Mackay tourist attractions 

To chat face-to-face with a local about all the best things to see and do in Mackay, step into a Visitor Information Centre. 

Watch the sunrise over the east coast of Australia and share the sand with a mob of macropods at Cape Hillsborough beach. Each morning, like clockwork, the kangaroos and wallabies who retire to the neighbouring national park by day, come to the shoreline for a seedpod breakfast served by Mother Nature. 

An early start will afford you time to spend the day wandering Mackay’s CBD, charmingly decorated with 1920s architecture and public artworks. Mackay has a thriving culinary scene, with fine flavours amplified by its coastal location and access to an abundance of fresh, locally sourced produce. Once you’ve explored the treasure trove of historic buildings across Mackay central, consider swapping Mackay’s concrete jungle with a real one, driving inland for the subtropical rainforest that lives up to its name – Eungella, meaning “a land in the clouds”. 

Rising 800m above sea level from the Pioneer Valley’s lush lowlands, Eungella National Park’s peaks are constantly kissed by clouds, guaranteeing a temperature change between Mackay and the top of this mountain range. Here you can swap Cape Hillsborough’s wallabies for another famous Australian native, visiting the platypus capital of Queensland, Broken River, where these billed mammals can be seen duck-diving in its billabongs at dawn and dusk. 

Starting at Finch Hatton Gorge in the foothills of the Eungella Range, take a walk on Mackay’s wild side before making your way to the Araluen and Wheel of Fire waterfalls for a dip in the natural swimming holes that lure visitors to the park in droves on hot summer days or zip line over a rainforest canopy and mix it up with some airborne thrills. 

Once you’ve filled your camera with foliage photos among the ancient rainforest and cascading waterfalls of Eungella, head back to the Mackay CBD via the verdant sugar-cane-lined Pioneer Valley, perhaps stopping for lunch or a break at one of the small towns that dot the route, like Marian, Mirani, Pinnacle, Finch Hatton and Eungella. 

When packing for a Mackay holiday, the only essentials aside from hiking boots and swimmers are your rod and reel – Mackay is a destination where the fish are always biting. Mackay is home to a powerful combination of inland and ocean fishing spots that makes its beaches and waterways deserving of the title ‘Queensland’s fishing Mecca’. 

Some of the top spots to cast a line next time you’re in Mackay include Seaforth and Cape Hillsborough on the coast and inland spots like Eungella Dam, Kinchant Dam, Prospect Creek and Constants Creek. 

Sitting on the central coast of Queensland, next time you’re hugging the coastline, make Mackay your base for city, country and coastal adventures that will leave you craving more time to explore.