Blogs from Queensland, Australia, Oceania - page 19

Battlecamp Road opened on 10 June after the wet. A mixture of red dirt and bitumen ( some new sections). We stopped at old Laura Homestead for morning tea. The buildings that are left are well preserved and give an insight into homestead living. It was first established in 1879 by two Irish cousins. There are station buildings, stockyards, structural foundations, native and introduced trees and vegetation. Many areas have been restored. The Laura River is located below the grounds. We drove on to Quinkan Cultural Centre, unfortunately we could not go to the Quinkan Galleries to see the 15000 year old rock paintings due to an internal dispute within the community. As an alternative we collected our guide Ray who took us for a walk up to Split Rock to see the rock art there. ... read more

We had a lovely breakfast then joined the bus after filling our bottles with water. The Mirage had a filling station with sparkling, cold or warm water. I filled my bottle with sparkling which caused much laughter when I opened it later and it went "pop"!! I was asked if I had champagne in it. Unfortunately NO. Our first stop was the Mossman Gorge Visitor Centre and were taken on a dreamtime gorge walk by Ray. After participating in a smoking ceremony we set off on our walk where he explained the traditional uses of bush food sources such as plants, seeds, ochre used etc by the aboriginal inhabitants for foods, and medicine. At the end of the walk we had a Covid safe morning tea of damper, cream and jam. Paper cups, plastic utensils and ... read more

After a relaxing stopover at my parents' house in Brisbane, my northward migration continued with the short trip up to Noosa on the beautiful Sunshine Coast. But as picturesque as the scenery around Noosa may be - with a headland covered in coastal forest and lined with beautiful beaches - my main reason for visiting was to get up into the Cooloola Recreation Area section of the nearby Great Sandy NP, where the Noosa River snakes it's way towards the sea via a pair of shallow, brackish lakes (Cootharaba and Cooroibah). And to help facilitate my exploration of this unique and virtually undisturbed ecosystem (the Noosa River being the only major river in Australia whose upper catchment is entirely protected within a national park) I had booked a kayak for four days, so that I could ... read more

DAVID - Brisbane City is colloquially referred to as the "Brisbane CBD" or "the city". It is located on a point on the northern bank of the River Brisbane, historically known as Meanjin, Mianjin or Meeanjin in the local Aboriginal Australian dialect. The triangular shaped area is bounded by the median of the Brisbane River to the east, south and west. The point, known at its tip as Gardens Point, slopes upward to the north-west where the city is bounded by parkland and the inner city suburb of Spring Hill.The City is laid out according to a grid pattern surveyed during the city's early colonial days, a feature typical of most Australian street patterns. As a general rule, the streets aligned northwest-south east are named after male members of the HOuse of Hanover, while the northeast-south ... read more

The day was finally here. After months of planning, cancelled flights, border closures and the uncertainty of covid, I was at the airport, mask on my face and ready to board a plane for the first time in 14 months! After three flights via Brisbane and Townsville, I arrived in Mt Isa just before sunset. I stepped off the plane onto the traditional land of the Kalkadoon people, the traditional owners of the land and known as the elite of the Aboriginal warriors of Queensland. Mt Isa isn't a typical tourist destination. The town was built around the mining boom in 1924 and has thrived ever since. Located nine hours inland from Townsville, it's a tiny dot on the map in north-west Queensland, far from the coast and other major cities. Situated on the banks of ... read more