Main Range National Park

Back in July, we visited the Main Range National Park and stopped at Queen Mary Falls (here and here). Since spring has advanced, decided to stop by again and see what is going on. For one thing, the Satin Bower Birds are clearly fatter.

Got a Sweet Tooth?

There is a kiosk store in the Toowoomba Grand Central shopping center called Donut King. They sell coffee and donuts. Seriously sweet donuts covered with multiple layers of sugar disguised in party colors.

Even the people I know with a significant sweet tooth probably can't get though more than one of these without sugar coma. There's something of the British love of sweets here that is ramped up in the southern heat.

On some of these, the "icing" is thicker than the cake underneath. My teeth hurt just thinking about it.

Driving on Hills

In the US, we often climb and descend hills when on the highway. But in Australia, when you climb a hill, it is really a serious hill!

In southeastern Queensland, the land is largely flat farm land punctuated periodically with a mountain or hill. This means that there are little to know foot hills as Americans and Europeans would recognize them. You just drive along and suddenly, you find yourself climbing a 500 - 1000 m high mountain. This produces some very steep climbs like the one above. This one is on the way to Spring Bluff near Toowoomba, but we've seen similar hills in the Tamborine Mountains and in the Bunya Mountains. And yet, we routinely find large trucks, very often with two large trailers behind the tractor climbing these hill (very slowly). This particular section follows the old stagecoach/wagon route between Toowoomba and Brisbane. We've read that when descending these hills, the wagons would drag logs behind them to keep from running over the horses. I just use low gear.

There are certainly some interesting things to be found simply by driving about the countryside.

Spring Bluff

Just a ways north of Toowoomba is a small, old train station that has been converted to a cafe. The grounds around it are filled with flowers in bloom.

Laurel Bank Park - Spring has Arrived!

Spring is making an appearance finally! At the Laurel Bank Park, not far from the Grand Central shopping center in central Toowoomba, we find lots of sunshine and flowers.

McDonald Park, Tamborine Mountain

Another section of the Rainforest on Tamborine Mountain is McDonald Park. The tree above is one we've seen in several rainforests. It is a Piccabeen Palm

Rotary Overlook

The Tamborine Mountains rise suddenly from the surrounding plain. On the western side there is an overlook maintained by the local Rotary Club.

Curtis Falls, Tamborine Mountain

We had to spend a few extra days away from Toowoomba before returning so we spent a couple nights at Bribie Island and one night on Tamborine Mountain. The afternoon we arrived we hiked down to Curtis Falls through the rainforest.

Tamborine Mountain

The town of Tamborine Mountain reminds me very much of places like Boone or Banner Elk, NC. There is a small community of residents and lots of coffee and sandwich places for the tourists. One stretch of road has a winery, German clocks, Clothes, ice cream and burgers...just the sort of stuff you expect to find in a tourist destination.


The forest is very lush and beautiful and quite a change from Bribie Island. It really does feel like visiting the mountains in the southeastern US. There's food, farmers, coops, vegan stores, and people dressed just like you'd expect mountian people to be.

Deagon Wetlands

After we left Bribie Island, we stopped on the north side of Brisbane at Deagon Wetlands to have a quick look about. There were paperbark trees making a symmetric pattern.

Bribie Island

We spent a couple nights on Bribie Island. This is the only island along the east coast of Australia that you can get to without taking a ferry. It is only a few hundred meters from the mainland and there's a bridge.

Colleges Crossing at Sunset

Another trip to Colleges Crossing, this time at sunset. No new players, but with sun across the river, it is a very different scene.

The Laughing Kookaburra

A Laughing Kookaburra came to visit and posed on the back fence for us in Ipswich. He's a handsome fellow and very calm. I was no more than 10 feet from him. When he heard the camera shutter, he turned and looked and studied me a moment...then turned back to his vigil and ignored me entirely.

Phryne Fisher Exhibition, Brisbane

In Brisbane, next to the City Botanic Garden, is the campus of Queensland University of Technology, QUT. This campus is built on what used to be the site of government buildings. Hence, the Old Government Building is found here. It is now called the William Robinson Gallery and is a museum space. At the moment, the exhibit is of the clothes created especially for the Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries Television series.

