Bundaberg, Australia

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visitors.

The huge storage and bulk terminal facility at Port Bundaberg, 16km northeast, can store over 300,000 tons of sugar. From the Hummock, a 100m high hill, there is a good view of the green irrigated sugar-cane plantations. In the town itself there are a number of handsome Victorian buildings (the School of Arts, the post office, the customs house, Christ Church and the Holy Rosary Church).

Bundaberg was the birthplace in 1892 of the aviation pioneer Bert Hinkler, who made the first solo flight from Britain to Australia in 1928. He made his first attempt to fly in a glider on Mon Repos Beach in 1912. There is a monument to him on the Hummock, and the Hinkler family house in Mount Perry road is now a memorial museum. Bert Hinkler was killed in an air crash in the Italian Alps in 1933.

The large (and strictly protected) loggerhead and other turtles come to lay their eggs on Mon Repos Beach.

Bundaberg is the most southerly gateway to the Great Barrier Reef. There are cruises from the town to the uninhabited Lady Musgrave Island and flights to Lady Elliot Island (with resort complex).