My second Bait to Plate menu for 2021

Enjoying the process of planning a Bait to Plate lunch again, and doing so just 3 weeks after the last event as we had so many people trying to book but missed out. I try to limit these to about 50 guests so they get a personal experience and I have the time to visit each table and answer any questions about the fish I use on the day. It is also a great time to interact with our team of chefs who enjoy (I think) seeing the “old man” on the tools. I can still out-fillet them …is that a word? Have been having a good talk to Mat over at Fishi and also had a great day yesterday filming a segment with Hayden Quinn for the tasting Australian TV show and have formed a menu up, including a local ingredient Hayden showed me yesterday. Lime Salt, made in Bowen and It will feature on Sunday in one of the courses. Hayden is doing the 3rd series of the show and the Whitsundays will feature as one of the episodes later in the year.

I will also feature a locally made Ginger Gin as a pre lunch taster, mixed with the rum that actually made the original dark and stormy. This mix of ginger and rum, paired with an ice cold gin in a martini style cocktail has been something I have been toying with for some time, and Dr Rum coined the name a Darkntini, so come along to lunch and be maybe just the first customers in the world to try a “Darkntini”. I will have one of each of the fish whole to chat about and look forward to be both entertaining and educational whilst providing you all with a great long lunch.

On to the menu and it is now pretty much set.

Arrival Mojito, beer or glass of sparkling.

Try a Darkntini

Poached Banded Cod in chili ginger and noodle broth

Crispy Skinned Pearl Perch, lime salt and gremolata

Coral Trout and Lemon risotto, saffron and aged balsamic

Goujons of Rosy snapper w/ babaganoush

Moroccan spiced Mozambique Sea Bream with Peal couscous tagine and yoghurt tzatziki

Warm flourless chocolate torte, Turkish delight ice cream and pistachio praline

If this tickles your taste buds we still have about 5 spots left.

First Bait to Plate long Lunch on 28th February

Going to be a fun challenge doing my first Bait to Plate lunch at our beautiful new venue and after just announcing the event yesterday we already have over 1/2 the tickets sold.

February is usually right in the middle of our wet season, which has, this year started a little early, but it is the season of plenty for the inshore fishery. The barramundi season opens on Feb 1st, the river pours fresh water into Repulse Bay and the whole system comes alive and is replenished for the coming year.

It is a time I love going fishing myself, having grown up with mangroves and mud in my veins. Despite all the enjoyment I get from blue water and reef fishing there is still something emotional and evocative about a Mangrove creek and the gurgle of the tide which will stay with me forever.

With the event still a month off it is too early to hone in on a menu just yet but I am already thinking about options. Barramundi, Mud Crabs, Threadfin and Banana Prawns. Maybe a Mangrove Jack, a Grunter or hopefully even a few of the mythical Triple Tail. I look forward to seeing just what our fishermen are catching in the week leading up to the 28th.

I love doing these events, sharing my knowledge and stories, educating our guests about the how, where and why of each of the species and ingredients we use and ultimately broadening peoples horizons, beyond the restaurant “staples” to the delights of the great variety of inshore species at out literal “front door step”. Book early if you want to be part of this event. It will sell out very quickly.

Making every home cook a little bit D'Vine

Like just about every restaurant in the world these days Covid- 19 has meant we need to adapt and change the business as normal model.  Originally, we shifted quickly into the home delivery prepared and cooked meals and this space became very crowded, very quickly, and as restaurants reopened to some degree, we have looked at other ways to adapt to the current situation.

Clearly home dining is here to stay, in fact it always has been, and a bit of research indicated Australian’s collectively either host or attend a dinner party 4 million times a month. Wow. That was a surprise statistic. Coupled with our love affair with home cooking was the realisation that with food playing such a big part in the overall holiday experience, we were living in a region where self-contained luxury holidays homes and apartments are a huge part of the local market.

Typically, guests staying in hotel style accommodation, without cooking facilities, eat out every night, but people staying in fully equipped holidays homes and apartments like the option of in room dining at least a couple of times during their stay. This market is well serviced by local supermarkets and great food retailers for seafood, meats and fruit and vegetables but all these options still require a fair bit of work for the person doing the cooking, and we figured, hey, they are on holidays too..

It is also to a degree well serviced by providers and meal plan providers but it did not, to us, cater to the guests wanting to easily create a restaurant style experience, in the comfort of their own villa, holiday home or on the back deck of their bare-boat or private yacht.

