I’ve been wondering for a while about how far I could get in my explorations without a car, mine or a rental, so I decided to test it out. The Queensland Rail website made their trains look pretty comfortable and so I booked myself a ticket on the electric Tilt Train, which runs from Brisbane to Rockhampton, stopping at many of the towns along the way.

After ‘Rocky’, I would fly to Mackay to check out my daughter’s new place near the little town of Sarina, and then seeing I was that far up already, it would make sense to keep going, so I also booked a flight to Townsville. I would decide, after that, what to do, whether to go straight home or whether to keep going. A bit of an adventure, a one-way ticket to the north.

Mainly, I wanted to draw in as much sunshine as I could find, as by August of Melbourne’s winter, I always feel like if I don’t have some rays soon, I’ll disappear.

I flew to Brisbane and then, at 11am on a Sunday, I headed north.

The seats on the train were very comfortable; there was plenty of leg room. Periodically, the very cheerful staff would come up the aisle offering food and drinks at very reasonable prices. All in all, I enjoyed the trip enormously and would recommend it.

I sat next to a very nice lady, a Queenslander, who was heading up to Bundaberg to catch up with relatives and friends, who gave me advice on towns along the way, Bundaberg in particular, which she said was beautiful. I filed it all away for the future or maybe on the way back.

I loved watching the sun set through the train window.

I had booked into the old Criterion Hotel in Rockhampton because it looked like it was near the Fitzroy River.

I woke up in the morning to find it actually overlooks the river, on the other side of Quay Street, a lovely cobble-stoned boulevard with a river walk.

In the 1860s and ’70s, Rockhampton developed as the main port for the developing Central Queensland hinterland, which accounts for the beautiful homes and government buildings all the way along Quay Street.

More than a decade was lost in arguments with the ‘South’ trying to get a proper budget to build a Customs House that could cope with the ‘river’ of sub-surface water which runs beneath much of the city. By the time the building was completed in 1901, the port was already in a downturn. Bureaucracy at work.

Built by specialist British stonemasons with local sandstone, the grandeur of the building was deliberate, part of a failed push for a separate state, with Rockhampton intended as its Capital. The Separation Movement floundered with Federation. The building is now owned by the State Government.

I wandered from Quay Street around the block to discover a lovely, tropical shopping strip, surrounded by council buildings, courts, a modern library and the Museum of Art.

It seemed a rather small shopping strip for such a big city (last count 83,000), but I guess there are other shopping centres all around the place.

I missed a lot of the touristy stuff by not having a car but I really enjoyed my couple of days just wandering around this pretty, tropical place.

On my last walk along the river, I discovered a tribute to one of the heroes of my childhood, tennis legend, Rod Laver. I hadn’t realised he’d grown up in ‘Rocky’.