A New World Down Under: 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.