| PART
THREE: THE OTHER BBC
The
early days in Oz were spent catching up with friends and former
workmates. I was staying with an old teaching colleague Bill, and
now my world travel mate.
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| Toowong Social Club |
We
both missed out on the new phenomenon of "taking a year out"
or "travelling", and so as not to permanently miss out;
as two old fogies we were determined to travel further, climb higher,
swim deeper, surf longer, than most of our much younger tourists…
or at least we like to think so!
Brisbane is
a very homely city, it stretches out for some considerable distance
nowadays on all sides.Its centre is not on the coast but like Perth
some distance upriver. A river which snakes round with meandering
loops and with some dignity.
One such loop
encapsulates the highrises of the city centre,and that centre point
has a diameter which is easily walkable. At one end you can finish
up in the green refuge of the City Botannical Gardens containing
a wonderful selection of trees,at the other, the former Expo site
from the late 80,s which is now a manmade river side beach.
Whichever
direction you travel from the city skyscrapers, you are surrounded
by suburbia. But suburbia covered in the most exotic foliage, Poinciana,
Oleander, Hibiscus, Poinsettia and the magnificent Jacaranda trees
just bursting into their full November bloom of bright blue.
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| Lamington
national park |
The
early days back in Oz were spent catching up with friends and former
work colleagues.The reunion at the Hibiscus Restaurant of the B.B.C.
"Toowong Social Club", in this case B.B.C. standing for
Brisbane Boy's College.
I'd previously
worked in the Primary School Department and it was great to meet
up again after some 15 years. Not many people can say I suspect,
they've worked at two B.B.C.'s and both totally unrelated.
It was equally
good to revisit the colonial style sandstone building of the school
a treasure of Brisbane's architecture and for me a very special
place.
The
staff, in personel hadn't changed too much though the school itself
had grown considerably.It was indeed good to meet up again with
some very special people. The colonial sandstone is prevalent in
the older city centre buildings, a legacy from almost a hundred
years ago,but they are literally dwarfed by the highrise newcomers.A
parallel to the nearby rainforest canopy which is just a short distance
away, 7kms west of Brisbane past Mount Cootha and also West of the
Gold Coast highrise apartment blocks in the Lamington National Park.
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| Binna
Bura in the rainforest |
That
brought me to a second very special place. Binna Burra in the Lamington
Park was a place I regularly drove out to when I was living in Queensland.
The area contains a rich variety of rainforest walks, long or short
depending upon your mood or the time available.
You're guranteed
a sight of the parrots returning in a blaze of colour near to the
old house,always at dusk which never varies much either side of
6 o'clock in the evening summer or wintertime.
The exotic
colour created by the whole range of life in this region combines
with the constant buzz of the insects in particular those busy Secatas.
They highlight
the real vibrancy of nature in the sub tropics and especially the
rainforest areas,the term "alive and buzzing" springs
to mind…….it was, ……. great to be back!
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