In the 1935 opera Porgy and Bess the rather shady character Sportin’ Life sang a song that created some controversy.  It suggested that the things that the preacher is liable to teach ya ain’t necessarily so … but we all know for sure that

• Jonah, he lived in de whale, for he made his home in dat fish’s abdomen … yes, Jonah he lived in de whale!

Sportin’ Life might have been right about dat but I didn’t spot poor old Jonah during my recent whale watching journey at Hervey Bay, about 300 km north of Brisbane.

Heading north I stopped for a quick meal in the pretty little town of Gympie (population about 36,000) with its tree-lined Duke Street, and its prominent 1901 courthouse with a huge royal coat of arms, perched high on a hill overlooking the town.  Gympie was built on the riches of gold discovered in the area in the 1860s and is also the home to the wonderful Mary Valley Rattler – a beautifully restored steam train that makes a three-hour journey through the pretty valley.

Where was I …?  Oh yes:  about to zip through the village of Tiaro, a place known for two quite remarkable things:

• Its name
• Its shopping opportunities

I don’t think I have ever been to Tiaro before and have almost certainly never heard its name spoken.  (There are some things, Cynthia, one just does not mention in public!)  Before being properly educated, I supposed that the name was pronounced Tee Ah Roa … or perhaps even Tie Arrow.  Thanks to the good folks at the famous Tiaro Christmas Cottage (I told you there were exceptional shopping opportunities, Cynthia, but you wouldn’t listen to me!) I can now reveal that this place is called, for reasons unknown to man or beast (or Cynthia) “Tie Row”.

I had to stop, and I had to buy a Christmas decoration or two.  My sister-in-law Denise has collected scores of beautiful baubles from all over the place, and now she can say that the tree in all its Christmas glory is also linked to beautiful downtown Tiaro.

Maryborough

I had been told to visit a special place in Maryborough (just under 30,000 people). 

I strolled around the streets and saw tired old shops like Barber Al’s Gents Hairdressing (sic), and many shops that had simply closed down.  I asked Jan in the Visitors’ Information Centre if the town was slowly dying.

• Oh no!  It is actually growing!  People were moving away and then the floods two years ago damaged many buildings, but the pubs are now being renovated and the new Torbanlea facility will bring a lot of work and prosperity again.
• Torbanlea?
• Yes – this is a new railway manufacturing plant that will build almost seventy new trains ready for the Olympics

I have now found that preparatory work is advanced and that the project is valued at about seven billion Australian dollars.  Perhaps those old pubs will get a much-needed injection of hard-working navvies thirsty for a pint or two.

Trains are a pretty hum-drum form of transport compared to the mobility aid favoured by Maryborough’s most famous daughter – the umbrella.

Writer Helen Lyndon Goff was born here in 1899 but left Australia when she was just twenty-four.  She lived in various countries and died in the UK at the age of ninety-five.  In the meantime, however, she created a character much-loved by children all over the world:  Mary Poppins.

Maryborough has MP traffic lights (WALK when her umbrella is green and up, DON’T WALK when her umbrella is red and facing down), a bronze statue on the footpath outside the former bank building where her creator was born, an annual Mary Poppins Festival, a MP Museum and numerous shops selling Poppins paraphernalia.  I wonder if JK Rowling’s hometown of Yate, near Bristol in the UK, has a memorial to HER famous creation … Harry Potter …

• But wait!  There’s more!

Maryborough may have Mary Poppins mania, and it may have lots of pretty murals and the impressive World War I Gallipoli to Armistice Memorial in Queens Park.  The historic Mary Ann steam train potters through the park and there’s a whole fleet of new trains soon to emerge … but there is also a public lavatory worth a detour.

I am not usually the sort of person who will stroll into the women’s public dunny with a camera … but at Maryborough’s Cistern Chapel (Geddit?  Geddit?) it’s almost compulsory.  For those who want to live daringly, please visit www.cisternchapel.com. 

Local artists Akos Juhasz and Gary Madden led the way in the transformation of what was apparently a pretty dowdy space and it is now a place where one goes to be seen … rather than just goes.  A small tourist shop sells not only postcards of the artwork, but even small golden models of the solid gold lavatory (complete with opening lid) to be found.  I am sorry to say, however, that the small card accompanying these grotesqueries bears a quotation from a passer-by:

• I was so relieved to find the gold throne …

After all the excitement of Maryborough I was pleased there were only thirty kilometres to go before I could collapse into my apartment at the comfortable Shelly Bay Resort, sink into a soft leather chair and find a lavatory that was not painted in gaudy colours.  Gentle waves lapped the long sandy (and shelly) bays and beaches, while K’gari (formerly known as Fraser Island, the world’s largest sand island) protected the town from the more vigorous breakers of the Coral Sea.

Hervey Bay

A collection of interlocked villages strung along the coast – Pt Vernon, Scarness, Torquay, Urangan – Hervey Bay has a population of about 60,000, with 1.4 million more visitors during the whale season and at Christmas. 

