2020 Far North Queensland
 

Brisbane - Fri and Sat 24/07/2020

2020 Far North Queensland
Trip to Atherton QLD to see Jordan 24/07/2020 Today is a long, irritating and slow drive. There are lots of touristy things between Rocky and Brisbane but all too commercial for us, “Fun for the family” kind of crappy stuff. Trip to Atherton QLD to see Jordan 24/07/2020 We leave Rocky without having breakfast and stop for a coffee and sandwich at Mt Larcom, 50 km to the south. Then we drive another couple of hours to Gin Gin which is a very nice town that we had stopped at on the way up. Trip to Atherton QLD to see Jordan 24/07/2020 As we get towards Brisbane it starts to rain again. I change the wiper rubbers because they make so much noise. The single lane road continues until Gympie, 150 kms north of Brisbane, where the M1 Motorway begins. Trip to Atherton QLD to see Jordan 24/07/2020 We drive straight through 350 kms from Gin Gin, over the Gateway Bridge, to Joan & Roger’s place and arrive at 16:30 . . .
Trip to Atherton QLD to see Jordan 24/07/2020 . . . where Joan, Roger and Bailey welcome us. Trip to Atherton QLD to see Jordan 25/07/2020 Next morning, we decide to spend the day exploring Brisbane. Joan drives us in her car and we stop at a shopping centre car park. This is definitely not my idea of how to spend our holiday. Trip to Atherton QLD to see Jordan 25/07/2020 We exit the car park, cross the road and see that there is method in Joan's madness. Trip to Atherton QLD to see Jordan 25/07/2020 On the other side of the road is a new hamburger chain called Betty’s Burgers. Their burgers come highly recommended by the whole Cooper clan.
Trip to Atherton QLD to see Jordan 25/07/2020 Betty’s Burgers has a rather unique business plan: clean surroundings, civil staff and a hamburger based on fresh, tasty ingredients. Seems destined to fail but maybe not. Trip to Atherton QLD to see Jordan 25/07/2020 For Covid contact tracking, Jenni signs us in using the iPhone App. Trip to Atherton QLD to see Jordan 25/07/2020 We order our burgers and we have to agree: they are incredibly good. It's even worth the hassle of parking the car. Trip to Atherton QLD to see Jordan 25/07/2020 After finishing our hamburgers, we cross the road back to the car park and it is now raining quite heavily.
Trip to Atherton QLD to see Jordan 25/07/2020 Second highlight is a drive through a wet Brisbane CBD. No need to go to Sydney for a traffic fix, lots of traffic. We travel SW down Ann Street, one of the CBD's main roads. Trip to Atherton QLD to see Jordan 25/07/2020 I haven't been to Brisbane for a long time, perhaps a couple of decades, but it seems very different now. It used to have the feel of a large country town but it is now, in every sense, a huge modern city. We're at the top end of Ann Street. The older buildings to our left are facades with multiple apartment blocks built on top of them. Trip to Atherton QLD to see Jordan 25/07/2020 We drive south-westerly down Ann Street and turn into Edward Street. We cross Adelaide Street. Trip to Atherton QLD to see Jordan 25/07/2020 At the bottom of Edward Street we turn into Alice Street and park outside the Brisbane Botanical Gardens. The futuristic building opposite is the Abian Apartments, 41 floors above ground with 150 apartments.
Trip to Atherton QLD to see Jordan 25/07/2020 The botanic gardens occupy premium land right up to the Brisbane River. Trip to Atherton QLD to see Jordan 25/07/2020 We walk towards the river. Trip to Atherton QLD to see Jordan 25/07/2020 Me and me little sister. I haven't had a picture taken of the two of us for I don't know how many years. Trip to Atherton QLD to see Jordan 25/07/2020 The gardens are beautifully maintained. One of our lasting images of Queensland is the number of gardens in every city and how immaculate and tidy they are.