Colleges Crossing

 A short drive north of Ipswich is Chuwar and there we find Colleges Crossing. This is a nice park along the river where we can bird watch and stretch the our legs while walking Zoe. Many old friends to be seen here like the female wood duck above.

The Workshop Rail Museum

Ipswich is where it is because of the river. This is about as far upstream as you can go with a boat, so the town was built here and it became a rail head. To build and maintain the trains, a large workshop was built in the 19th century. Today, most of the site is a museum.

River Heart Parklands

Ipswich sits along the Bremer River. Downtown by the river is the River Heart Parklands. In 2011, there was a terrible flood and all what you see here (except the bridge), and a whole lot more around the Brisbane area was underwater. Since then, this park was created to commemorate the spirit of the Ipswich people's ability to deal with this disaster.

In the Yard at Ipswich

Over the back fence, the neighbors have some manderine (we call them tangerines) trees. These are producing fruit now and there's mandarines on the ground. A Kookaburra came by to sample the local cuisine.

Another Visit to UQ Gatton

While in Gatton we, of course, made another stop at the University of Queensland, Gatton Campus to visit the environmental park. This is been a rich place for seeing lots of Plumed Whistling Ducks. Not this time. Smaller numbers of birds and mostly, but not only, old friends. Above is a Pacific Black Duck.

A Visit to Lake Apex

On the way to Ipswich, we left the Warrego Highway, the main expressway, for a while and stopped in Gatton again. We went to Lake Apex to see what was happening with the bird populations now that spring is a little closer. The Australian White Ibis are still out in force.

Ipswich

We are now in Ipswich, a suburb of Brisbane for a week to take care of a small mixed, mostly silky terrier, dog. Her "mom" has gone to the beach on the Gold Coast for some R&R and we are here to learn about things nearer Brisbane.

We've already scouted out a mall or two and figured out places to go for a walk along the Bremer River. There is a shopping mall along one bank and a park with board walks along the opposite.

Although we are in town, it is quite here and there is a nice patio/garden in the back. The birds are the usual (for southeastern Queensland) suspects, but there are parks galore here, just as in Toowoomba. We will explore and report.

There is also a rail museum in town we intend to examine. Film at 11.

All Saints Church, Yandilla

Yandilla is not really place at all. The speed limit doesn't drop when you do through it. There is no gas station, no general store, no post office...nothing. There are a few scattered houses and a very small church.

Yandilla

Just outside Yandilla, we found a field of what seems to be corn stubble from last year. In this field were what appeared to be several thousand Sulphur Crested Cockatoos along with a few other birds.

Flying Foxes Again

A quick trip to Kearny Springs Historical Park in Toowoomba to see what is happening. It seems that what is happening is Flying Foxes. they are now much more active and vocal.

What is a Weekend?

As we slide toward the time of year when, for my friends still in academia, it all begins again, I pause for a short reflection on my current state in the universe. The remark by the Dowager Countess of Grantham about weekends seems to sum up the perspective I'm acquiring.

Some HDR Testing

After explore some old sets of image I took in the UK to rediscover HDR (High Dynamic Range) photography, I decided to try a few tests while at the Japanese Gardens here in Toowoomba.

The image above is taken with the D800E mounted on a tripod and polarizing filter in front. Five images were taken at 0, +/- 1, and +/-2 stops from the metered exposure. Nice, intense colors and a good dynamic range.

Next is the same process but now with much longer exposure using a ND filter on the front the longest exposure time was 30 seconds. Again, lots of color saturation and now a glassy smooth pond surface as is typical of the longer exposures.

Finally, here is a single exposure that I've processed. I'd say that in this case, I don't really need the time and effort of an HDR image, Capture One has done a very nice job of bringing out the inherent dynamics range of the Nikon.

To push the experiment a bit further, I repeated the process with an infrared filter and converted the result to B&W.

Again, the longer exposures required smooth ehe water and blur the clouds. They don't register well from image to image since they move between shots and it makes for slightly odd shapes.

Here is just a single image process in Capture One and the Nik Silver Effects.

I'd say I don't often need the complicated HDR method to capture full dynamic range images. What say you?

The Pied Currawong

Another visit to the Japanese Gardens to see what is happening as spring moves along here and we find a very interest behavior with a couple Pied Currawongs. They are laying on the ground playing in a very unusual way.