 So it was that our home delivery model has adapted to become D’Vine D’livery, high end, chef prepared meals and meal plans, ready to be cooked easily by any home cook and capable of turning any dinner party or holiday meal into a special occasion at a fraction of the price of a full-service restaurant.

Our website is live, our service runs on a 365-day basis and our product range is nothing like has ever been offered before in the Whitsundays. From caviar to Wagyu steaks and 30-hour slow cooked grain fed briskets and butterfly peri-peri chicken we have added the best regionally sourced produce and product lines to our already well-established seafood supplies to make D’vine D’’livery the ideal option for anyone holidaying in the Whitsundays in villas, holiday homes and boats.

Every meal come ready to just cook, every item includes cooking instructions and every meal and meal plan of package is delivered to your door.

Making every meal and event and every memory of dining in the Whitsundays special. Visit the website on www.dliveryaustralia.com.au and look at the full video experience and please, share it with friends if they are planning to visit. It will also make your next dinner party an outstanding success while our chefs do most of the work, and you can claim all the accolades.

A taste of the Wintersundays

There are times when being a fisherman and spending timer at sea transcends the costs involved in owning a boat, and, opportunities to do things with seafood that restaurants just can’t do. Or if they could, guests could just not afford.

So, it is with the little i-phone video I shot of “pocketing” a Coral Trout going viral (as at today over 130,000 views) I have just spent a few magical Whitsunday winters days and nights moored in one of my favourite bays in glass calm conditions.

I am, first and foremost a “hunter gatherer”, always have been and think I always will be. The whole process of setting up my “live aboard” was to have it as a home base while I used my little Cross Country 4.2 tender to explore, to fish, to crab and to beachcomb and being able to take advantage of this magical part of the world and all it has to offer, bait to plate.

The process of “pots set”, tick, “catch a couple of nice plate size coral trout”, tick……and yes I maybe make that sound a little easier than it actually is for most people, fishermen reading this blog will know how it’s done. Now it was on to the cooking.

1.       Pocket a coral trout….see the video on the Bait to Plate Facebook page.

2.       Clean, steam and take the meat from 2 mud crabs.

3.       Stiff whip 1 eggs white and season with salt, pepper and lemon juice

4.       Add crab meat.

5.       Stuff into coral trout

6.       Squeeze into a fish BBQ press/rack

7.       Grill over a bed of coals from a campfire at sunset

8.       Add a splash of crisp white wine (in a glass for down your throat, not over the fish

9.       Enjoy.

Doing a few quick sums. The whole Trout cost (wholesale) about $35 each, the crabs about the same so just the raw ingredients comes to about $100…add wages, overheads, GST and suddenly realise this will NEVER be a dish that can appears on the restaurant menu, but hey, sometimes you just need to be a fisherman.

Never been a better time

A decent trailer boat and a spirit of adventure.

Coral Sea Marina with "trailer boat friendly" accommodation within meters of the ramp

One the the usual "suspects", a big GT from around the Islands

Crabs from the island creeks. Never in big numbers, but always big crabs.

Imagine camping here. It is allowed.

A regular in calm conditions just 1 k off Whitehaven

Abundant and easy to catch with a few simple pointers. Coral Trout.

I was going to do a blog post about fishing in Cuba, but figured, what’s the point. Nobody will be even thinking of that for a while, so, why not do one about coming here, to the wonderful Whitsundays.

The area is already well marketed to those with some sense of adventure who want to hire a “skipper yourself” luxury yacht, and I have even done a few blogs about this option, but have not done one specifically for trailer boat owners.

I can think of few places I have ever fished, and that is a LOT of places, where so many options exist for relatively small boat owners to access so much variety and opportunities to fish for different species, all with relatively protected and safe cover.

Be it creek, reef, flats or blue water, all these options, with all the usual target species abound within this 74-island paradise with its anchor destination of Airlie Beach being amongst the best serviced in Queensland in terms of excellent boat ramps and accommodation options.

