Saturday 13th February 2021
Today we woke up at 615 and Madeline’s favourite phrase is “it’s happy time” because the suns up. Albeit it only just broke the horizon, but alas she is correct.
We got ourselves ready for our trip to Rainbow Beach. It was a warm 30 degrees today, very scattered cloud and light winds. We had organised our beach driving permit online and were ready to go.
Rainbow Beach
We arrived at Rainbow Beach and parked the car. We decided to check out the beach on foot as we had to wait until closer to low tide.
We had lunch at BB’s a burger joint on the strip at Rainbow Beach.
Just after 1230pm we took off to the beach access to head onto the sand. We let down the tyres before starting our drive.
We drove along the beach up to Inskip, the neighbouring suburb. We chose our area for the afternoon and set up the side awning on the car.
Madeline wanted to run on the beach and build sandcastles. There were scattered bluebottles on the beach, Madeline learnt quickly to watch where she walked to avoid them.
The beach water was a beautiful 26 degrees celsius. Lovely and just cool enough to make your body temperature reduce.
We also learnt that March flies are in abundance in Northern NSW and Queensland. We were being bitten left, right and centre. We forgot the insect spray!!
Jason tried his hand at some drone fishing, but quickly found a huge seabed of weed that ran the length of the beach.
He then was fishing freehand in the shallows a caught a fish. The fish was smaller than his lure, but a catch is a catch.
We spent 2.5hrs on the beach. The wind picked up and the water was at its lowest tide. We packed up and got out of the wind.
Jason managed to break his rod, with the door slamming onto it.
We pumped the tyres up and went to grab an icecream for Madeline.
We drove back to the caravan where we tidied the car and had a long and relaxing shower…with the toddler.
History of Rainbow Beach
Originally known as Back Beach, Rainbow Beach was renamed after the coloured sands located near the town which lies to the south of Fraser Island.
Much of the sand colours stem from the rich content of minerals in the sand, such as rutile, ilmenite, zircon, and monazite. A black dune of ilmenite sands, overgrown by dune vegetation, can be found north west of the main town.
It was gazetted as late as 1969 when it was established to service the local sandmining industry. Until that time there was no road to Rainbow Beach, with the only access being via boat from Tin Can Bay.
The Singaporean owned Cherry Venture a 1600 ton cargo vessel was empty when it grounded on the 8th July 1973 during gale force conditions. Several unsuccessful attempts were made to refloat her, she was then stripped of her fittings and left to the elements.
Up until 2007 her rusted hulk was a major tourist drawcard and even boasted its own ice-cream vendor. The huge stainless steel propeller was taken off the vessel and is now on display in the Laurie Hanson Park, which overlooks our beach at Rainbow Beach.
Tomorrow
Tomorrow we leave Tin Can Bay for Harvey Bay. We will stay one night in Harvey Bay, before taking our car over to Fraser Island on the barge.
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