Tianna Templeman < br />Escape

Elegant ladies and gents sip martinis at the curved art-deco bar at Bert’s in Bundaberg as soft jazz drifts over the crowd and dapper bow-tied bartenders polish glasses and keep an eye on the door. Bundaberg’s newest restaurant and bar is named after one of its favourite sons, world-famous aviator Bert Hinkler, who probably wouldn’t recognise his home town these days.

This summer marks half a century of turtle research at Bundaberg's Mon Repos beach. We talk to the man who started it all, way back when, and who is still talking to the turtles, 50 years on.

THINK Bundaberg is only about rum? Think again. Explore five divine brewing experiences, which will make you really think about your drink.

FROM upmarket oceanfront accommodation, to beach villas, glamping tents, and a cottage or two on a winery, we've researched the region's best beds in which to lay your head.

BACK in the 80s, tomatoes were such a prized commodity and farmers in Bundaberg were making so much money, they were rumoured to be smoking $50 bills. While things are a little more sedate these days, the optimism and innovation that prevailed in this Southern Great Barrier Reef region continues to flourish.