This morning we joined many others at the monthly Fig Tree Creek Market which is organised by Keppel Coast Arts and are held on the first Sunday each month. Stallholders display, demonstrate and sell unique, handmade, locally designed, home baked and home grown products. 

The Market is held in Merv Anderson Park, adjacent to a building which houses the Tourist Information Centre and Shell World Yeppoon. So after walking around the market we went into Shell World Yeppoon, a project of the Keppel Bay Shell Club which was formed in 1962 and on display are over 20000 shells of varying sizes collected from all over the world, but particularly locally.

We then decided to take the 40km drive into Rockhampton. As we approached the CBD we saw a sign to the Archer Park Rail Museum and thought that would be a good place to start. The museum is housed in the former Archer Park Railway Station which was opened in 1899 and closed in 1970. The heritage-listed station has operated as a museum since 1999.

On the platform were a series of mannequins, representative of people who used the station in the 1930s. As you walked by these, it triggered 'conversations' between them and you were encouraged to eavesdrop on them. For example there was a family readying themselves to board the train to the seaside at Emu Park. Both Emu Park and Yeppoon were apparently popular for work-based picnic trains.

  But the star of the museum is the Purrey steam tram. Volunteers have restored one of the original nine which used to run on track around Rockhampton from 1909 to 1939. The trams were built in Bordeaux, France and the restored example at the museum is the only surviving working example in the world. After two shovels of coal, the driver declared the tram ready to run and we boarded for a short run which took us up and down a line which crossed several public roads. The museum and in particular the Purrey tram, was a credit to the volunteers.

From there we drove to the Rockhampton Zoo which is adjacent to the Botanical Gardens. There is no entry fee for either and unfortunately the Zoo looked a little tired, reminiscent of zoos from bygone days. Thunder began as we were completing our tour of the Zoo and heavy rain started to fall as we were about to walk through the Botanical Gardens. So we were not able to see what they were like and headed back to Yeppoon.

The smoked prawn pizza for dinner was up to the usual Weber standard and after dinner we did a bit of preparation given tomorrow we'd be leaving after four pleasant night's stay at Yeppoon.