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Welcome!

We hope you love living here as much as we do and these tips below will help the early days of your transition to the tropical climate!

Cape Hillsborough is a great day trip, camping spot and getaway. 40min drive north and with limited mobile range, you really feel as though you are miles away, and the caves on the beach keep the kids occupied for hours!
Eungella National Park offers walks/hiking, platypus spotting and a beaut drive!

Farmers markets are held at the show grounds Sat mornings from 6:30 am for cheap fruit and vege
Troppo Markets are held at Mt Pleasant shopping centre undercover carpark once a month on the second Sunday of the month, they have arts, crafts, fresh fruit and veg, home-cooked goods, clothing, handmade, gemstones, plants and some preloved stalls

Tips and tricks for new players to Mackay...

Freeze meat scraps to prevent bins from becoming fly-blown (a breeding ground for flies)
The sun is intense up here so make sure you SLIP SLOP SLAP!!
The sun is also harsh on our cars! There are lots of cars driving around Mackay with paint peeling off their rooves. Where possible park your car undercover or in the shade.
Opened food quickly spoils in the cupboards either due to the humidity, ants or a quick attack of the weevils – storage containers do the trick!
Kill any flies as soon as they enter the house! Flies lay eggs quickly and you don’t want to have maggots in your dishcloth within 24hrs – gross!!

Mould inside your house is going to happen at some stage or another, especially on leather shoes, jackets, bags etc that have been shut up inside your cupboards unused for several months. Some people buy those “Hippo” or other brand moisture absorbers. These are somewhat effective however it can get expensive at $6-7 a container for each of your wardrobes (then once they have fully absorbed all the moisture they can you will need to replace them). I have found the best strategy is to accept that mould “gets in” up here, wipe it off well as soon as you discover it (and put the article in the sun for a while if you can), never put anything away even just a tiny bit damp and keep your place well ventilated whenever you can. Diluted sugar soap works well on mouldy walls and appliances. Another thing to do to prevent mould is to keep your house shut up when it rains
Unfortunately, cane toads are part of our fauna here. If you see your dog bite one in the backyard (as ours has done a couple of times), he may start to froth at the mouth, grab a hose quickly, hold the dog still and flush his mouth out well with cold running water, try and flush the water sideways across his mouth, not down his throat. He probably won’t like it but hopefully, you will have washed out the toad’s toxin.

Beach swimming up here in summer between the months of October to March is not advised without a stinger suit (available from most chemists and places like Big W and Target for around $30.00 or BCF for a bit more). Box Jellyfish are more common in the waters in these warmer months (the safe months to swim are generally those without the letter ‘R’ in them).
Beaches that are patrolled by lifeguards during the school holidays include Eimeo Beach, Blacks Beach and Harbour Beach.

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