Maryborough and Fraser Island

Jerome writes:

We left Airlie Beach, and travelled for two days, until we reached Maryborough last Wednesday. Maryborough is famous because it was the birth place of P.L. Travers, the author of the book Mary Poppins. We went to the street markets of Thursday and we also went for a ride on another famous icon in Maryborough, the Mary Ann steam train. We also drove pass the large factory were the Perth passenger trains are manufactured, I was so excited I nearly jumped out the window of the car! While we were in Maryborough, we took a drive to the town of Hervey Bay. We went to a great water park there as well, even though it was cold! We drove around to Rainbow Beach, where we left the caravan in storage at the caravan park and we took our car over to Fraser Island on Saturday. We all marvelled at the flat, smooth beach that you could drive on. Mum said it was like driving on the Mitchell Freeway!

We went to the old logging settlement called the Central Station. To get there, we had to navigate our way through the thick forest on a rough sand track. We went for a board walk at Central Station and we were all amazed at the straightness of some of the trees. From there we drove up to the famous Eli Creek and we went for a stroll along the board walk. We then went to the old Maheno shipwreck. The ship used to run between Melbourne and Tasmania, then it was converted to a hospital ship during World War 1. It was turned back to a passenger ship, until it was finally sold for scrap to Japan in 1935. On the tow up to Japan, it hit a Cyclone and the tow rope to the Maheno broke. It was then washed up on Fraser Island and has sat there ever since, rusting away It was so rusted and falling apart, that it was hard to imagine that it was a grand ship 100 odd years ago!

We spent Saturday night in a cabin, which everyone thoroughly enjoyed! We left the cabin mid-morning on Sunday and we went down to Eli Creek with our inflatable tube. One by one, we each got to float down the freshwater creek, which was so much fun. But, all fun was forgotten, when Josie, Molly and I were playing some distance from Mm and Dad. We were happily playing in the creek, when suddenly a Dingo shoots our from the bush. We panicked and ran and the Dingo started to run after us, not for fun either. Luckily, Dad angrily shooed it away, but we were all quite shaken. Apparently, when being threatened by a Dingo, the best thing to do, is to stand still and calmly walk away. We failed that test! God sure was watching over us and we thank Him for that.

We then went off to Lake Barrieen for lunch and then we drove back, through the forest and along the beach and back to the car barge, which took us back to the mainland. We were planning to stay the night at a free camp spot, but because our electric brakes weren't working for some reason we stayed in the caravan park for the night. All was good in the morning wo we took off and are now in Caboolture, we will go to Australia Zoo tomorrow and we are very excited about that.

PS We did have fun following in Colin's footsteps at Fraser Island! Floating down Eli Creek, visiting the Maheno, and singing the songs as we went! Jerome did some good research and found a picture of the original Maheno, just as Colin says in his song - "It's all gonna fade, it's all gonna rust, it's all gonna turn to dust, the stuff of this world gonna get trashed, only the things of the Lord will last."