Brandon Accommodation, Hotels, Tours & Information

Brandon

Six kilometres out of Ayr on the highway north to Townsville, Brandon is another link in the seemingly-endless chain joining together the sugar towns of northern Queensland.

Brandon's signature is a quaint old church whose picture adorns thousands of travellers' photographic albums. The Pioneer Sugar Mill and the Sugar Experimental Station are also local focal points.

Brandon is within easy striking distance of the popular Barratta's Creek fishing spots and the vast Bowling Green National Park.

The major town in the area, Ayr, is joined to its twin, Home Hill, on the other side of the Burdekin River by the famous Silver Link bridge. Completed in 1958, the 1097-metre bridge required a unique design because allowance had to be made for the lack of a solid river bottom.

It is interesting, too, that Home Hill was supposed to have been named in honour of those slain in the Battle of Holme Hill in the Crimean War. The young signwriter commissioned to paint the name on the railway station, however, decided to drop the "l".