Chris's space

Mackay – surrounded by sugarcane fields and known as the sugar capital of Australia, population 80,000 which is a metropolis in regional Australia. Two unusual features of the city are the many Art Deco buildings and the mural on the Levee wall showing the history of the Mackay region, it took five minutes for me to walk along the wall making a video. There is a dark side to Mackay’s history when Blackbirders were used to enslave Pacific islanders to work in the sugarcane fields.

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The Leichhardt Tree, over 160 years old

Paxton Warehouse now Markets

The Levee Wall Mural

Watch the Video

Pioneer River

In need of TLC

Roots

James Croker started CSR

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Police

Courts

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Town Hall

Trinity Church

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Masonic Temple

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Art Deco Clock

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Yellow Brick Road

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St. Patrick’s Church

Yuwibara People

Butterflies

Butterflies

Post Office

Once upon a time

Customs House

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Country Womens Association

Hahaha

Bundaberg – famous for that clear brown alcoholic liquid made from sugarcane. I naturally went on the Brewery tour. Before the tour you visit the museum and a short film, very interesting more so than the Tour itself where you basically see very little and no photos. At the end of the tour you get two free drinks at the bar which was the best part of the tour hahaha. I also visited the Seaside at Bargara and the Botanical Gardens. The Mon Repos Turtle Centre has turtle viewings starting in November when they come ashore to nest and lay eggs.

Bargara – Strange trees

Bargara – Strange trees

Bargara – The Basin

Bargara – Food

Fish and Chips

Bundaberg

Bundaberg Rum Brewery

The Beginning

Shareholders

Burnt down twice

Big Barrel

Labels

Bottle moulds

The Polar Bear on the Label

Sugarcane

Sugarcane

Molasses

Yeast

Fermentation

Distilling

Distilling

Making Barrels

Maturation 2 years

The Bear

Advertising

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End of Tour

Solera Rum and Chocolate Liquer

Bundaberg RSL

Sunday Roast

The Burnett River

Botanical Gardens

Botanical Gardens

Botanical Gardens

Botanical Gardens

Mini Dinosaur

Brown Bird

Boardwalk

Facing Off

Black Bird

White Bird

Bert Hinkler House

Byron Bay – I stopped here on the way to Brisbane because it is the Easternmost point on the Australian mainland. It must be a popular spot because it was fairly busy, can’t imagine what it is like during peak periods. There are a few parking spots near the lighthouse, the fee is $8 and you will probably have to wait for someone to leave before you get a spot. After you park and walk up to the lighthouse its a 300m walk down steps to the Easternmost point.

Colourful

4 lanes all the way

Byron Bay Lighthouse

No Drones

Byron Bay

Surfers

300m to go

Easternmost point

or is that it hahaha

Easternmost point

Looking down

Looking up

Cliffs

Cafe

Lighthouse

Tunnel

Traffic

Roller Coaster

Street Lights

Brisbane – big city, population 2.6 million or 3.8 million if you include the sprawl. The river winds its way through the city and the CBD is squashed into one of its S bends with no place for roads which have been built on stilts over the water. The city is located in a flood plain and gets flooded regularly, the last big one being in 2011. Overall a nice place to visit, organised with good facilities.

South Bank, Queen Street Mall and Coot-tha Lookout

Saturday Markets

Southbank

Southbank

Artificial Beach

Pool

Mosaic

Southbank

Nepalese Temple Replica

Giant Wheel

The City

Queen’s Bridge

Kirilpa Bridge

Casino – Ex Treasury

Queen Street Mall

Art

Queens Gardens

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Treasury Hotel

City Cat stop

The Cat

Southbank

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The ANZAC man

How it all started

View from Kangaroo Point

Coot-tha Lookout

The City

Airport and the Bay

Coot-tha Lookout

Brisbane Flood Prone Areas

I visited the Queensland Museum, Art Gallery and the Gallery of Modern Art all in one area. And a walk through the city.