We have excellent boat ramps with launch pontoons and all tide/weather safety at Port of Airlie, Coral Sea Marina and VMR break wall ramp plus an additional excellent facility into the Proserpine River and Proserpine dam. Accommodation in a number of boat friendly resorts, through excellent camp grounds and many camp sites on the actual islands it offers a world of opportunity, not just to the yachting holiday makers which have helped make the Whitsundays famous, but equally to individuals, groups of mates or families. From hard core fishing focused, to the more layback camping trip with enough fishing included to keep the cook happy and everyone well fed this area offers variety, access and safety I don’t think any other area comes close to. As trailer boat “campers” you have the safety measures put in place by years of a major tourism industry and books like “100 magic Miles”, while generally considered the bareboat “bible”, it offers information for the trailer boat day tripper or island camper that is unquestionably the best of any location in Australia.

I spend a lot of time around the islands and know a 6-meter boat can access just about everything. When the wind is up it can fish around the mainland bays, or with reasonable boating skills can still cross the passage to fish the outer islands and find plenty of shelter under the high peaks of the sunken mountain range which formed this amazing archipelago eons ago. Fringing reefs, blue water corners and bays all offering opportunities for the famous reef and pelagic species which have made the great barrier reef such a bucket list destination.

Many of the islands also have great camp sites and large estuaries, some running deep into the islands to offer great fishing for mangrove Jacks, barramundi, Grunter and mud crabs. Let google earth be your friend here because on windy days in particular they can offer awesome fishing in mill pond conditions and often within a few minutes of some of the island’s better campsites.

For those (like me), bitten by the salt water fly bug the area offers arguably one of the best salt water flats fishing experiences in the world, and all accessible with relative ease and at a relatively low cost.

A bit of planning, watching for tides, checklists and some homework on local QPWS island campgrounds/permits   https://parks.des.qld.gov.au/parks/whitsunday-islands/camping or mainland resorts can all feed into making a Whitsunday boating dream come true, just using your own trailer boat. A 12-hour tow from Brisbane just about gets you here, on generally decent roads and well serviced.  A few things to consider

1.       We have very big tides. Choose larger tides if you fancy fishing inshore in the creeks and smaller tides for the reefs and deeper water.

2.       Check QPWS for island camping rules and permits i.e. No fires or generators on shore

3.       Most of what you need in terms of provisions, fuel and spare tackle is easy to buy in Airlie Beach but once you are on the water you need to be pretty self sufficient but can get provisions, fuel and water at Hamilton Island marina and IGA or you can get back to Airlie Beach within an hour of almost any of the popular sites.

4.       Use google earth to plan your trip and have contingency plans for campgrounds and anchorages. Usually from January to about October the prevailing winds are SE.

5.       You can do a trip wide to the actual Great Barrier Reef but in a 6-meter boat it needs to be under 15 knot winds.

6.       September and October are usually stunning weather and generally calm seas.

7.       Bring snorkel gear and consider lightweight stinger suits all year around even through stinger “season” is considered to be October to May.

8.       Spearfishing if very restricted in the Whitsundays so just about too hard to bother with.

9.       Reef and Estuary species pretty much all year around. Mackerel in mid to late winter and tuna in summer. Mud crabs are in the rivers moist of the year but hard to find from September to mid-December.

10.   The ramps in Airlie itself are very safe. No problems leaving a car and trailer parked for a few days. Proserpine River car park is more isolated and does have the occasional issue.

11.   Consider “mixing it up” with a few days in a mainland resort or camp ground and a few days on an Island campground to take in the best of both worlds and allow weather related flexibility. Outside a really peak holiday weekends, you will always be able to get a camping permit for the islands.

12.   Get a GBRPMA zoning map and check for green zoning and fishing regulations.

13.   Islands have poor to zero phone reception in some areas such as Whitehaven Beach so a sat phone is handy and working VHS radio essential.

If you are planning a trip, or even thinking about it and want to know a little more, just drop me a line here and I will see how I can help. Take advantage of my 35 years of local knowledge and allow me to help you fall in love with the place like I did. Just be careful however. I came on 6 months working holiday……and never left.

Covid -19 and the 2020 reset button

The entry to the new Fish D”vine & Rum Bar

The barramundi are still biting

Yes, there was rum involved, yes it was alive and real and yes, what happens in Cuba should stay in Cuba.

Some of the stunning food being prepared at the new restaurant

We call it a “Rack of Mack”, a new cut we are playing with

So why not a “Fish Shank”

Girls just wanna have fun. A great image from our amazing White on Whitehaven long lunch in January 2020

My special little grand daughter. It’s been a big year

She is a bit too cute

Permit on fly at Hill Inlet. Maybe just the best saltwater flats in the world.

And Jack still lives here

A Pizza oven called Harold.

