15 August 2012 - Nestle Inn Tourist Village, Tingalpa, Brisbane

Still here but only until tomorrow when we are off north again and sensibly booked at the next destination. We have learned!

Yesterday we “finished” with Brisbane River, bussing into the city and jumping on the CityCat. We travelled upstream from North Quay at the end of Queens Street Mall, up past lovely homes, apartments and green strips along the river and disembarked at the University of Queensland wharf. While almost directly south of the CBD, the university is on the northern bank of the river. Just a few metres upstream from this wharf is the Eleanor Schonell Bridge, also known as the Green Bridge, opened only in 2006. It was the first bridge in Australia exclusively designed for buses, cyclists and pedestrians; at the huge cost of $55.5 million to accommodate vehicles that cross, travel a small circle and return the same way. Students and others wanting to cross the river to the university before the completion of the bridge used to be ferried from Dutton Park to St Lucia; we initially though the Dutton Park wharf had been demolished by the 2011 floods and been subsequently abandoned.

We wandered along the river path as far as the bridge and then up into the university grounds as far as a couple of small lakes. We sat under lovely trees and ate our sandwiches watched by ibis, crows and the odd noisy miner. Catching sight of a bald head bobbing in the water, I checked out the brown grungy water of the lake and startled a furtive turtle. A few students were lounging about as us but most seemed to be busy going to or from important appointments. We left them to their busi-ness and caught the next ferry to arrive at the jetty, but disembarked again at the next stop at Westend. The long green area along the river side had caught our attention on our trip upriver and promised some walking, which we duly did, along the pathways through Orleigh Park as far as the Brisbane Sailing Club where it seemed the path came to a halt. We returned to the jetty having walked not much more than a couple of kilometres. All of this parkland has undergone huge reparation since the flood damage of 2011 and the wharf and ancillary construction appears brand new.

The next ferry was not too long coming and we jumped aboard and returned to North Quay and the Queens Street Mall, noting as we did that we could have skirted around the Sailing Club and resumed our riverside walk all the way back to South Bank.

Back at the Mall, we watched a chap executing art works with aerosol cans of paint and lacquer on the pavement. We have watched him several times during our trips into the city; he works quickly, has great talent and attracts crowds of spectators. A dish in front of his marked out work area demands coin donations in appreciation of the entertainment and his completed work, once dry is available for sale. Much of his work, at least that he does to please the general public, is of bright scenes of planets, mountains, waterfalls and the landscape of fantasy. The tarpaulin on the ground, his partly gloved hands, his paint encrusted overalls all bear evidence of his craft and while he wears a cartridge respirator face mask as he works, the fumes drift about and one wonders how long it will be before he has to retire with severe dermatitis or with a severe personality disorder. (I know how these hideous chemicals can affect people!)

Street artist at work

We decided to catch the free Spring Hill Loop bus and joined a bus load of other folk doing the same. The route travels up Boundary Street past Brisbane Grammar and then around the top side of Roma Street Parkland, which looks rather steep to gently wander about. We hopped out at the top of Wickham Street right opposite the Windmill. This is the oldest convict structure in Moreton Bay, one year older that the Commissariat Store we had visited last week, however much of the original structure has been modified and rebuilt over the years and over the varied life of the mill. In 1824, it started life as a traditional windmill with wind powered sails as you would expect for the purpose of grinding grains such as wheat and maize. In 1828 it was converted to a treadmill, where the convicts were made to operate the mill as oxen are in under developed countries of the world today. After a period of disuse after the penal colony ended, the windmill became the first home of the Queensland Museum, then a signal tower and today a weather observatory. It did not take too much time to explore the outside of the tower and read the interpretative panels. From here we returned to the city centre on foot and caught the bus home.

Today is People’s Day here in Queensland. One does question why a Wednesday would be a public holiday; surely a Friday or a Monday would be more practical so that those far and near can make a long weekend of a trip to Brisbane for the EKKA?

The woodlands of the Boondall Wetlands

Chris decided that it seemed a good day to wash the car and caravan, both covered in sticky hoop pine resin and bird droppings, the down side of being parked in such a lovely shady park. The work finished and the morning more than half over, we headed off for our picnic, north across the Brisbane River over the Gateway Bridge, up past the airport to the Boondall Wetland Reserve Park, Brisbane’s largest wetlands covering more than  1,100 hectares and established, or set aside as a reserve, in 1990. Included in the park are tidal flats, salt marshes, casuarina forests, melaleuca swamplands, grasslands, woodlands and remnant rain forest.

Alas the Environment Centre was closed today, it being a public holiday, which was a shame because there were heaps of people there picnicking, walking and cycling. We chose not to walk the eight kilometres of cycle/walkway after hearing reports of selfish cyclists oblivious to all but their own and instead elected to walk the lovely Billai Dhagun circuit of just a couple of kilometres forbidden to those on bikes. Billai Dhagun translates as “place of casuarinas”. We enjoyed the open bush, variety of colours in the trees, grasses and of course, the sound of the birds all around.

We then drove around to Nudgee Beach just across the Schulz Canal from the airport. This small quiet seaside suburb of Brisbane had an unusual start to its life after colonisation. Land here was originally allotted to a chap who decided in 1865 it would be a good deed to give the 33 acres to the Catholic Bishop of Brisbane, who initially earmarked it as land suitable for an orphanage. The land was a popular holiday camping ground, but was then set aside for a retirement home for nuns. Finally in 1916, the land was subdivided and the seaside village of Nudgee Beach began to take shape. Today there were masses of Brisbane families complete with family dogs on the reserve and on the beach making the most of the glorious clear skies and warm temperatures.

Mangroves

The Boondall Wetlands borders on to all of this and we took advantage of the excellent boardwalk through the mangroves. Here two mangrove species grow along the creek; the grey and the river, one dark green and the other almost yellow. Ibis, herons and a host of other wading birds hang about oblivious to the occasional board walker. It was interesting to note that many migrating birds stop over here for a breather between their flights from New Zealand to Siberia or China. Very discerning travellers!