Barbeque Area

Is it possible to have too many barbies? We have found an answer to that question over these past two weeks, and the answer is no, not when in Australia. We have made it our mission to find and use every bbq set in Brisbane, and I think as of yesterday we've done it. And we did it jsut in time, since today is our last day with the host families and our last day of living in civilisation. I am sad to leave the Land family as they have been nothing but welcoming to me (and even my friends), but at the same time I'm ready to get out of the city. It seems like I just got settled down and now I'm already packing my bag again. The experience has been excellent though, as it has allowed me to see the true Australia and to get to know the people who make this country great. A perfect example of life in Queensland happed yesterday, so I'll share my adventure of a day with you. This is one of the many stories which I'll never forget. (Only because I am keeping this blog. Just kidding.)

The whole thing really started on Friday night at my brother's birthday party, but I'll rewind a bit and let you know what proceeded these events. We started our causual Friday evening with a barbie, of course, in the South Bank park. From there our small group met up with the rest of our crew in King George Square and headed to a Queensland vs. South Africa rugby union game. I think the group enjoyed the action, which was way more than what we saw at the AFL game in Melbourne, but I'm still not sure if they understand the sport after my hopeless attempts to explain it. From the game, seven of us headed back to my house for the birthday party and we were happy to see that there was still beer left in the fridge. A couple of beers later Todd, Ian and I decided with one of my brothers friend's, who happened to own a boat, that we were going to get up at seven in order to be on the road for a day of fishing by eight. I woke up in the morning at eight anf found that the trip was still on. Though we shifted the plans by a few hours we were on the water by ten and actually ocean fishing. We first cruised up and down the mangrove swamps of the Brisbane River estuary which flows into Moreton Bay, but didn't have much luck. Around one we beached the boat on a sand island and pumped the beach for shrimplike crustaceans that live in the sand called yabbies. Brad, my brothers friend, assured us that the yabbies would work better than our frozen prawns and whitebait, and he was right. After a few minutes of casting from shore Brad hooked onto something big. Ian grabbed the net and waded into the water only to realize that he hadn't hooked onto a fish, but a not so happy sting ray that was a couple of feet long. We kept fishing here for the next couple of hours and caught quite a few small whitings, but nothing worth mounting. A pelican realised that he could get an easy meal out of us and stayed within a few feet of us begging for the rest of the time. We decided to call it a day around three but made a quick stop before heading back to the city at a prawn farm a few km away from the boat landing. After leaving the farm, Brad noticed that something was wrong with one of the trailer tyres and pulled over on the side of the road to check it out. We soon realised that the bearings of the wheel were busted and after jacking up the trailer we were able to pull the whole wheel right off. Good thing we noticed this before we made it to the highway. So we spent the next three hours here on the side of the road in sugar cane country Queensland eating prawns and waiting for a mate of Brad to come and replace the bearings. By the time the wheel was fixed it was nearly dark and there was a pile of prawn shells on the ground outside each door of the truck. We were able to devour 1.5kg pretty easily in all that time. I got home, told the story to my family, and then headed two train stations down the tracks to Skiba's house for yet another barbie. And that basically sums up an average day in Queensland.

We are sad to leave our families, but we have a adventure packed month ahead of us. From here we're heading to Lamington Ntl. Park, which is a preciously preserved snapshot of what the world looked like 200 million years ago. Prehistoric plants (and possibly animals) still thrive in Lamington today that are found nowhere else on earth. From there we're heading farther into the bush to Canarvan George. We're spending a week here in the mountainous forests and then heading to cattle country. After our stay on a cattle ranch in Biloela we're taking a twelve hour bus ride back to the coast, and then a few hours on a catamaran to the Great Barrier Reef, where we'll spend eight days on Heron Island at a marine research station. If you want to see what paradise looks like, just google Heron Island. Apparently there are bioluminescent dinoflagellates that colonize the waters off the island, so if we happen to take a night swim our bodies will be surrounded by a blue glow. It's a shame we'll have to be studying for finals during this time.

This is probably going to be one of my last posts as television, let along the internet, has barely made it to the places that we're heading next. I might get a chance during the few days of finals in Brisbane after Heron to chime in and make a final post, but that wont be until the 15th or 16th of May. So it's goodbye for now. I have less than a month to go! Wish me luck!

Just your average barbie. Onions, sausages and beer at South Bank's BBQ area

Us and 31,000 other fans watching the Queensland Reds lose to the South African Stormers

Brad with his stingray. We had to cut the line to avoid it's giant barb.

Our pelican friend who willingly ate all that we caught

Replacing the bearings on the boat wheel.

