Folks, I don’t want to start a whole thing here, but as far as our tribe is concerned, it was, and always will be called, Agnes Waters; not Agnes Water.
I don’t care what the sign says now, it was Agnes Waters many years ago when we first wrecked our Valiant getting there on the undisputed worst road in Qld.
And 1770 was actually spelled ‘1770’ and not written Seventeen Seventy. That made it stand out, even in Australia which almost has a monopoly on uniquely spelled place names.
Anyway, if you want to get real technical, maybe it should be called Agnes’ Water, because it’s the water named after Agnes; whoever Agnes is, or was.
Captain Cook originally named the area Bustard Bay, and certainly lucked it big time when he dropped anchor and went ashore in the year 1770. Unfortunately, the poor old scrub turkey (aka: bustard) he shot and ate wasn’t so lucky.
Still, old Cookie gave the place its’ first glowing tourism review, before sailing straight past the future Port Curtis and Gladstone harbour, directly into the razor sharp nightmare of the northern Barrier Reef; or, to be more precise, reefs.
Look, regardless of what Agnes is called now, it’s a wonderful part of the world. And there certainly is something magical about the place, because just breathing the air down there makes me feel relaxed and at peace with the world.
I may be wrong, but perhaps there really is something in the water/s.
