Wide Bay and Capricorn Coast
ride wave of success By Grantlee Kieza, Industry Reporter
When Hollywood hero Chris Hemsworth rode the waves at Surf Lakes Yeppoon last year, he made Queensland’s Capricorn Coast world news. It seems Queenslanders, too, have been discovering this paradise in their own backyard. While some say the COVID pandemic devastated the world tourism market, it actually increased visitors to places such as the Capricorn Coast and the neighbouring Wide Bay-Burnett region as border closures forced Queenslanders to holiday at home. The Surf Lakes site has been operating as a prototype to test and develop a unique wave making technology since 2018. Hemsworth, Marvel Comic’s real-life Thor, carved up the best breaks in surf park innovation when he visited the site last year. After his visit Hemsworth said: “My eight-year-old’s first ever tube – something he and I are going to remember forever.” The wave pool research and development site will finally open to the public in 2024, almost certainly guaranteeing a whole new wave of visitors to the area.
Mary Carroll, the CEO of Capricorn Enterprise, the region’s peak tourism organisation, said it would prove a boon for an area already experiencing great visitor numbers.
day, with Freedom Fast Cats increasing their ferry timetable to accommodate. All other cruising and tour charters, and island accommodations were also booked out over this period which was fantastic.
Ms Carroll told Resort News: “Accommodation and tour operators on the Capricorn Coast reported a very strong Christmas and New Year holiday period with popular attractions such as Capricorn Caves, Koorana Crocodile Farm and Cooberrie Park Wildlife Sanctuary reporting very busy trade.
“Whilst there were a few vacancies in the higher-end accommodation properties on the mainland, most rooms were booked out during the season.”
“Koorana Crocodile Farm had to cap their bookings at 200 and ran two tours per day.” Ms Carroll said while most visitors to this destination were domestic (about 90 percent), both Koorana and Cooberrie Park Wildlife Sanctuary reported that self-drive international visitors from Europe, India and Asia were among their guests. This is an encouraging trend. “Cooberrie Park Wildlife Sanctuary had higher visitation than previous years, reporting that their international visitation has returned to pre-COVID numbers during this time,” she said. “Great Keppel Island businesses enjoyed an exceptionally busy time over the festive holiday season with over 1000 visitors to the island every
Adam and Sinead Stokje are the resident managers of luxury beachfront resort Pavillions on 1770. The superb apartment complex is located midway between Agnes Water and Seventeen Seventy, about 90 minutes north of Bundaberg on the Discovery Coast. “This location here is so picturesque,” Mr Stokje told Resort News, “and while it’s never overcrowded, we get very busy at holiday times because everyone in Australia is now discovering the area and what it has to offer.” Overlooking the magnificent Keppel Bay, Adam’s parents Andrea and Bill Stokje run the Oshen Holiday Apartments in Yeppoon. Bill said most of his guests come from the mining areas around Emerald and Moranbah. While it’s not that far for them to travel, it is a dramatic contrast to the places where many of them work.
Beyond hoteliers themselves, the uptick in visitors is being witnessed by industry more broadly. Paul Grant from Mike Phipps Finance said the accommodation industry was “going very strong” on both the Capricorn Coast and the Wide Bay-Burnett areas. The company has helped to finance some motels in Bundaberg recently. “Bundaberg is kicking massive goals in the motel business at the moment. They’ve got the hospital there that drives a lot of business, and they have a population of around 100,000 people, which makes it a significant city. “People forget how big Bundaberg and its surrounds are for a regional centre. It has its own economy there and one of the guys we’ve helped with finance is a motel owner who (in his words) says it’s just a licence to print money these days. “The motel business is super strong there. Bargara (13km east of Bundaberg) is a beautiful coastal area that’s very desirable and it generates a great deal of holiday business, too.” Mr Grant said a lot of the corporate travellers who come to Bundaberg for business decide to stay at Bargara because it is only a short drive from the city and it is situated in “a beautiful holiday atmosphere”. P42
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March 2023
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