Mourilyan Harbour
Vega
Hugh and Annie
Sat 6 Jul 2019 20:50
Mourilyan Harbour is a lovely sheltered anchorage tucked into the coastal hills and is another reminder of how much sugar is produced in Queensland. It is one of a number of sugar loading terminals along the coast. We last saw sugar production in the Caribbean and learned that the sugar cane is milled, the husk discarded and the milled cane boiled and refined, leaving molasses as a by-product. The molasses can be fermented to produce dark rum (as in Bundaberg). White rum is made from the sugar itself but apparently not in Australia.
The boiling of the sugar cane is a traditional and rather slow process from what we saw in the Caribbean. Here in Australia there is a highly mechanised process for harvesting the cane, transporting it on small railways to mills where it is ground and from there into large storage sheds at the ship loading terminals. We are assuming therefore that what is being exported is the milled cane and not refined sugar. No-one we have asked has been able to tell us exactly what is being exported and so when we next have a reliable internet connection I will do some research!
In Mourilyan we anchored on the edge of the ship turning basin where ships come into the small harbour forwards and are turned through 180 degrees before berthing. We had been assured by a local that it was too early in the harvesting season for ships to arrive and be loaded so I had an interesting couple of nights watching two successive large ships come and go, turning within yards of our slightly encroaching position.
Adjacent to the dinghy dock for getting ashore were the first warning signs we had come across for saltwater crocodiles. As with sharks the hunting of crocodiles is now banned and they are an ever present danger right the way up this coast. Only one yachty has been attacked so far on our migration northwards and he was lucky that his partner is a vet and was able to stitch him up and fill him with antibiotics. I know I do go on about the dangers of this part of the world but when you have to be careful about getting to and from your dinghy i.e when paddling and certainly no swimming and be mindful that you are being watched and to vary times of water based activity so as not to build a pattern that will be followed it does seem a bit different from Plymouth Sound.
For good measure up on Cape York (where we are now) it is the habitat of the Coastal Taipan. The most venomous snake in the world and described by our cruising guide as the “deadliest” creature in the world. They live in the sand dunes that back onto all the beaches up here (as well as the coastal forest and grassland) so one’s relief at getting ashore unscathed is soon tempered by a short walk across the dunes to nearby caves if intending to visit some ancient cave painting.