Did a spot with Justine for the Tropical Gourmet Series on SBS

God has it been almost 2 years since a blog post?  So much has happened in life, business, fishing, food and now all under the cloud of Covid 19 it is hard to know where on earth to even start a blog post. Maybe this is all a bit cathartic just doing a blog recording the somewhat insane curve balls life throws my way. But hey. Never boring. So, in condensed form, I am living on a boat by myself these days….sigh! Which, in fact, is pretty special and in arguably the best marina in Australia and right next door to the amazing “Ocean Club”, which has become almost part of my “house”. Amazing amenities block, laundry, BBQ deck, Coffee machine, ice machine, Business centre, even a day spa it helps set this marina apart from any others, certainly in Australia and has made the transition from big luxury apartment to a floating small “apartment”, pretty easy.

 I also spend a fair bit of time in Brisbane with the 4 favourite women in my life, one of whom happens to be my granddaughter, 2 of them my lovely twin girls, and, well, one other; plus a wood fired pizza oven called Harold and he will provide some food adventures worth blogging about for sure.

Retirement and fishing were going fine. Further adventures with a fly rod to Cuba, doing maybe the silliest thing I have every done (I blamed the rum for swimming with the crocodile), doing much more exploration around the Whitsundays and eventually coming to realise that we actually have amongst the best salt water fly fisheries in the world, right here in our own backyard. Maybe Cuba is worth a blog post all by itself, so I will do that.

Out of left field again and opportunity arose to relocate our restaurant operation back around to the waterfront esplanade, just 50 meters from where it all started 16 years ago. This was a big decision and big commitment but with our lease on the existing venue coming to an end, and in an industry where all venues need to “re-invent” themselves so it was that retirement was shelved for a while and we threw the team gung ho at a new, larger and ultimately stunning new venue, and with the project well advanced and with, quite literally a tiger by the tail, it happened.

Covid, bloody 19, and everything changed. Our industry brought to its knees and the world and international travel will maybe not be the same again into the foreseeable future.

It has been a roller coaster of adapting to the new order of things, repositioning ourselves into home delivery meals for a while, working to be ready with the new venue when the conditions allowed and exploring any new opportunities to adapt our business model to suit the new normal, and this is something we are still working on every day.

We got the doors of the new venue open 5 weeks ago to great numbers and feedback, within the context of reduced capacity due to social distancing rules, have struggled with staffing and training which appears to be causing issues all over the industry and genuinely think we can get through this and be more agile and better positioned than ever when the dust settles.

We have maintained our relationships with our fishermen throughout, even buying product when we were closed, just to make sure they did not go elsewhere and now find these relationships better than ever and with a very inspired and innovative team of chefs we are starting to push the boundaries of just what we can do with fish, so, it’s all a bit “fun”. A challenge, a bit nervous, but we are also enthused and excited to be part of the rebirth of Airlie Beach tourism.

We have always been a “one day” kind of destination for Australian holidays makers, but, that day was always competing with Fiji or Bali, The Cook Islands or the Maldives. With all those tropical exotic destinations off the table for some time, we are already witnessing that “one day”, is coming sooner than we expect. If you have the Whitsundays already on your bucket list, I would suggest you book early. You will be very surprised at how busy we already are, just with Queensland holiday makers. Hopefully we can put 2020 behind us and make 2021 a great year. I am going to start blogging for fishing tips and food tips again now that my head space is OK.

Just hit the reset button on my life knowing I have a lot to be thankful for and hopefully get back to helping drive interest in the wonderful world of food, fishing and the Whitsundays.

Tales of Fur, Feathers and Fish (or old blokes in funny hats)

The fish it is all about. A Christmas Island Bonefish

A huge pod of Dolphins follow every boat through the lagoon entrance.

The enigmatic milkfish. The fish of 1000 casts

A "Blue Trevally", a species not seen in Australia

Locked and loaded on a 10 weight fly rod on a rampaging GT. Nothing subtle about this kind of fly fishing.

Boom. Wonder how a trout stream would cope with a wolf pack of these things.

Hand feeding the baby bonefish at Haff dam

Dawn on the beach at Christmas Island ready for another day on the flats.

