Australia is BIG and has a small population relative to its landmass. With many wide open spaces and, often not a lot in between, it makes for great roadtrippin’. I love remote locations and it doesn’t take much in Australia to feel like you’re at the end of the earth.

As 2019 came to an end, I found myself wrapping up a tour in Australia. Since returning home and experiencing some of the fire destruction there, I feel compelled to share with you the amazing road trip I ventured on, up the Queensland coast.

I said goodbye to the band and crew in Brisbane and picked up a one-way re-location rental car to be dropped in Cairns, just over 1,000 miles worth of road to cover in eight days.

Bundaberg

I hit the road with my sights set on the town of Bundaberg, about a four-hour drive north of Brisbane. To Australians, Bundaberg is the home of their beloved Bundaberg rum and Bundaberg ginger beer. “Bundy,” as the locals call it, is a classic Queensland country town that thrives off its farmlands.

I stayed on the coast in Bargara, about 10 minutes outside Bundy. This area is known for green sea turtles. I checked in and headed to the beach at sunset. Volunteers come down to the beach every night and ensure the turtles have a safe place to lay their eggs. After they do, they relocate them to Mon Repos beach down the way so they are able to hatch. I spotted a turtle coming to shore in the distance and by the time we had come back after dinner, a second turtle had come to shore and layed 120 eggs. Unreal!

In the morning I hit the Bundaberg Soda Factory and museum. You are most likely familiar with their ginger beer, made from real fruit juice. They make 19 different soda flavors AND you get to taste test them all! Everything from the original ginger and mango coconut to passionfruit and guava. The staff can tell you where they source the fruits from and, at the end of the taste test, you can fill a six-pack carton with your favorites to take home.

I stopped at the rum factory down the road as well as Nightingales pie shop for a quick pie with mushie peas in Bundy. They have won countless national pies awards and rightly so. It had all the elements of a good Aussie meat pie.

Rockhampton

With my sights set on Rockhampton, about a 3.5-hour drive north, we took the back road out on Bundaberg and quickly hit a long red dirt road. Having passed maybe one car on the way, we arrived back on the Bruce Highway or as the locals call it “The Bruce.” I like “The Bruce” and it’s become my frame of reference for this trip.

I’ve read that Rockhampton is the beef capital of Queensland. As we reached Rockhampton, you could feel a sense of old time Australia. Every corner has a Queensland-style pub and the lifestyle is slow. In rural Australia, I’ve found the people generally keep things simple and most locals like to go to the pub after work for a beer and a good meal. So, naturally, a pub is the best place to go for a steak.

The next morning, I jumped back on “The Bruce” and headed north, with Bowen in my sights.

About one hour north of Rockhampton is really the first time “The Bruce” highway meets the coast. The Great Barrier Reef starts in Bundaberg and runs 1,900 miles up the Queensland coast. The water is crystal clear and green and bears the true beauty of untouched Australia.

Bowen

Bowen is the mango capital of Australia. I was excited to head north to see some mango trees and try some fresh mangos. December is prime mango season, so my timing was perfect! There were mango trees off the side of the road with ripe fruit as far as the eye could see.

I had the best fish and chips I've ever had at the marina. Bowen Fisherman’s Seafood Co. is a family-owned and operated seafood wholesale company that has been exporting seafood internationally for 30 years. About five years ago, they opened Birds Fish Bar on the marina. The seafood is as fresh as it gets. I had the Red Emperor Fish ‘n Chips with chicken salt (an Australian-only condiment, basically seasoned salt). I enjoyed them on the deck overlooking the quaint marina. It was truly a memorable experience and I encourage everyone to stop there if you are roadtripping between Airlie Beach and Cairns.

Bowen has some stunning beaches. Horseshoe Bay and Rose Bay are my picks, and they are about a 10-minute drive from the town center. The Rose Bay Resort, nestled on the beach front, is my pick of places to stay. The views and serenity at this spot are idyllic and the prices are reasonable, about $140 USD per night.

