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Mackay
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Some 360km north of Rockhampton along a famously unexciting stretch of the Bruce Highway, the fertile
Pioneer Valley
makes the
MACKAY
area a pleasant break from the otherwise dry country between Bundaberg and Townsville. Despite encounters with aggressive Juipera Aborigines, John Mackay was impressed enough to settle the valley in 1861, and within four years the city was founded and the first
sugar cane plantations
were established, attracting the migrant communities common to north Queensland - it's not unusual to hear English, Pidgin and Maltese spoken within earshot of each other in town. Sugar and servicing
mining
operations centred inland on the
Bowen Basin coalfields
and remain the core industries today, though both are suffering uncertain futures: various viruses are ravaging crops and the mines are gradually following new coal seams south and out of the region.
Only mildly geared up for tourism, Mackay provides some welcome relief from the east coast "backpackers pub crawl", and with its proximity to unspoilt beaches, plus the delights of
Eungella and Cape Hillsborough national parks
, this is not an area you'll want to miss. Other useful information
for tourists (each section contains more specific sub-sections): |
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Australia,
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