Beautifully marked little 'Picasso Triggerfish"

To most people fly fishing evokes images of crusty old blokes, in tweed jackets, fishing on trout streams with tiny little creations of various furs and feathers. Waders, jumpers and beanies also come to mind with snow covered peaks and frost on the ground. It is a curious sport and even though the type of fly fishing, I personally pursue (salt water flats fishing) could not be further removed there is still an element of eccentricity which is hard to explain. If one set out to design a harder way to actually catch fish, fly fishing would just about be it. It seems, having now been on a few overseas dedicated fly-fishing holidays, to actually be a pastime largely undertaken by older guys and less about actually “catching fish” and more about just being there and the “hunting” element of seeing, stalking and the delicate quiet presentation of a fly to a wary fish in shallow water in the hope of actually catching the fish, just to let it go again.

Fly casting is more akin to golf than any other sport I have undertaken. The enjoyment of the great cast in difficult conditions a bit like a pure 4 iron to a small green. You may well “miss the put” and in many fly-fishing situations not get the bite, but the enjoyment of the cast is something you really have to experience to understand. As we travel on the boat more and more, while fishing is an everyday event, I really don’t need to catch many. A nice Coral Trout, Barramundi of sweetlip will always be on a plate in the fridge and who needs frozen fish when fresh is an easy option so fly fishing, enjoying the moment, the experience, and spending time exploring little bays, beaches and reef flats will become a large part of my daily routine. All about the fishing and not the catching.

I have just spent 2 weeks in Kiribati on the coral atoll of Kiritimati (Christmas Island) with a fly rod in hand and managed the Christmas Island “Grand Slam”. A big bonefish, large Giant Trevally, a trigger fish and a milkfish, each different, each with a different technique and set of challenges and even with a different weight fly rod. Again, a bit like golf each target has a different tool from 6, 8, 9 or 10 weight rods but wading on a sand flat with a fly rod has become, not only an obsession, but the most peaceful way I know of passing time on the water.

Anyone with a love a spending time just beachcombing, observing the ebb and flow of tides over shallow beaches and with fishing as a love really should buy an outfit or better still take a lesson from a fly-fishing coach. Again, a lot like golfing, it is better to have a lesson with a “pro” to learn the basics of grip and swing. The takeaway the “shot making” and all the little nuances so that you ultimately start with sound fundamentals and can practice with a solid foundation. Some of you will hate it, because you don’t often actually catch many fish but some of you may just come to understand the simple poetic beauty of fly casting in the salt water tropics.

If you do get bitten by the” bug”, having now experienced it at its best in both the Bahamas and Kiribati, fishing for “Bones” (Bonefish) may just be the greatest and most revered experience of a lifetime on the water. Later this year we are taking a full month to cruise up the coast and it will include 2 days on a reef atoll which I am reliably informed has abundant bonefish. To fully explore and then write about a bone fishing destination in Australia will be ground-breaking and cause a significant ripple through the Australian fly-fishing community and you will hear about it first in October on Bait to Plate.

Where every day is Christmas

No blogging for next 2 weeks, in fact no internet, phones or TV. Heading to Kiribati/Christmas Island this morning. Just me, my fly rod and the Bone Fish.....and the Trigger Fish, Milkfish, Yellowfin Tuna, Giant herrings, GT's....sigh! Stay tuned for a full blown report when I get back.

A Dogs' Life in the Winter-sundays

Ho Hum, just another winters day in paradise

Bit big for the tender lift but a great boat for mackerel fishing. Rum..ble loaded for crabbin' and fishin'.

On the way. Pity about the rough conditions (on Port Phillip Bay)

OK Dad, lets go fishing.....our "RV" in the background.

Love this time of year. One of 3 nice fish that afternoon.

Sunset at Bona bay. Great overnight anchorage and lovely beach for a morning stroll.

Pizza on the BBQ

I'm ready. She doesn't get to do this at home but table manners tend to go out the door on the water.

Watch your fingers.

One of a nice haul of prime Whitsunday Mud Crabs

& of course they had all escaped from the bag by morning.

Winter is here, and those of us who live in the Whitsunday’s get a smug sense of self satisfaction as we watch the nightly weather reports of the freezing conditions in Southern states. Just another day in the life of a dog, and a dog like ours, who is a boaty through and through, loves this time of year, cool evenings for snuggling up and not so hot during the day that she gets stressed about needing a haircut; just great weather for lazin” around or for a good run on any beach we can get her too as well as loving taking liberties at the dinner table she does not get to at home.

