Moving On

Those of you reading my book may have guessed that, when I said in the Oct. 24 post I was leaving Queensland, I meant literarily, not physically. I’m not actually in Australia at the moment. I’m simply following the journey recounted in Waltzing Australia.
So I am leaving writing about Queensland behind for the time being, [...]

Dining Down Under

Those who know me well are probably wondering why I’ve said so little about Australia’s food to this point. (Well, I do talk about it in the book, but haven’t said much on the blog yet.) Actually, I have written a lot, it has just been other places. For example, I did the piece below [...]

Birdsville

Birdsville is a tiny town on the edge of the Simpson Desert, hundreds of miles from pretty much everywhere else. Its remoteness is, in fact, one of the things that makes it almost legendary. The Birdsville Pub features in books and songs that celebrate just how isolated one can be in the Outback. Associated with [...]

The Other Side of Queensland

One of the things that surprise people is Australia’s size. Most people (outside Australia, that is) don’t realize that Australia is almost the same size as the continental United States. However, there are only six states and a couple of territories—so most of the states are mighty large. As a result, states generally possess a [...]

Binna Burra

If you read my entry on O’Reilly’s, you’ll know that O’Reilly’s is at one entrance to glorious Lamington National Park, and Binna Burra is at the other end.
I had promised myself during that first trip to Australia that someday I’d get back to Queensland and spend more time in this delightful park, and I did, [...]

Jabiru

You might think “jabiru” is an Aboriginal name for the black and white stork found in Australia. It’s not. The name was picked up by the Portuguese from the Tupi, natives of Brazil in South America. It was the name they gave to the black and white stork of the Americas. (The Tupi also gave [...]

Fascinating Figs

One of my stops on the Atherton Tableland was at Yungaburra, to see the famous Curtain Fig (a section of which is pictured below). While the premature death and fall of the host tree made this ficus particularly interesting, all figs are pretty intriguing.
• Ficus (the botanic name for figs) is a group of about [...]

Cranes in Oz and Elsewhere

As we crossed the Atherton Tableland, I was delighted to see that the brolgas were arriving. Brolgas are Australian cranes, and we saw them in fields and along streams as we crossed the rich farmland outside Cairns. (Brolgas are found in lots of places besides Queensland, but this was the first time I’d seen them [...]

Australian Tea

While visiting the Atherton Tableland, I was delighted by the sight of some of the region’s glorious tea plantations. Blankets of emerald tea bushes swept across landscapes and up mountainsides. It was simply gorgeous. I had been drinking Australian tea for a couple of weeks already, and it was wonderful seeing it growing.
The first tea [...]