First stop Noosa a beautiful resort area on the Sunshine Coast. Known for its expert surfers you could watch for hours. The Sunshine Beach is a lovely stroll and appears to be very popular with the retired ! We are out of season remember! We walked the coastal trail that runs north past the beaches of Noosa National Park, home to koalas around Tea Tree Bay, unfortunately we didn’t manage to get a sighting of the Koalas or the hump backed whales despite our trek up to the viewing point binoculars in hand. South of the Noosa Everglades are the waters of Lake Cootharaba and inland Lake MacDonald has the Noosa Botanic Gardens. This place was recommended by Grant, Leah and Clare and was a worthy stop ……unfortunately no room at the Inn for our big RV ! So we had to move on and start planning
In search of accommodation for the evening we had to travel onwards and ended up in a smaller town, Maryborough birthplace of the author of Mary Poppins, P.L. Travers 
They had a whole museum dedicated to her …..this was about all it had going for it ! Darkness had now fallen so weended up in a public RV stop with all the die hard campers ….a ghost town after dark with one bar at the very end of the main stretch and a definite feel of a hill billie town. The film ” Hot Fuzz” would be suitable analogy of the surroundings !
Daylight we were out of there this time up to Mackay only 600 k away ! Off the coast is a section of the Great Barrier Reef. Closer to shore are the islands of St. Bees, with reefs, rainforest and koalas, still the only Koalas we saw were on the side of the roads victims of road kill. Mackay itself is known for its Harbour Beach, marina and Bluewater Lagoon, a city water park. Inland from Mackay, Eungella National Park, too big for us to cover in our short visit.
Driving through the towns of Rockhampton, Hervey Bay etc really did put you in mind of America only much, much cleaner practically no litter whatsoever. We Brits could do with a bit of education on this culture!
A quick stopover in Mackay and on to Townsville a real highlight of the trip. They had an arts festival being held all along the coast and beach areas with lots of activity and shows throughout the day and into the evening ….a welcome change from our last two stops. Apparently this festival is held only once every two years and we just happened to arrive just in time. 
A beautiful place to stroll along The Strand esplanade with a lovely war memorial ” Kissing Point” at the end full of life, with great restaurants and families just getting together in the evenings for Barbecues just as you imagine the Aussies would do.
The views from the esplanade were off Magnetic Island so time to book a visit …..and why not
Bielsa’s bucket tour 