Aussie World

 

 

One of the Sunshine Coast's iconic tourist things. It's just down the road. 

 

I called in for a quick look the other day. We'll come back and do lunch here maybe one day. Why not?

Paddling in at Cotton Tree

 

I caught the end of a paddleboard race at Cotton Tree yesterday morning. They'd been doing laps of a course that seemed to stretch between there and maybe Picnic Point or Chambers Island. It looked exhausting anyway.

Maroochydore reds

 

 

Another fabulous Maroochy River sunset tonight, courtesy of that Tongan volcano. 

Quite a few photographers lined up for the show, and scroll down for what they saw!

Maroochydore blues

 

 

The view the other morning in Maroochydore's Sunshine Cove

Choice Coastal Cafes #1: GURU Life

 

 

 

 

The GURU Life is on Petrie Creek Rd in Rosemount. Driving past, it looks like a little truck stop with a few benches, but wander in, and there's a lot more to it.

The Queensland Museum

 
 

While on Brisbane's South Bank last week I acquainted myself with the Queensland Museum. It's quite an institution, great for a visit, and clearly a primary authority on all things natural history in the state. It also has a focus on cultural heritage, science, and human achievement.

 

 

 

Lots of dinosaurs of course   

 

 

And a giant squid welcomed me into one of the galleries.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Possums, eagles, all the usual suspects

Lots of things exhaustively catalogued

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This one's a ghost bat

 

 

And this one's a shark that feeds on aeroplanes

Volcanic sunsets

 

 

Some of us  remember 1991 and the spectacular sunsets following the Mt Pinatubo volcanic eruption in the Philippines.

 

 

Well it seems to have happened again, with the Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha'apai eruption in Tonga in January of this year. We've been getting extremely colourful sunsets for a while now.

 

Here is a sequence of pictures I took yesterday evening from Alexandra Headland.

 

Normal colourful sunsets occur when there are  clouds in the sky. These ones happen with clear blue skies, and are to do with volcanic dust and gas being high in the stratosphere.

 

More here: recent Guardian article

There's always Brisbane, just down the line

 

 

When I get tired of the Sunshine Coast's unlimited attractions, I tell myself, there's always Brisbane just down the road. It's a big city, and there's lots going on.

 

When people ask, I tell them it takes an hour to drive to Brisbane. Or three hours. Hard to predict, so horrible can the traffic sometimes be. But there's a pretty good train service. So why put yourself through that?

 

I've found that you can drive to Landsborough station in less than half an hour, and then you can let the train take the strain for the next 80 mins. It costs almost nothing, and there are no parking problems whatsoever.

 

 

 

I revisited South Bank the other day, with its cultural complex of art galleries, museum, entertainment venues and gardens.

 

Still not sure what to make of the big 'Wheel of Brisbane' thing. Real world-class cities don't need ferris wheels. Except Vienna, and maybe Copenhagen. But their ones are different.

My bush stone-curlew encounter

 

Maybe everyone has encounters with bush stone-curlews, but it was my first one, as far as I'm aware. It was in the Brisbane City Botanic Gardens, and I nearly missed them, so good is their camouflage. 

They're also known as the Bush Thick-knee (Burhinus grallarius), and apparently relatively little is known about their habits, except that they're mostly nocturnal. These ones weren't.

More here: Qld-Lands-for-Wildlife article

Buderim's Pioneer Cottage

 

It's a fine little heritage-listed homestead in Ballinger Crescent, in the heart of Buderim village.

It's well worth a visit. It's run by the Buderim Historical Society.

It was built around 1882 for John Burnett and family, who became big in the local sugar milling industry, and after whom nearby Burnett St is named.

A very nominal fee gets you admission.

 

Woombye

 

It's just down the road from Nambour, but it's a bit off the road. So I only gave Woombye my full attention the other day for the first time.

 

It's quite a discovery. A genuine country town, right here on our doorstep.

The Maleny Trail

 
 

A strangely civilised 6km walking trail, starting near Maleny Woolworths, heading north and east through almost English-style countryside. 

 

Then looping around the golf course.

 

 

Soon it's through bits of scenic forest, and clever sculptures and things

 

 

 

You follow the Obi Obi Creek for a while. If you're me, you completely miss the platypus viewing platform, despite that being what inspired you to come here originally. And there's a bat colony somewhere in there too.