Tales about tourism junk

IT was great to hear back from the Ward family this week, who featured in the photo posted online of the old junk.

Middlemount family, Suzanne and Bill Ward, with children Melissa, 10, and Scott, 12, take a look at the old junk, which sat at the City Gates for many years. The family was enjoying a school holiday visit to Mackay in 1989. Picture: Daily Mercury Archives

IT was great to hear back from the Ward family this week, who featured in the photo posted online of the old junk which graced the entrance to the city for many years.

Scott Ward, who was the 12-year-old, contacted us from Brisbane to tell us a little bit about those holiday trips to Mackay.

He said his father Bill, who was a high school teacher, was doing those three years of required country service.

"We lived in Middlemount from 1987 until the end of 1989, while my dad taught at Middlemount State High School," Scott said.

"We used to come to Mackay a few times during the year on school holidays. There wasn't a lot in Middlemount so going to Mackay was fantastic for Melissa and I. Mackay had Toyworld and McDonald's."

Scott recalls staying at the Kohuna resort and they loved going to the Mackay Show.

Melissa said Kohuna's swimming pool and beach huts were a hit with the kids after the long hot drive to Mackay in a car with no air-conditioning.

As for our old junk, her name was the Shin Hsun Yuan No 3, and she was one of numerous illegal Taiwanese fishing junks seized by authorities in the '70s and '80s.

The Shin Hsun Yuan No 3 was seized with an illegal cargo of clam meat on November 10, 1976, and some of the city fathers at the time decided it would make a great tourist attraction.

It was destined to be destroyed, but was bought for the princely sum of $10 from the Commonwealth, and transported to the City Gates where Tourism Mackay was located at the time.

It was there for 13 years before the relocation of Mackay Tourism forced its sale.

Some of the timber was used to create tables and one still takes pride of place in the boardroom of Mackay Tourism.

Originally published as Tales about tourism junk