Taipan

Len and Gladys

Giant Squid 400kg

Diprotodon

Diprotodon

Muttaburrasaurus

Muttaburrasaurus

Marsupials

Birds

Snakes

Lizards

Art Gallery

Elijah and the Priests of Baal

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Colonialism

Brisbane

Stockwoman

Dogs

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That bridge

On the Bridge

Another Bridge

Roads on Stilts

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Church

Memorial

City Hall

Aussie

Hotel

Station

ANZAC Square

ANZAC Square

ANZAC Square

Charge………………………….

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Boer War

Bibimbap

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Mermaid

Mural

St.Stephen Cathedral

St.Stephen Cathedral

Botanic Gardens

Art

Kangaroo Point Cliffs

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Fig Tree

Mangroves

Goodwill Bridge

Goodwill Bridge

Maritime Museum

Maritime Museum

Navy Memorial

Maritime Museum

Girls School

Brisbane Museum, Casino, River Cruise and West End

Fountain

BRISBANE

Casino Lights

Casino – thats all I was allowed to photograph hahaha

Green Eyes

Brisbane Museum

Brisbane Museum

Brisbane Museum

River Cruise

Pedestrian Bridge to the new Casino

Kitty Cat

Art

Exercise

Kangaroo Point

Paddle Boats

Story Bridge

Ferry Stop

Waiting for a Flood

Sleek

Manicured

Heritage Listed

House on the Hill

Pink House

Big Lawn

Looks like a lift

Felons

West End

West End

Spot the Sculptures

Elephant with Talent

West End

West End

Frydays Kitchen

Kimchi Pancake

West End

West End

West End

West End

West End

West End

West End

West End

Brisbane Brew Pub

Brisbane Brew Pub

Brisbane Brew Pub

West End

Governor’s House and Parliament. The Lamington was named after Governor Lord Lamington or his wife but it should have been named after their chef, “the French-born Armand Galland, who was called upon at short notice to feed unexpected guests. Using only the limited ingredients available, Galland cut up some left-over French vanilla sponge cake baked the day before, dipped the slices in chocolate and set them in coconut. Impressed by Galland’s creation, Lamington’s guests were said to have later asked for the recipe. This version of events is supported by Lady Lamington’s memoirs. Coconut was not widely used in European cooking at that time, but was known to Galland, whose wife was from Tahiti, where coconut was a common ingredient.”

Cafe on the Goodwill Bridge

Governor’s House

Lord Lamington

Governor’s House

South Bank on the Left and the CBD on the Right

Tree of Life

Colonies

Governor’s Office

Goats and Chooks

QUT Art Gallery

QUT Art Gallery

Very Large Fig Tree

Parliament House

Parliament House Annex

Inside the Parliament

The New Casino

$1.5 billion and 2 years to go

Cheap

Bicyclists

Nice

Botanical Gardens

Big Foot

Red and Yellow Beak

Purple

Beauty

Gong Cha

Mango frozen

Wednesday Markets

Wednesday Markets

On my last day in Brisbane I went on a River Walk, this is one of the best things to do in the city. I started at New Farm and walked all the way to the Queen Street Bridge, just over 6km.

New Farm Start of the Walk

Rest Stop

Felons Brewery

Cliffs

Felons IPA

The view

Lift to the top

Story Bridge

Walk across the bridge and back

On the bridge

River Walk

Looking down

Looking up

Scooters

The Walk continues

Around the CBD

Flats

The Bridge

Ferry Information

Waterfall

Pier 1

Restaurants

Paddle Wheeler

Art

Flood Levels

Kangaroo Point

Mangroves

Grafitti

Mangrove Walk

Mangrove Walk

Mangrove Walk

Mangrove Walk

Mangrove Walk

Mangrove Walk

Under the Highway, noisy

The End and a Lift to the top, thank you

The Route

Art

The drive from Armidale to Nambucca Heads is down the aptly named Waterfall Way. It is a narrow winding road through a National Park, one way in parts. This is a beautiful drive with many places to stop and go for walks.

