Ballina, New South Wales, Australia
'Yes'.....Ballina had been marked on the map as a place to visit because it is the home of the 'Big Prawn'. There are twelve Big Aussie Icons in NSW and in 2014 we visited five of them. Now we have half of them ticked off.
We had a good trip through the Great Dividing Range on the Bruxton Highway, despite the fact Peter was nervous about crossing the Great Dividing Range again. This crossing seemed much easier than the Gwydir Highway from Glen Innes to Grafton, but then I wasn't driving! The distance to Casino was 128 kms, so 30 kms shorter than Glen Innes to Grafton. There was about 39 kilometres of winding mountainous road and so long as you stuck to the suggested speed limit, both drivers agreed it was fine.
There was a few little towns along the drive. Drake was the first one, then Tabulam and Mummulgum. Drake would have been a good place to stop for morning tea, but we had stopped back a bit in one of the pull over areas. There was plenty of pull over areas to let people pass and they were big enough for the two of us to pull into. At Tabulam we had a reasonable wait to cross the 300-metre timber truss heritage listed bridge that was built between 1899 and 1903 to cross the Clarence River. It is the longest single-span wooden bridge in the southern hemisphere and the decision to replace it was made in 2015 and construction was to start on the new bridge towards the end of 2016. It is said the old bridge will be demolished. I wonder whether it will be saved?
If we ever do manage another caravan trip and maybe it might be to a Tamworth Music Festival, we think we would consider coming up to Tenterfield, crossing the GDR via the Bruxton Highway and come to Ballina for a week or so before making our way south down the NSW coastline. The beaches at Ballina are very nice and you have the Richmond River as well. There is a cycle/walk way from Shelley Beach back to the north breakwater groin and the caravan park. It is all very, very nice and Brisbane is just 200 kilometres to the north. Just as a point of interest the walkway is named after Kerry Saxby who was born in Young, but grew up in Ballina. Kerry is a retired Australian walker who represented Australia 27 times in international competitions and set 32 world records.
The future of the 'Big Prawn' in Ballina has not been without controversy. It is interesting what you find when you go searching! The 'Big Prawn's' story began in 1989 when it was built without a tail. Its first home was on top of a service station. Brothers from Hungary developed Service Stations around NSW and built 'Big Things' to attract customers. The sculptures they built were a tribute to the main industries in each town. Goulburn got a big Merino ram, Taree a big oyster and Ballina got a big prawn. The 'Big Prawn' is 30,000 times larger than a real prawn. When it first opened it had a spiral staircase inside it. The future of the big prawn was put in doubt when the service station closed in 2010. A year earlier Ballina Shire Council had voted to allow the prawn to be demolished.
There was a petition from local people that attracted thousands of signatures that actually saved it. Bunnings then bought the "Big Prawn' and erected it in the carpark. It cost the company $400,000 to take the faded big prawn off the roof, renovate it, which included giving it a tail, and erecting it so it looks like it is on a satay stick. We thought it was pretty good. Some of the locals believe it has lost its appeal because it can no longer be climbed, but the town does still have the 'Big Icon' and we came to the town to see it!
We are really liking this town on the coast of northern NSW. It is actually located on very close to the same latitude as Geraldton. Geraldton is latitude is 28.77 and Ballina is 28. 83. We have travelled 12,595 kilometres since we left Geraldton, but I think in actually mileage, without any day trips we would have travelled about 10,000 kilometres.
We are staying at a Discovery CP named Lakeside in East Ballina. We are about 50 metres from the waters edge of the lake and there is a new concrete pathway that takes you around to north groin of the Richmond River. We have been for a walk out to the end of the groin each day. There are so many lizards living in the rocks on the side of the groin. On Saturday morning I took a photo of five as we walked out. Peter and I think the lizards are 'Eastern Water Dragons'.
