Driving tour

A bit of an uneventful day, I spent the morning driving around Mackay, taking in the sights and seeing what has changed over the years. 

The Mackay Base Hospital is now massive. The jetty out the front was the old hospital bridge. The hospital, where I was born has completely removed the old buildings and fitted it out with brand new and modern designs. 

 We next stopped by my old schools. I was only six and in grade 2 when we left Mackay, so I never made it into the primary school propper, but the other places I went were still there in some form. My old kindy, the Paddington Bear Kindy has disappeared to become a day care centre. My preschool is now "Prep" and the West Mackay Infants School (Grades 1 and 2) is now the Junior Campus. I guess they were trying to make it sound better. But many of the buildings that were around when I went through are still there.

Just a few shots driving around Mackay - you will notice that there a good number of round-a-bouts. Mackay is the city of round-a-bouts. There is one at just about every intersection and then in-between as well to slow down the traffic.

We stopped by my old street and house in West Mackay. The train line running down the end of the street is no longer there, but you can certainly still see the rail corridor.

And while the Mackay showgrounds have had a major upgrade and refurb, the old main entrance is still the same...

 We then took a trip out to the harbour. It is massively different from when I was a kid. The playground is now in a different spot and they only moved a few of the big playground equipment over. Certainly not the old climbing frames or roller slides. The lighthouse though, is still there (of which I am the proud owner of a few rivets). And while it is possible to drive out on the breakwater, it was a very windy day and I didn't really want salt water splashing up on my car.

Next, we headed up to the top of town at North Mackay where there is a lookout. It's a really great view of Mackay, you can see right out to the harbour, into town and out towards the sugar mills.

To round out our trip, we headed on a bit of a tour around the local beaches out near Bucasia.

 I had managed to face plant it into the directional dial up at the lookout, so headed home for the afternoon to ice my wounds (got some very colourful bruises) before napping and heading out to dinner with the family at the local bowels club.