A kilometre or so further inland are large shopping malls, schools and hospitals, churches and markets, but the coastal strip is dominated by trees and lawns down to the dunes, with no high-rise hotels or apartment buildings.  Indeed, for most of the way, the only people who have immediate beach access are those in tents or caravans perched at the top of the dunes.  These lucky people can stumble out of bed (or their sleeping bags) and roll down a gentle slope and be paddling in the clear waters before they are even really awake.

Bring on the superstars

The whole area is relaxing and pretty with kilometres of gentle water – ideal for families with young kids and for oldies who want to splish and splash without having to worry about being dumped by huge ocean breakers.

With lots of great restaurants and pubs and bars and water parks and adventure parks, there is a lot to do … but most people are there for the humpback whales who thrive in these calm waters for about half the year before retreating to the Antarctic to feed.

• I had only had one prior encounter with whales.

In the late 1950s I was just a small boy and my parents took me and my brothers – all part of a general education – to the Tangalooma Whaling Station on Moreton Island, just a few kilometres east from Brisbane. From 1950 – 1962 this place harpooned and slaughtered about 6300 humpback whales for their oil (margarine and cosmetics) , meat (pet food) and bones (fertiliser).

I recall vividly watching workers standing on these magnificent creatures and using wicked curved blades attached to long handles slicing huge slabs of blubber from the dead beasts. The smell of blubber being rendered in smoking vats was pungent and unforgettable. I am sure if I returned to Tangalooma (now a luxury holiday island retreat) I would still be able to smell it.

Whaling in Australia was banned in 1978 and world-wide in 1986. However Japan, Norway and Iceland have reportedly killed 40,000 whales since then, and despite the ban.

From July to November these days hundreds of whales can be spotted off the west coast of K’gari giving birth to their young, playing, relaxing … entertaining the tourists … and rejoicing in the fact that they can no longer be slaughtered.

I joined a Tasman Venture tour group aboard their comfortable twin-hull catamaran and after a pleasant afternoon tea on board we were nose-to-nose with our first beasts, some of which may have been up to twenty metres long and weighing in at a bit over thirty tonnes.  Impressive as these figures are, the humpback whale is only the fifth largest of the species after the Blue whale, the Finback whale, the Right whale and the Sperm whale.  The others indeed rightly earn their clichéd monikers of leviathans of the sea.

The excellent commentary provided details of the types of behaviour the whales were demonstrating – hanging vertically in the water with their tails poking up, lying on their sides and bashing the water with their pectoral fins: “pec slapping”.  We saw the big Mommas feeding their kids – calves – and the youngsters popping up for a breath of fresh air on the surface after sucking down 500 litres of milk.  But the most impressive moment is when the whale broaches (or breaches) the surface.

We were very fortunate to see two whales leaping out of the water like beautiful synchronised swimmers (but without the swimmers’ waterproof layers of makeup, nose clips and fixed smiles), jetting themselves ten or fifteen metres upwards until just their tails remained submerged.  We did not know if they were just popping up for a good look around, or if something had frightened them and they were taking off in a hurry …  Either way it was a spectacular if momentary experience and my reaction time was too slow to capture the moment on camera …

Our boat cruised back through the sunset to harbour and although we had been given cheese and crackers onboard, I went out for dinner at the excellent Banksia Restaurant … and ate fish ‘n’ chips.

• Sorry Big Momma!

As I left Hervey Bay a day or so later, I passed the impressive HBRG – Hervey Bay Regional Gallery – where Alan Peebles’ Bird Man exhibition was being featured.  The biennial, $25,000 acquisitive art prize Girra was due to open soon afterwards.  But this Fraser Coast visit was not about art – it was all about the whale.

Outside the gallery is Nala, the featured image (LEFT).  This is a huge 8.3 metre sculpture in stainless steel and ironbark wood by artists including Chris Calcutt, Ross Bradbury and Glen Waterman.  Nala is a female humpback whale first spotted in Hervey Bay waters in 1992 and a frequent visitor since.  The sculpture was erected in 2012.

A whale of a good time…

Sorry … I promised Cynthia that I would not use that phrase … but in a moment of weakness it slipped out.

I have never wanted to go giraffe spotting in Botswana or leopard hunting in Bengal or any of the myriad of animal-spotting activities offered around the world, but with these beautiful monsters almost literally landing at my feet so close to my land-locked Brisbane apartment … I could not resist.

There are many places along Australia’s eastern coastline where visitors can go whale watching – but, oh!  They would have to be pretty good to beat the experiences we all had aboard the Tasman Venture cruising the waters of Hervey Bay.

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Journey September 2023

Text and photographs © Christopher Hall September 2023

Location map from the Internet

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In my blogs I try to present a snapshot of the places I have discovered during a brief visit.   I am not trying to present a detailed picture of the whole city or the whole region or the whole country.

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If a man ascended into heaven and gazed upon the whole workings of the universe and the beauty of the stars, the marvellous sight would give him no joy if he had to keep it to himself. And yet, if only there had been someone to describe the spectacle to, it would have filled him with delight.

• Attributed to Marcus Tullius Cicero – On Friendship

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