If we are boaties we also keep a “weather eye” on the formation of East Coast lows off NSW or Victoria. These bring the worst of conditions to those areas but act as a block for the traditional SE trade winds which prevail over the North during these months. SE trades can blow for weeks on end, making boating uncomfortable, or at the very least restricting it to inshore areas and the lee of the Islands (which the Whitsundays are blessed with 74 of and multiple calm anchorages).

One thing boaties and fisherman learn early is how to ready a synoptic chart. Those funny maps the weather forecasters produce each night with lots of lines. While to most people these don’t mean much, to any student of the weather they are absolutely invaluable in reading future wind trends and as low-pressure systems form or sweep across South Australia heading for the East Coast we get very excited along the North Queensland Coast about some glorious winter weather on the way.

So, it was last weekend, just a 2 day “window” of calm weather (while it rained and blew its head off in Melbourne).

 Winter time is Mackerel time up here. It is also the last of the great mud crab season before they all head to sea to breed in August so I was a bit torn; Mackerel or crabs. We have a small boat which has already featured in recent blogs which is kind of my creek fishing/crabbing boat and a much larger centre console vessel which I fish the reefs and oceans with. It is a pretty big boat to tow and way to big to get up into the creeks I like to crab in but the little inflatable tender is always an option for this so we took the reef boat in tow, managed a couple of lovely Spanish mackerel and got some fantastic big buck mud crabs from a favourite little crabbing creek in double bay, just to the north of Airlie Beach.

Any of the islands to the north fish well for mackerel this time of year and concentrate on the current lines and rips. Live baits like fusiliers are great but trolling wolf herrings (Ribbon Fish) or gar will also work. Any of the local tackle shops will give you tips on rigs, baits and best spots with all of them run by top blokes and keen fishos.

After knocking up a pizza for dinner on the boat it is home time now with the SE trades blowing 20 knots plus and either some Cajun spiced mackerel of black pepper crab for dinner. Decisions, decisions.

BBQ part 2

No dial a pizza at sea...but, who cares!

Rest dough in a nice warm place…like an engine room =)

Using a wine bottle as a rolling pin makes it taste better, honest.

Ready for the pizza oven.

Really hot pizza stone and lid down for less than 10 minutes.

Yum.

What a really good pizza crust should look like underneath. These little BBQ's really get hot.

So, to answer my own question. Can you cook a pizza on my new favourite boat BBQ? Absolutely. Just took a few bits of improvisation and a pizza stone.

A quick weekend on the boat on a little weather window had a very short planning session and not much thought about provisioning, after all, I can always mange a fish or 2. Which will become the next blog post; but I had flour, yeast, some pasta sauce and my new BBQ, a few tomatoes and some basil from my herb garden on the balcony, (I was planning bruschetta).

Not much of a story to tell but a few pictures to post which will have a lot of Pizza shops hanging their heads in shame, (after all if I can knock one out this good on a boat with a BBQ, what are you guys doing?)

Certainly a few bits of improvisation.

1.Make basic pizza dough and rest in a warm place for 30 minutes. What could be warmer then a nice engine bay after a few hours steaming.

2. Roll out dough, and when you don’t have a rolling pin there is nothing like a wine bottle and if you use a good red I am convinced it improves the flavour of the pizza =).

3. Get your pizza stone absolutely smoking hot and use some greaseproof paper on a cutting board if you don’t have a pizza paddle and slide it (paper and all) onto the stone and drop the lid. A bit of charred paper does not cause any issue.

Nothing much more to say that the photos don’t say better except I am loving this little Barby more and more. So far, I have cooked 5 dinners on it and I am still on the original gas canister.

Some Like It Hot!

The beautiful anchorage at the South end of Shaw Island

My new cooking toy. An Infared char broil portable BBQ. Love it!

One of 4 Coral Trout in 20 minutes. This one was a bit big for the BBQ. Sorry about the smudge on the lens in next 3 photos.

Step one of a great meal.

On the BBQ she goes. 5 minutes a side and 5 minutes to rest.

As good as it gets for Coral Trout. One of Australia's truely great fish.

Eggs Benny. Time makes this sort of breakfast possible.

Butterfly a chicken, add some Peri Peri Marinade and presto. Another "flash" dinner at Shaw Island.

Has to be a good hot BBQ to really cook a great steak and char some corn.

Catching your own means dealing with the "yucky bits" but absolutely worth it.

One of the Whitsunday visitors. A Manta Ray cruising the fringing reef off Linderman Island.

Yep. This is 'our" winter. What are you waiting for? Book a bareboat and come on up.

