Three problems with Mackay.
Housing is expensive, all the transitory workers are driving housing through the roof, even simple houses are phenomenally expensive.
And if you are working up there, all the great time for fishing and touring is taken up with that most annoying drain on your time..........work
The other thing is the weather, perfect in winter, spring and autumn, but dam hot in summer, real hot, hot hot hot and humid.
But a few months in that is more than made up for with the rest of the perfect year.
Fishing is supreme, get in with some locals and head out to the reefs, they stay overnight in open tinnies, sleeping under the stars and fishing flat out. Its a long trip out and back, but believe me the fishing is well worth it.
Enjoy, you may end up selling up and staying