Monday 16 August 2006 - Brisbane

Wow! I did it! All the time we have been in Brisbane, Darryl has been riding his bike to Mt Cootha, locking up the bike at the bottom and then walking up. All round this is a trip of about 25km. On Monday we did this together! Mind you, we stopped at Toowong Cemetery on the way, so that I could sort out the problem I was having with the location of the grave of Daphne Anderson. While at Toowong Cemetery we also discovered the last resting place of Darryl's great-grandfather, William Daniel Miller, and one other grave.

After looking at the graves, we locked the bikes to a fence at the bottom and walked up the road. It only took about 1/2 an hour for the walk up, and gave me time to cool off, and take in the view before lunch. This was the whole reason for the trip, as we had organised (while we were at the Butler Reunion) to catch up with Donna and Michael Channing. They brought along Irene and Bev who had both been at the reunion, and I had also invited Graham and Diane Smith. It was great to see them all again, and we had a lovely catchup.

Tuesday I spent at Qld State Archives. On Wednesday morning we got up really early and headed down to Binna Burra at Lamington National Park. It is a beautiful spot with rainforest, and scenic views. When we arrived the kiosk to check in was closed until 10am, so we decided to go on a bit of a walk.....the signs said it was 5km to a particular waterfall, so I thought 5km return and thought I could just about manage that....well it turned into a 12km walk! Mind you, it was lovely. Lots of the rainforest trees are fruiting and we saw many types including the blue quandong fruit (we had a nibble, but they are pretty tasteless). There were many birds flitting around and calling, and Darryl tried on many occasions to get photos, only to have them hide behind branches! Despite their photo-shyness he did get some good shots. This rainforest has lots of 'Wait-a-while' (Lawyer Vine) and Gympie-gympie, with it's huge soft-looking round leaves which contain excruciatingly painful stinging hairs. There was also Elephant Ear (Elocasia) which is supposedly a native cure for the gympie-gympie, although I don't want to ever have to try it. We saw a huge black skink ( http://www.reptilepark.com.au/animals.asp?catID=10&ID=78 http://lamington.nrsm.uq.edu.au/Documents/Rept/Mul.htm ) which we were later told is called a 'Land Mullet'- info on the URLs say that it grows to 30cm, but the one we saw was much bigger than that. We also saw an echidna when we were almost at the end of our walk, and Darryl got some good film of it. The camp ground seemed reasonably busy, but we got a nice spot under some trees. The facilities, even though they are temporary as the previous ones burnt down 12 months ago, were very clean and tidy. On Thursday morning we headed out on a caves walk. Although the cave was large it had a forward-sloping floor, so it really wasn't all that exciting. After returning and having lunch we headed home again. That was really exciting as we ended up driving up Logan Road around 4pm, and of course it was really busy with traffic at that time of day!

On Friday and Saturday I headed back to the Qld State Archives (with Darryl coming along to help on Saturday). I found heaps of information, and got through lots of packages on the Saturday with Darryl's help (I think the guys who collect them from storage might be happy that it was my last trip!).

Sunday was spent cleaning the apartment, and packing our bags. Darryl did most of the work, and did a fantastic job. This morning was our last day, there was final cleaning and packing to be done, and the car to be packed. Darryl headed off about 11.30am and we had the final inspection. I fly back to Rockhampton tonight. (I have just realised that I don't have my photos with me, so will have to post them tonight once I get home).