Bundaberg is the town most people fly over to reach the reef. That’s a mistake
Bundaberg is known for its rum and sugar cane, and most Australians treat it as somewhere to fly over on the way to Airlie Beach or the Whitsundays.
Two days in the region were enough to make the case that it deserves a stop of its own. There’s so much to do in Bundaberg. Even in the middle of winter.
Bundaberg deserves to be a stop on a trip in Queensland. iStock
The glamping stay that works even in winter
Splitters Farm is a 65-hectare rescue property on Splitters Creek about 10 minutes from Bundaberg’s centre.
It’s home to more than 400 rescued farm animals, and the guided Farm Tour takes guests paddock to paddock to meet them.
Expect horses, goats, cows and camels among them. One resident alpaca greeted me with a spit, which felt like a fair welcome to the country.
I stayed in one of Splitters Farm’s glamping tents, which is by far the most “glamp” tent I’ve ever experienced. With a full bathroom and separate bedrooms, it’s hotel-living in the middle of a farm.
Going for a morning walk with my new friends, the ducks, peacocks and goats was a marvel.
The evening wound down with a hands-on damper-making session by the campfire, dinner from the Rock and Loaded food van (pie, chips and gravy, since you’re asking), and a few hours by the fire before an early night in a glamping tent overlooking the creek. Winter Perfection.
I could have held this three-week-old goat all day. Supplied/Immy Abdullah
Food and drink in Bundaberg
There are a few must-stop places in Bundaberg.
Macadamias Australia is a working macadamia farm that offers guided tour walks through “Macadamia Lane”, tracing the nut from its origins as a native food, to its place as one of Bundaberg’s biggest modern exports, before ending at a viewing window where chocolatiers hand-make macadamia chocolate.
You’ll learn how Macadamias are “Queensland’s nut” and how the nuts are harvested and packaged and distributed all around the world.
Lunch followed at the onsite Orchard Table: a macadamia-crusted salmon that was excellent.
Bundaberg Barrel is a visitor attraction at the home of Bundaberg Brewed Drinks. Eighteen flavours are on offer for tasting, and it turns out only a handful are actually ginger beer.
The rest are sodas in flavours from blood orange to root beer. Sampling all of them on top of lunch is a genuinely fun but sugar-heavy exercise, and one worth pacing yourself through more than I did!
There’s so much to do in Bundaberg! Immy Abdullah
The icecream at Tinaberries is to die for. Supplied/Immy Abdullah
Tinaberries is a family-run strawberry farm in nearby Woongarra. It’s a recreation haven for the kids with plenty of picnic spaces and activities to play. You must try the strawberries and house-made ice cream – the Humdinger flavour is worth asking for! The strawberries were, without exaggeration, the best strawberries I’ve had. It’s a small, low-key stop, but exactly the kind of slow afternoon a farm town does well.
The reef trip worth the seasickness tablets
Bundaberg’s real headline act is offshore. The Lady Musgrave Experience runs full-day tours from Bundaberg Port Marina out to Lady Musgrave Island, a coral cay that sits inside the only navigable lagoon on the whole Great Barrier Reef.
Boats can sail directly into a natural, reef-enclosed harbour rather than anchoring offshore.
It’s a genuinely rare piece of geography, and it makes the island one of the more accessible reef experiences from the Australian mainland.
Lady Musgrave Island is one of the more accessible reef experiences. iStock
One practical tip worth taking seriously: pack the seasickness tablets. The open-water, two-hour journey can catch out even confident sailors, and it caught me.
But the moment the smaller transfer boat reaches Lady Musgrave Island itself, all of that is forgotten. The island feels genuinely lost in time.
A walking loop of Lady Musgrave Island passes trees that are centuries old (and a root system “holding” the island together).
Lady Musgrave Island is stunning. Supplied/Immy Abdullah
There’s also a glass-bottom boat tour around the surrounding reef, which genuinely is an incredible way to see the Great Barrier Reef.
Snorkelling in the lagoon is included for anyone keen to get in the water with the resident turtles and reef fish. It’s the kind of Great Barrier Reef access that’s usually associated with a much longer, much pricier trip north.
Lady Musgrave Experience tours depart from Bundaberg Port Marina and run close to a full day.
Getting there
Qantas flies into Bundaberg from Sydney and Brisbane.
This writer travelled as a guest of Tourism and Events Queensland.
