Emu Park

After a night camping with about 5 layers of clothes and waking up still freezing, Jo and I decided to make moves and drive the last 9 hours of our trip in one go. The car had a slightly funny noise when we started and there was some panic that I had damaged the car from incorrectly shifting from 5th gear to 2nd. The need for car maintenance paired with chilly nighttime temperatures, we knew it was time to get to a bigger town.

We looked up a few hostels for work for accommodation options, and decided to call Emu Park Beach Resort, about a 45 minute drive past Rockhampton and right on the beach. The owner Paul sounded so cheerful and friendly on the phone, he told us to come on by and we’d have a free night stay, free BBQ, and could talk in the morning about work opportunities. 

Turns out, the place was very odd. Paul had a “I’ll be nice to you so you owe me” attitude - he played middleman between Jo and the mechanic, offered a job opportunity but only if we stayed and paid for the nights at the hostel despite the job being in another town a 45 minute drive away, and even handled the money for another girl’s job. Two girls were managing the place as part of the Working Holiday visa and could not have been more difficult to connect with.

We felt trapped with the car at the mechanic and an unknown diagnosis of what the damage could be. Luckily, a few days into our time, a French couple arrived and we instantly connected. At this point, there were more workers than guests. We took advantage of this and used the time to clean all of our rooms since they were covered in dust and the walls had mold - might as well use all the extra people to make our living space more liveable!

We went down to the local pub to watch the first State of Origin rugby game (yup, I’m a rugby fan now! — okay okay, I watched this big game series and that’s it, but I understand the rules and have favorite players so it’s a start).

Another day we adventured to a neighboring beach town, Yeppoon, for meandering walks to nonexistent National Parks and another attempt at getting a thick shake (remember, milkshake is just shaken milk and thick shake actually has ice cream…so bizarre).  The lagoon offered beautiful views over the ocean.

Emu Park itself was very small but not bad. Most days we had the beach completely to ourselves besides the occasional person walking their dog - a bit too cold for swimming but I don’t know if I’ll ever get tired of listening to waves. The ANZAC walk memorial wraps around the coast, offering a boardwalk that meanders past historical pictographs and art silhouettes.

The report from the mechanic came in and it turned out the timing belt needed to be replaced due to an error by the mechanic in Alice Springs. Not the best news as it was still expensive but the car would be driveable which was definitely positive!

While Emu Park was not my favorite place, we met some cool people and it was quite the experience. I learned that not everyone in the travel community has a positive presence and it’s important to trust your gut and say no if an opportunity doesn’t feel right.