By John Rozentals.
Joey Caruana … has donned a version of the local cool-weather uniform.
Right in the middle of some ordinary-looking shops in the Bundaberg seaside suburb of Beegara stands a windmill.
It’s the centre these days of the appropriately called Windmill at Beegara, a very good café that serves excellent breakfast and lunch, and apparently it’s not the Real McCoy — but certainly real enough.
And it’s unseasonally cool in Queensland’s Bundaberg-North-Burnett tourism region, though in comparison with winter in the Central West of NSW it’s quite balmy, sort of like home is having a heat wave.
Anyway, our local tourism guide, Ellie Tonkin, is being quite apologetic, and the Windmill owner, Joey Caruana, has donned a version of the local cool-weather uniform.
He’s put on a jacket but kept wearing the requisite shorts.
Southern Fried Chicken Benedict … I thoroughly love the variety of goodies that arrives on my plate.
I reckon that I’ve got to know Joey quite well during my five-day stay at Bundaberg. I haven’t had a chance to try any of his lunch offerings, but I have had breakfast at the Windmill three times.
It’s just as well I’ve been back, because I’m not even close to working my way through a slightly unusual and spectacularly wide-ranging menu.
Most places at which you buy breakfast sport a menu that is pretty standard — the big brekkie, a couple of eggs done your way with toast, mushrooms and tomato, a stack of pancakes with blueberries or maple syrup, perhaps a clever, usually local, take on the name of an eggs benedict.
But that’s not the Windmill, which offers a menu that’s far from standard.
Breakfast at the Windmill … bring your appetite.
For a start, there’s a hefty dish called a Southern Fried Chicken Benedict, aimed squarely at people with sturdier appetites than mine, but I enjoy doing it justice and thoroughly love the variety of goodies that arrives on my plate, including scrummy bacon that doesn’t hit you in the eye when you attack it with knife and fork, and plenty of excellent hollandaise.
And there’s plenty of attention paid to the area’s reputation as one of Australia’s premium sources of the finest of fruits.
You’ll die for dishes composed of rings of sliced apple, triangled pineapple, the plumpest of strawberries and fresh kiwifruit arranged around gorgeous ice cream.
And did I mention that the Windmill serves the most delectable sorbet? How remiss of me. And that Friday night is pizza night … when guests are treated to the most delightful things on crisp bases.
Beegara … I became quite used to the stroll of a couple of kilometres each morning along the seaside promenade.
Well, those are experiences for my next trip to Bundaberg. I can hardly wait.
Thankfully, I was always picked up after breakfast at the Windmill. I would have looked a sight waddling up the street to my next destination.
But I became quite used to the stroll of a couple of kilometres each morning along the seaside promenade from my accommodation to the village of Beegara.
I could easily see why people chose to live here — and to spend their holidays here.
As for the accommodation, it was located on the third floor of a marvellous apartment block, was impeccably furnished and enjoyed uninterrupted ocean views.
And though they couldn’t do much in the short term about hot-water pressure, they could certainly do something about the lack of internet connectivity and five days without servicing. But maybe that’s me being a bitch.
The Windmill … plenty of attention paid to the area’s reputation as one of Australia’s premium sources of the finest of fruits.
Oh, and while Townsville, a bit further to the north, continues to struggle with the effects of the deluge it recently received, Bundaberg reports that it escaped by becoming a ‘trifle damp’.
So much so, that Ellie Tonkin maintains that she was getting sick of fielding calls about her well-being.
And Bundaberg has revamped its winter schedule. Winterfeast, renamed the Taste Bundaberg Festival, will be held over four weekends, one for each of the cooler months — starting May 3-6, then happening on June 7-9; Friday 5-7 and August 16-18.
IF YOU GO
Windmill Beegara Café: 12 See St, Beegara; phone 4130 5906.
Bundaberg Region: www.bundabergregion.org.
