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The Lonely Planet (LP) guide to Australia almost guarantees that you can see platypuses close to the Broken River Bridge in the Eungella National Park and its only 84km (52 miles) west of Mackay, I told Gill. We were planning for our second trip Down Under and son Steven thought that a holiday would do him good, so he would come along. Other son Garry, degree in hand, had taken a year out to travel and was already there. We wanted to spend time seeing the outback, small Australian towns and attractions. Most of our time was to be spent in Queensland. However, we had an arrangement to all get together near Sydney Harbour Bridge to watch the fireworks on old year's night.
We flew into Brisbane in November and picked up our Wicked Camper that Garry had booked for us. As well as the LP, we purchased TAN (The Australian Naturist) from the first newsagent we saw. Armed with these and a tourist atlas, we were ready for anything. The atlas showed (free) rough camping sites, the LP guide lists camping sites (fees) and the magazines list naturist clubs, resorts and homestays. So we headed north and our first planned port of call was Australia Zoo, home to the "Crocodile Hunter", Steve Irwin (rest his soul). This once small family-owned fauna and reptile park has developed into one of the country's main tourist attractions; such is the power of international television. We spent the night at Noosa Heads on a textile site. Noosa is the location of Alexandra Bay and Granite Bay, both well known unofficial nude beaches in a state with no legal nude beaches.
Next, we camped out with Jackie and Jim at Glen Eden, 100 acres of bush walking, a large clubhouse and good facilities at this naturist retreat. Jim advised that we'd be as well to do a Great Barrier Reef trip from 1770 (yes, that's really the town's name - Captain Cook landed here in that year and seemed to have run out of names for places!) out to Lady Musgrave island, rather than wait until further north, a toss-up between being closer to the southern reef with some colourful fish and making a longer trip out to a more colourful reef but with similar fish. Armed with some homegrown mangoes - Glen Eden's other role is a farm - we set out early for a day on the reef. If only we could have snorkeled nude!!
Heading north to Yeppoon, near Rockhampton, we stayed at Tintagel with Beverly and Lance. As well as taking tourers like us, they also do homestays and have a range of cabins fitted out in the Camelot theme. These were our last naturist nights for a while, as we followed the Capricorn Highway west to Longreach for the Australian Stockman's Hall of Fame, Winton for the true stories behind that well known song Waltzing Matilda, then drove through Mt. Isa and into the Northern Territory for Uluru.
Naturism picked up a little later when we returned to the Queensland coast via the Flinders Highway. From Townsville we followed the Bruce Highway south of Mackay to Sarina, Goodies Retreat, owned by Sandra and Alan. It was great to be back to camping on a naturist site, to enjoy the pool, the freedom to explore their 25 acres of land where a previous owner had planted 100 types of exotic tropical fruit trees - breakfast each morning had something out of the ordinary in fruit - and the toilet had such a view that they haven't bothered to spoil it by hanging a door! We dressed and drove out to Eungella to see the platypuses: it was well worth it, LP was spot on again.
Heading south again through Yeppoon we followed advice and stayed with Heather and Trevor at Savannah Park, where everyone is made to feel at home on their 50 acres. A few more non-naturist nights followed. We stayed again at Kiata club near Sydney - we had been there in '95 - and spent Christmas and the New Year there, then visited the Cosmopolitan Hotel at Taylors Arm, the original pub of the "Pub with No Beer" song, where the LP guide assured me they do have beer, very cold beer, too. Back in Queensland at Browns Plains, near Brisbane, we stayed at Aquarius Nature Retreat, a club very much in the British style. Coral, the landowner, greeted us with the Queenslander's welcome, "I could do with some rain", and we had some, a lot, but not enough. And we couldn't be in Brisbane without visiting the home of XXXX, could we?
Some things to remember when in Oz. Distances between places in Australia can be very long, so eat, drink and fill the fuel tank when you can. Most naturist sites are on the coastal strip, so be prepared to camp textile inland and between sites. Although most Australians there wouldn't agree, petrol and food prices are remarkably cheap. Queensland does not use daylight saving, so be prepared for bright mornings and early dusk - and get a copy of TAN, which has details of all naturist activity in Australia.
This story was yoinked from the pages of British Naturism magazine (Aug 2005 edition).
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