Trip to Atherton QLD to see Jordan 25/07/2020 Brisbane has had two serious foods recently (1974 and 2011) when warm ocean currents find their way across the South Pacific to the Australian coast during "La Niña" periods. Another La Niña event is forecast for summer 2020/21 so we shall see. Trip to Atherton QLD to see Jordan 25/07/2020 There's the Abian Apartments again. An "ordinary" 3 bed, 2 bath, 2 car apartment in this complex is around $2,000,000. Trip to Atherton QLD to see Jordan 25/07/2020 A bambusa cave. Trip to Atherton QLD to see Jordan 25/07/2020 I think these may be Hawaiian Ti plants. Very colourful.
Trip to Atherton QLD to see Jordan 25/07/2020 At the end of the path through the gardens we find ourselves on the Goodwill Bridge. Trip to Atherton QLD to see Jordan 25/07/2020 The bridge is also shared with high speed pests on bicycles and in-line skates. Bah! Humbug! Trip to Atherton QLD to see Jordan 25/07/2020 The bridge does not carry any motorised traffic. Trip to Atherton QLD to see Jordan 25/07/2020 This is the M3 Pacific Motorway Bridge, the Captain Cook Bridge. It is four lanes in each direction and is Queensland's busiest traffic bridge with more than one million vehicles crossing it weekly.
Trip to Atherton QLD to see Jordan 25/07/2020 This is the M3 Riverside Expressway dating from 1972. Back then, elevated freeways through a city were considered to be futuristic; nowadays new expressways go underground including here in Brisbane. Trip to Atherton QLD to see Jordan 25/07/2020 This is Old Government House and it is part of the Queensland University of Technology (QUT). Trip to Atherton QLD to see Jordan 25/07/2020 The building was constructed to accommodate the first Governor of Queensland, Sir George Bowen, and his family. On 22 May 1860, the first Queensland parliament met and, one month later, voted to fund a new government house. There was an issue with the building being built in Brisbane, as the capital of Queensland had not yet been decided. Trip to Atherton QLD to see Jordan 25/07/2020 We wander back to the car via a different path.
Trip to Atherton QLD to see Jordan 25/07/2020 This is the Queensland Parliament building housing the Parliament of Queensland, the legislature of Queensland. As provided under the Constitution of Queensland, the Parliament consists of the Monarch of Australia and the Legislative Assembly. It is the only unicameral state parliament in the country. The upper chamber, the Legislative Council, was abolished in 1922. Trip to Atherton QLD to see Jordan 25/07/2020 The Parliament was founded 22 May 1860, less than a year after the Colony of Queensland was created in June 1859. It was convened at military and convict barracks converted for the purpose located on Queen Street. Immigration was an important issue for the early Parliament and population growth was encouraged with new settlers enticed by land ownership. Trip to Atherton QLD to see Jordan 25/07/2020 Strangler vines and we left the tropics in Rockhampton. Trip to Atherton QLD to see Jordan 25/07/2020 Joan then drives us to the Summit.
Trip to Atherton QLD to see Jordan 25/07/2020 We chuckled about the time we took Joan, Roger, Grant and Lee to the Grand Canyon and it was completely whited-out by a snow storm. They've been to the Grand Canyon but they haven't seen it. Trip to Atherton QLD to see Jordan 25/07/2020 The mist clears enough for us to get a reasonable picture of the Brisbane CBD. Trip to Atherton QLD to see Jordan 25/07/2020 Brisbane has a population of over 2.4 million and a mean age of 35 years. Brisbane's GDP was $170.5 billion in 2017-18, contributing to around half of Queensland's overall economy and 9.4% of Australia's GDP. It's GDP per capita was $67,300 in 2015-16. Trip to Atherton QLD to see Jordan 25/07/2020 Median house prices are around $400,000 but inner city house prices are about $900,000.
Trip to Atherton QLD to see Jordan 25/07/2020 Same sad old story. Trip to Atherton QLD to see Jordan 25/07/2020 At night we go to "Fielders", a local Rugby League club, for dinner. It is our treat to Joan and Roger for their hospitality. Trip to Atherton QLD to see Jordan 25/07/2020 There are strict spacing, Covid tracking and time limit rules because of the virus. Trip to Atherton QLD to see Jordan 24-25/07/2020
Trip to Atherton QLD to see Jordan 25/07/2020    
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