John and Jill Nth QLD Travels: Port Macquarie

Port Macquarie

Port Macquarie was founded as a penal colony in 1821. It is on the Hastings River and is said to have the most liveable climate in Australia and so is popular with retirees. We had pleasant weather here too. We enjoyed walking along the break wall path and along the town beach to historic Flagstaff Hill. This is where boats were signalled when the River was closed or if they needed a 12 man crew to row boats in over the shallow entrance into Port.

We stayed at a lovely quiet, spacious Park set amongst the bush called Light House Beach. It was sheltered from sea winds but we could still here the waves. It was a 10 min drive into town. (They have koalas there at times.) It had a lovely pool and no children swimming when we were there. It was 2 mins walk to light house beach where we saw camel rides. When the camels growled we decided we would pass on the camel ride. We walked a short walk up to Tacking Point look out and Light House. It was a calm morning and we spotted 2 whales here. You can't go inside the light house but it is a great view.

We enjoyed the rain forest board walk at Sea Acres, in a now rare rainforest area that was set aside many years ago. An interesting local volunteer lady gave us a guided tour. Unfortunately we didn't have time to visit the koala Hospital this trip. The 14 room museum in the CBD was very interesting and had a number of costumes on display. It has several heritage listed convict built buildings, such as St Thomas' Church, which is the oldest Church still in use in Australia.