The Brisbane Area

For the purposes of this presentation, the Brisbane area comprises both the downtown area and its suburbs and the Sunshine Coast. We undertook this trip as part of a business trip I was taking for Fairfield University. My mission was to visit the two university campuses of the Australian Catholic University (ACU) to meet with Fairfield students currently spending the semeter abroad and to discuss course options with the faculty and administration to enhance the opportunities for our students to fulfill course requirements toward their Fairfield University degree.
       Once my business was concluded, Edite and I embarked upon a 36 hour tour of the Sunshine coast area two hours north of Brisbane.

City of Brisbane

While I was off visiting the ACU campus, Edite spent some time on her own walking around the inner city and the botanical gardens. She took a few photos, some of which you can see below.

A beach on the river in the middle of the city	Another view of the beach in the city
The beach gets some use	School girls in uniform on an excursion
An example of the mid-winter beauty of the city	A cool looking and very old tree in the botanical gardens

The Australian Zoo

The first stop on our Sunshine Coast tour had to be the Australian Zoo, made famous by its founder, Steve Irwin, the Crocodile Hunter. This guy should be taking lithium, as he raises enthusiasm to new heights. He is know recently for being a bit reckless by appearing to feed a baby to a large Croc. He was not on hand the day we visited so we did not get a chance to meet this bloke.
       His zoo is essentially a collection of animals from around Australia and has made conservation and preservation of species a central theme of the park. The center piece of the show is his Crocatorium where a nearly two hour show displays poisionous snakes, tigers, birds of prey and, of course, crocodiles. The pictures below tell some of the story.

Stevie Wonder, himself.  Crikey!	Seems harmless...now.
A small but deadly snake	A larger yet still deadly snake
...and its big big brother	The clown demonstrating how not to handle snakes
This is a beautiful animal	...and they come in pairs?
He is just a big pussy cat drinking milk	Yes, a really really big pussy cat drinking milk
He was not happy with something and protested	...and he knows how to protest!
... and then there are the birds	... even in flight
This one is quite colorful	as is this one
Another flight shot	...and yet another
Feeding time	A tricky business
Lizzards abound here	The venerable Wombat
The elusive Cassowary	Another shot of the Cassowary
Large turtles	and a better shot
These Koala bears are so cuddly	A second shot of one.

Sunset Cruise at Noosa Heads

Arrival at Noosa Heads for a relaxing evening was a welcome event. The town is small and very relaxed, much like a small town on the Cape. We booked a small room on the main drag, searched out some lunch and planned our visit. We landed on a sunset cruise on the local ferry and a 4WD safari on 40 mile beach. Check out the photos of our cruise below.

A view of the canal	Edite on the front top of the ferry
Nice houses on the canal	These are worth millions
A car park at the end of the main road in town	It looks out over the heads, the Head of the Noosa River
Pellican on a street lamp	A great moonrise to boot.

Cooloola Safari

Our Cooloola Safari trip started around 10 in the morning and lasted to around 5:15 PM. On this particular day, a crew from the channel 9 weekend travel program called Saturday Afternoon came along in our 4 wheel drive vehicle and filmed the various parts of the tour with us as subjects. Some of us were even interviewed. It will be televised in a couple of weeks, but unfortunately not in Melbourne. We traveled up gorgeous Cooloola Beach some forty miles to Double Island Point to a lighthouse and the across the point to Rainbow Beach, where the sand cliffs (dunes) really do resemble a rainbow. We then pulled off the beach and went in land just a fraction to access a sandy track which took us up over the ridge through various types of forest ranging from scrubby eucalypt to lush fern and palm habitats. Our trek along the narrow, often steep and curvy sandy track was really an adventure experience, especially when we met an oncoming vehicle and did not dare to stop for fear of getting stuck in the deep sand. After reaching the beach again, we hot-footed it back to town so we could drive down to Brisbane and catch a flight at the airport to Sydney for the next leg of the journey.

Terry, our driver	The channel 9 Saturday Afternoon crew
The ferry across the Noosa River	Cars on the ferry
The road out to Cooloola Beach	Members of our tour
The Cooloola Beach sign	... and the beach entrance
Wayne, the camera man	Miranda, the star and host
Setting up for the introduction to the piece	Miranda psyching up for her shot
It was a windy day and the surf was up	A view of the beach as we drove at 50 mph (there were actually speed limit signs on the beach and the police patrol it , too)
White sand formatons	... and plenty of campers
The colors are beautiful	... and so are the sandstone formations
High erosion	... with pines growing in among the dunes
and the occasional camerman	Our group being filmed on their walk up the canyon
Contrasts abound	but the red sand is always there.
Matching insects	Our vehicle on the sand
Everyone helps for lunch	Our setup complete with pastery and sandwiches.
Some of the local beauty	and terror (a goanna)
A shipwreck on the beach	... with an ice cream truck hiding behind it
The fellow is hunting for sandworms	Check out how long the worm is in his right hand
A vew from the lighthouse area	The residences supporting the lighthouse.
The rules of using the facilities	A walk down to the edge of the cliff.
The actual lighthouse	... and a sailboat on the sea below.
Another view of the lighthouse	Lone pine on a hill
The Rainbow Beach sand colors	The beach takes its name from these colored formations
Edite below one of them	and a close up of her
Some defacing of the formations (see the writing on the sand)	The outstanding beauty.
Buttress roots on trees in the rain forest on top of the ridge	A closer view of the buttresses
Tropical rainforest on top	This trunk is tall, straight and hollow! The trunks were once used as water pipes.