Lazy Days at Burnett Heads

8th January – 1st February, 2021

Having made an escape from the Locky D in Brisbane we arrived at Burnett Heads in the early evening and prepared to hunker down for the next 3 days. Our main activity was walking along the river from the marina to the heads; lots of stingrays and dolphins. One day our highlight was trying out “Click and Collect” for our provisions. John and I were very excited. We also spent a few days wrestling with my new phone and surface pro uploading new programs. That was really frustrating.

Once we were able to get out and about John and I started looking a real estate in the area. We had done this up and done the coast the year before. Surprisingly for me, Bargara was meeting all our criteria. John and I spent a lot of time driving around checking out places I had known growing up in Bundaberg and seeing all the changes since I left some 40 years ago. We spoke to some real estate companies and put some money aside to be ready for a purchase if something suitable was to eventuate. That was an effort. We needed to get the Bargara police to open the locked station to certify some documents.

Apart from having my youngest sister, Jenny, still living in the area, a good Alice Springs friend also lives here. We met up with Fiona and her son Leo for breakfast in town at Oodies. Another friend Fleur and

her fellow Matt were in town for a family matter. So wonderful to see them. The food was good too. Still many people to find and catch up with.

The Bundaberg Port Marina sits a little way up from the Burnett River heads. It’s a well organised complex with, amongst other features, a great restaurant Baltimores, that we’ve eaten at a few times. The marina also has a Friday BBQ for yachties. They supply the meat and everyone brings salads to share. It was great to talk to people about what they had done and their sailing plans. Great learning for us. Some local liveaboards bought their guitars and played music with a religious flavour. Time for us to leave.

The finger wharf we on is directly across from a fishing facility. It works at all day of the day or night depending on when the catch

comes in. We’ve really come to appreciate the cost of prawns watching the trawler guys work. At the end of our wharf, more bizarrely, was a pirate ship. Notorious, tours Australia and takes paying customers onboard to have a look. The boat and the people running the operation looked quite dodgy.

Jenny had a sleep over on our boat and we tried out the Lighthouse pub at Burnett Heads. Food was good pub grub but most exciting for us was the free bus service to and from the marina. It’s 2 ½ km which is a reasonable walk however not good during a humid summer evening. I think we were the driver’s only customer as he sat watching us all evening until we finished.

Finally, the motor arrived but Yamaha informed us they could not replace it without taking the boat out of the water. This was very

upsetting but what can you do? We arranged a haul out the following morning. The objective is to get the boat in a position over 2 large slings held within the boat travel lifter. These will be raised so the bottom of the boat is above the shore, then the lifter will move forward bringing the boat out of the water and into the position on land where the work will be done.

It was another hot and humid day. A padded boat, that looked like a Mad Max vehicle of the sea, lashed onto our boat and butted us into place against a fairly strong tidal movement. We were out by 9 am. The guys cleaned the bottom of the boat, Yamaha replaced the motor and we were out by 12 md with an operating motor. Unreal.

John and I were a little unprepared for the boat to actually work and had to quickly reprovision for our passage to Brisbane. We stowed

our car in Jenny’s garage then had a lovely BBQ with Jenny and son, Luke at The Basin at Bargara. The whole family has great childhood memories of this place.

The following morning, we caught up with Fiona for breakfast at Baltimores before moving out of the marina and anchoring in the river. It’s really calm up the river past the sugar terminal. A few too many mossies for my liking but there’s a little sandy beach for Tallis’s constitutionals. The pirate boat Notorious was also anchored here. If we are leaving early, we prefer to leave from an anchorage rather than a jetty in a marina. It’s not good being pushed onto other boats, if the tide is strong, in the dark.

John and I had a nice bottle of Saint Hiliare Blanquette with some cheese and prepared for an early departure.

Next: Passage – Burnett Heads to Brisbane