days ahead:

CAPRICORNIA DISTRICT

Outlook for Wednseday: Rain areas. Isolated thunderstorms. Moderate to heavy falls possible. Moderate
NW to NE winds, shifting W to SW inland during the day.

Outlook for Thursday: Scattered coastal showers, more isolated inland.

Outlook for Friday: Scattered coastal showers, isolated inland. Late rain.

YeppoonInfo.com will keep you updated on any weather developments in the area.

Yeppoon Rydges Wetlands by Ben Noy

Just recently I had a commenter on my post about the Trespassers Prosecuted signs that Rydges had put up on their beach access. He was asking whether I knew anything about the recent signs that Rydges Resort has been putting up around the wetlands they own behind the resort. I had noticed these signs myself on a recent drive up to Kellie’s Landing, which is a gazetted road (open to the public). The only other gazetted road in the wetlands goes up Fisherman’s Creek. All the other wetlands accesses have been closed off.

Anyway, to find out what the story behind the closure is, I contacted Rydges Capricorn Resort through their contact form last night. Today after I got back from picking Lychees at the farm up the road, I had a detailed reply from the Iwasaki Sangyo Company (owners of the Rydges resort chain). I’ve included it below:

Good Morning Jylan

I am more than happy to explain the situation regarding the closure of our Wetlands area. You may not be aware that Iwasaki Sangyo (Aust.) Pty. Ltd., are the owners of the Wetlands area and have been the owners and protectors since its purchase back in the late 1970’s. For the last 38 years, the local community and visitors have been welcome to have access to this wonderful nature reserve. It is sad to say that in more recent years the problems with irresponsible people are becoming more numerous. The vandalism and damage being done consists of pig hunters accessing our property, cutting fences, enabling our cattle access to the main road, which in turn is causing car accidents through no fault of our own, we have dead and injured cattle, we have young people bringing in their vehicles to the wet areas for the purpose of mud bashing which is having serious consequences to the vulnerable areas. Also we have a problem with arson, we are accused of lighting these fires and these fires are destroying the pristine area, the wattle bush love fires and are increasing in numbers instead of allowing the natural habitat to exist. These incidents are becoming so regular that the police and the stock squad have advised us that if we are serious about fixing the problem we would have no option but to start prosecuting the trespassers’. To do this we need to make it clear that this is private property so the trespassers’ cannot plead ignorance. It is sad to think that it has come to this and would have preferred another option, maybe in the future when the irresponsible members of the community have been educated on how valuable this area is, we may be able to reopen this area. Fishing Creek road is still open to the public as it is a Gazetted road. We are also owners of an area of land between Yeppoon and Bangalee, because this area is so close to town it is now being used as a local dumping ground, we have had to resort to using cameras throughout these areas in the hope of stopping these few people who have spoilt it for everyone else and we hope that the concerned responsible people of the area will support us in what we are trying to achieve so the community can once again enjoy this area.

I hope this answers your questions for you, if you do need any further information please feel free to contact me.

Yours faithfully

Mr. Takeshi (Ted) Mitani

Director

Iwasaki Sangyo Co (Aust) Pty Ltd.

I think this was a very good explanation of the problems they faced, I can understand why they would want to keep people out now. It’s just a pity that some people ruin it for others by lighting fires, cutting fences and the like.

This morning I was looking over the local news for the Yeppoon area and saw this Morning Bulletin article about it.

The man has been the 3rd person to die in the Central Queensland area in the New Year period.

Looking out over the Five Rocks Headland & Beach

Recently my family and I did a drive up to the Byfield National Park area, which is located around Five Rocks, Stockyard Point, and Nine Mile Beach. Access is 4WD only, so we took along our new Nissan Patrol. This was the first time we’d ever done sand driving, or proper four wheel driving for that matter, so it was exciting to be testing out the 4WD.

Byfield National Park covers an area of around 15,000 hectares or 37,000 acres, so it’s a huge, fairly unspoilt area. Notable features include the huge sand dunes in the Nine Mile Beach area. For more information about camping spots and facilities in the area, please visit this page on the EPA’s website.

Most people visit the Five Rocks area to four wheel drive, fish, camp or explore. Some do a combination of all these things. One good piece of advice for anyone wishing to go and visit this area is to bring someone in separate vehicle along, as there are plenty of potential for getting bogged in soft sand and the like. Anyway, below are some photos of our day trip up there:

Our convoy on the road to Five Rocks, as you can see the whole track there is sand.

