The neigborhood

OK, so here is Tannum Sands, courtesy of Google Earth. The obvious question is "what the heck that big red thing in the corner there". From the air it looks a bit like a giant pimple or a miniature version of the Great Red Spot on Jupiter.

This feature is about 3.5km long and 2.5km wide, and occupies considerably more area than the towns of Tannum Sands and Boyne Island (just across the river) put together. It is technically known as the Red Mud Dam and is a waste site for the local refinery. Did I mention bauxite earlier? Well red mud is what is left over when alumina (the raw material for making alumin(i)um) is extracted from bauxite. There isnt much call for red mud (at least noone has figured out any real use for it) so it just gets dumped in a giant hole in the ground.

There is a new refinery here and they are much more environmentally aware. They don't have a red mud dam. Instead they have an RMA, or Resource Management Area. This is actually just like a red mud dam, except it is located in a valley in the hills and has only a couple of years accumulation of resource, so it is hardly visible from the air. If anyone ever figures out a use for red mud, there are fortunes to be made.

Anyway, the river in the middle is the Boyne River, and off to the right is Wild Cattle Island National Park, five miles of deserted white sand beach, separated from the mainland by Wild Cattle Creek. At low tide you can wade across from the main Tannum Beach, and then you pretty much have the place to yourself. Walking the length of the island you may run into one or two other people. A good place to escape to for a day. Just be sure the tide is still incoming when you want to get back, otherwise you run the risk of being swept out to sea.