Saturday....In the morning it was washing. it is six days since we did some washing! We awoke to rain but most had gone by 9.00am. We did put quite a bit through the dryer and with the washing all done, in the afternoon we went driving. Firstly we visited the Ballina Naval & Maritime Museum. The most significant exhibit is the 1973 'La Balsas Raft'. In 1973 the Las Balsas expedition was the longest recorded raft journey. Three rafts set sail from Ecuador and made a 178 day voyage across the Pacific Ocean to Australia. The idea was to test whether primitive-style rafts could make the distance across the high seas and stay together. Under the lead of Vital Alsar those on board hoped to prove that the rafts had the potential to move entire civilian populations. They aimed to reach Mooloolaba in Queensland. But currents dragged them further south and they were ferried into Ballina by a naval vessel. There was definitely a buzz in the town. The town has a population of 16,500, but 41,800 is the population of the whole of the Ballina Shire.
We were impressed the with Maritime Museum. Once again there was a little indecision as to whether we wanted to visit another Museum. The cost was only $5.00 and as so often happens we were pleasantly surprised with the content of the Museum. The Museum first opened in 1983 in a couple of vacant rooms near where the Ballina Information Centre now stands. Ten years later it moved to its present site and is still manned by volunteers. We ended up having quite a chat with the couple volunteering that day. Mainly because there was a corner dedicated to the HMAS SydneyII and there was a publication that we had not seen on display anywhere in Geraldton. Thanks to a text message to Jenny MacKay we could tell the volunteers that the publication had been printed when the Sydney Memorial was completed in 2001. They have a nice lot of framed Memorial photos that someone has brought back from a visit to Geraldton. We were told there is over 200 models of ship in the Museum and one of the models took over 5,000 volunteer hours to complete.
On a information sheet we picked up the heading is a question "Why is there a Naval & Maritime Museum in Ballina"? The reasons are; because shipping on the river began with the arrival of the 'Sally' in 1842 and by 1847 there were four regular trading vessels bringing supplies and passengers to Ballina and taking out timber. Ballina was the third busiest port in NSW after Sydeny and Newcastle. The port was shipping out timber, diary products, sugar, horses, pigs and canned produce. Ballina was also a centre for shipbuilding and ship repairs. Many sailors moved to Ballina after WWII to work in the shipyards.
The rest of the afternoon was a quick walk in the CBD, then a drive to the historic lighthouse. From there we took in a few of the beaches along the coastal drive. Lots of people were on the beach and lots were surfing. The beaches are so lovely and the sand was so white. There was no seaweed and we did pass comment about the fact that there did not appear to be any shells. There was some rocky patches and all along the coastal strip there was accessible headlands.
We finished the day with a visit to the boat harbour and the Fisherman's Co-op. Peter had been and purchased six oysters on Friday night and some barramundi. On Saturday we introduced John and Dorothy to oysters kilpatrick and we had some prawns as well whilst enjoying the sun setting over the lake. John & Dorothy have not taken to the oysters like we did in 2014 at Ceduna! The fella's cooked the barramundi together whilst we prepared the rest of our meals in the van. It was not quite warm enough to eat outside like last Saturday night in Noosa. After dinner it was time to sit back and enjoy the West Coast Eagles versus Collingwood Qualifying Final at Optus Stadium. How good would it have been to be there? How good was it that they won? Yippee! Go Eagles! Just one more win and they will be in the Grand Final. Sure hope they can get there! Just one more win for the 'Double Icing on the Cake' for us!
Sunday....We left around 10.00am for a drive to Byron Bay which is only 35 kilometres north of Ballina. Tweed Heads is another 50 kms further north and is the NSW border town on the coast. Lennox Heads is only 21 kms from Ballina and we stopped for a bit after checking out Pat Moreton Lookout. So people at the lookout from Brisbane told us how they had seen lots of whales in a bay about 7 kms up the coast the day before. The whales were only about 80 metres off the beach. Unfortunately we only saw whales a long, long way out today!