Frosty morning

National Parks

Wollomombi FAlls

Ebor Falls

Ebor Falls

Road works

The View

Dorrigo

Dorrigo District

Dangar Falls

Rainforest National Park

Lookout

The Mountains

and Forests

Walks

Newell Falls under the road

Can you see the sea

Nambucca Heads – a seaside holiday town with no traffic lights. I visited the surrounding area from Port Macquarie to Coffs Harbour. There are many beaches and resorts along this stretch of coast which has grown significantly in the past 10 years.

Nambucca Heads

Nambucca Heads

Nambucca Heads

Nambucca Heads

Nambucca Heads

Nambucca Heads

Guess who

Brush Turkey

Lunar Eclipse

Port Macquarie – a fairly big place.

Port Macquarie

Korean Koala

Walks

Paint your own Boulder

Cocky Koala

Legal Koala

Court House 1869

Ancient

The Brothers

Out there

Still alive

Lighthouse

Big Bowling Ball

Camels

Camels

Big Golf Ball

Coffs Harbour – another growing town

Coffs Harbour

The Jetty

The Harbour

The Beach

Another Beach

Sawtell – where you go to retire

Sawtell Main Street

Fig Trees

Covid Marshall at the RSL

Woolgoolga Sikh Temple

Sikh Temple

Sikh Temple

Sikh Temple

Sikh Temple

Macksville – a small town where I was surprised to find murals.

Geese

AA Gun Bofors 40mm

Bathurst to Armidale was on the back roads, no traffic through scenic farm country. I passed through Coolah which claims to be the “Black Stump” town as does Blackall further north in Queensland hahaha. I stopped in Tamworth to fill up and take a photo of the Golden Guitar.

Armidale – this is a University town and there are also some expensive private boarding schools here and a few Cathedrals. It is 1000m above sea level and freezing at night. There are no fewer than 5 craft brewerys in the area and there was a Beer and BBQ festival on the weekend. The Visitors Centre offers a free half day bus tour of the city, very good.

Doves

The Big Chill – Beer and BBQ

Fire Engine with Beer

Great Hops Brewing

Big BBQ

Another Big BBQ

New England Brewing

The Welder’s Dog

The Patrons

The Dancers

Six Strings Brewing

The Band

Police

On the Tour Bus Photos

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Aboriginal Art Gallery

Wamili

Wamili

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Prison

Teachers College 1929

The Original Teachers College

Shopping

University Building

Inside

Studious

War Memorial

Post Office

Pedestrian Mall

Fountain

Hotel

Imperial Hotel

Cricketer

Inside

Old Court House

Murals

Murals

Murals

Murals

Murals

Pretty

New England Hotel

Inside

Murals

Murals

St.Peter’s

St.Mary and Joseph

Woolongong to Bathurst is a 3 hour drive so I decided to stop in Katoomba and visit the Three Sisters. There are many walks in this area.

The main reason for my visiting Bathurst was to drive around the Mount Panorama Race track. This Race track is a public road and anyone can drive on it anytime when its not being used for racing and its free. The speed limit is 60 kph and at that speed its scary hahaha. Since my last visit they have added a chicane to Conrod Straight to slow cars down in the name of safety.

There is an excellent museum at the entrance to the track with some legendary winning cars on display.

This area had a Gold rush once upon a time and I visited Hill End and Sofala Villages which survive as tourist attractions.

There is an unusual Museum built by one man which at first glance looks like a junkyard but is worth a visit

Jindabyne to Woolongong – I stopped at the Snowy Hydro Discovery Centre at Cooma, here they give you an overview of an amazing engineering project that was constructed between 1949 and 1974 and is currently undergoing an expansion. It consists of a series of lakes at various levels that feed water through tunnels to Hydro Electric Power Stations. During times of low power demand the turbines can be reversed and used to pump water back up to the lakes which then act as a storage battery and the water is released to provide power at peak times. The scheme also encompasses solar and wind power farms. It is free and there are 2 films.

When I visited Port Adelaide to see the street murals I became aware of the Wonder Walls Festival which started in Woolongong and this is the reason I am here. Port Kembla also has some murals. Let the walls do the talking.

