"Lance Birch" <zon### [at] satcomnetau> wrote:

>Unfortunately it delayed a school swimming festeval here, which meant I

At the pool opposite Central State School, right ... ?

Next time you're there, as you go up John street away from the school,
you will pass a church on the right hand side (St Stephens as I recall).
Immediately after that is a school playing field. Well, there used to
be a house there, and that is where I spent a good part of my youth. If you
have ever driven up John street, you have certainly driven past my mother's
house.

>WATCH OUT!!!  :)  Do you remember the Hervey Bay Pier?  Well, they are
>finally restoring it now, it is nearly all done, there's only about 50-100m
>to go.

How could I forget the Urangan Pier ? When at the bay I spent time virtually
every day fishing off that pier. We stayed in the same flats every time,
literally 50 meters away.

I remember it how it used to be - very long (100m ? 150m?), with a 'L' shaped
section at the end where the ships used to berth to deliver fuel or oil. That
was then pumped down the wide metal pipe that used to be on the pier (is it
still there ?).

The railway tracks that went out to the end were used to run supplies up to the
ships. Don't know if they're restoring that but I'm glad to hear that they are
doing something to fix it after that fire. The 'L' section at the end was
deliberately removed sometime in the 70's so I'd guess they're not going to put
it back.

I don't know if you still have to detour around the railway line that comes
off the pier - back in the 60's and 70's, if you were going down the esplanade
from Scarness, and reached the pier, you had to turn right in a big detour of
about 100m, then drive back up the other side. You can probably drive right
across now. The road turned into sand about 50m further on, just after a set of
four flats called (as I recall) 'Beach View'. If they're still there, that's
where I spent about 16 weeks out of every year for about 15 years straight. 
They were in rather poor condition last time I was there (late 80's), but back
in the 60's/70's they were really nice (I still have photos to remind me ;)

>As for the surf, there is none, it's more rippley, like something out of a
>raytraced sunset scene!!!  :)

Yes, indeed, I remember that. Opposite the flats where we stayed, we'd get
a difference of about 500 meters between high and low tides since the water
is so shallow. Not conducive to surf ;)

I still remember to this day once in the early 70's when I was swimming (a
little further up, past the pier) some dolphins came right in to us and let us
stroke them. These were wild - they weren't known to the locals to frequent the
area. Just one of those happenstances I guess.

-- Chris

PS are Sour's pies still in Maryborough ?

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