Travel: Seaforth, Qld

By Gaye Drady

Seaforth wasn’t a place we had intended to stay at for long, but rather one to drop past on our way north.

To our surprise, we were met with a quiet little coastal village and a camping reserve, plus a couple of retail outlets supplying necessities; an estuary boat ramp with a long stretch of beach, a few residential streets and a sprinkling of holiday houses. We set up camp and settled in for a few days.

The council camping reserve has acres of space with sealed roads, maintained lawns and scattered, shady trees, excellent facilities and ocean views. The sites are unstructured, and no bookings are required.

There was no power, but this didn’t deter caravanners: dozens of happy campers enjoyed lights, television and several other electrical devices via self-sufficient power sources, and we just lit the gas lantern.

Two clean and maintained amenities blocks are provided, including wheelchair-accessible shower and toilet, drinking water and bins. Twenty cent coins are required for the showers.

The laundry contains three washing machines and one clothes dryer ($3 per load), powerpoint and ironing board (provide your own padding for the board). Concrete wash tubs are also on offer, with wringers for campers who wish to only rinse out a few items.
Dogs are not allowed, and with no resident caretaker, council staff collects fees daily. At $13 per site per day, we thought it was great value.

A long stretch of sandy ocean beach is adjacent to the camping reserve. We spent many pleasant hours wandering the sands of Seaforth. Rock platforms and rocky outcrops spread out from the base of cliffs on the northern end of the beach, and at low tide it is possible to walk out to a small island.

Glorious sunsets can be viewed from the shoreline, and a wonderful way to start the day is taking in sunrise from the beach in front of the camping reserve.

The northbound road behind the caravan park leads to an all-tide, two-lane, concrete estuary boat ramp with ample parking and toilet facilities.

There’s also a small sandy shoreline for easy launching of canoes and the like. A lesser-used boat ramp at the southern end of Seaforth Beach in a small inlet provides alternative water access for small boat users.

While bird-watching in and around Seaforth we were provided with plenty of subjects. A flock of red-tailed black cockatoos crunched on fallen seed pods quite close to our camp and their friendly antics were a delight to watch.

A few Burdekin ducks were a welcome sight waddling around the camping reserve one afternoon, but the soon-overpowering din of the nocturnal bush that we encountered all over the north Queensland coast soon wore out its welcome.

Some other birds we saw were beach thicknee, sulphur-crested cockatoos, rainbow and scaly-breasted lorikeets, peaceful and bar-shouldered doves, squatter pigeon, grey reef heron, brown bittern and rainbow bee-eaters.Towns beyond

Cape Hillsborough National Park is just a short drive from Seaforth and has camping and picnic facilities next to a protected beach. Camping sites are small, cramped and very structured and didn’t appeal to us, but there were plenty of campers and caravanners relaxing and enjoying the national park resort.

Cape Hillsborough Beach makes for a pleasant wander and there are several walking trails from which to choose. The beachside picnic area is grassy and shaded with barbecues, seats, tables and toilets. We thoroughly enjoyed our rest stop at the day-use area, following some exercise on the beach.

We encountered an unusual but breathtaking phenomenon on the drive into the national park – thousands of blue and black butterflies filled the air for a space of about one kilometre. We pulled into the carpark at the Mangrove Boardwalk to take a closer look. The Mangrove Boardwalk is an easy and diverse walk and is wheelchair-friendly.

In between the national park and Seaforth, there are a couple of villages: Ball Bay is a tiny settlement consisting of a few houses and a small camping reserve – we enjoyed its deserted and peaceful, sandy beach; Halliday Bay is a more upmarket development with resort accommodation and a lovely golf course. Halliday

Bay is named after Captain Halliday, whose century-old stone cottage is still standing.
With its challenging walking tracks and creekside picnic area, Finch Hatton Gorge makes a good day trip 80km west of Seaforth.

Eungella National Park is located another 40km into the mountains, and Sky Window Trail is a wheelchair-friendly walking track introducing visitors to the rainforests. There is a grassy roadside picnic area with toilets and sheltered barbecues.

Platypuses can usually be viewed from the bridge on the Broken River – we watched a platypus repeatedly surface and dive for half an hour.

There is plenty of parking and picnic facilities in addition to more walking trails, and birdlife is prolific, with some of our sightings being azure kingfishers, yellow robins, lewins honeyeaters, and striated pardalotes.

If you’re looking for great fishing in tranquil surroundings, safe boating, gorgeous scenery, and superb local seafood, this is the spot. You might even end up staying longer than you expected, like we did!

Seaforth Fast Facts
Halliday Bay Resort: (07) 4959 0322; www.hallidaybayresort.com.au

Cape Hillsborough Nature Resort
(40 minutes’ drive north of Mackay): MS 895 Mackay, (07) 4959 0152; fax:
(07) 4959 0500; email enquiries@
capehillsboroughresort.com.au

Ball Bay is 35km north of Mackay, offering secluded camping on a small grassy campground. Facilities include toilets, cold beach showers, wood barbecues and drinking water. Animals not allowed.