Bundaberg: A Rum Place

Welcome to Bear Territory

Wandering the streets Bundaberg’s CBD (Central Business District) almost feels like stepping back in time to the 1950’s. With its colonial buildings and small town mentality, it seems like you’ve wandered onto the set of Back to the Future.

If you feel you need a break from the hectic hustle and bustle of the CBD, take the short walk out to the delightfully sculptured Bundaberg Botanic Gardens where you can picnic next to the lake with the native critters.

Finally, no visit would be complete without a sip of the local brew. If you somehow manage to avoid the apparently mandatory Bundaberg Distillery Tour, you’ll have to make-do with a Friday-night out with the locals.

Quick Tips:

Most backpackers come to Bundy for the fruit-picking work, and you’ll no doubt be met by a representative from one of the hostels as soon as you step of the bus. The work is hard, and the pay isn’t great, but it’s easy to find and at least it gets you outdoors. But be warned, you will need a valid working visa and a local bank account.

There are some nice beaches a short distance from the town. If you manage to get enough of people together, your hostel will run you up there for free. Arrive at the right time of year and you will even get the chance to see the turtles nesting in that sunny-spot you had your eye on.

Best Way To Get Around:

Bundaberg has a very compact CBD with most of the hostels nearby, and can be easily explored on foot. Your hostel will arrange transport for trips out of town, whether you want to relax on the beaches or toil in the fields.

All the buses that head up and down the East Coast stop off at Bundaberg’s centrally located bus station, and there are a couple of travel agents dotted about the town for when you have managed to save up enough money to move on.

Founded in 1867 Bundaberg is a prime example of small town in Queensland and is home to a number of architectural curiosities; it’s well worth a quick wander around town.

Bundy's main landmark (with the possible exception of the distillery) is the Central Post Office on Bourbong St. Built in 1890, this classic colonial brick building features a ground floor of pillars and arches, a first floor of verandas and balustrades, and a 30-meter clock tower. Coloured lighting gives the building a fairy-tale feel after dark and you can even mail your postcards here. Out front in the middle of the small traffic island, the Soldiers Monument stands guard. Unveiled in 1921 as a memorial to the servicemen of Bundy who died drawing World War I, the tall red granite base is topped by a 2.28 meter Italian marble figure of an Aussie digger.

Another fine example of 19th-century colonial architecture is the Old Police Station on Quay St. originally built in 1882 as Bundy's first courthouse this became the main police station in 1958 when the courthouse was transferred to a new building further up the street. Also look out for the 1887 Payne Butler Lang Solicitors Building also on Quay St., the 1889 School of the Arts and the imposing 1891 National Australia Bank Building both on Bourbong St.

Bundy’s first church was opened in 1875 on Woongara St., the site is now occupied by the Holy Rosary Catholic Church. The church built in 1888 and reconstructed in 1926 is based on the design of a Roman temple and features some fine stained glass windows. Other churches also found along Woongara St. include St Andrews Uniting Church built in 1882 and reconstructed in 1932 with a 22-meter Carillion bell tower, Christ Church Anglican Church built in 1927 in English Gothic Style complete with 34-meter spire, lichgate and wayside cross, and the curious Church of Christ, a rather unpleasant cement-brick building built in 1927 around the edifice of an old wooden Baptist church relocated here from nearby Gympie.

The 20th century was ushered into Bundy by the opening of the traffic bridge in 1900 to replace the old ferry service across the Burnett River. Other turn of the century architectural wonders around town include the Old Customs House built in 1903, the brightly painted building now houses the Bundaberg Arts Centre and features regular exhibitions by local artists, and the Old Bank Building built in 1910 both on Quay St.

Later additions to the town’s heritage include Buss Park opened in the early 1930's, it features a 40 ton granite memorial to Bundy's favourite son pioneering aviator Bert Hinkler who died in 1933, the ugly Suncorp Building, Bundy's first high rise office block built in 1974 and the "Whaling Wall", a 6 storey mural by Robert Wyland unveiled in 1990, all of which can be found along Bourbong St.

There is a fairly set pattern to Friday nights in Bundy and it is a pattern that you ignore at your own risk as backpackers and locals join together with the aim of having a good time by consuming fermented vegetable juices and gyrating rhythmically to audio popular beat combos.

The night kicks off around 7pm at the Queenslander on Woongara St. This is a pleasant little bar with a striking mural painted on the outside that makes it impossible to miss. A live band normally plays the main bar while a DJ tries to get things kicking in the relaxed tropical garden out back, usually with little success, and don’t worry if it rains as the owners have recently covered the garden with a massive awning. The clientele includes travellers, locals and a wide variety of inbred weirdos who will want to talk to you. Zo is the bartender imported from Essex in England, serves up local brews XXXX Gold and my favourite XXXX Bitter (known locally as heavy) for $3 a schooner or $4 a pint. Other facilities include a video jukebox, a unisex toilet and the ubiquitous pokie room.

