Newcastle and Townsville: where in the world are we?

After we left Sydney, we began our voyage north along Australia’s east coast. We headed for Queensland and a very different view of a really spectacular country. We are going to be stopping in Newcastle, Townsville, Cairns, Thursday, Island, and Darwin.



















Our first stop in Newcastle was oh, so unexciting…

We did not have a lot of time in Newcastle. That’s the good news. Newcastle does not have a lot going on.

We did not have a lot to choose from in Newcastle, so we opted for a short “panoramic” tour. Loosely translated, that means that they load you on a bus, you see a few of the local landmarks and sights, and they bring you back to the ship – all in about three or four hours – and that’s exactly what we did.

We began by driving through the city and getting the so-called lay of the land. Frankly, there is nothing very memorable about the first part of the tour. Our first stop was at the Newcastle Museum. The museum tells the story of Newcastle’s history as a coal and steel center of northern Australia. The day we were there, the wing of the museum that had the most interesting exhibits about that era was closed for repairs. Oh well, on to bigger and better things…

The good stuff actually began after we had a stop at Blackbutt Reserve Park. This park is in the middle of the city and is free to residents and visitors alike. The city has set aside several hundred acres as a public park and zoo to showcase the local flora and fauna and to provide a really neat picnic venue for families and organizations.

I don’t know what you are thinking, but Blackbutt refers to one of the indigenous species of tree that is quite evident throughout the park. After alighting the coach (Australian for “bus”), we proceeded to a wooden walkway through the woods containing pens and housing for the local animal species. It was a smaller scale version of the zoo we had seen several years ago in Sydney (Tauranga Zoo), but was exceptionally well-done and well-maintained for a city park.

The boardwalk walk took about an hour and we were ready to move on.

The next stop was Fort Scratchley. I am not making that up.

Fort Scratchley was named after Lt. James Scratchley, the individual who designed and oversaw the construction of the fort. The fort overlook s the Newcastle harbor. That is important because Newcastle was, and continues to be, the coal capital of the southern hemisphere.

During WWII, the Australians were concerned that the Japanese might try to disrupt the shipping operations in the harbor, so the fort was designed and built. The defenders had two 7” cannons that could throw a shell over 12 KM (about 7 miles) out to sea. The guns were never fired during the war.

Today, a group of volunteers continues to keep the memory of the fort’s wartime importance and maintains the guns and other memorabilia at the fort. Every day at 1:00 PM a small cannon is fired to set the time and every time a cruise ship arrives or departs, one of the the 7” guns is fired three times. Must be interesting for locals, since we arrived at 7:00 AM…

So much for Newcastle. On to Townsville.


Townsville sounds like it could be another snoozer, but it turned out to be a highlight of this part of our voyage through northern Australia.

Townsville is actually larger than either Newcastle or Cairns, our next stop. It is a relic of the Queensland history of Australia’s rough and tumble frontier days. The folks in Queensland tend to say: “rules, we don’t need no stinking’ rules” (to paraphrase one of my favorite movie lines…).

We had several choices of tours and opted for a boat ride out to Magnetic Island.

Now that I have your attention, Magnetic Island is no more magnetic than any other island in the Pacific Ocean or the Coral Sea. It seems that while passing this small island off the coast of Queensland, Lt. James Cook (we know him as Captain Cook, but  that is another story…) had a compass aberration and thought it was due to the proximity of the island. Time has proven that it was indeed a hiccup and had nothing to do with the island, but the name stuck.

Out trip was to visit the Bungalow Bay Koala Village animal sanctuary.

The ferry ride out was a non-event and once on the island, we transferred to a bus for the short ride to the sanctuary. We have visited other animal retreats and sanctuaries, but this one was unique. Remember Queensland tends to scoff at rules and regulations, so the Australian regulations governing the handling, exhibiting, and viewing of animals tends to be more elastic here than elsewhere.

We were no sooner shown to the area where we would spend the next hour and a half meeting local creatures than a rather large albino python was brought out for all to see, touch, hold, photograph, and otherwise become new best friends. Tony, our erstwhile guide and animal handle explained that all of the animals we would be seeing had been born in captivity and had been raised around humans. Based on this rather dubious distinction, we were led to believe that being up close in a small crowd, making human noises, and touching or handling the creatures was not harmful. I dunno…

At any rate, Tony began to bring out the little darlings and encouraged everyone to hold, touch, coo at, or otherwise act stupid. I succumbed and would up holding a Koala, a parrot, and a snake. Bonnie was having none of it, but couldn’t resist the birds.

My new best friends are for the birds…

This is a croc, not a gator…can’t you tell? At least we are both smiling…

It’s tough to tell who’s cuter, isn’t it?

Want to hear a funny noise? just put your neck in here…but always watch where he is aiming his head…

Talk about cute…what could be cuter than a hairy-nosed wombat (THE ONE BEING HELD, not the one on the left…).

Bonnie is also good at making new friends.

Oh no, another cute Koala picture…

It is no contest as to who’s the cutest in this picture!

After this close encounter of the weird kind, we got back on the bus, back to the ferry, and back to the ship.

Tomorrow we are in Cairns for two days and what we believe will be  several unique adventures: a train ride, a skyrail, and snorkeling the Great Barrier Reef. Stay tuned…