Bargara QLD

About Bargara

Bargara is a seaside holiday resort town with a road which runs along the coast – The Esplanade, Miller Street and Woongarra Scenic Drive – and a long strip of holiday homes, flats, apartments and motels all built between the beach and the hinterland. As recently as the 1980s Bargara (pronounced b’gara) was a sleepy coastal village full of interesting historic artifacts. There was a swimming pool which had been built out of the local volcanic rocks by the Kanakas – the slave labour brought from the South Pacific – and equally the kanakas had built impressive stone walls. Today the gods of development have taken over. The main street is full of chic cafes, a huge modern pub and lots of gift shoppes. The sea front – which in the 1980s was just a collection of fibro holiday homes – is now a solid row of five storey apartment blocks with land for development selling, in 2017, for $3.5 million and apartments trading for upwards of $700,000 (sourced from the Aussie Towns website – click for more).

Bargara Caravan Park

Checked into Bargara Beach Caravan Park for 4 nights, on the coast 15km east of Bundaberg (maplink).

After our set-up I headed over to check out the beach (right next to CP) and had a swim – the water was freezing! I’d already had daily swims as far south as Burleigh Heads, Byron Bay and Woolgoolga (730km away) and the water was FAR colder here; I just could not believe it. It was a “tight fit” in the caravan but we still enjoyed our stay. We did a great walk into town and had our lunch in the park over looking the beach. Noice!

Using Bargara as a base we ventured around the area, taking in some of the attractions on offer. Went into Bundaberg for a bit of an explore but, thanks to Covid19, the famous Bundaberg Distillery was closed to the public.

Elliot Heads

We discovered Elliot Heads which was a lovely little town to the south of Bargara. We took our lunch and had it in the park right on the beach and then took a stroll out to Dr Mays Island bird sanctuary. Elliot Heads is a beautiful spot to visit and there is a really great looking caravan park there which we’ll look at staying next time.

Tinaberries Strawberry Farm

Another outing took us to Tinaberries Strawberry Farm where we tried their super delicious ice-cream and naturally purchased a couple of punnets of there wonderful strawberries. On the way back we checked out The Hummock Lookout which has superb views over Bundaberg and the coast.

Our last little trip took us north to Burnett Heads for a look around. It was nothing notable except when I walked over to check out the (all rock) beach I discovered an Osprey in a tree attempting to eat a fish. There was no way he was going to loose that fish as he was buffeted around by very strong winds.

Summing up…

• Accommodation – Bargara Beach Caravan Park is not a bad park. Heaps of sites but we were pretty “packed” in with not much room
  • Cost per night – $42.00 (@ 28-Jul-2020)
  • Facilities – Pretty good, neat and clean but a bit dated
  • CP Location – top location right on the beach and a 10 minute walk into town (maplink)
  • Our rating/score – 7/10
• Was it a nice town to visit? – yes
  • Activities & places of interest – we had a good look around the nearby towns and took a day trip into Bundaberg but attractions were closed due to Covid regulations
  • Tourist info centre? – none in town (website)
  • Would we return? – probably/maybe
  • Overall Score – 8/10
• Summary – would probably return but will look for another location nearby (e.g. Elliot Heads or Hervey Bay), just to be different