Hervey Bay Gossip

The first week of a four-week stretch of school holidays (two in Queensland and then two in New South Wales) has just ended and it’s certainly been rough for some. A week of winds from the north has made conditions out on the water unpleasant and it was so rough on Wednesday that most, if not all, whale boat operators cancelled their trips for that day.

 Resort and apartment bookings are also down on last year. A few ‘no vacancy’ signs did appear along the Esplanade during the week but bookings for this coming week are not encouraging and these days most visitors to Hervey Bay are coming from south-east Queensland so no one in the accommodation industry is expecting much from the last two weeks of the holiday period.

The dust storm certainly didn’t help things either and even now the town seems to be covered in a thin layer of dust. Hopefully the next couple of weeks will be better … at least as far as the weather is concerned … and the whales are still out there so if you’re thinking of taking a whale watching trip now’s a good time to do it.

Even the beach at Torquay was looking a little ragged this morning.

Diabetics in Hervey Bay will welcome the news that another Hervey Bay pharmacy has been appointed as a sub-agent of the National Diabetes Services Scheme. Beachside Pharmacy down on the Esplanade at Scarness is now able to provide a reliable supply of all approved products and support for everyone registered with the scheme.

If you’re a diabetic then call in and meet the staff who will be only too happy to help you with all your NDSS related needs.

 

Despite the downturn in the Australian economy more and more people are looking to make a seachange and move to Hervey Bay. Over the past couple of years Hervey Bay has begun to change from the pleasant retreat it once was to a bustling urban centre where traffic is becoming a problem and the seachange atmosphere is on the verge of disappearing.

However it’s still possible to live close to Hervey Bay and still enjoy the quiet life by the beach that you may be dreaming about. Not only do you get that quiet lifestyle but it’s going to cost you a whole lot less than you might pay for the equivalent house and land packages in Hervey Bay.

Burrum Heads is just a 30 minute drive up the coast and right now you can buy a house and land package in Dolphin Waters Estate for under $334,000. Dolphin Waters Estate is the only estate in the township and the land is selling fast so if you want to make a seachange to Hervey Bay then follow the link to discover the bargains and the lifestyle that are currently available in one of the most picturesque spots on the Fraser Coast.

The new Ramada resort in Hervey Bay opens for business on Tuesday and as late as Sunday morning people were still working hard to finish the building.

The choice of the person to be the face of the new resort is sure to raise some eyebrows among locals who have been in Hervey Bay for more than a couple of years and it certainly didn’t impress one neighbor who had this sign on a driveway next to the new resort “Bugger off girlie the driveway isn’t yours.”

Will we see Ramada go the same way as Peppers Pier Resort? Only time will tell.

Over the years I’ve had a chance to peek inside a few motorhomes and they range from fairly basic home-built roughies right through to luxury on wheels and this one definitely comes in at the top end of the scale.

Ross Bonney from Dundowran seems to build luxury custom-built motorhomes for a hobby. You can see his first attempt built inside a Toyota Coaster bus here. Once Ross offered that one for sale it went very quickly so he just had to build another but this time using a different vehicle and here it is.

 

This luxury motorhome is built using a 2002 long-wheelbase high roof Mercedes Sprinter and it’s just as stunning as the coaster was. Now it’s for sale as Ross starts thinking about the next motorhome he wants to build. You can see more of this luxury motorhome by following the link and if you want to buy it you’ll find contact details for Ross at the end of the link too.

Earlier this week Peppers Pier Resort and the Bayswater Hotel and Restaurantin Hervey Bay went into receivership.

It was only a few years ago that Peppers Pier Resort was heralded as the beginning of a new age of tourism in Hervey Bay but it looks as though that new age never quite dawned. Tourist numbers are down and in an effort to maintain occupancy rates the resort was charging well below the market rate. As one industry insider said to me this week: “it’s hard to make any money when you’re charging 2.5 star rates for 5 star accommodation”.

Included in the receivership at the resort are 20 units which does make you wonder how the people who invested money in all the other units are doing. It also makes you wonder when either the Fraser Coast Regional Council or the Tourism Board is going to wake up to the fact that Hervey Bay lost its stranglehold on the whale watching market at least two years ago.

This is the time of year when the whales come to Hervey Bay … the Humpback whales that is … but whale researchers spotted a Southern Right Whale and her calf in the bay a couple of days ago.

Southern Right Whales are very rare visitors to Hervey Bay but experts suggest that if one has come in with it’s calf then we should see more in the future.

Although quite different to our regular Humpback whales it seems that the 14 metre Southern Right Whale put on just as good a display as the Humpbacks do.

Even though Australia has managed to ride-out the current financial crisis there certainly has been plenty of jobs lost and businesses that have gone to the wall.

Here in Hervey Bay we’ve seen big developments come to a grinding halt, well-known building franchises go bust, sub-contractors go broke and empty shops begin to appear as small businesses give up the struggle to survive. All that gloom might have you thinking that Hervey Bay and the Wide Bay-Burnett region and stopped being the growth area that it once was but a report released today by Bankwest contains a surprise for this region.

Despite all the closures and failures the Wide Bay-Burnett is one of the top 20 areas for employment growth in Australia. a figure of 6 percent job growth puts us at number 15 on the list.