M8Cruzn Aus

12/07/2026

Cardwell by the sea, 3.0.
Another week or so at Cardwell by the sea, camping, crabbing, catching fish, camp cooking, a few walks and sitting around the camp fire.

Cardwell is a small town on the edge of the Bruce Highway adjacent Hinchinbrook island. It has a long waterfront with walking paths along it, rainforest type trees, and a jetty. Cardwell was smashed in 2011 by Cyclone Yasi. I drove through whilst working up this way in 2011, there was hardly a leaf left on the trees and most of them were broken off halfway up their trunk.

We stayed again at Meunga Creek caravan park, beside the creek. The park is basic but is laid back and has plenty of space. You can spread out a bit, light fires and not feel crowded like many caravan parks. No bookings or deposits required.

The caravan park is also the home of Cardwell pies also known as Jesse's Pies. Bob and his brother have been making and selling pies in Caldwell for 30 years. They are all baked in the kitchen beside the office at the caravan park and sold by Bob from his yellow ute and trailer down at the Cardwell foreshore on the southern end of town. $8.50 for a cheese, bacon and beef pie, they are pretty good pies too. Bob recons the recipe for their pies hasn't changed in the 30 years, but the economy has, it is going down the toilet and is now much harder to make a living and stay in business.

We put the boat in at the Meunga Creek ramp. The ramp is located near the mouth of the creek. The ramp is small and a bit stinky with mangrove mud at low tide. Meunga creek could be described as "infested with crocodiles" because it pretty much is.

The main town boat ramp is accessed from the marina area and gives access to the Hinchinbrook Channel, sometimes. The QLD government have been saying for a couple of years they are going to dredge the main channel to the town marina and ramp. That hasn't happened yet and boats cant access the Hinchinbrook channel from town on under a 1.6m tide. Those boats that stay in the channel or marina, sit on the mud half of their lives.

07/07/2026

Moving North, looking for warmer weather. We stopped at Baffle Creek, just north of Bundaberg, then Rockhampton, Proserpine and Townsville before settling in at Cardwell for a while.

02/06/2026

Its that time again, yes winter. Time to migrate north. We have had a stack of rain lately, about 300mm in a week, but it seems to be getting better, hopefully. This year we decided to spend a week in Yamba on the way north.
We stayed at Fishing Haven Holiday Park which is located on Palmers Island on the Clarence River. The Clarence is a mighty river system, the largest river system on the Australian eastern seaboard south of the Tropic of Capricorn, it is nearly 400km long and flows around 100 islands.
The weather was against us with southerly winds blowing up wind chop on the river a metre high. The little M8fishn boat was getting smashed against the pontoon so we had to get it off the river and back on the trailer. I did manage to bag out on Mud crabs and caught a flathead in the limited time I had on the water.
Checking out the local Butcher (as we do) in Yamba, we saw a meat vending machine in the Butchers shopfront, where you can purchase your meat after hours. What a great idea for a carnivore.

Next stop we spent a night at the Nomads Rest campsite just east of Gympie, $20.00 a night unpowered a great little stop over.
Gympie is famous for its historical gold mines. It has heaps of old heritage buildings. It is on the Mary River, is very hilly and floods. It also has the cheapest Diesel fuel we have found so far.

We are currently at Burrum Heads, about 20km north of Hervey Bay. The weather is better, a bit cold in the morning at 7degrees and windy in the arvo. Burrum Heads is on the Isis, Gregory and Burrum Rivers. It is a small but growing community of about 3000 people, but like all good holiday locations gets smashed at Christmas and Easter by tourists. It has a couple of new housing estates, nice walks along the waterfront and great boating facilities (ramps and trailer parking). We have stayed here several times in the distant past. On the water today I brought back a decent flatty and a mudcrab .

05/04/2026

Happy Easter.

21/03/2026

A few photos from a recent Myall Lakes Trip.

24/12/2025

Merry Christmas, Time to party.

21/11/2025

Happy Birthday Boat.

07/11/2025

07/11/2025

A few more Myall River and lakes photos.

05/11/2025

Super moon over the Myall Lakes. Guess the actual location on the lakes.