When it came to fitting out the boat, both for general use and longer-range travels, it almost goes without saying that the cooking capacity was important to me.

The vessel has a well-equipped galley and top deck electric BBQ but this means running the generator and potentially annoying the neighbours as well as ruining the peace and quiet we are trying to achieve. It also meant being downstairs and trying to be upstairs at the same time.

The little butane gas cookers everyone uses these days sorted out part of my problem but I still wanted a BBQ type arrangement. I wanted heats, lots of heat. As a chef it is always easy to turn it down but so often non-commercial equipment lacks the real punch to cook properly.

I also wanted portability and not to have to carry large gas bottles and have the hassle of refilling in remote locations. Something I could carry into a beach and use if I wanted to and a unit I could pack up and put away rather than the usual railing mounted BBQ’s common on most boats.

After a bit of homework and some day care for boys (AKA BCF) I settled on a “Char-Broil infa red”. A great sturdy little unit which operated on a medium size butane cylinder, has all the portability I need and really builds up some great heat, especially with the lid down. As this story is not a sponsored spot I am happy to review the unit over time and if it ends up a dud I will be happy to say so, but, so far it is fantastic. I have baked Coral Trout, cooked some great steaks, burgers and even used it as a hot plate to poach some eggs and make a smoked salmon and spinach eggs benedict, including the fresh made hollandaise sauce.

It is operating in a marine environment so durability and rust resilience may become an issue over time but for anyone going bush, these are about the best little portable 2/4-person BBQ I have ever come across. Portable, easy to clean, no big gas bottle to carry around and above all HOT. I am going to get a pizza stone because I actually think it will be hot enough to easily cook a pizza, and THAT, will be a treat on a boat.

When we travel, away from the day to day time constraints of work, food can and really should be a big part of our day. We have time. Time to gather good raw ingredients, be it at local market stalls, farm gates of local harvesting, which can include fishing when we are on or near the water. It really is and should be a chance to reconnect with food, away from the supermarket shelves and help our kids understand the food heritage we are blessed with in this country.

A whole fish, baked in foil, with just some lemon, butter and a few herbs is one of life’s great simple meals. Up the ante and make this fish a Coral Trout, which regularly fetches upwards of $50 a kilo these days and it can be a meal which would be eye wateringly expensive in a restaurant but a cost effective and amazing food experience to share with family or friends.  On a trip through Hong Kong some years ago I saw a Coral trout in a live fish tank in a Hong Kong restaurant where the conversion rate put that single fish a little north of $1000 Aus. dollars, and here we are, for the cost of a packet of pilchards and a bit of time able to do it just about any time we get on the water.

I do get asked a lot but people hiring bareboats, how do I catch fish like these?  The simple answer is to moor the yacht and get into your tender to fish. The clear waters around the reef islands means it is easy to see the edges of the fringing reefs and drifting along the bombie edges or even trolling some 3-meter-deep lures along the reef edges at or near low tide is just about a sure-fire way of picking up a trout for dinner.

The fish used in this story came from Shaw Island, and fantastic protected anchorage to the South of Linderman. We caught some lovely Coral Trout and a heap of Grassy Sweetlip on the North Eastern end of the little island located 20 29 05 S and 149 03 16 E fishing in about 12 meters of water, just of the fringing reef edge.

Not the White Cliffs of Dover

Red Cliffs in the late afternoon sun

The half way down the cliffs waterfall

Pera Pool and a nice cold beer

Fly rod heaven. Locked and loaded with 150 meters of line out on a big Queensfish

Diamond Trevally. A fly Rod special at Red Cliffs

Barramundi. The fish it is all about. This one destined for the dinner table.

The ugly duckling of the Queensland bareboat fleet with the heart of a swan. Tillitoo at Red Cliffs

Chili Crab...drop me a line for the recipe

Couldn't resist a before and after of crispy skinned whole fish dinner

The after

Kind of crazy that I get off a boat, to go and have a holiday on another one, but hey, you Just can never have too much fun messin’ around on boats. While not as famous as the White Cliffs of Dover, but in my view just as spectacular, the Red Cliffs of Weipa are virtually an unknown gem and one of the great natural wonders of Australia. Towering bauxite cliffs, which rise 60 feet from a sandy strip, right on the water, they have a magical reaction to sunshine, not dissimilar to Uluru. These cliffs seem to almost come alive in a late afternoon sun, glowing red and casting and golden hue across the ocean and surrounding landscape. To sit off Red Cliffs in the late afternoon, enjoying a cold beer, and reflecting on a day spend fishing and sighseeing further down to coast to Pera Heads and Boyd’s Bay is an experience shared by only a select few and yet is a part of Australia’s natural wonders which really should be experienced. You need to be there at dusk; long after the guided fishing skiffs have already blasted back to Weipa some 35 kilometres North to witness the breathtaking transformation from the dull dusty bauxite red to the explosion of luminescent colours which burst forth in the setting sun.

