Bundaberg Coast Tourist Information

Bundaberg Coast Tourist Information

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• TOURIST
  INFORMATION
• Welcome
• Bundaberg
• Great Barrier Reef
• Buxton ~Walker's Point ~Woodgate
• Elliott Heads ~Riverview ~Innes Park
• Bargara
• Mon Repos ~Turtle Beach
• Burnett Heads ~Port Bundaberg ~Moore Park Beach
• Childers
• Apple Tree Creek ~Booyal~ Isis Central Mill ~Cordalba
• Sharon ~South Kolan ~Bucca ~Smith'S Crossing
• Gin Gin ~Goodnight Scrub State Forest ~Lake Monduran
• Miara ~Baffle Creek ~Winfield ~Rosedale
• Wartburg ~Rules Beach ~Deepwater National Park
• Agnes Water ~Town Of 1770 ~Eurimbula National Park
• Turkey Beach ~Bororen ~Miriam Vale
• Biggenden ~Ban Ban Springs ~Gayndah
• Mundubbera ~Eidsvold
• Lake Wuruma ~Monto ~Mount Perry
• Cania Gorge National Park ~Lake Cania
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• Bundaberg Coast Accommodation
• Queensland

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Childers

Thirty kilometres north of Howard on the Bruce Highway is the National Trust town of Childers. The township is set on top of rolling hills of red soil framed by green fields of sugar cane. In 1902, a disastrous fire destroyed much of Childers but the subsequent rebuilding has given us the amazing variety of architectural styles still largely intact today. Take a stroll through the cool leopard tree lined streets. The best place to start is at Gaydon's building (1894) in Churchill Street which is now the home of the Childers Pharmeceutical Museum, Art Gallery and Tourist Information Centre. The much awarded museum is believed to be the only one of its kind in Australia and now dispenses tourist information rather than patent cures.

The old chemist shop still contains the original red cedar fixtures and fittings, the National Cash Register (1906), ground glass bottles with gold leaf lettering, leather bound prescription books and wedgwood mortar and pestles. Upstairs in the same building is the Childers Art Gallery, formerly a dentist surgery. Light from the magnificent skylights shines on regularly changing exhibitions by some of Queensland and Australia's finest artists.

To the north, the original Grand Hotel was moved in from Horton to its current sit in the 1880s. On the opposite corner is the Federal Hotel (1907) with its much photographed swinging doors and iron lace. In North Street, the Royal Hotel is older still, built in 1894 using timber cut to make way for the railway. The butcher shop (1894) was the first tiled outside Brisbane and escaped the fire of 1902.

Back in Churchill Street to the south, the Court House was built in 1896 and enlarged in 1900. The Post Office (1887) has been maintained in its original form. The National Bank (1895) was built as a branch of the Bank of North Queensland. The two storey R.S.L. Club was built in 1901 for the C.B.C. Bank and further up the street is the Soldiers Room Memorial in the Isis Shire Chambers opened in 1926.

Across the road is Taylor Street where the Historical Complex is situated. The cottage (c.1890) and school were removed from Isis Central Sugar Mill and contain a treasure trove of memorabilia. There is also a comprehensive collection of local Aboriginal artefacts. The Fowler locomotive was imported from England in 1916. Back in Churchill Street heading back towards the information centre, there is the former Q.N. Bank, then several buildings with post supported awnings, pediments and urns on fascias.

Pause and take time to reflect on the town's wonderful heritage and be sure to attend the annual Childers Regional Show and Wine and Food Festival in July. Childers is also an access point to the Burnett hinterland.