OPINION: Let's reconnect Bundy to the coast

THE Railway Picnic was established by railway workers to create the opportunity to celebrate with their families.

Brian Courtice. Picture: Brian Cassidy

THE Railway Picnic was established by railway workers to create the opportunity to celebrate with their families.

In 1922 the picnic at Nielson Park took place.

Visitors from as far as Gladstone and Maryborough came.

The year prior, the Bundaberg Surf Life Saving Club was established at Nielson Park and the picnic continued until 1972.

The railway was in use taking locals and visitors to Nielson Park up until 1948.

Over those years thousands of people enjoyed swimming, surfing, foot races, simple relaxation and the like at Nielson Park.

As a youngster I recall dad paying a shilling for me to go into a tent that displayed a huge tiger shark that had been caught about two miles off the coastline.

I still remember being told it was 15 feet long.

FOND MEMORIES: A 1934 image of the Railway Picnic train. Picture: Crystal Jones

It certainly seemed huge to a captivated six-year-old boy.

This had special significance for me as my late uncle Alan Nixon had caught the shark.

All the money raised went to the Surf Life Saving Club.

Lifesavers do an outstanding job and this was an important fundraising event.

The railway to Nielson Park is long gone and it is probably not feasible to put down a new one.

However, a bikeway and walkway from East Bundaberg to Burnett Heads to Bargara is possible.

I know former councillor Danny Rowleson has done quite a lot of preliminary work on such a project.

A photo of the Railway Picnic inside the 1936 train timetable. Picture: Crystal Jones

It would require our state and local representatives to work with Bundaberg Sugar.

A further project being investigated by our current councillor Scott Rowleson is a walkway at the Hummock.

This idea has great merit and would give walkers a look at what the Woongarra Scrub was like in the 1870s.

I have suggested to Cr Rowleson that he has a yarn with Red Heathwood who grew up on the Hummock, and whose dad Hubert did so much to promote it.

Hubert was the unofficial mayor of our famous Sloping Hummock.

While the images of families enjoying a rail trip from Bundaberg to Nielson Park belong now to a bygone era, any infrastructure that can connect our great town with our beautiful coastline, and encourage people to explore our amazing areas, is well worth considering and I'm sure many readers would welcome such a project.

A 1936 timetable for the Railway Picnic train. Picture: Crystal Jones