Lotus Creek
A position about halfway along the Bruce Highway's old route between Sarina and Marlborough — the notorious Marlborough stretch, a.k.a. The Crystal Highway — made the rural locality of Lotus Creek a perennial stop for travellers until Cyclone Debbie destroyed the service station and roadhouse in 2017. By that stage, the number of people using the former horror stretch had declined sharply, but the highway continued to deliver enough passing traffic to persuade a local grazing family to buy the Lotus Creek Tourist Park when it came on the market, It now offers a variety of accommodation options, along with a service station, cafe and convenience store. A restaurant opens on Friday and Saturday nights.
The old narrow highway's low-level creekbed crossings caused frequent disruptions to traffic during the Northern wet season, and plans to realign the highway on a shorter coastal route were already underway when a spate of incidents, including the 1975 murders of Noel and Sophia Weckert) prompted widespread concern among potential travellers.
Missing links:
Marlborough stretch
Crystal Highway
Cyclone Debbie
Lotus Creek Tourist Park
Noel and Sophia Weckert
