I would like to extend my condolences and sympathy to all those people who have lost loved ones in the horrible Victorian Bushfires that have claimed over 130 lives.
If you want to help people who have lost their homes, please visit the Red Cross Victorian Bushfure Appeal 2009 web site to donate money online. To keep up to date with the fires, the ABC’s Bushfire Event section is a good resource.
I’ve attached a live map showing where the fires are their current status:
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.
Yesterday on the first day of this new year 2009, there was a fatal car crash just up the road from our place. The only person in the car, an 82 year old man, was killed when his car swerved off the road (somewhere between Browns Lane and Cooberrie Park) and travelled around 90 metres before smashing into a tree. Just after the time of the crash around 2:30pm, we saw two ambulances racing up the road in that direction.
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.
Well if you haven’t noticed YeppoonInfo.com now has a brand new design & website, which I think is much better than the old one. The new design has a much more “traditional” look and feel, compared to the very ordinary blog style design that the previous website had. Before I go any further, please have a look at the screenshot below and visit the site!
This new site includes a totally different structure, for example along the top just above the random header image display (which showcases panoramas around the Yeppoon region), there is a places menu listing all the localities in this area. Above that menu are the resource links, which currently include the Yeppoon Events, Yeppoon Photo Panoramas and Yeppoon Accommodation pages. Later on as soon as I can code it, I hope to add a Yeppoon News page which people can subscribe to via email or RSS.
If you have any other suggestions of what to add or what I can change, please don’t hesitate to contact me!
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.
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