Ayround Town …

Day 6: Thursday 29 March (9pm, Ayr)

Old Caretakers Building

It’s the calm before the storm!

Today was a very relaxed day of visiting many different sites belonging to the Gudjuda Reference Group, to see the breadth and extent of their business.

Future Grey Nomads!

First stop was Home Hill, a town about 12 kms down the Bruce Highway. Gudjuda have been given an extended lease for the former showground site here. There are a number of buildings on site and the plan is to convert this area into a potential rodeo arena, a plastics business and the rest of the massive, grassy space will be set up with power, facilities and BBQ areas for the many ‘Grey Nomads’ that travel through Home Hill each year. It’s a popular spot and likely to become even more so in the coming years. We had a glorious day for wandering around the site, so can imagine it being the perfect comfort stop for all those retired travellers in the future.

From the top of Inkerman Hill

Another 12kms down the highway and we took a quick side trip to view the region from the top of Inkerman Hill. The view over the Burdekin river and out to sea was stunning. We could see where the water changed colour from fresh water to salt; probably a little more pronounced since the rain and flooding last week.

More from Inkerman Hill

Back into Ayr from there to see where Eddie helps out with the local youth in his spare time (as if he has any!). We drove around to the Youth Club where the kids are taken by bus most afternoons for activities like basketball or to access computers before heading home.  We met Eddie’s lovely wife and then headed back for some lunch. Next stop was out to Alva Beach for an inspection of the regeneration area, including the new fences put up recently.  Sounds like an excuse? We just did what we were told –
the fences are all looking good (and so was the sand!) :)



View from the Burdekin Bridge out towards the ocean -
that's the reflection of the sky changing the colour of the water



It couldn’t be helped but Lynette went home sick today, so our plans for the afternoon were thrown into just a minute’s disarray. We ended up back at Home Hill for a walk along the famous Silver Link – the Burdekin Bridge. Longer than one of my favourite landmarks, the Sydney Harbour Bridge, it’s an inspiring piece of engineering as it’s built on sand. We only made it about halfway along before turning back. The noise from the cars and trucks going across it was manageable but their vibrations and the numerous, large spiders were a bit more off-putting, so we figured we’d done enough walking for one day!



The Silver Link itself