About - Location

Discover Blacks Beach Cove

Blacks Beach Cove is only 1/2 hour drive away from Mackay airport (20kms) and less then 2 hours (149kms) from the well known Airlie Beach and Whitsunday Islands.

The map above show the position of Blacks Beach Cove, plus some key areas such as the airport, Airlie Beach and the local mining industry locations.

Geographically Mackay is about 970

kilometres north of Brisbane and is situated midway between Rockhampton and Townsville.

The population of Mackay is approx 85,000, making it the fastest growing City in Regional Queensland.

Mackay is widely noted as the “sugar capital of Australia”, producing a sizeable portion of Australia’s domestic supply and exports.

Within an hour’s drive west of Mackay you will find Eungella National Park. The park is covered by rainforest and is renowned for its Platypuses.

If you want to explore the area you can choose to take a daytrips from Mackay Marina to Brampton, Keswick and Scawfell Islands.

You may also find Mackay referred to as the play area of Airlie Beach – the gateway to the Whitsunday’s is less than a two hours car trip north.

Mining surrounding Mackay

Mackay is the gateway and major population centre of the Bowen Basin coal mining reserves of Central Queensland. It is the single largest coal reserve in Aust with 34 operational coal mines extracting more than 100 million tonnes annually. This represents about 83% of Queensland’s total coal production.

There are 12 new mines within the Mackay catchment area due for commencement in the near future.

If you are involved in the mining industry, you will know that the Bowen Basin coalfields are located in the hinterland areas, west of Mackay.

The mining companies that operate in this region include:

  • BHP Billiton Mitsubishi Alliance
  • Anglo Coal Australia Pty Ltd
  • Xstrata
  • Peabody Energy Australia Pty Ltd
  • Rio Tinto Coal Australia Pty Ltd
  • Macarthur Coal

In addition to the Bowen Basin, the Port of Hay point is just south of Mackay in the Sarina shire, this includes the Hay Point and Dalrymple Bay coal terminals.