Yes, you can pet a kangaroo.

We went to the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary and saw most of the famous Aussie critters. They had a large fenced area where kangaroos, wallabies and emus were hanging around. A kangaroo's coat is surprisingly soft, almost like a rabbit.

 

A wallaby.

 

 Chillin'.

(They had a special cordoned off area where the animals could go to get away from human contact. Their motto is "Earth is not only for humans")

One of several momma kangaroos with Joeys in their pouch. That's his head and his back feet sticking out.

 

The main mission of the Sanctuary is to rescue and care for Koalas, but it's also a small zoo. There's only one species of Koala and they only live in fragmented habitats on the eastern coast of Australia.

Eucalyptus leaves are a low energy food source, so Koalas sleep about 19 hours a day. They are cute, but not very exciting (and pretty stinky).

A Kookaburra

When these birds start "laughing" it sounds the trees are full of monkeys.

 

They had several kinds of cockatiels, this is the first black one I've seen. They also had a white one that was saying hello to everyone with an Aussie accent. I had no idea these birds could "talk" but a couple of them had a whole list of words and phrases they could vocalize.

 

 

Emu.

A cassowary. An endangered bird slightly smaller than an Emu. Doesn't this look like a dinosaur/bird link?

Australia has a lot of cool lizards.

I think Dingoes are a lot prettier than coyotes. The white one was howling a bit while we were there.

 

We're Just Walkin' Around...Lookin' Around...

I went out with the Walking for Pleasure Brisbane group yesterday for one of the all-day walks.  Anyone who wants to go pays a transport fee and we all ride together in a hired bus/van to a scenic locale. We went north to Minyama, Mooloolabah and Point Cartwright. It was about an hour and a half ride up and we did 4 different walks in the area with picnic stops for some BYO morning tea and lunch.

This train station screen is a stand-in for the comedy-of-errors beginning to my trip. First, the train was different from the online schedule, so I arrived at the meeting spot with only 10 minutes to spare. Then, the pedestrian "tunnel" I thought I would take wasn't open for the day. Then I needlessly ran/speed-walked around the block twice, wearing a backpack and a raincoat (it was not raining). The lovely group members waited for me and looked for me and I made it onto the van only about 10 minutes late. 

 

(Sorry for the wobbly phone/camera and the wind noise)

 It was totally worth it because the walks were so great!  This is the group walking along the Esplanade Park beach. The other photographer is also a group member, he was smart enough to bring a real camera.

 

The beach was about 8 miles long, but we only walked a couple of miles along it. This pic was taken from Point Cartwright, which has a working lighthouse on it. This is the Coral Sea, the Eastern shore of Australia is on the the Coral and Tasman seas.

(Caution more loud wind noise)

We saw some surfers at a break on the north side of Point Cartwright. They were all wearing full wetsuits as it's the middle of "winter" here.

 

 We walked along another, more sheltered beach surrounded by parkland and walking paths. The Surf Lifesavers had flags out and were patrolling the beach, so people could swim. These beaches were all posted either no swimming, or swimming only between the flags.  Check out the Australian Surf Lifesavers, making ocean swimming safe in Australia.

 

I'd like to go back and explore these tide pools some time, anyone want to join me?

 

!Birthday Hiking!

We celebrated my birthday one day early by going on a fantastic picnic and hike in the Springbrook National Park.

 

 This is Mike Horn, a fellow Cerner expat who invited us to explore Springbrook with him and do some hiking there. He was kind enough to pick us up, and we had a great day of hiking, taking pictures and eating picnic yummies in a gorgeous rainforest, right on the QLD/NSW border.

 

 The first of several waterfalls we saw was making a nice rainbow near the bottom of the 200' plus drop.   (For scale, notice the palm tree, Jeff really zoomed in on it.)

 

These gnarly old Antarctic Beech trees are descendents of the Gondwana trees and are over a thousand years old.

 

 This lookout is on the rim of an extinct volcano that contains most of the park. The mountains here are not very high, but still provide spectacular views.

 

The trail we choose to hike went down into a steep canyon, past multiple waterfalls and back up the other side. It had rained all week the previous week so everything was lush and the all the streams were running high and fast.