Saying goodbye to Bowen, I jumped back on “The Bruce” and set out for Townsville, about 2.5 hours north. On our way out, we stopped at a local mango farm and picked up a few for the road. They were so fresh and delicious!

Townsville

Townsville is a major port city and gateway to the Great Barrier Reef. The further north you travel, the closer the reef gets to the Australian coastline. The town of Townsville was founded in 1864 following the Gold Rush and significant amounts of federation-style architecture can be seen throughout the city and its outskirts.

Etty Bay

North of Townsville, you begin to see cassowary signs. A hotel manager told me to stop at Etty Bay to see some cassowaries. Having no idea what a cassowary was, we followed the signs north to find them. This part of North Queensland has some of the highest rainfall in the country; from the highway, it’s sugarcane fields and banana plantations as far as the eye can see. It’s really beautiful.

Sure enough, as we arrived in Etty Bay, we saw a cassowary! As I slowed down to get a closer look, it appeared as what I can only describe as a large, dinosaur-like black bird, with an incredible colored head and beak.

Port Douglas

For the night, I headed to Port Douglas, about 45 minutes north of Cairns. I’d been told it’s a great launching point for the Daintree rainforest. The Daintree is the most ancient rainforest in the world and is a must see. To get into the forest, you must cross the Daintree cable ferry that runs every 15 minutes.

As you cross, you can see tourist boats on the Daintree River looking for crocodiles! The scenery is really special. There are many lookouts and trails where you can stop as you drive for miles under the rainforest canopy. The beaches are untouched and lined with coconut trees, and it’s mind boggling how much of the Australian coast is barely inhabited.

The town of Port Douglas has an excellent walkable village with many restaurants and shops. It’s more localized and mellow than Cairns. It has many great resorts and hotels on a 4-mile beach and, like Cairns, it has daily snorkel, diving and helicopter tours to the reef. For food, look no further than Zipangu, it’s seriously good Japanese.

Cairns

We went onto Cairns to drop off the car and headed out to Green Island for a few days. There are a lot of Chinese and Japanese tourists in Cairns, and there is no shortage of great restaurants to service visitors.

I found it to be a very interesting tourist town and had some of the best food on my road trip here.

Green Island

Green Island is a 6,000-year-old coral cay, about a 45-minute boat ride from Cairns. A 46-room, luxury resort sits on one side of the island. On the other, you’ll find a snorkeling beach and day visitor area, plus a long pier with glass bottom boats and dive and snorkel tours to other reefs and Marineland Melanesia, the home of Cassius, the largest crocodile in captivity.

George Craig moved to Green Island in 1971 after hunting crocodiles in Port Moresby for years. There was an uninhabited croc park on Green Island, and George decided to move his family, the crocs and his amazing collection of Melanesian tribal art. His collection is known to be one of the largest private collections of tribal art in the world. A friend of mine had linked me up with Sid, George’s grandson, and Sid took great care of us on the island. We got a private tour of the crocodiles and got to meet George. He is so humble and cool and has such a youthful spirit. There are more than 50 crocodiles and you can watch them feed twice a day.

I took a trip out to Norman Reef to snorkel and It was an unforgettable experience. I’d snorkeled a lot as a kid, but had never seen the variety of coral and marine life as I did on this trip. It was like I was swimming in the picture books I had studied!

On my last night on Green Island, I went out to the pier with a torch to spot some sharks. I spotted two lemon sharks, a black tip reef shark and a white tip reef shark, close to shore where I’d been snorkeling with sea turtles hours earlier! Whoa! The marine life on the reef is abundant and my time on Green Island was a truly special experience.

Australia is a special place and, for me, this road trip was only a snapshot into what it has to offer. There is so much beauty in this country and there is no better time to see it than now.

How to road trip up coastal Queensland in Australia