Tuesday 6th April 2021
We had another very rough night last night. Madeline came into our bed at 130am after 3 wake ups. It’s unclear what was bothering her this time, but we were too tired to investigate further.
After waking at 630am we got ourselves ready for a day in Rockhampton.
We first went to the local Farmers markets where we bought some fresh fruit. The prices were amazing and the fruit oh so fresh.
Tropic of Capricorn
After this we made our way over to the Information Center where we visited the Tropic of Capricorn spire.
The Tropic of Capricorn is the most southern point on the earth where the sun reaches its zenith. Zenith, in astronomy terms, is the point in the sky directly overhead. Therefore further south to this point, the sun is never truely straight up. This occurs only once a year, during the summer solstice, around December 22.
Kershaw Gardens
After the visitors information centre we made our way over to the biggest backyard play area we’ve ever seen.
We were faced with a large, very well designed playground and water park. We all had an absolute ball.
There were in-ground trampolines, swings, massive slides, climbing webs, peddling monorail, ever contraption to make you dizzy and plenty more.
We then made our way to the wet area where we spent a good 45min mucking around in the water.
After we were saturated and played out, we headed back to the van for lunch.
After lunch we ventured to Quay Street to look at the historic buildings.
Rockhampton Historic Buildings – only a few
As explained yesterday, the Archer brothers came to the area in search of suitable grazing country.
The place was called Rockhampton – ‘Rock‘ from the rock barrier across the Fitzroy River, which blocks navigation near the Neville Hewitt Bridge and ‘Hampton’ the English word which means small village.
History
In September 1858 gold was discovered at Canoona, 50km north of Rockhampton. 15,000 people arrived in the area searching for gold.
Fitzroy Bridge
Old Fitzroy bridge was constructed in 1881 and was
It was decommissioned in 1952, when the present bridge was opened. The original suspension bridge was then dropped into the water, and remnants can still be seen at low tide.
Customs house
This is the third building on this site. The first was made from iron and timber and had a limited life. the second was constructed in 1863 and was a single storey masonry structure with a slate roof.
Building of the current customs house started in 1898 and finished in 1901.
Henry Lumsden was the first Sub-collector of customs, appointed in 1858. It remained a customs house until 1986. It is now under City Council control and houses the Rockhampton tourist and business information company.
Australian Broadcasting Corporation
This is one of the most significant buildings in Rockhampton. It was constructed in 1897 as the Mt Morgan Mining Company head office.
Mining operations began in 1882 and Mt Morgan remains the richest gold mine in the world.
The British Petroleum company owes its beginnings to gold from Mt Morgan. Part owner of Mt Morgan Mine, Mr William Darcy, travelled to England and using his share from the mine, purchased and formed the Anglo-Persian Oil Company. This company later became BP.
In 1963 the ABC occupied the building and uses the old gold vault as a sound proof studio.
Playground
We spent some time at the playground on Quay street, before being bitten alive by mosquitoes.
The evening
We spent the rest of the evening in the caravan. It was a very big day and we are ready for a long and peaceful night sleep.
Tomorrow
We are driving to Mt Morgan and enjoying some gold mine history.
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