More Dangers in Australia

One item about our trip to the Bunya Mountains I failed to include in the previous post on this topic is that there trees in the forest that are out to get you. Even paradise has a dark side.

In the photo above, you see a Bunya Pine on the left and in the middle distance (a good place to keep them) a pair of buttressed Stinging Trees.

Back when we were in the UK

As many of you know, we were in England in the spring of 2014. While there we visited Canterbury one day to see the cathedral and the town. As the sun was sinking, I was feeling the need to exercise my pixels and decided to make an HDR (High Dynamic Range) image of a rooftop and some clouds.

The Bunya Mountains

We have now officially been to paradise! It is in the Bunya Mountains. It really isn't that far from Toowoomba -- less that two hours. You would not have thought that there would be signs, now would you?

Out to Jondaryan

We visited the small church and cemetery in Jondaryan again and more fully explored the graves. It was a windy day with lots of sunshine. Birds were scarce although we did see a few hunting lunch one the open fields.

On the Mainland

On the way back to Toowoomba from Fraser Island, we stopped along the mainland coast at Maaroom, Boonooroo, and Tin Can Bay to see what we could see. At Boonooroo we saw Eastern Grey Kangaroos.

Central Station and Wanggoolba Creek

After a ride on the 75 Mile Beach and a bite of lunch at the Eurong Resort, we headed inland to the Central Station. This was the center of the logging industry until the late 1950's. The growths on the tree in the photo above are called Elkhorn Ferns.

75 Mile Beach

On the eastern side of Fraser Island is very big beach. 75 miles of it...hence the name. It is a beach, a road and a landing strip for small planes. It is place for sunbathing and sightseeing, fishing and flying, but not swimming. Lots of rip tides.

Whale Watching Cruise in Platypus Bay

On our first full day at Kingfisher Bay, we booked a cruise on a ½-day whale watching cruise. In the clear blue waters of the Platypus Bay at the northern end of Fraser Island, we saw more whales that we could imagine. There were, at various times, two or three pods of whales swimming around our boat. Some, like the one above, were playing with us...rolling over and waving hello.

Best Birthday

I have discovered the best way to spend a birthday. First, since last week was my birthday, going to Fraser Island was pretty amazing. But the important part is being on the other side of the world from home.

Another visit to the Beach

On the path from the hotel to the beach grow Boronia bushes. Although it is a bit early in the season, they are beginning to bloom. The stem is much like rosemary and when crushed, has a smell like anise.

I must go down to the seas again, to the lonely sea and the sky

This past week, to celebrate my birthday, E took me to Fraser Island. This is the largest sand island in the world and it is located about 4.5 hours from Toowoomba, north of Brisbane. We reached the island by ferry.

A Few Days of Silence

We are off on an adventure for the next few days and not taking the laptops along. All will be revealed when we return. Expect activity on the blog this coming weekend.

Hey, it was a surprise for me, so I can keep you in suspense for a few days too, right?

Margaret Street Market

Following yesterday's Farmer's Market, we went to the Margaret Street Market today. Some of the same vendors and some new ones. This happens once a month on a closed block of Margaret Street in the CBD.

Adjusting to Life Down Under

After a month in Oz, we are  catching on to the art of speaking Australian, knowing what to expect, and how to respond to the culture/environment. There are many phrases you'll find in lots of places: no worries, G'day Mate, barbie, etc. What has caught our attention are all the things that are abbreviated or altered or simply are different from what we are used to. Great fun all around.

Toowoomba Farmer's Market

It's that one Saturday morning a month when Toowoomba has its farmer's market on the grounds of the Cobb & Co Museum. We had a bacon and egg bun and took in the wares on sale.

The Short-Beaked Echidna

We went for a walk today in Redwood Park, a near vertical-seeming park at the crest of the Toowoomba Range. While there we happened upon an echidna out for a forage.

Cooby Dam

It's been rainy the last couple days, but after a reconnaissance mission to Cooby Dam just outside Toowoomba, we made another trip yesterday to explore. This dam provides water to the city of Toowoomba and surrounding communities. As you see, we saw Eastern Grey Kangaroos.

