Murray Lagoon Resort

Years ago at a tourism meeting a suggestion was made to approach the TV stations and get them to drop Rockhampton from their weather map and replace it with Yeppoon. The reason Yeppoon is always cooler than Rockhampton and arguably this lower temperature on the weather map would be conducive in attracting more tourists to the region in the summer months. I don’t recall if the suggestion was voted on. This memory bite came from the recesses of my mind after a tennis player, new from Kalgoorlie, asked me on Saturday if this (the humidity) is as bad as it gets in Rocky. Without the resources of Dubai the heat and humidity are elements that are hard to ignore as tourist (and playing tennis) dissuaders. The previous weekend friends of mine packed their camper trailer and went 80 minutes down the road to the old river crossing at Calliope and despite the crocodile and stinger warnings, plus a ski boat going by, happily joined the others cooling of regularly in the river. Where can you safely do that in the Rocky region? Many years ago Murray Lagoon, the western boundary of the Botanical Gardens, was Rockhampton’s main bathing spot; hard to believe these days. Could and should it be resurrected as a bathing spot? Just go the pool or the beach if you want a swim would be a logical response to this. But if we want to address Rockhampton’s ‘hot’ image wouldn’t making Yeppen and Murray lagoons attractive catchments of water help give a refreshing perception of Rockhampton as people drive into it. And why not make them attractive to swim in at the same time, Murray Lagoon at least. Consider the resort feel the Rockhampton Golf Club could create with bordering Murray Lagoon. With the neighbouring Botanical Gardens and zoo it makes an attractive package, opening up the possibility of more commercial enterprise and jobs catering for the greater visitation. Canoe, stand up paddle board hire; maybe even paddle boat rides. But the floods and crocodiles! With what was excavated out of the lagoons could that be used as a levy bank to protect it from most floods?