Mackay, Queensland

Mackay is situated on Australia's east coast about 950 kilometres north of the Queensland capital Brisbane. With a population in excess of 120,000 people it's quite a big city. Mackay is nicknamed the sugar capital of Australia as the region produces more than a third of Australia's cane sugar. As soon as you get out of the CBD and suburbs the sugar cane fills the fields. Another industry that Mackay relies on is coal. Coal reserves of central Queensland is the single largest coal reserve in Australia, with 34 operational coal mines extracting more than 100 million tonnes annually. While much of the coal is used in Australia a lot is shipped to Japan and China from Mackay. Standing on the breakwater I could see at least 15 container ships waiting out in the ocean for their turn to come into the dock to be loaded.

The very long Mackay breakwater

This Prawn Trawler was returning from  a night of fishing

The CBD of Mackay is quite nice sitting on the banks of the picturesque Pioneer River, but the thing that grabbed me was the outstanding collection of Art Deco architecture constructed in the early 20th century. Art Deco is an art style which was popular from the 1920's until the 1940's.

Pioneer River

Chaseley House - 1937

Ambassador Hotel - 1937

Australian Hotel - 1940

A row of very interesting buildings 

Parish Hall, another interesting building

 At the caravan park we are staying there are literally hundreds of ducks. We have never seen these types of ducks before, but after asking at the office and doing some research we now know they are the Plumed Whistler Duck. There are also quite a few Plovers with their little babies but they are just a bit to quick for me to get a photo - but I will keep trying.

This is only a tiny portion of the ducks

The Plumed Whistler Duck