Sept 15, 2025 From Mountain
We headed inland to Mount Walsh hoping to hike to Waterfall Creek rock pools.
From a distance the mountain is imposing. When we reached the trailhead we realized it’s too imposing! We changed our minds when another hiker arrived, much better prepared than us, with hiking poles and leg coverings to protect from the snakes that most certainly are around!
These are the pools we were hoping to reach. We consoled ourselves by imagining that with the current drought, the pools are probably empty or slimy with algae!
Sept 14, 2025 Bundaberg Queensland Sugar Plantation
We drove 27 miles to the town of Bundaberg, a hub of the most productive agricultural region of Australia, sugar cane being a primary crop, but orchards abound as well, with macadamia and avocado primary crops. We went to the Bundaberg Botanical Garden and learned about the sugar cane industry in the area. The Fairymead House was moved from the Fairymead Sugar Plantation outside of town to the Botanical Garden and restored as a museum.
The house was built in 1890 for the Young brothers who kick-started the sugar cane industry in the area after the government passed regulations that enabled interested parties to acquire land to grow sugar cane.
“Plantation” evokes some strong images, and those are well founded, even in Australia. Convict labor was relied on in Australia until ‘transportation’ of criminals to Australia ended in 1840. The large land-holding agriculturalists looked for other sources of labor and began the practice of ‘blackbirding’ Southsea Islanders, coercing or even outright kidnapping men, women and even children, to work in the fields in Australia, especially in the subtropical area of Queensland.
The house is a fine example of the ‘Queenslander” architecture. Large verandas, tall roof that is actually a huge air duct, creating draft that cools the interior, and raised off the ground, maybe to protect from the snakes? The stained glass skylight lets light into the interior, and the huge overhangs shade the house. It is only 3 bedrooms, 1 bath, parlor, formal dining room and casual dining room. The kitchen and servants room are separate, to the right of the entrance, for fire safety
A cute little steam train runs through the Botanical Garden. It is a restored ‘sugar train’ that was used to haul the cut cane from the fields to the refinery, repurposed for tourism now.
Sept 13, 2025 Banksia Walking Track
We drove 22 miles east to the coastal town of Woodgate to visit some hiking venues. The short 3 mile ‘Banksia Walking Track’ took us in a loop through a wetland and into the dry, sandy banksia woodland. Banksia are a genus of Australian (all but one specie are endemic to Australia) flowering plants recognized by their flower spikes that become woody fruiting cone-like heads.
Some of the banksia trees were tall, some merely bushes, but none were in bloom. The ‘hairy’ woody cones and seed pods were prominent though.
Up close the closed seed pod ‘fruit’ looked like tightly shut clam shells! And they were about as hard as a clam shell!
We found one open with the dry paper-thin glossy golden seed covering looking like lips in the open pod.
Today we also saw our first 2 snakes! The highly venomous brown snake and the equally toxic red bellied black snake! Luckily we were in the car, driving down the road as they slithered across, not at the same time or same place, but the same road! Not my pictures either!! We now look down at the ground when we hike, looking for snakes, rather than looking up in the trees to spot koalas or birds!
Sept 12, 2025 Da Cottage @ The Habitat
We have a week at “Da Cottage at The Habitat”, an eclectic cabin in a 15 acre “lifestyle block” that is a mini-wildlife habitat.
It has a shaded outdoor kitchen/dining area surrounded by tropical vegetation and lit with colored lights at night.
The grounds are a mix of open areas and small groves of trees and brush.
There are some banana plants and some citrus trees, but nothing is ripe right now.
Every morning we are serenaded by kookaburras and other birds, including a lonely old rooster whose crowing in the morning is a little raspy!
Sept 10, 2025 Sunshine Coast
From Deception Bay we moved up through Sunshine Coast and further north to a small village a little inland. Sunshine Coast is an area north of Brisbane, on the coast of course, that has become a tourist mecca. We stopped at a few sites to see the beaches that were very busy considering it was Wednesday and the spring school holidays don’t start until the end of September!
One of the less busy beaches, away from the tourist waterfront of Sunshine Beach and Noosa Heads, in the Noosa National Park.
Up and over the headlands to a more secluded, but still frequented beach!
A short loop trail through the tiny remnant of rainforest left in the area took us past strangler fig trees slowly encircling their host trees, and another ‘bottlebutt tree’ with a thickened trunk base giving it extra support in poor soil.
