Breathtaking Sunsets at Hervey Bay and Woodgate Beach

Once we reached the east coast of Australia, our destinations were located in close proximity. This time we had to drive only 120 km from Bargara to Hervey Bay.

Hervey Bay

Hervey Bay is located next to the world heritage listed Fraser Island. It is famous for its long, 14 km sandy beach and humpback whales watching. Hervey Bay is naturally shielded from the ocean winds by Hervey Bay making this place a great holiday destination. Also, it is popular as a retirement destination.

Our Discovery Park was situated two streets from the beach in Torquay. It happened to be a good choice. The caravan park was pretty small but had very good facilities like two swimming pools, a games room and a tennis court which I was interested in very much this time.

They even had some old arcade games. If you remember ‘The Frog’, I had the opportunity to play it.

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Playing arcade games - The Frog — Playing arcade games – The Frog

Our plan for the next six days was to go fishing off the small and big jetty, drive around Hervey Bay, visit Point Vernon and go for a day trip to River Heads and Woodgate Beach.

Hervey Bay is pretty isolated from big cities and has a non-commercial atmosphere. It is a popular place with many tourists but they are spread out around the bay so you don’t have a feeling it is a busy place.

Urangan Pier

There are three jetties in Hervey Bay: two small and one, very long Urangan Pier that has a pretty good story.

Urangan Pier was built in 1917 with the main purpose of cargo handling facility to facilitate the export of sugar, timber and coal. Originally, Urangan Pier was 1107 meters long. In 1985 the pier was closed due to its unstable construction and the last 239 meters was demolished.

Luckily Urangan Pier was reopened and even the last 220 meters was fully restored. To this day tourists can enjoy this amazing construction using it was walking and fishing.

Nell fishing for baitfish

As the pier is very long we were hoping to catch a bigger fish. We bought a bait fishing rod. It was a very tiny rod with 5 small hooks attached, so Nell had an opportunity to get some baitfish.

Nell fishing with small rod for baitfish

Surprisingly, she was very lucky and got two small herrings in one attempt. Also, later on, she was hooking up some small baitfish.

The baitfish Nell caught, I used for my big fishing rod to get a bigger fish. Four times I got a shark hooked to my rod because they like fresh fish.

Two times I the shark was so close that we could see it. Both times it was about 1.2 meters. We did not want to fight with its sharp teeth or eat it neither, so I cut the line and let it go.

I could not get any good table fish but sharks

As a result, we did not catch any table fish but we spend a good time on the pier.

Interestingly, the low tide around this area goes so far to the sea that only the last 100 meters of the jetty are in the water. People walk on the sand left from the water, try fishing in small, shallow gutters or go windsurfing. It is a very popular place for water sports.

Coming off Urangan Pier after fishing at sunset

Fishing off the small jetty with better results

Another day we went fishing on the small jetty and we caught three small leather jackets. This interesting fish has skin-like leather but it is very tasty and we had a nice lunch.

Fishing off small jetty - we got leatherjacket — Fishing off small jetty – we got leatherjacket

Point Vernon and The Gables

Point Vernon is located on the west side of Hervey Bay, only 8 km from our Discovery Park. It has the largest rocky promontory on this part of the coast.

We found there many picnic and swimming areas as well as a nice playground at Esa Park. Point Vernon is a good place to start the Hervey Bay Esplanade Trail that goes along the coastline where you can learn about whales and other sea creatures.

On the other hand, The Gables has a park with interpretive signs to learn about ospreys that inhabit this area.

Also, The Gables has a coral reef that is popular with snorkellers.

River Heads

The next day we drove to River Heads and Bingham. It is a long peninsula with a road in the middle that leads to a ferry that goes to Fraser Island. The tip of the peninsula cuts the estuary of Susan River and Mary River in half.

The peninsula was getting narrower when we were driving to the end. We could see beautiful houses on both sides of the road with a view of Fraser Island and the ocean or Susan River on the other side.

We decided to leave Fraser Island for next time, but at least we found out where the ferry departs. The weather was not so good and to fully enjoy it we would need and least a week. It would be a nice trip from Brisbane later when we are thirsty of going 4WD after we finally finish our trip and settle.

Day trip to Woodgate Beach

One day we decided to go for a long, 110 km drive to Woodgate Beach that is located ashore, north of Hervey Bay.

Woodgate Beach happened to be a place with a long, sandy beach. The little town is surrounded by Barrum National Park. On the north, there is a Kinkuna Section of the park, and on the south Woodgate section. There is a good caravan park in Woodgate Beach and it was actually full of campers.

First, we enjoyed some time on the beach. We tried fishing and Nell was playing with the sand.

We knew that in the south part of Burrum National Park it is possible to drive on the beach so we decided to give it a go. It happened the entrance to the beach was very easy and the beach was very wide as that time it was a low tide.

We drove far up to the Burrum Point, stopping a few times and trying fishing as well. It was a great time so we decided that we will come back here in the future and stay longer.

Tennis at Caravan Park

First time since we started the trip I had an opportunity to play tennis. Actually, Kasha tried too, and Nell had her first attempt to play tennis in her life.

Nell was very ambitious, and even she had difficulties holding the racquet she managed to hit the ball several times. I also found a few opponents to play with and I enjoyed it fully. I played tennis first time since Nell was born.