Nestled on the banks of the Fitzroy River,Rockhampton is the gateway to all the spectacular beauty and exciting adventures that Central Queensland has to offer. From here you can get your perfectRockhampton hire car and plan your great escape.
Before you get on the wide-open road, though, spend some time exploring Rockhampton itself – there’s plenty to see and do here, just five kilometres from the airport. Much of the town exudes old-world charm, but nowhere more so than the Rockhampton Heritage Village – you can take a trip back in time here and explore a bygone era with fully functioning historical displays spanning from the 1850s to 1950s. You should also make time for the Rockhampton Botanical Gardens, where the tropical temperatures have made a spectacular verdant display possible. It’s not just flora though, there’s fauna too, with the free Rockhampton Zoo co-located here. Pack a picnic lunch and enjoy a very budget friendly day.
For a birds-eye view of Rockhampton, take your hire car up the scenic road that winds around Mt Archer – the view at the top overlooking Rocky is a fantastic place to take some photos and enjoy the view. If you’re ready to cool off then you can take a trip to North Rockhampton where Kershaw Gardens waits for you – in typical understated fashion the locals call it “Rocky’s Big Backyard”, but you’ll find a huge landscaped garden complete with waterfalls, a nine-metre tall adventure playground and lots of amazing spaces to discover. There’s also the Dreamtime Cultural Centre, which has 30 acres of bushland and a wealth of ancient and modern indigenous history to explore.
If you’re a steak lover, make sure you take advantage of being in the “Beef Capital of Australia” – from steakhouses galore to the giant bullock statue at the edge of town this is a place where you can enjoy some of the best cuts – for the full Rockhampton “Surf and Turf” experience, top your steak with some prawns – delicious!
Rockhampton is your launch pad to explore more of Central Queensland’s wonders – with your hire car you can get to any of them easily.
Just 20km north of town is the spectacular limestone Capricorn Caves, formed 400 million years ago from a coral reef. If you have any dinosaur fans in your family, you can go on a “Fossil Tour” and be led through the caves by a real palaeontologist for an experience guaranteed to be as scenic as it is educational.
Heading east will take you down a spectacular coastal road, and because you’re the one behind the wheel, you’ll be able to stop at all the tourist hotspots and scenic lookouts along the way – Wreck Point Lookout is one of the most famous, for reasons that will become obvious the moment you see it. Its formidable history behind it, it’s now a peaceful and beautiful vista with sweeping ocean views. They don’t call this “big sky country” for nothing.
Keep going east and you will reach the beautiful coastal town of Yeppoon. With its spectacular coastline along the Capricorn Coast, it sits on the Southern Great Barrier Reef. Take a trip out to the reef and head to the spectacular Keppel Bay Islands, and be welcomed by the traditional owners, the Konami-Woppaburra people. Here, you can enjoy fishing, water sports, reef snorkelling, adventure treks and more in one of the most scenic places on earth.
