Messing About at Burnett Heads

We are very fond of Burnett Heads, Bundaberg as a stop off. We’ve been here 3 times before. Initially traveling up to The Whitsundays and return in 2016, then again last year when we had an extended stay at the end of our New Caledonia and Vanuatu trip. Going up to ‘The Whitties’ we only anchored out but then stayed a week in the Bundaberg Port Marina on the return trip to allow time for our anchor and chain to be re-galvanized. Last year it served as our clearing-in port and scene of plenty of shenanigans at the conclusion of the GoWest Cruisers Rally. This time round we anchored out in the river for several days and had a very social time with other cruisers making their winter migration as well as one couple who liked it so much that they bought a house here and stayed!


Bundaberg is a working port with a large quantity of sugar cane being exported. A pilot is dispatched; Tug boats standby at the river mouth and arrivals and departures can occur at any time of day. On weekends cars park up along the riverbank to observe the process. We of course had ringside seats watching the carriers slide past.

We caught up once again with Kaija and Gary from Kaija Song -17 year cruising veterans from ‘Canadia’ (according to The Bloke). We first met here with the Rally. We’ve since knocked into them at the Boatworks, the Scarborough Marina and at Woody Island, Hervey Bay. The Bloke fancied a meal at The Lighthouse Hotel and talked Kaija and Gary into joining us. What a deal! We were offered ‘seniors discounts’, then my red wine turned into 1/2 a bottle because the manager was changing the brand of ‘red’ - would I please help out and finish this one off? OK then! Things were going along nicely, but wait there was more - our Seniors Special came with a $2 each credit on the pokies! Ridiculous. Having never been slightly interested in this form of mindless gambling we had to be instructed. Anyway, our $4 became $15 so we quit while ahead since we’d effectively finished up enjoying 2 meals for the price of 1!


We made multiple shore trips to buy a newspaper, bread, have a coffee and top up our provisions from the IGA. On one occasion we were almost run over in the carpark by Annie and Cam, a cruising couple who’ve now settled in Burnett Heads. They spotted us on AIS; drove to the anchorage to see if we were aboard, ascertained that the absence of our dinghy meant a high possibility of our being ashore at the IGA - and we were!


We learned that the Bundaberg Port Marina has an offer for boaties anchoring off. For $20 you can have half a day access to marina facilities) 8am -12:00; or for $30 you can have a full day pass which includes the courtesy shuttle into Bundaberg (20 minutes away). On Sundays the shuttle goes out to the edge of town to a farmers market held at the Shalom Christian School. Perfect for us, so we signed up and took the Sunday Day Pass.

Our Rottnest Island shopping bag is still very much in use.

We loaded up with heaps of ‘freshies’ including sour dough bread which we were promised would last 3 weeks (if only we’d bought enough). The Bloke assisted Gary to buy a ‘cocky’ for use during the forthcoming SICYC (Shaggers) Rendezvous. There is a‘Parrot-Head’ event at Gloucester Passage in August. A Sulphur Crested Cockatoo is not strictly speaking a parrot but The Bloke and Gary amused themselves with it for over an hour while Kaija and I looked over all the produce and spent up big.

We ended our day pass with a BBQ at the Cruisers Cove with our new shopping friends plus Cam and Annie. Now fully loaded up with food we were ‘good to go’ at stupid o’clock. Next stop: Pancake Creek.