We had lunch at Byron Bay, but it was oh so busy and you just couldn't find anywhere to park. We did manage a one hour park in the CBD area for $4.00, which was just long enough to have some lunch. We had tried to drive up to the lighthouse for a look and that would have been fantastic, but there were two buses there and cars jammed in everywhere. All we could do was drive around and we couldn't even get a good photo because of the buses. There were lots of people walking up there and obviously that was the best option, but it was a steep, lengthy walk! There was a very good boardwalk around the edge of the headland that wouldn't have been cheap to construct. There was great views from the boardwalk down over the main swimming, surfing and kayaking beach. I guess all we can say about our trip to Byron Bay was that we have been there and the weekend is probably not the best time to visit! It was an enjoyable day out though. Thanks to 'Pete the Driver' again. This is the second Sunday in a row that he has had a stressful time being the tourist and trying to find somewhere to park!
Jenny
2018-09-10
Ok, so here goes. Guess I'm the first to comment again :-) You've probably already gone past but I wondered if Lyn and Greg Turner would have been around? They have a house at Forster but have been house sitting. You would have met Lyn at the chiros and some of my CM workshops. Holy Dooley, I've just had a look at both those roads on Google maps. It looks to me like you'd be wanting to make sure your brakes were sound! Without having crossed there ourselves, it looks like the Bruxton Highway might have been a tad easier than the Gwydir Highway as you said!! I will make a mental note of that. I'm thinking about your Big Icons! It's a bit like geocaching, at least it takes you to places and things to see. The story of the Big Prawn reminds me of a certain Road Board building and the townsfolk that saved that!! HMAS Sydney II Memorial ranked up in the Top 1% of places to visit in the world on TripAdvisor. I guess Geraldton is going to get busier and of course, you'll be telling everyone about the wonderful guided tours they get if they come on over :-)
pamandpete
2018-09-10
Hi there and 'Thank You' for your comment. I know after I've pondered over the blog half the night and tried to decide what photos to add and in the end upload far too many, because that does take some time, you will have a read and neatrly always make a comment. I know others are reading the blog and they have said they are enjoying them, but as you and I well know, the important thing is to put the story together. It just won't happen when one gets home and what's more we are going to so many places, we will battle to remember. I've had to resort to just putting the photos in folders for each town as I couldn't keep up! You know I've come a long way since you encouraged me so many years ago at Creative Memories workshops to write that story and you encouraged me again to write some stories about my ancestors earlier this year. Unfortunately despite my best intentions my personal challenge for one ancestor a month has fallen by the wayside. But I will get back to it in a few months. You are right about the 'Big Icons' being a reason to go a certain way. If we hadn't been going to Mundubbera for the 'Big Mandarin' we wouldn't have visited Biloela nor been part of the second days debrief for the 'Smiling for Smiddy' ride from Brisbane to Townsville. Whotif are actually providing the opportunity for towns to submit a 'Big Icon' for their town and the winning one will be funded. Their website has the details and applications close the 18th September. Not gone past Forster yet. In the next couple of days and I do remember Lyn. We did stay at Tuncurry four years ago. It is one of those places that it is Tuncurry one side of the river and Forster the other I think. Nice town, no doubt you will have that on your list for next year. Better go or this will be another blog!
pamandpete
2018-09-10
Should have said about the geocaching too. It is certainly does provide a good reason to visit places and I know it takes you off the beaten track at times and to some great places. Might be something I do get into when we get back, but I will have to do all the phone and computer stuff and at the moment I can't handle anything more!
pamandpete
2018-09-10
Keep thinking of something else I should have commented back to you Jenny. The Sydney Memorial is definitely Geraldton's big reason people are visiting the town now, and the Geraldton Tour Guides do a fantastic job providing a tour everyday. The Sydney Memorial is a very special and significant Memorial. How fantastic that the Memorial has moved up in the TripAdvisor rankings worldwide. All due to the great work the Tour Guides do I'm sure!