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as assistant general manager; her grandfather
Geo rey Henderson had been its general
manager in the ’ s and her mother Judy was
the island nurse. She would move away after
high school and return to work as the island
fl orist and later personal maid when the
property was rebuilt in and entered a
new phase of high-octane luxury. Jodi also
met her husband on the island, and now
manages Freedom Shores resort near Airlie
Beach, which looks out to Hayman.
Jodi’s earliest memories are of swimming
on the island’s front beach and hopping in a
speedboat with her family for a Saturday
picnic on her father’s day o ; Steen’s Beach
on neighbouring Hook Island is named after
her family and their weekly visits.
Not fl ash by anybody’s standards today,
Jodi says, Royal Hayman was “the most
beautiful place”: an all-inclusive resort with
two pools and non-stop activities on o erCLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT: The Royal Hayman Hotel pictured
in the s, with its newly opened Palm Lodge and famous ‘Hayman Rock-it’
train; Those Whitsunday blues; Guests at the Royal Hayman would travel by
boat or Ansett-ANA helicopters like this one, photographed circa .PHOTOGRAPHY: VINTAGE POSTCARD COURTESY OF MURRAY VIEWS PTY LTD.FOLLOWING A MULTI-MILLION
dollar refurbishment, Hayman Island
reopened at the beginning of July under the
InterContinental Hotels Group. It’s the latest
incarnation of one of Queensland’s most
iconic island resorts and builds on a history of
tourism that dates back to the s, when
Whitsunday fi shermen Bob and Bert Hallam
established a simple holiday resort with fi bro
huts and beach-sand fl oors, and the fi rst
coconut palm was planted. A decade later
aviation pioneer Reginald Ansett fell for the
island and acquired the lease for ,.
His opening of the Royal Hayman Hotel in
was set to crystalise Hayman in the
minds of holidaymakers as a tropical paradise.
But for some people, it was simply home.
Born in , Jodi Ho man grew up on the
island with her parents and older sister. Her
childhood was spent at the Royal Hayman
Hotel where her father David Steen workedWhitsundaytropicalparadiseHAYMANISLAND is
synonymous with HOLIDAYS, but what was it like to
GROW UP there? IMOGEN EVESON speaks to a local.
ranging from jazz exercise to fashion parades,
concerts, cruises and reef excursions. You’d
fi nd fancy dress on a Friday night and tin can
horse races on a Sunday. It was also famous
for its little train that ran between the resort
and the end of the jetty, where guests would
embark and disembark boats and helicopters.
And there were always interesting arrivals.
Jodi remembers one evening in the company
of a certain ‘Mr Douglas’ and later watching
a movie, “and Dad goes ‘you know that’s
the gentleman we had for dinner the other
day?’” Kirk Douglas checked into the Royal
Hayman in after fi lming The Man
From Snowy River, having been tipped o by
Katharine Hepburn and Charlton Heston.
“It was so precious and I suppose at the
time we didn’t really realise that,” says Jodi of
her childhood on Hayman. “But we wanted
for nothing.” Except – perhaps – for Kentucky
Fried Chicken, which her father used to
helicopter in for Jodi and her schoolmates
every December as a break-up day treat.
Through the di erent stages of life on
Hayman Island, one thing that’s remained
unaltered is its natural beauty. “I could still
stand there now on the front beach and want
to just dive in the water,” says Jodi, “because
it’s exactly how I remember it as a child.”SHORTCUTS |Rewind
Halcyon days
on Hayman