 

 

I was glad we had the walking poles Steve gave us. It wasn't a tough hike, but there were a lot of wet, slippery rock sections and the poles really helped. 

   First we hiked across the creek that formed this waterfall, then down into the canyon and past the base of the fall.

 

 Amazing, right?

 

Twin Falls, one of several falls you could climb up and get behind. I scampered back down and snapped Mike and Jeff.

 

 

Some brave and hearty Queenslanders have built first rate trails here. There were bridges over all these creeks so you could watch the water rush over the edge and fall into the canyon.

 

This waterfall came crashing down onto the rocks, kicking up heaps of spray.

 

 

Looking back at the canyon on the way out, there's one of the waterfalls we went behind. 

 

One last look down at the forest canopy from above. I had never hiked canyons like this before, solid trees from the ridge line to the bottom. I'm glad they were able to preserve this ancient forest.

 

Surfers Paradise and the Gold Coast.

 

 

 

Touring the Toowong Cemetery

The Friends of Toowong Cemetery give a monthly historical tour, and Jeff and I went. 

This is the largest cemetery in Queensland at 200 acres and it was established in 1866.

 In colonial times there were 35 burials a day here. Brisbane was a dangerous place to live back then.

It's in pretty sad shape despite the removal of hundreds of worn, broken headstones. It's so hilly, I'm not surprised it's been hard to keep up. (For those who don't know, I've always been interested in cemeteries and try to visit these old ones whenever I can.)

If you look at the grass aisle on the left side of this photo, you can get an idea of how steep the hills are. Of course the rich and powerful are the ones with the big monuments at the top of the hill.

 These are the two oldest headstones in the cemetery, the graves were moved here from the prison colony. The foot stones are original and were used to mark the outline of the grave.

The larger tomb is Edwardian-era. The remains are not in the stone casket, but buried like all the others. (These were popular because you could put a really long inscription on top.)

Some people started putting the headstones flat on the graves, instead of waiting for them to fall over.

The view from the ridge at the top of the cemetery, looking toward where we live.

I  have to say, Council Bluffs' old cemeteries are much nicer. 

April 25th is Anzac day in Australia and New Zealand. It's a public holiday and a big deal.

I baked some Anzac bisquits for the occasion.

They're a cookie popular in Australia and New Zealand, made using rolled oats, flour, desiccated coconut, sugar, butter, golden syrup, baking soda and boiling water.  It has been claimed the biscuits were sent by wives to soldiers abroad because the ingredients do not spoil easily and the biscuits kept well during naval transportation. (I'm hoping to have them perfected by the time Tom visits.)

Here in Toowong there was a sunrise ceremony and since Brisbane is the capital of Queensland there was a parade in the CBD. We decided to watch the parade live on TV so we could hear the explanations of everything. We learned a lot and it was fun to hear from the commentators, and some of the folks watching. One of the unusual things about Anzac day is that it commemorates a battle that was a defeat, not a victory.  It has remained a very solemn occasion, to remember the courage, sacrifice and loss of life in war.

From Wikipedia: 

Anzac Day is a national day of remembrance in Australia and New Zealand, originally commemorated by both countries on 25 April every year to honour the members of the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC) who fought at Gallipoli in the Ottoman Empire during World War I. It now more broadly commemorates all those who died and served in military operations for their countries.

The parade was led by re-enacters wearing the WWI uniforms of the famed light horsemen. (The reason the hat is pinned up on one side is keep it out of the way of the rifle.)

We also got to see the Pipe Band from our next-door neighbors, the Brisbane Boys College, marching in the parade. (Adorably over the top)

 

Almost everything is closed for the holiday so we're hanging out at home, relaxing and having some beef stew, Coopers Pale Ale and Damper, and watching some Australian rules football.

 

Getting your head around Oz

It can be difficult to understand how large Australia is and how far apart all the famous places are. I've dug up a few maps and some information to make it easier. This first map shows our position on the planet. The top of Australia is not far from equator, so the Northern parts of Australia have a rainy season and dry season, while the Southern part has temperate seasons, although mild (about like Arkansas) It does snow in the Southern mountains and in Tasmania, there are even ski resorts near Sydney.


