"This Google earth image from 2009 shows the bottom end of Curtis Island as it was then. It's now a major construction site for the world's biggest liquid natural gas terminal which will join the other huge ship-loading terminals already here.
I could hear thumps from pile-drivers and see the dust cloud as I passed it on my way to Gladstone Marina on the other side of the harbour.
Gladstone is busy 24/7 with what seems to be every available fast ferry, barge, dredge, workboat and tug in Queensland cris-crossing its waters,all human activity thereon defined by the fluorescent orange and yellow neck-to-knee clothing and compulsory hard hats now demanded by BigBrother for workers who survived in shorts and thongs in the bad old days.
If I was job hunting, (I'm not!), this would be the place to be for an octogenarian ships master, but spare a thought for Curtis Island as it was 25 years ago. Ivy and I found the wreck of a deserted farmhouse there with the remains of a Ford T, a couple of steam-powered tractors and other relics rusting away untouched. Wonder what happened to them?"
