20th July 2020 was a great Queensland winter’s day – cloudless blue sky, no wind to speak of, 25 degrees and endless visibility. A must fly day. With a brief phone call I persuaded my sister Liz and her husband David to go for a flight up the coast to Fraser Island and inland to the north Burnett, stopping in the not quite so bustling town of Biggenden. It may not be big but Biggenden (a Gulbi Gulbi indigenous word meaning place of stringy bark) is a great Queensland country town in the Great Dividing Range that lies in the shadow of “the Bluff” and is home to an annual Rose Festival. It has a well maintained grass strip that’s an easy walk into town, making it ideal for a lunch stop.

We flew out of Redcliffe over Bribie Island and up the Sunshine Coast to Noosa Heads, and on to Double Island Point.

From there it was on up the east coast of Fraser Island, passing over Lake MacKenzie…

and to the south of Hervey Bay and north of Maryborough across to Biggenden.

Despite the warning from the local council that there may be “animals” on the runway a 500ft overfly proved that there weren’t any.

A 10 minute walk brought us into the main street and a great little cafe, the Coffee Pozzee, just off the main street.

After lunch we strolled back to the airstrip and prepared MSF for the flight home.

Taking off we climbed out over the Bluff and headed for Redcliffe via Kenilworth, Maleny and the Glasshouse Mountains. A very scenic way to get back home.