Gladstone

We had wanted to visit Gladstone on our trip, but time wasn’t on our side and unfortunately instead of staying a week, which is what we would have preferred, we only had one weekend!,

Luckily we were able to stay at the Showgrounds for $30/night, which is very cheap for a place that is smack bang in the middle of town. Constantly driving in and out of towns is quite exhausting for me, so this was a welcomed treat.

There were 3 things that I loved about Gladstone, and they were completely unexpected, to what I was presuming I would enjoy!

1) The Tondoon Botanic Gardens:

This is one of the smaller Botanic gardens in comparison to others we have been to before, however we just had the best time here as a family.

I can’t explain it really, it was such a captivating and peaceful place and we thoroughly enjoyed our walk through nature.

The air was so fresh it felt medicinal.

Even the kids loved there time here.

When I said to Ari, “its time to find the playground” he said “NO mum I want to keep exploring on our adventure”.

just for context, this kid is obsessed with playgrounds, so for him to WANT to stay on our nature walk, really speaks volumes as to how special this place really was.

The Tondoon Botanic Gardens was a highlight for me while in Gladstone.

These 2 loved walking through the Gladstone Botanic Gardens

2) Lifestyle Church in Kin Kora:

We have visited many churches whilst on our trip and this one has been up there with one of the most welcoming.

Again it’s hard to put into words, but when we left (and we were the last to leave) we felt refreshed and recharged in our faith,

Through hearing Gods word, and fellowshipping with an awesome bunch of people afterwards. The kids enjoyed their time in kids church, and played games involving pasta and marshmallows (every kids dream).

Brad went back to the Church for a Men’s Coffee morning at 6am the following Monday. He loved it!

Thank you to the Lifestyle Church folks, we won’t forget you!

The kids enjoyed scooting around the waterfront at Gladstones East Shore precinct

3) East Shores Parklands:

We spend a good few hours one evening down here, the weather was perfect and there was even a big oil rig in port that we could see up close.

The space is very spread out, with large grass areas and a scenic walking path around the harbour.

The kids enjoyed riding their scooters and then they had a quick run through the water play area. it also has one of the most epic outdoor community gym spaces I have ever seen!

a worm farm at the library meant these 2 were very excited to finish their fruit so they could feed the worms.

The library was great, and had a parents room right next to the kids area which has big glass windows.

This is so practical and helpful to someone like me, who has multiple children to keep an eye on and it is always challenging to lug all the kids to the toilets when one person needs to go.

This way, I could keep my eye on them while helping Ari in the toilet. (small wins hey!)

The library also has a community garden and we were able to feed the worms in the worm farm our morning tea scraps.

Definitely worth a visit.

There is also the art gallery which looked amazing, but unfortunately the day we went, they were changing over the exhibits in preparation for the school holidays, so there were only 2 small rooms available for us to look through.

I would like to go back as it looks very impressive.

Gladstone is definitely worth visiting..

A more rustic, industrial-ey town (Port Adelaide vibes as a comparison for the people back home), but we really enjoyed our time here.

There were a couple of ships in port the day we were in East Shores Parklands, which was a hit with the boys in our family.