GPS Confusion

From IFL Science:

The Australian Plate is moving about 7 centimeters (2.8 inches) northwards every single year. This motion has accumulated over the decades to produce a significant discrepancy between local coordinates on maps and global coordinates in digital navigation systems used by satellites.

At present, this difference amounts to an error of 1.5 meters (4.9 feet). This is enough to cause a problem to anything in Australia that uses GPS-like systems, including smartphones and vehicles.

 Perhaps this is why we keep wandering aimlessly around the countryside and having adventures.

University of Queensland at Gatton

After our visit to Laidley, we stopped by the University of Queensland, Gatton campus again to check out the Environmental Park. We saw lots of old friends again, such as the Plumed Whistling Duck, above.

Concert

This afternoon we attended a concert that was fun and entertaining and a little odd. The venue was the local Anglican Parish church, St. Luke's. Today was warm, but the stone, unheated building was cold. We sat on very hard benches and enjoyed some good music.

There was a violinist, a pianist, a singer, and a second violinist for one of the pieces. The first half of the concert was piano. He was not amazing. He is technically very good, but there was a distinct lack of passion driving the music. His high point was a virtuosic pice by Listz, and even here you sort of got the feeling that he was a bit detached. Very good, but not inspiring.

The concert proper started kind of odd. Very informal. Our MC, the violinist, introduced his colleague the pianist, and told us about their travels. OK. But once the music began, he continued to run around fiddling with things. Adjusting the heat, turning on a microphone, adjusting things. When the first piece ended, he came back up front to start complaining about a noise from the PA system and asking how to turn it off. The pianist started out the side door of the church and had to be called back for the next piece. A real circus.

We had no programs. We were told there was not enough time to print them up and if we'd put down our address or email, we'd get them sent to us. ???

During the second half, in one piece of music, the violinist (very good, I might add), dropped his bow, caught it and after about one second, was right back in the music. This the sign a strong musician. Recovery from an error with no drama is the mark a real professional.

There was a piece with a vocalist with piano accompaniment and a piece with two violins. the second violinist was a woman in a dress with bare shoulders and it was clear that she was freezing.

All-in-all good concert in spite of its initially odd start and, at times, lackluster piano performance. We heard a very, very good violinist and lots of music we had not heard before.

Narda Lagoon

Just at the edge of the small town of Laidley is the Narda Lagoon. This is a small pool of water, apparently along a river that is low on water just now. There is a suspension bridge across it and a park adjacent.

Lake Dyer

We visited Lake Dyer and found the water to be very low. These rocks in the background would all usually be underwater. Sitting on them are the Little Black Cormorant, the Great Egret, and the Little Pied Cormorant.

Laidley

Today we went back to the Lockyer Valley to see the town of Laidley and a couple birding spots nearby. Laidley has a nice little CBD (Central Business District, every thing gets abbreviated here).

Star Trek: Beyond

After a morning of watching the Democratic Convention, we decided to go to the movies this afternoon.

We drove over to the Grand Central Shopping Center to the theater. This theater is located on roof of the building. We parked down a level or two in the parking garage so we could spend a little time wandering the mall before the movie. We went up a level from where we parked and then, after shopping about a bit, we walked up a flight of stairs to the theater.

After the movie, we reversed course and walked down the stairs we came up. the entry to the hallway was closed. the gates were down. So we walked to the elevator and went to our floor and walked down the hallway to the parking garage. the problem was that every thing - everything - was closed. Gates down. Nobody in the building. We walked to the exit and it was locked.

We reversed course again and went back up to the theater and exited the mall. This was all pretty creepy. Then we couldn't find a way down to our level in the garage. I asked directions from a young man gathering shopping carts. Following his lead, we went back in the mall by a different entrance and down a level to a different exit that was open.

We finally got to our level in the garage and we were the only car there. Everyone else was gone. now you may think that we went to the late movie and all this made perfect sense. We went to the movie at 4:45 and got out about 7:00! On a Friday night in the main shopping mall in a city of over 100,000, it was a ghost town. Not what we expected to see.

Oh yeah, the movie was pretty good. Light on story, as expected. Long on special effects and makeup. Parts were a bit flat and parts were pretty good. Overall, a light bit of entertainment.

A Bit of the Countryside

On our first trip to Gatton we took a back road and saw a few interesting things along the way.