Bundaberg, Queensland
Bundaberg () is a city and
Local Government Area of
Queensland,
Australia. The city lies on the
Burnett River, approximately 385 kilometres north of the state capital,
Brisbane. Bundaberg is a major centre within Queensland's
Wide Bay-Burnett region. The population of Bundaberg is about 72,000.
|
View of Bundaberg town centre from the Burnett River bridge. |
Subtropical Bundaberg is dependent to a large extent on the local
sugar industry. Extensive
sugar cane fields extend throughout the district, and value-adding operations such as the milling and refinement of sugar and its packaging and distribution are located around the city. A bulk terminal for the exportation of sugar is located on the coast east of Bundaberg. Another of the city's better-known exports is
Bundaberg Rum, which is made from the sugar cane by-product
molasses. Commercial fruit and vegetable production is also prominent throughout the district, most notably
tomatoes,
zucchinis,
capsicums,
legumes and
watermelons are grown in abundant quantities.
|
Bundaberg town centre with Bundaberg General Post Office to the right. |
Tourism is an important industry to Queensland and Bundaberg is known as the 'Gateway to the
Great Barrier Reef'. The city lies near the southern end of the reef in proximity to
Lady Elliot and
Lady Musgrave Islands. The world famous
Mon Repos turtle rookery is located on the coast just east of Bundaberg, as is the town of
Bargara, an increasingly popular holiday and retirement destination.
Bundaberg has a typical
subtropical climate. The mean daily maximum temperature is highest in January at 30.3
Celsius, and lowest in July at 22.0 degrees Celsius. The mean annual rainfall is 1141.0 millimetres [
1].
Bundaberg is situated at the end of the
Isis Highway (State Route 3), approximately 50 km east of its junction with the
Bruce Highway. Bundaberg is serviced by several
Queensland Rail passenger trains, including the
Tilt Train and is approximately four hours north of Brisbane by
rail. Many long-distance
bus services also pass through the city. Bundaberg has its own airport, with flights to Brisbane and Lady Elliot Island. Adjacent to the airport is a campus of
Central Queensland University. The city is home to the
Jabiru Aircraft Company, which designs and manufactures a range of small civil utility aircraft.
|
Looking down Bourbong Street, Bundaberg town centre. |
The city name is thought to be an artificial combination of
bunda, the Kabi
Aboriginal word denoting important man and the
German suffix
berg indicating mountain. The local Aboriginal group is the Gurang-Gurang (goo-rang goo-rang) people.
Bundaberg was founded by timbergetters John and Gavin Steuart and Lachlan Tripp in 1867. The first farmers in the area arrived soon after. Timber was the first established industry in Bundaberg. In 1868, a sawmill was erected on the Burnett River, downstream from the Steuart and Watson holdings. The city was surveyed, laid out and named Bundaberg in 1870. Experimental sugar cane growing in the district followed and a successful industry grew. The early sugar industry in Bundaberg was supported by
Kanaka labour. Bundaberg was gazetted a town in 1902 and a city in 1913.
Bundaberg has
sister city agreements with
Nanning,
China and
Settsu City,
Japan.
|
Bert Hinkler is memorialised in many places throughout Bundaberg |
Well-known inhabitants of Bundaberg include:
*
Bert Hinkler, pioneer
aviator*
Gladys Moncrieff,
singer*
Vance Palmer,
writer*
Don Tallon, Australian
Cricketer
*
Mal Meninga,
rugby league footballer
*
Chris Sarra,
2004 Queenslander of the Year
*
Michelle Steele, Australian
skeleton representative at the
2006 Winter Olympics.
Representatives
Current* Hon
Nita Cunningham, (
Australian Labor Party),
State member for
Bundaberg*
Paul Neville (
National Party of Australia),
Federal member for
Hinkler Former*
Prime Ministers Andrew Fisher and
Frank Forde both represented
Federal electorates that included Bundaberg, yet neither was from there.
Bundaberg has attracted national media attention in
2005 due to the alleged incompetence of Bundaberg Base Hospital surgical director
Jayant Patel, who has been implicated in the deaths of up to 87 patients.
Bundaberg also was the location of another health-related disaster in
1928, when 12 children died shortly after receiving injections of
diphtheria vaccine. At the time, the vaccine was created by the
toxin-antitoxin, or
TAT process, where diphtheria toxin was combined with
antibodies from horses, which served to eliminate the toxicity of the toxin while leaving it intact enough to stimulate a long-lasting
immune response in the recipient. The vaccine, produced by the
State Serum Institute in
Perth, world renowned for the quality of its work and products, was dispensed to the city's children without incident; however, two weeks later, when they received a
booster shot, all the children became very ill, and 12 died. Initial fears that the TAT process had failed to neutralize the diphtheria toxin in this instance were allayed when an investigation by an Australian Royal Commission, headed by future
Nobel Prize winning immunologist
Macfarlane Burnett, found that the vaccine had become contaminated by
Staphylococcus aureus during the first round of injections. During the two week gap, these bacteria had multiplied in the vaccine, producing a different toxin (see
toxic shock syndrome). As a result of this finding, the Royal Commission issued a strong recommendation, adopted by all major manufacturers, that all vaccines packaged in containers containing multiple doses incorporate an antibacterial preservative. After testing of various compounds for toxicity and compatibility with the vaccine, the optimal preservative was determined to be
thimerosal, which, ironically, has now become controversial due to questions of its own toxicity.
*
ABC Wide Bay 855 AM/100.1 FM- Due to the terrain of the area, both AM and FM frequencies are used.
*4BU 1332 AM (commercial)
*Sea FM 93.1 (commercial)- Part of the SEA FM network, owned by Macquarie.
*Hitz FM 93.9 (commercial)-
*4DoubleB 96.3 FM (community)
*4BCR 94.7 FM (community)
*95.5 FM (narrowcast)
*97.1 FM (narrowcast)
*Classic FM 98.5 FM
*
Triple J 99.3 FM
*Radio National 100.9 FM
*
Bundaberg City Council*
Central Queensland University Bundaberg Campus*
Australian Places - Bundaberg*
Bundaberg Local tourism website*
Wikitravel article on Bundaberg
