The Gympie Duck Pond and Chatsworth Park, QLD.

Lake Alford Park

The official name for The Gympie Duck Pond is actually Lake Alford Park and it can be found on the southern side of Gympie. At the main entrance, directly off the Bruce Highway, there is a Visitor Information Centre, amenities block, access to the "Duck Pond" and an amazing playground with a flying fox, sand and water play area, BBQ's, shade and more toilets. Since we don't travel with children these days we tend to enter at Nicholas Christopher Drive where there is usually room for RV parking and a few picnic tables beside the lake. However, parking is more of a challenge when the markets are held on the 1st, 3rd and 5th Sunday of each month. The Gympie Historical (Gold Mining) Museum can be accessed from here or from Brisbane Road. 

We often drop in on our way north or south on the Bruce Highway so I thought I'd put up a few photos we have taken in the last three years.

Dusky Moorhen

Dusky Moorhen, immature

Cattle Egret, breeding plumage

Pacific Black Duck

Last week on our way back from Brooyar State Forest we took a few more photos. There were lots of small birds flitting about the flowering mistletoe which was growing over the Paperbark and Callistemon trees near the picnic tables. We saw Scarlet Honeyeaters and Mistletoebirds but only managed a photo of a Little Friarbird.

Mistletoe smothering a Callistrmon tree

Little Friarbird

The black swans had two surviving adolescent young this trip but Mumma swan was having trouble letting go. Dad was supervising from a distance.

Chatsworth Park

Another place we often drop into for a toilet break on our travels north is Chatsworth Park; about 7 km north of Gympie. There are toilets, a playground and rubbish bins provided. It is a popular overnight destination for travelers that can get very busy. Being right next to the highway there is a constant drone of passing traffic but it is an otherwise pleasant area next to a lagoon.