The unique structure of Red Cliffs which has evolved over time, include a 12 meter-deep top layer of bauxite sitting on a lower layer of white clay. Water from the wet season seeps easily through the bauxite, hits the clay layer and then follows this through to the cliffs where it virtually becomes a waterfall which starts along the clay line and provides amazing opportunities for an outdoor shower after some hard days fishing the salt water. Further South at Pera Heads a large freshwater stream gushed millions of litres of fresh water onto the beach and no visit is complete without a “dip” in Pera Pool or a shower at Red Cliffs “living the dream” of absolute isolation and sharing a unique experience with friends or family.

This is very much “off the beaten track” country. No roads and no access other than by water, but an option to experience a “caravanning” type holiday is available from Weipa Houseboats. The road to Weipa is open every year from early May and is constantly being upgraded with plans to be fully sealed by 2020.  It will, in time get busy, as access become easier and gentler on vehicles and vans. The campgrounds are clean, functional and well serviced but it is Weipa Houseboats which gives the real opportunity to experience the wild untamed and remote part of Queensland in safety, comfort and with the convenience of the ultimate cross over between boat and caravan. These houseboats are never going to win a beauty prize but are tough, functional and a wonderful holiday option either for a group of hardcore fishos, with friends, or showing the kids a part of Australia unlikely ever to be subjected to mainstream tourism pressure.

“Bareboating” a Weipa Houseboat is not like bareboating in the Whitsundays. Its charm is in the isolation and the level of self-reliance required. There are no marinas, no resorts to pull into and most certainly no snorkelling gear on board. It is about seeing and experiencing a place that has changed little since the dawn of time, spending an entire day without seeing another soul, spotting crocodiles, birdlife, manta rays, wild pigs, beachcombing and just spending time soaking up the awe-inspiring vistas which present themselves daily as well as the simple pleasures of catching a fish or 2 for dinner.

While a group of us have gone every year for some 15 years now and go as hard-core fisherman, as we have aged and mellowed it has become more and more about just “being there”, the food we eat and the new little places we find. As an avid fly fisherman there is no place in Australia like Weipa as it is on the west coast of Cape York, not only do you experience the sun setting into the sea but also have the persistent SE trade winds blowing off shore making Red Cliffs a calm anchorage from which to explore in even the windiest weather and with clear calm inshore beaches and the wind at your back, coupled with lots of fish and lots of fish variety the western cape is without question amongst the very best fly fishing destination in the world..

Did I mention the food? The basic rule on our houseboat adventure is I cook, somebody else washed up but meals of Chili Mud Crab, Crispy Skinned whole fish, beer battered barramundi fillets and great steaks usually sets the scene for coming home a kilo or 2 heavier then we go away, but hey, that is what holidays are all about. Post on my blog site if you want any recipes and everything is cooked on a combination of a big top deck BBQ and 2 little portable camp stoves. This years highlight meal was slow roasted pork belly, roasted garlic mash, green beans, spinach and a chilli apple compote. Relatively easy in my resatuarant kitchen but doing this for 9 hungry blokes on a houseboat had me under the pump.

Our Chili Crab cook-ups are legendary and I use the recipe developed over time in the restaurant which has become a Whitsunday Icon dish. Rather than fill page space here just drop me a line on my blog or Facebook page for the recipe.

Weipa Houseboats are really for the experienced skipper and a crew with adventure in mind but offers the only real access to one of Australia’s true natural wonders and should be on every adventure travellers bucket list of “see Australia First” destinations. While it, in itself may never get too busy, Weipa Houseboats only has 2 vessels which book out well in advance. While their web site may be all about the fishing, which will always be the main drawcard, I actually don’t think they quite realise what they have up there. It is an almost religious experience, not unlike the first time you see Whitehaven Beach in the Whitsundays or Uluru. Filled with awe and wonder at just what mother nature has blessed us with.