Brisbane, QLD

Queensland is Australia’s Florida. I have been in and around Brisbane for the past two weeks now and have been told that if today’s weather is beautiful, then tomorrow’s will be perfect. We are sitting at 27 degrees south of the equator here, so four degrees away from the tropics. Upon arriving in Brisbane, Ian, Todd and I found our way to The Brisbane Backpackers hostel with the help of a local hobo. We arrived at the train station at six in the morning and while looking for a map this bloke approached and told us that he’d show us the way. He turned out to just be a nice guy, but as we walked into Brisbane’s suburbs we were a little skeptical of where we were actually going. Our next five days of break were spent at the hostel and the South Bank Lagoon, a man-made pool and beach. We walked there in the early afternoon with our hostel mates and spent the rest of our days relaxing, swimming and soaking up the sun.

We met back up with the group on Tuesday the 3rd and headed to North Stradbroke Island on the 4th. We boarded the ferry on our bus and crossed Moreton Bay in a little under an hour. The remainder of the week on the island consisted of us studying the geology of sand islands and the ecology of mangrove systems. Straddie is one of six or seven sand islands that boarder the east coast of QLD. It was formed over the past four ice ages when lower ocean levels allowed westward winds to cross the barren sand flats and build up dunes behind the rock outcroppings that are the remains from ancient volcanoes. The topography of the island therefore consists of a series of dunes that run north and south, some reaching near 75m at their peaks. Today the island is used as residential property and for mining. The majority of Straddie is leased to a sand mining company that sifts through the grains in search of rare metals and compounds. The mines also supply the world with its finest silica granules. This process is fairly controversial, as the island is a pristine wildlife habitat which is being overtaken by ever increasing spoils that can be seen from mainland.
     We spent Thursday and Friday developing and conducting research products off the coast of the research station, where we were lodged for our stay. My group of five decided to determine the differences in abundance and diversity of mollusks and crustaceans (so basically shellfish, snails and crabs) between the habitats that the mangrove and seagrass systems provide. A mangrove is a tree that can live in hyper saline water, so basically at the interfaces of salt and freshwater. These plants provide shade and retain leaf litter in their tangled roots and branches, and therefore they attract scavengers during low tide and act as a nursery for fish during high tide. Seagrass are flowering plants that have adapted to living in a marine environment. They are the sole diet of dugongs, the Australian cousin of the manatee, and also a nursery for many other animals. We spent all of Thursday in the mud of low-tide exposed sands flats taking samples and sifting through core plugs of these two systems. We determined after the two days work that the seagrass actually both provides more diversity and abundance of life than the mangrove. Though this research just allowed us to dip our toes into the water, it was fun to design and analyze and a good way to learn group presentation skills. It definitely beats spending the day in some random Uni lecture room, which is a better representation of our normal school days.
   
    On Easter Sunday we left the island, took the ferry back to mainland, and drove into Brisbane to meet up with our Aussie homestay families. My host parents are Gary and Bev Land. They live in a suburb named Sunnybank and have a 20 year old son who also lives at home, but studies forensic science at the uni some fifteen minutes away. On our ride home from the bus stop my dad asked me if I liked beer and then proceeded to tell me that he drinks beer for a living. I laughed, thinking this was a cheeky Aussie joke, but then he told me “No seriously, I own a micro brewery.” Since that first day I have been doing my best to sample his finely crafted brews. He has a mini-fridge on the verandah with two kinds of beer on tap, so running out is not a problem. He told me that I could have friends over whenever for a drink or a barbie, so I have already taken him up on that offer a few times. The barbie is a necessity for an Aussie family. So far all of our meals have been cooked on it, so you would be safe in saying that Aussies love their meat.
     As for school, I am taking the public transit into the city to meet up with my classmates for lectures on a daily basis. It takes me roughly thirty minutes to get into the city and our lectures are generally done a little after lunch, so I have had time to explore the city with the guys. We have this weekend free to spend with the family, but I think I am going to a local rugby union game with friends, as my family is going to be away playing lawn bowls. They told me that it’s too boring to watch, but they love playing their bocce-esk sport.

The S. Bank Lagoon, where Brisbane's hostel residents spend their weekdays.

Free climbing with Tim, the German from our hostel

Skiba, Julia, Ann-Marie and Paul riding the ferry to Straddie

Slushing our way through the mangrove muck. Todd lost the sole of his shoe a few min after this photo was taken.

 

A bull ring snail (found in the seagrass beds)

DiDi and Carly sifting through a core plug in the mangrove pneumataphores.

Gary, my host dad, in his brewery in the Gold Coast