Ann's Australian Adventure: Brisbane

From Cairns we drove down the coast to Brisbane. Australia is an enormous country. When we looked at the route on a map it didn’t look that far. In reality, it’s 22 hours driving time! We made it in 3 long days.

On our way we saw this feral camel. It’s one of more than a million running wild in Australia. Around 1840 someone imported them thinking they would be a good form of transportation in the Outback. They did, but around 1920 they weren’t needed anymore, so they turned them loose out in the Aussie desert. Without any natural predators to keep them in line, the population has grown out of control, doubling in population every 9 years. They’ve become a huge problem. It made me think that the feral cat and dog issues in America aren’t quite as big of a problem. How would it be to have a feral camel problem?
One of the many things I’ve come to appreciate about the States is it’s freeways. Off all the driving we’ve done in Australia 95% has been done on two lane highways. The only place you find a freeway is around the big cities, Sydney, Brisbane, Melbourne etc. Two lane highways don’t sound too bad and they really aren’t, it just adds several hours to your travel time because they meander through every little town, with all it’s winding roads and stop signs. In addition to this we ran into road construction all along the way, not just here and there but literally 15-20 stops a day. We found out later that this was likely due to the incredible flood they had in 2011. From what we’ve been told 90% of Queensland was under water, some of it up to 15 feet under water. While in Brisbane I looked up the local Scout Office. Here’s some pictures of them now and what they looked like during the 2011 flood.

Here’s the same side of the building a few days later when the water had started to recede. Remember this is the 2nd floor windows. The first floor was completely under water. They lost all their records, scout shop, basically everything on the first floor. It took more than 2 weeks for the water to go down enough to wade into the building. They’re just now finishing up the last repairs, 18 months later. We thought the pictures were amazing and can’t imagine an area the size of Queensland with this kind of devastation.

We were lucky enough to be in Brisbane as the Jacaranda trees were in bloom. They are absolutely gorgeous and smell magnificent. I’d love to be able to grow these in Utah but sadly they only grow in zones 9-11 and Utah is about a 4.

One of the main ways to get around Brisbane is on the ferry. This doesn’t actually run in the bay but up and down the various stops along the Brisbane River. It’s a pretty convenient way to get around.

The ferries were really nice even had personalized seat covers.

One of the things we wanted to do while in Brisbane is find the temple. We took the ferry around and then started walking in the general direction. It wasn’t long before we could see Angel Moroni above the area homes and businesses. It was a wonderful site.

On the temple site is also a church. There are two wards who meet here. One family ward and one YSA. Somehow we got mixed up and managed to go to the YSA Ward. We were impressed with how many young men and women attend. It was huge and loud – everyone was really friendly.

While walking around Brisbane we came across this strange tree. Matt tells me it’s a banyan tree. This looked like something straight out of a creepy movie.