Bundaberg is a big town made famous by Bundy Rum. You can take the girl out of Bundy……

I will now go through the paddock to palate story and try not to sugar coat it.

Flowering sugar cane

Burnt sugar cane ready for harvesting. Cane be cut burnt or green. Before the 1940s, all sugar cane was hand cut green. After a severe and sometimes fatal disease affected cane cutters (Leptospirosis carried and passed on by rats), most farms adopted burning to remove the rodents. That really backfired on the rats. The sugar cane cutters said, “Revenge is sweet.” With mechanical cultivators and harvesters, now about 85% of harvested cane in Qld is cut green.

Mechanical dinosaur scaring cattle egrets witless

Harvesting the cane – What did the sugar cane say when it left the paddock? “Parting is such sweet sorrow”.

Trams filled with cut sugar cane waiting at the rum distillery mill. The workers were not sure which trams were to be processed next, they lost their train of thought.

The rum-bling furnaces at the mill where the cane is processed and the rum starts to flow.

Unbearable!

The staff here are pretty sharp – they will definitely give you a rum for your money.

A bear walks into a bar and says, “Give me a rum…………..and coke.” “Why the big pause?” asks the bartender. The bear shrugged, “I’ve always had them. I was born with them.”

Bundy has much more to offer than just the rum distillery. There is a range of lovely heritage buildings throughout town from stone buildings in the city centre (like Quanaba House above) to grand timber Queenslanders.

Bundaberg Post Office built in 1890

Bourbong Street is the main street. The photo below is from the same place.

Bourbong Street was renamed from its originally surveyed Bourbon Street in the 1890s although Bourbon was used by much of the population until about 1940 when the attrition of age made it disappear. Someone had the notion to start a bourbon company, but heard it was whiskey business. It seems uncertain about who changed the name but maybe the local Temperance League may have had something to do with it.

Despite this, after a really bad experience with alcohol, some locals gave up drinking altogether. Now they just drink alone.

Some other locals were advised to drink alcohol in moderation. They gave it a shot.

Despite the loss of Bourbon Street, Bundy is now fast becoming an “alcoholopolis” with the rum distillery, Kalki Moon gin distillery (not sited in Kalkie), Bargara Brewing Company (not sited in Bargara but actually located in Bundaberg just off Bourbon/Bourbong Street) and Ohana Cider House & Tropical Winery where Mango Moscato is bottled (another case of “just because you can doesn’t mean you should”). To be fair, I haven’t tried the mango moscato – maybe a review of the drop on another visit.

If alcohol can damage your short term memory, just think what alcohol can do to your short term memory.

One of Bundaberg’s famous sons was Bert Hinkler who the first person to fly solo from England to Australia in 1928. In his childhood, Hinkler would observe ibis flying near a lake at his school. What did Bert say to the ibis? “I’ve bin chicken you out.” After gaining an understanding on the principles of flight, he constructed two gilders. In 1912 he launched one of his first home-made gliders at Mon Repos Beach and flew 10 metres above the sand dunes. He became a pioneer pilot, mechanic and inventor who also served in World War I. He died on another flight in 1934 crashing into a mountain in Tuscany, Italy. There is a sculpture of him at Quay St, Bundaberg in the middle of a carpark that was once a lovely park.

One of Bert’s Binnies – inspiring birds.

Another expert in flight, this Brown falcon looks across sugar cane fields from its perch on a dead tree by the river bank.

Cattle enjoying the prime pastures near Burnett Heads. Similar to the popular Grey Nomad free camping site called Pasture Prime.

Good night from Bundaberg (Port of Bundaberg on the Burnett River). There is a sunset every day of the year and it’s free.