Brisbane and Townsville - Sept. 2015

In September 2015 I visited Brisbane and Townsville to catch up with friends (Brisbane) and family (Townsville). It wasn't meant to be a tourist trip but Brisbane ended up that way. My friend Alison, with whom I was staying, was held up at work. Seeing as she was working in India at the time, “held up” meant she arrived days, not hours, later than planned. Thankfully she did get home for the last couple of days of my visit.

I stayed at Wolloongabba and didn't get north of the Brisbane CBD except to have brunch with my friend Joseph. On Southbank, as well as lunch with my friend John, I was able to ….

The Gabba cricket ground

... stroll through the riverside parklands and beach, including a leisurely browse through the Sunday riverside market – only one purchase, a casual shoulder bag. Quite restrained of me :-)

Epicurious Garden, Riverside gardens

Epicurious Garden

Riverside Beach

... use Alison's ticket to a concert at QPAC (Queensland Performing Arts Centre) – Simone Young conducting the Queensland Symphony Orchestra performing Mahler's 6^th symphony – the one with the hammer of doom. Impressive!

QPAC

... 'do' the galleries – Queensland Art Gallery, GOMA (Queensland Gallery of Modern Art) – and the State Library

Aboriginal art at GOMA 

GOMA

City skyline from GOMA

... ride the river ferries towards the mouth of the Brisbane river. On Alison's return we took the ferry in the opposite direction, to St Lucia where her office is located – when she's in town!

I really like Brisbane. It has retained many more of its old buildings than Melbourne has and the skyscrapers are not nearly as tall. Plus the mall really is car free, as a proper pedestrian zone it is a pleasure to walk there. I loved the way different coloured Chinese lantern bushes had their stems entwined so that several different coloured flowers appeared to be on the one bush.

Across the river ... 

I took the free bus to North Brisbane “just for the ride”, walked about the city, did a DIY tour of the City Hall, visited the art museum at QUT's Gardens Point campus, strolled through the City Botanic Gardens.

On the river -- Storey Bridge

Brisbane City Hall

I particularly enjoyed the City Hall where I did a DIY tour seeing artefacts from Brisbane's sister cities, the concert hall with its swirling, changing-colours ceiling, the Museum of Brisbane, and a tour of the clock tower from which there are some worthwhile views of the city.

The concert hall in Brisbane City Hall

Views from the City Hall clock tower

During the DIY tour I stumbled upon the mayor's office. Not a guard (with or without weapon) in sight - amazing! I was made most welcome and the receptionist pointed out another display area that I would otherwise have missed because it wasn't on the self-guided tour itinerary. I also bumped into a small guided tour and joined them to see the otherwise off-limits basement area where, during WWII, there was a Red Cross R&R centre for servicemen. Recent repairs to the building had uncovered signatures and messages written on the walls above where the urinals were installed at that time – graffiti then, historical record now.

The Museum of Brisbane was showing paintings and stained glass by William Bustard ... more pictures and some cartoons rather than lots of glass. Of the paintings, most were excellent water colours; the oils were not so good. There was also a fascinating exhibition relating the story of the Brisbane River from source to sea.

And somewhere along the way, I lost most of the photos from my 'north of the river' explorations :-(

Castle Rock, Townsville - watercolour by William Bustard
from the exhibition at the Museum of Brisbane

Townsville was strictly family, as planned. Most of the time was spent 'hanging out' at home but we did have a day at an animal park, Billabong Sanctuary, a short way south of Townsville, and visited the Museum of Tropical Queensland, followed by an ice-cream and walk along the beach before I headed to the airport and home.

Feeding the crocs at Billabong Sanctuary

Juliette running along the beach at Townsville

Magnetic Island, off the coast at Townsville

The Great Queensland Train Ride

First posted on May 14, 2013

It was raining a bit, still!, for my last breakfast on the balcony. But it was dry for my 8 minute walk to the train station.

This is the 60th year of the Sunlander. Next year it goes out of service, so I was lucky to do this trip now. When you’re on a train, there are times when slower is better, and this journey is one of them.

The train left Cairns on time, 9.15 on Saturday morning.

Trusty iron horse - for the Cairns to Townsville leg

I’d decided that for 32 hours I could do without a sleeper, particularly as the price for one was astronomical. I had an empty seat beside me. Would it last? Sadly no. A young girl got on at Mackay at about 10pm and went through to the second last stop. She was an attractive young thing with a good figure – and stank to high heaven of cigarettes. Why do they do it?! I didn’t have much choice but to bear it as I tried to sleep. But once dawn broke I spent the rest of the trip in the Club Car. That’s the better place to travel anyway – better windows for scenery watching. I’d already spent quite a bit of time there on the Saturday.

Sunset

Sunrise

The scenery – lovely without being spectacular. Lots of sugar cane, bananas and, to a lesser extent, cattle. I made sure to book a seat to get the best sea views. There was one of those! Ha ha!! There were many hints of the sea but always just beyond view.

The one sea view of the journey - near Cardwell

Low clouds and sugar cane

Bags of bananas!

Cattle country

The food – lunch on both days was good, a roast beef and gravy roll on Saturday and a chicken burger on Sunday, both freshly made. Dinner on Saturday night was less exciting – the barramundi was definitely of inferior quality. There were plenty of options, that was what I chose. No dessert though!

The shower – for 32 hours amongst strangers …. I didn’t bother!! Most didn’t but a few did, much to my surprise.
The stops – there were quite a few, the longest at Townsville where the engine was changed for some reason. The other at Rockhampton in the middle of the night. I got off the train twice – at Townsville and one of the first five minute stops.

My train curves into Townsville

At Townsville there was enough time to move away from the smokers. At the shorts stops, as one experience was enough to teach me, the smokers simply ignored the “no smoking on the platform” rule (announced prior to every stop) and there was no escaping the foul air so I stayed on board.

I chatted occasionally with another woman travelling alone. She pointed out a power point for re-charging my phone, which was handy. You notice the lack of them in older trains! Other than that it was an extremely pleasant, uneventful trip. The train got into Roma Street, Brisbane’s country rail terminal, only 15 minutes late, not bad considering the need to go slow in some spots where cyclone damage is still in the throes of being repaired.

It was an easy connection to the airport train where I was joined by my friend Joseph for a catch-up over coffee before my flight on to Melbourne. I should catch up with Joseph more often …. for a bit of star spotting! Last time, it was Wayne Swan at the next table at a Chinese restaurant in The Valley in Brisbane. On this occasion it was Colin Friels at a café at Brisbane airport. There is a link between Joseph and Colin Friels: CF starred in a mini-series (The Farm) which was partly shot on Joseph’s family farm outside Yass. We let CF be though and didn’t remind him of the acquaintance :-)
The flight to Melbourne was very quick – two instead of two-and-a-half hours. I wasn’t complaining about getting home that little bit earlier on a late night!