Today we headed South from Mackay to take in some points of interest around Sarina and the nearby coast. Our first stop was at the Field of Dreams Parkland. It is said that like the 1989 movie of the same name - Sarina is a town inspired by the dreams of men and women with the courage to pursue the future with unwavering vision and purpose. The stories of the cane, cattle, coal and clever country people are now told through the army of local volunteers who together each day, manage and maintain the parkland for the benefit of all. Within the Parkland are the Sarina Tourist Art and Craft Centre, Sarina Historical Centre (Memory Lane) and Sarina Art Gallery.

Also here is the Sarina Sugar Shed, Australia’s only miniature sugar mill and distillery which is advertised as "providing a fun and interactive way to learn about the sugar industry." We had booked to do the 11am tour, one of the four daily tours they run. On this tour we watched an introductory video and then saw the whole process from cane growing through harvesting to mill processing, plus the distillery. We learned how all of the by-products of the processing are either re-used in the process or sold as a separate product.

The tour finished with a tasting of chutneys they also produce and last but not least, five different rum based liqueurs. The kids got to taste fairy floss! The tour was interesting, but we suffered from information overload due to the machine gun-like delivery style of the guide.  

Behind the Shed is the Plane Creek Sugar Mill. This one of eight mills operated by Wilmar in the Herbert, Burdekin, Proserpine and Plane Creek cane-growing regions of Queensland. Built in 1896 after cane was first planted in 1895, in 2017 the mill processed around 1.2 million tonnes of cane. Besides sugar, ethanol is also produced from the molasses by-product.

After some lunch from the Sarina Pie Shop, we drove down to Sarina Beach and then onto Coral Point Lookout. Further up the coast we stopped at Grasstree Beach where we enjoyed an ice-cream while overlooking the idyllic, but deserted beach and wondered at what time of year these beachside settlements would be busy. 

As we had seen from Lamberts Lookout near Mackay yesterday, we could see the ships moored out to see while awaiting their turn to be loaded with coal at the Port of Hay Point facility and so we drove up to Hay Point for a closer look.

The Port Administration building high on a hill above the Port has a public viewing area which provides great fantastic views of the two coal terminals: Dalrymple Bay Coal Terminal and Hay Point Coal Terminal. The terminals are operated independently, with each one comprising rail unloading equipment, stockpiles with stacking and reclaiming equipment, conveyors and ship loaders on off-shore wharves. The Hay Point Coal Terminal has two ship loaders on a wharf which extends 1.8km out to sea while the Dalrymple Bay Coal Terminal has three ship loaders on a wharf which extends 3.85km out to sea.

While watching the Port operations a helicopter approached and landed just below the Port Administration building. It was a pretty impressive landing given the strength of the wind. Incidentally for the last week the weather has been quite windy and both of us have been suffering from hayfever. The forecast is for the wind to drop in coming days and so hopefully our symptoms will reduce.

It had been an enjoyable day seeing the various sights between Mackay and Sarina, and it must have been knock off time at the Port as we got caught up in heavy traffic returning to Mackay. Dinner was chicken schnitzels with pasta, pineapple and lemon yoghurt for dessert, rounded out with the last of our slice with a cup of tea.