Driving down the hill to the Stockyard Point Lookout. From here you can look north to the Five Rocks Headland or south over Nine Miles Beach.

Our parked cars at the Stockyard Point lookout.

The view to the Five Rocks Headland from Stockyard Point.

Looking down to the start of Nine Mile Beach, jutting up to Stockyard Point.

I took this picture from the top of a small hill, overlooking the end of Nine Mile Beach. It was a beautiful place for swimming.

The Orange Bowl. This gigantic pile of orange sand is a great place to rev it up and spin some wheels, but rangers are handing out spot fines for anyone driving in the bowl itself.

Last night we went to one of the performances in the Yeppoon Town Hall. Entry to the performance was totally free, unlike last year when it was $2. First off, they had a band of string musicians from 7:30PM to 8PM, when the main show started. The main show had lots of dancing, with a live band providing music for some of the acts. The show finished at 9:30PM, so in all there was 2 hours of performing.

There was a mixture of music and performances, ranging from traditional Singaporean music to 1970′s stuff.

One of my favourite acts was this man who was able to copy instruments like the drums and didgeridoo using only his voice. This sport is called beatboxing. In the video I’ve included below, you’ll be amazed at what he can do. There was no accompanying music however.

If you missed the performance at the Yeppoon Town Hall, fear not, there are quite a few more performances coming up this month around Rockhampton. See http://www.venuesandevents.com.au/whatsonNOV.html#MDC.

I managed to take lots of video of the event (1.2GB in all), so I’ve embedded some Youtube videos and photos below. The photos aren’t too good because of the low light. Remember that you can watch the high quality version of the videos by going to the YeppoonInfo Youtube account and selecting the video, then clicking the “high quality” link just underneath it. There are also some videos on that account that I haven’t embedded on this post.

Photo #1 from one of the traditional dances

Photo #2 from one of the traditional dances

Photo #3 from one of the traditional dances

The beatboxing guy who can imitate the didgeridoo and drums with his voice. No extra music added!

A Singaporean traditional song (I think).

One of the very last performances by the Music & Drama company. Costumes were from a ’70s themed part.

The Last act of the night

The owner then said that he had something very special to show us, something that most people will never see in their lifetimes. He then took us to a cage with two young Cassowary chicks inside. More information on Cassowarys can be found at the Queensland Government’s Enviromental Protection Agency website, as well as Wikipedia.

Cooberrie Park currently has more protected Cassowarys in captivity than any other park or zoo (besides Australia Zoo, which has 5 as well) in Australia. They currently have 3 adults and 2 chicks.

Below are the photos. Sorry for the blurry black lines on the pictures, they’re a result of the wire getting in the way.

The top part of the Cassowary Chick. The head looks a bit like a chook’s head but the body shape and colour is totally different.

A full view of the Cassowary. Notice the very distintive black markings running along the body.

The two chicks together in a corner.

Another view of the Cassowary chick.

Stony Creek is a large camping and picnic area, with the main feature being, of course, the creek that divided those two areas. To cross there is a concrete causeway which is covered by about 10cm of water in normal flow. After heavy rain the picnic area is sometimes cut off because the causeway is too deeply covered.

Stony Creek has many important facilities such as toilets, free gas barbeques, picnic tables, taps, and bushwalks. Because the Stony Creek area is protected, no domestic animals such as dogs or cats are allowed. There is one marked bushwalking track, which winds along beside the creek for kilometres. The main circuit is only about 1km long however.

Camping can be booked through the EPA website.

Below I’ve put in some photos of Stony Creek from the day:

The Stony Creek crossing, looking towards the entrance and camping area.

The Stony Creek swimming area. This is the main swimming area, looking from the road crossing.

Looking in the other direction from the above photo, Stony Creek merrily continuing on its way downstream.

This view shows the platform on the picnic side of Stony. This is where most people jump in the creek from. The drain in the middle helps keep the water level over the crossing down.

Water spilling over the other side of the road crossing.

Looking over the road crossing towards the day use area of Stony Creek.

A small bridge on the main walking track. The blurred corners are an added effect.

One of the many lovely plants growing along the walking track.

Rows of pine trees on either side of the road on the way out from Stony Creek. Again, I’ve added the blurred corners.

Last but not least, above are the two panoramas that I made from photos taken at Stony Creek. Click on the thumbnail images to see the full-size versions.

View of Stony Creek Crossing, Byfield, #1. Click photo for larger view.

View of Stony Creek Crossing, Byfield, #2. Click photo for larger view.