Well we left Victoria and the cold behind. We're now in Queensland where the weather is more tropical even in Winter. First stop Brisbane to pick up Jucy Lucy.
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| ...our Jucy Rental, not necessarily from the best angle.... |
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| ...lovely Lucy, symbol of our freedom in Oz... |
Next stop Toowoomba (127 km west of Brisbane) to visit Audrey and David distant cousins of Siobhan. Clinging to the edge of the Great Dividing Range escarpment at an altitude of seven hundred meters above sea-level, the city affords breathtaking views of Table Top Mountain and the Lockyer Valley region across to the east....
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| ...16486 km from London - a long way from home |
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| Table Top Mountain |
Audrey and David took us to see the view from her daughter's house
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| spectacular |
Here's a glimpse of Audrey and David.
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| Siobhan doesn't know for sure but she thinks Audrey is her 4th cousin once removed! |
On our 2nd day in Toowoomba Audrey and David took us to the Bunya Mountains for the day. The area is famous for Bunya pines and is home to 121 species of birds as well as macropods (kangaroos and wallabies to you and me).
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| We thought only rabbits lived in a hutch! |
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| Currawong |
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| Your bum does look big in this! |
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| Laughing kookaburra, looking serious... |
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| Have you got anything good in your pouch, Mum? |
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| Mum and Joey |
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| Yes Joey really did just get out of Mums pouch. |
After lunch we went for a walk in the rainforest to see the Bunya pines and other trees.
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| Bunya pine |
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| Tree Art or graffiti, Bunya style |
The Bunya pines are famous for their head size Bunya Nuts, Highly prized by aboriginal peoples. They had many elaborate rules and taboos for picking the nuts...
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| To climb the tree to get the nuts the Aborigines cut footholds into the bark. |
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| A sense of scale, Bunya foot and Siobhan's foot.. |
Looking skywards...The treetops are far far away....
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| the canopy is very high |
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| ...the Bunya's play host to orchids..and ferns |
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| Strangler fig |
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| ...Hooped Pines reaching for the light... |
At the lookout in the rainforest you can see...
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| ...the Darling Downs |
The following day we visited Cobb and Co. Museum in Toowoomba; Cobb and Co. operated stagecoaches to remote parts of Australia, carrying passengers and mail.
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| Room for 8 people as long as you paid £800 in today's money for a hard seat, and all the dust you could eat. |
On our last evening we met Ann and Steve, Audrey and David's daughter and son-in-law.
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| Paul, Siobhan, David, Audrey, Ann and Steve |
This one's for Rita. We bet you didn't know that Audrey lives around the corner from.....
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| Toowoomba, not Melbourne |
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| One of Audrey's neighbours came to see us off on our journey north... |
Next stop Noosaville to see Siobhan's cousin Emma and family.
On the way to Emma's we took the scenic route. We stopped to see...
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| "the Glasshouse Mountains" named by Captain Cook, because they looked like melting ovens for making glass.. |
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| ...and Peregian Beach, which runs for mile after mile. |
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| ...where we bunped into, guess who.......G'day |
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We spent a lovely weekend with Steve, Emma, Livvy and El, at Noosaville and the surrounds
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| Emma with El answering her favourite toy, a mobile |
The girls are very tech savvy as you can see....
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| Livvy explaining to Steve the finer points of inshore navigation, keep the red on the right and the green on the left Daddy. |
Next installment - Queensland and the road further North....
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