“The Wonderwalls exhibition explores the various artistic styles, techniques and processes practised by self taught artists from various urban environments and sub-culture backgrounds.”

Launceston, Tasmania to Jindabyne, New South Wales. The first step is to drive from Launceston to Devonport, about an hours drive and then while away the time until Ferry boarding starts at 1630. I visited Rooke Street Mall and sat there for a while in the sunshine, next stop Molly Malones for a pint of the local drop and finally to the Spirit of the Sea Lookout to wait until it was time to move.

The Ferry boarding and transit across Bass Strait went without a hitch and I drove off the ferry the next morning at 0705. Heading out of Melbourne took about 45 min to get away from the traffic and then it was a fine drive upto Bairnsdale. From there I turned away from the coast and into the mountains and Google Maps decided to let me have some fun on the C608. This is a narrow winding road which was gravel in parts and finally through Kozciuszko National Park where the roads were very bad having been damaged in the recent heavy rains.

I visited Jindabye in February 2004 on my bike and it has grown since then, more than doubled in size I was told but still a small town and very nice. It drizzled for the first two days and then fine for the next two. I was planning to walk to the top of Mount Kosciuszko 2,228m as I did in 2004 (13 km return) but for various reasons I finished up only walking to the Lookout (5.5km return).

Launceston – population 110,000 about half the size of Hobart and the second largest city in Tasmania. Since leaving Hobart I have had no rain at all, a welcome change. From Launceston I explored the surrounding area.

Platypus House – This is my first time seeing a Platypus and they were smaller than I expected, a very strange and interesting creature. They also had Echidnas, they have tongues 18cm long. This place is 47 km North of Launceston, on the way back I had a look at the Batman Bridge and stopped at the Brady Lookout which gives a good view of the Tamar Valley.

I visited the Synmmons Plains Raceway 31 km South of Launceston but it was unattended and locked up probably only open when there is an event. In the same area there are three historic small towns Evandale, Longford which at one time had a racing circuit that hosted F1 races and Perth. This is the third and smallest Perth I have visited, it had a Post Office, Pizza shop and two Churches but nothing else not even a supermarket or a Hotel hahaha.

Perth, Tasmania

Evandale, Tasmania

Longford – The Longford Country Club Hotel is where I took the Photos.

Launceston Gorge is in the heart of the City, there are some good walks in the area.

Boags Brewery

Launceston has some very nice old buildings

Tasmania Zoo – this is a private zoo, cost $28 to enter, I only visited this place to see the Tasmanian Devil, they have other animals as well but most of them were hiding. While I was there two ducks were having a private moment and when I got near them they flew at me and attacked by grabbing my pants leg and I had to fend them off several times before they went away hahaha.

Turn the volume up for the Tasmanian Devil videos

National Automobile Museum of Tasmania – One of the highlights in Launceston, not very big but it has some iconic cars and motorcycles all immaculately restored and presented.

Bicheno to Launceston – I decided to take the long way and do some sightseeing, what an interesting day it turned out to be. None of these places have good sign posts and I was alone at all of them except for The Gardens.

First stop was The Gardens, Bay of Fires. This section of coastline is very beautiful with beaches and bays one after another. From the viewpoint you can see some rocks covered in red lichen.

Next a drive all the way to the North coast right on Bass Strait where the Musselroe Windfarm is located and the Tebrakunna Visitors Centre which is unattended. Almost the whole route was on gravel roads and I was the only one there.

After that I drove to the Little Blue Lake, this is just off the road and is a 5 minute stop because the only thing to see is a Little Blue Lake.

Mount Paris Dam Wall – this is down a gravel road and then you have to walk through the rain forest to get to it, a very beautiful place. There is a sign off the main road but then you just park and wander around until you find it hidden among the trees.

Finally to the Derby Tunnel, I went around in circles before I managed to find a path to the tunnel. This area is a mecca for mountain bikers, the tunnel is one of their routes and is one way only for the bikes. I walked up and down the tunnel which is 600m long and no one else tried to come through. The tunnel has small lights and is paved with gravel but I took a torch and it was useful for photos.

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