Our tour down the coastline sees us stopping in Gladstone for a few days. We setup at the Gladstone Showgrounds which is quite central to the city and gives us the opportunity to explore.

Gladstone is still very much a port city where most of the industry is supporting the smelting of alumina or exports of coal and gas. So the shoreline has an industrial feel to it with large piers supplying products to ships. As a contrast though there are pockets of beauty where some of the seaside land has been claimed back and turned into parklands.

The best of these are at the marina where the break wall designed to protect the marina is now host to a stunning park that provides a chance to take an easy walk by the water.

There are also a number of lookouts providing a good vantage point for looking back over the city and the harbour.

We went for a look at the Aluminium Smelter at Boyne Island and read up about the mining and processing that the plant performs. The lookout above the smelter provides a good series of notices that describe the handling of the ore through to the final product. Its interesting to note that most of the ore, bauxite, comes from Weipa and is shipped in for processing.