Whitsunday Islands

During my stay at Airlie Beach, I caught a boat out to the nearby Whitsunday Islands, spectacular islands that rise up out of the Great Barrier Reef (the GBR parallels most of the Queensland coast). First stop was Hayman Island, a glorious little tropical paradise. I thought that perhaps readers might think I was exaggerating [...]

Airlie Beach

Heading north from Brisbane, my next stop was Airlie Beach. If you’re reading the book, you’ll know how much I enjoyed this tropical paradise.

Among the Banyans

My dad grew up in Florida, so I saw my first banyans when we headed south to visit his family. I thought they were just wonderful. Of course, as a child, it was the possibilities for play that were most enticing, but as I got older, I thought them wonderful just for their strangeness.
By the [...]

North Woods

At the beginning of my book, I mention that even during my corporate days, I found solace in writing. Even in the midst of the corporate whirl, “I would dash off poems filled with bits of dreams and memories and burdened with longing for beauty and a different life.” Elsewhere I speak of fond memories [...]

Jondaryan Woolshed

At one time, it was proverbial that the Australian economy rode on the back of a sheep. There are still a lot of sheep in Oz, but at one time, it was indeed the major source of income for the country.
In 1804, with a grant of 5,000 acres of land, a few Merino sheep of [...]

Brisbane Architecture

Brisbane, which is the capital of Queensland, is a wonderful blend of semi-tropical paradise and elegant European city. There are fabulous trees and flowers and much extravagant architecture. The iron from which the city’s abundant iron lace was cast usually arrived as ballast in ships.
Brisbane is not the only city in Australia with iron lace, [...]

At O’Reilly’s in Queensland

Just a few days after my first encounter with the rain forest, I was on my way to O’Reilly’s. O’Reilly’s is one of only two entryways into Lamington National Park, the other being Binna Burra. One can walk between the two, if one is fit—it’s 23km, or a bit more than 14 miles. But while [...]

Seeing the Forest and the Trees

A little less than a week into my Australian sojourn, I saw my first rain forest. A rain forest is a forest that not only gets a lot of rain but that has no dry season. In Australia, there are three types of rain forest: tropical, semi-tropical, and temperate. The temperate rain forest occurs in [...]

Royal Brisbane Show

I arrived in Queensland just in time for the final day of the Royal Brisbane Show. You’ll read in the book a bit of what made this delightful, but you might wonder how wood chopping would have been interesting. I wandered in simply because I was trying to see absolutely everything the show had to [...]

Houses on Stumps

One of the things I intend to do with this blog is illustrate my book, Waltzing Australia. There are some wonderful things I saw that, though described in the book, might benefit from an occasional photo. So, as you read, you can come here to find pictures that go with the words. I’ll focus on [...]