Bundaberg, Qld

Bundy is one of those must-see cities. The main, intriguingly named Bourbong Street is wide with sculptures decorating the roundabouts.

Situated on the Burnett River it is the home of Australia’s favourite spirit, Bundaberg Rum. The rum distillery is conveniently located beside the sugar refinery and on the rum tour you will be surrounded by the smell of the sugar as it is processed. The distillery has masses of molasses to also delight the senses. This tour is not to be missed and ends with a tasting of their rums and moreish liqueurs and the chance to purchase some to take home. I’ll let you in on a secret here, Woody always makes sure that we have a bottle of Bundaberg coffee and chocolate flavoured Royal Liqueur on the caravan for those relaxed evenings. Considering that he buys 3 bottles at a time, we must have a lot of relaxed evenings.

All that rum tasting is enough to make anyone hungry. Grunske’s seafood café and fish market overlooks the river and is a pleasant spot to enjoy the freshest of local produce.

Bundaberg was the home of pioneering aviator Bert Hinkler. As a young lad he built gliders and flew them over Mon Repos beach. Among a string of aviation achievements, in 1928 he was the first to fly solo from England to Australia. Check out the Hinkler Hall of Aviation and his relocated English home in the Botanic Gardens.

Architecture, along with Maryborough, Bundy has a fabulous collection of ‘Old Queenslanders’. It seems that no two of these houses are ever the same, generations of owners have left their mark. Some have been jacked up higher, to escape floods. Some have been moved often hundreds of kilometres. Fretwork, lattice, casement windows, each with a certain uniqueness.