Yeppoon, Emu park and Waterplay

Friday 9th April 2021

We had a horrible night sleep last night. Madeline was screaming out at 915 that she was in pain. I checked her ears, her tummy but couldn’t find anything. She had dymadon and feel asleep on our bed. At 10pm we carried her back to bed. We were awoke again at 230 and again at 530. At this time she was wide awake.

We sleepily got out of bed to get ready for our trip to the east coast. We left at 830am.

Yeppoon

Driving to Yeppoon we saw some very high rock formations. Appears to have had some amazing volcanic activity here with the lone rock formations.

We also saw the first wild emus on this trip.

We pulled in and stopped at the information Center before heading to Yeppoon’s foreshore.

On arriving we parked our car and walked out to see a magnificent view.

We walked over to the beach side infinity pool and found a grassy and shaded area to set up.

We spent 1.5hrs playing in and around the infinity pool.

We then walked down the foreshore to The Kepler Kracken Waterplay park.

Madeline had a little topple over and scratched her left cheek while running around. She got right back up and carried on playing.

By midday we got ourselves dried and changed and had some takeaway burgers and hot chips.

Geography

Yeppoon is a coastal town and locality in the Shire of Livingstone, Queensland.

Yeppoon is the principal town on the Capricorn Coast, a string of seaside communities stretching more than 150 kilometres from north to south. The beaches and shallow coves provide a destination both for tourists and retirees settling down in Central Queensland. Offshore, there are 27 islands including Great Keppel Island which is 20 kilometres from Yeppoon.

History

The Capricorn Coast was part of the traditional lands of the Darumbal Aboriginal people.

The first European to reach the area was Captain James Cook who sailed past in the HM Bark Endeavour between 25 May and 27 May 1770. He experienced some difficulty with the shallowness of the water. During this time he named Great Keppel Island and Keppel Bay (after Admiral August Keppel) and Cape Capricorn.

Yeppoon was first settled by the Ross family in 1865 who took up large landholding along the length of the Capricorn Coast. Fruit crops, cattle, and wool were the major industries of the early town.

A short-lived period of sugar cane growing followed from 1883 to 1903, which failed due to unseasonal rains and lack of financial backing.

Along with other sugar growing areas of Australia, South Sea Islanders were used as labourers on the sugar plantations, often without their consent.

To the present day, Joskeleigh (South of Yeppoon) remains a testament to times that many white Australians might prefer to forget, as it is home to one of Australia’s most prominent South Sea Island communities; descendents of peoples blackbirded from their native homes to work as indentured labourers in the sugar and tobacco plantations of the day.