Lucinda

Townsville to Lucinda

On the way North, we stopped off at Frances Creek Rest Area for the obligatory wander and wee.

It’s another well kept and pretty Rest Area, with great amenities, including electric BBQs that are clean and the entire area is well maintained.
As with many Rest Areas, the maximum time limit for staying here is 20 hours.

Side Quest

Having driven past it so many times and never stopping by, we decided to go to Lucinda via Taylors Beach and Halifax.

To get to Taylors, there is lot of swamp area to drive through, and we anticipate that with very high tides, or minimal rainfall, that flooding would be a very big concern, and that the area would be isolated very quickly.

Neither Halifax or Taylors lured us in to explore much more, but then we can’t really make an informed review of them as we didn’t leave the main roads and only stopped off at the boat ramp area of Taylors to make some catch-up phone-calls, and to walk the dogs.

Lucinda

Lucinda is a small coastal town around 25km east of Ingham, with a usual local resident population of around 500 people, but the tourist trade increases that by 3-4 fold easily!

Whilst it’s not your average beachside tourist town of shops, cafes, pubs and such; there is a pub, and there is a cafe – which does awesome fish and chips, and sells some grocery lines – there is an RSL, and there is a caravan park that most nights is filled to the gills.

Speaking of gills, you could easily feel out of place here if you don’t have a fourby (4×4), a tinny and a fishing rod close at hand at all times.

This is a place for die-hard anglers especially.

Right near the Lucinda Wanderers Holiday Park where we stayed, is the Sugar Mill – which is in full swing at this time of year, as well as the amazing jetty which is used to take the produce out to the ships in Port, which is operated by the Lucinda Bulk Sugar Terminal.
Coming from the Sugar Mill, a constant almost comforting hum is the background noise of each day, but is unintrusive.

The amazingly beautiful Lucinda Jetty is 5.76km in length, making it the longest in the Southern hemisphere, alas – you can’t go for a wander along it.

The beach here is wonderful for fishing and walks (no swimming – #crocs ), and there are well-maintained walkways, plenty of information boards, sculptures, parks, exercize equipment, amenities, a playground, and a beach volleyball court all easily accessible and very close to the Van Park.

The Van Park has an amazing number of toilets and showers, which are roomy and clean.

The laundry too is roomy and clean, and has a table for people to leave items they no longer want or need, so that others who may want or need them can claim them.
We always like this kind of Community initiative.

However, the washing machines are a hideous price at $7 per load, and they don’t take cash.
There are lots of clotheslines, but a few of them need some tlc to be able to be used.

The camp kitchen is small but functional, and there is a Rec room / Loungeroom that appeared to be well-used whilst we were there.

An outdoor area is also available for the scaling, gutting and filleting of fish.
The dogs very much enjoyed having regular sniff-walks around his area.

The wifi is rubbish.
Patchy and unreliable with a lot of drop-outs, or non-connection at the get-go.

There was a notice regarding the dodgy wifi in the laundry, but it appears from the notice that there wont be any upgrade done to this matter any time soon.

We really enjoyed Lucinda, and think its very worth heading off the main highway and taking the time to experience this little hidden gem.

We’ll go back sometime!

Until next time – happy travels, and make the moments matter.