This shows the detail on the climate. Brisbane is in the Subtropical Zone.

 

Here's a good one! 
As you can see, Brisbane is about where Virginia Beach is,  Sydney is in N. Florida, And Perth is about where Tijuana is. The famous red rock, Uluru, is near Denver, and the Great Barrier Reef would start around Cleveland and go up to Ontario. Everything from L.A. to Chicago would be desert or near-desert, and the Great Lakes region along with Southern Canada would be tropical. There would be some rainforests across Canada and down the Eastern coast. With more than 8 thousand islands all the way around.

The U.S. has about 300 million people and AU has about 22 million. We only have 5 cities with a population over  a million and 25% of the people immigrated here from somewhere else. Indigenous people are only 2.2% of the population (It's much more common to see Maori people living in or visiting in Brisbane than indigenous Australians).

Speaking 'Strine

We definitely have it easier living in a country where English is the official language. In practice, most folks here speak what they would call "Strine" We decided before we came here to try and adopt the Aussie pronunciation of place names but use the American pronunciation for most things. It's going pretty well, but we do get in to a bit of bother once in a while.

Things that have tripped us up include:

Not being able to understand certain numbers
Ex.) I thought the clerk said thirteen, but she said thirty.

Being called luv or darlin', (mostly by women). This happens a lot, especially when you're being given instructions or correction.
Ex.) "Your fine luv"  when you're doing alright  or "You can't stand there darlings" when people aren't following the rule on where to queue. Adults speaking to young children almost always address them as "darling" even if they don't know them.

That Accent! Much like regional accents in the US, there are big variations in how thickly speech is accented. An adult speaking to me as a customer in a shop will be using speech that's easily understood by us, but two young Australian dudes speaking to each other will be incomprehensible.

The constant nicknaming of everything can be confusing. Brizzie, Tazzie, Breky, Pollys, Avo, Macca, Tinny, Esky, Veg, Ambo, Mozzie.
,

For some reason about 85% of restaurants in Brisbane close before 2 in the afternoon..

We've learned a lot of new vocabulary words
Lift = elevator
Unit = apartment
EFT Pos = debit card
Flat white = coffee with cream
Travelator = escalator
Kebab = a wrap with hot meat
Chips = french fries
Crisps = chips
Confectionery = candy
Fill your boots = do what you want
Cover = Insurance
Ute = Truck
Tipping = Picking the winner
Footy = Australian Rules Football or Rugby
Power Point = electrical outlet
Prep School = pre-school
Nipper = young surf lifesaver
Posh Ute = Refurbished El Camino
Uni = university
Queue = line

Fruity Capers*

Today's post is about the wacky fruits we've been trying since we moved here. I try to buy some of any unfamiliar fruit I see in the market(s) Since it's fall here there aren't quite as many of the Aussie grown fruits around as earlier, but there are still a few more to try. Many of the popular fruits are from South east and Eastern Asia.


This is a custard apple. (They grow these in California too, so Chris may have tried this one). It's very sweet and mushy with large seeds. We just scooped it out and ate it with a spoon, this was one of our favorites so far.

 These are mangosteens. They cost a lot and had almost no taste, slightly sweet, almost nothing there to eat. To be fair, I think these were pretty small ones.

 These are called water apples, just about what you'd think from the name. You can eat the whole thing, not bad in a salad.

 Red Dragonfruit. The regular ones are white inside, This was yummy, sweet and juicy and citrusy

 The fruits on this plate are fresh figs. Delicious and quite common around here.

  Always lots of papayas around. The stores like to cut them in half for sale, then mark the down if not sold the first day. They're cheap and good as long as you take them home and eat them right away.

Saved the best for last. Australia has several varieties of mangos that folks are justifiably proud of. The season is over now, but in late November-February you can go to a farmers market and ask the old Aussie grower dude to choose a couple of good ones for you and they are to die for.

We still haven't tried Passion fruit, Lychees, Jack fruit and lots of others. Cheers!




*Fruity Capers is also the name of a fruit and veg store in the Toowong Village shopping center.