Around 10pm, the action moves down the street to Central where the prices are slightly cheaper and a can of Bundaberg Rum and Coke will set you back $6 (the locals choose cans over draft as the Coke used in the draft is considered too syrupy). As well as the relatively quiet bar facing the street, there’s a lively back bar with a dance floor and DJ and a large beer garden with a live band on stage. This place gets absolutely packed out by 11pm as the whole of Bundy turns out. The facilities are limited, the toilets are dilapidated (use the disabled if you really have to go) and there isn’t even a pokie room but if you’ve ever wanted to pull a farm girl (or boy) this is the place to be.

For the adventurous courtesy busses leave for Kristals Night Club in East Bundy between 12am and 1am where underage girls cavort in skimpy clothing and underage boys try and look hard, and everyone else looks embarrassed to be there, best bet is to give it a miss and stick around the Central until things start to wind up at around 3am. If after all that you’ve worked up an appetite the fast food café under the City Central Backpackers on Bourbong St. stays open late serving up some particularly nasty burgers and kebabs, although I can strongly recommend the chips.

Bundy is a small town and there’s rarely any trouble but it’s best to keep your wits about you as you wind your way home.

It is a long-standing tradition among visitors to Bundaberg to go on a tour of the Bundaberg Rum Distillery and like most traditions it is tedious and ultimately pointless.

The tour starts with visitors being stripped of cameras, mobile phones, walkmans, electronic games, diaries and translators, car keys, lighters, matches and anything else that could ignite the 70% proof air inside the distillery. Visitors are then numbed into a state of acquiescence by being forced to watch a truly tedious video, the only highlight of which is some old TV ads for Bundy Rum, before being lead into the distillery itself.

First stop is the molasses store, a giant vat of the sticky black gloop that is the bases of the rum; you are even given a chance to sample its sickly sweet taste. Next is fermentation and distillation, where great vats of bubbling raw alcohol give off a truly charming aroma. Then comes a brief glimpse of the magnificent maturation vats, which tower several stories and are filled with aging rum. Finally there is the bottling plant, which was closed for lunch at the time of my visit, but I’m sure is equally as boring at any time of day.

Visitors are the revived from their stupor with a couple of free drinks of rum and coke, rum and ginger beer, rum liquor or soft drinks for those stupid enough to bring their car or cruel enough to bring their kids. Fully revived visitors are then ushered into the gift shop to purchase overpriced branded merchandise or slightly discounted booze.

The tour takes around half an hour costs around $10 and is worth neither the time nor the money, but like I said if you’re in town you’ll go anyway because it is a tradition.

2km north of Bundy's CBD on the other side of the Burnett River lies the towns botanic gardens, 27.4ha of pristine parkland set out around two large artificial lakes. Re-landscaped in 1986 the gardens 10,000 trees and shrubs provide a tranquil refuge to over 144 species of birds and a fair number of people.

Dominating the main entrance to the gardens is the spectacular colonial edifice of the 1890 Fairymead House, relocated here during the bicentennial to house the informative, all-be-it a little dry, Sugar Museum (open daily 10am to 4pm, admission $3) that tells you everything you could possibly want to know, and perhaps a little bit more, about the town major industry.

The gardens main attraction however is a curiously out-of-place 1920's estate house relocated here brick-by-brick from England. This was the home of local hero Bert Hinkler during his stay in Southampton and now houses a Memorial Museum (open daily 10am to 4pm, admission $5) to his short life and his pioneering solo flight from England to Australia. Although personally, I found the dilapidated English house stuffed with Bert's personal artifacts and photographs about as inspiring as a visit to my grandparents' house.

Far more interesting is the nearby historical museum (open daily 10am to 4pm, admission $3), a renovated barn housing a curious collection of junk from the towns past that no one had the heart to throw away, including broken farm machinery, war memorabilia and fading photographs of forgotten people. This is a frustrating and occasionally rewarding chance to rustle through the attic of an entire town.

In front of the historical museum is a small railway station (open Sundays and holidays 10am to 4pm) where you can buy tickets to ride the 610mm gauge stream-powered locomotive from the old cane railway that transports visitors around the park. Other facilities include Ann’s Kiosk & Restaurant providing reasonably priced pies and cakes, picnic and barbeque facilities, a rose garden and even a pleasant little outdoor wedding chapel should the mood take you during your visit.

All in all, it’s a pleasant little place to take a break from the hectic pace of small town life.