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Published: February 25th 2020
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Day 11 Brisbane continued
We enjoyed our visit to the Lone Pine Sanctuary. I think we were lucky to go there first as by the time we left there were a lot more people about. It was interesting watching the lizards hanging about the picnickers around the cafe, ever hopeful for tidbits!
Having come across couples both evening so far at supper who had relatives in March it wasn’t really a surprise for Roger to bump into a very good friend of his in the Q in the cafe, also on the cruise! We’ll meet her tomorrow for a chat.
Our East German born guide was of course a fount of interesting information; however I really do have to remember to press save as I’m making the memos on my phone before I rush to take another photo. We make a scenic tour of viewpoints and highlights of the city before we came back to the coach, with commentary of course so here’s a few facts I thought were interesting.
-Brisbane is a city of immigrants ( where in Australia isn’t?), with over 450 nationalities living here, our guide, Katya, being one of them.
-Mount Coot-tha is a place that the Aboriginals held as special long before the Europeans came, the word means honey.
-There are a lot of green areas around the city, at the moment as they have had rain, but in the dry season there has always been back burning, where the undergrowth is burnt off in a controlled way to prevent wild fires. The indigenous plants seeds usually need to heat to programme them into germinating to regenerate. The problem this time has been the excessive heat and self setting fires.
-Our bus driver told us about his trip outWest from Brisbane, over 1700 km, to the coal mines where he was taking the workers. There’s about 1200 km of tarmac and then red earth track. Along the sides of the tarmac green shoots sprout and at dusk and dawn the kangaroos come to the road edges to try and forage for food. There are so many of them they are starving, but he said it was like the queen driving along streets thronged with people, the kangaroos were so dense. He obviously had to slow down as he didn’t want to have an accident. They Roos are
very big and strong and could easily go through a windscreen and do a great deal of damage to a vehicle.
-The population of Brisbane is over 4 million
-In the centre the N-S roads have female names and the E-W roads have male names
-There are still a lot of original homes interspersed by new builds. Many homes are built on stilts, to utilise space and also because it’s a very hilly city so can still build on an incline. Also keeps the snakes from making homes underneath! Wrought Iron balconies are a feature of the old properties, some of them very elaborate. The city is trying to preserve these buildings.( I managed to take a few photos of these).
-Brisbane was first settled in early 1800s, when Sydney became overcrowded. The Botanic Gardens were established in 1824- originally as a fruit and vegetable garden to supply the fledgling Moreton Bay penal settlement-and today features 20 hectares of flowers and trees including huge Moreton Bay figs. I think the photo with the roots reaching down from the branches may be one of these, the guide said it was a fig tree.
-Brisbane is several
miles up the River Brisbane. Along the edges before the city are mangrove swamps. It is about a 40 minute drive from where the ship is moored at the commercial quay into the city.
-Photos include the Anzac memorial and the City Hall( with the clock tower)
-There is a lot of construction work going on, hence the cranes.
-The Goodwill Bridge, a new purpose built pedestrian and cycle bridge straddles the Brisbane River to join the City Botanic Gardens and Queensland University of Technology. It is credited with being the worlds longest pedestrian bridge.
Back aboard we had a siesta, supper and then went to the theatre to see Maurice Grumblweed, of the Grumbleweeds fame in the 60s? He sang, told jokes, wasn’t bad but very sexist. He had a nice voice, sang 60s songs and Baron Knights style songs too. Quite witty at times. Roger liked him! Old school!
Day 12
Sunday 23rd February, 2020
As we couldn’t get on the river cruise either day we decided to stay onboard today, with just a visit to the cruise terminal shed to pick up
emails and post this. In dock again on Wednesday after 2 sea days. Meeting Jennifer and Dharon for l
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