Advance Australia fur...
and fins and feathers in wild Queensland
BILL Bryson’s warning rings in my ears as I wade into a lake bordering Australia’s Everglades to reach our boat marooned on a sandbank: ‘It has more things that will kill you than anywhere else.’
What could be lurking in its murky depths? I’ve earlier noticed a large scaly creature – surely a snake? – coiled around a high branch at the lakeside where pelicans pose and preen themselves.
Large unidentifiable insects – no doubt capable of delivering a nasty sting or even a toxic nip – are circling before we ever embark on our Noosa Everglades Discovery cruise.
The cheery co-skipper beckons us to get down and wet up to our knees ‘in that nice soft sand and tepid water’. He neglects to mention the presence of any potentially poisonous water snakes. All our sloshing will hopefully scare them off.
A group of unsteady seniors, make their way into the lake. An elderly man, showing off his nation’s reputation for resilience in the face of imminent danger merrily gasps ‘dinky-di’ (slang for the real Australian experience) paddling towards inland shipping’s version of a beached whale.
Due to low tide conditions off Elanda Point in southern Queensland our safari co-cruise ‘adventure’ takes on an al fresco dimension. ‘Balls Up’ (translation: everything has gone wrong) curses a crew member as the boat refuses to budge. Nothing for it but to enlist strong volunteers to jump back into the water and push us off.
The fellas grunt, heave and push and soon we are heading towards the pristine wilderness of the Noosa Everglades
The Everglades channels ripple and sparkle in stripes of emerald and sapphire, framed by lush overhanging greenery which shelters and protects birds, reptiles and insects. More than 40% of Australia’s bird species reside within a region stretching from inland Noosa to Fraser Island.
Strangler figs and tall Cyprus pines grow in profusion and the maze of channels all look identical. In former times,
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after settlers more often than not brutally saw off the last of the Aboriginal inhabitants, large scale logging of valuable timber almost wiped out rare woods.
Nowadays strict conservation laws protect the unique bio-sphere landscapes.
Near the mouth of the Noosa river, the terrain around Cooloola coast, a refuge for many endemic and endangered species is a remarkable ecological treasure, not far from fashionable Noosa Heads with its star restaurants and cool surfing vibe.
Our Luxury glamping tents are made from paperbark trees at Habitatnoosa Ecoglades Ecocamp (www.habitatnoosa.com.au) one of the most accessible eco-friendly stop-offs north of Brisbane.
Before enjoying a dinner of Barramundi (Asian seabass) cooked with herbs gathered from the Bush and imaginative healthy salads, central to Australia’s exciting gastronomy we meet the new arrivals.
ACOLONY of up to a hundred kangaroos are feeding in the clearing behind the rows of tents. Big males are ever watchful while mothers with Joeys peeping out of their pouches graze and there’s a lot of playful boxing too.
A camp employee recalls ‘Arriving early to work I once saw the kangaroos gathered like humans in a cosy circle around the embers of a campfire, they looked right at home.’
On my third visit to Australia I wonder if the wildlife novelty may wear off. But it hasn’t.
Many of these creatures, some of whose DNA goes back millions of years, exist nowhere else on earth. Outside Brisbane’s Downtown state-of-the-art Library possums scamper among the greenery and a large dinosaur like goanna lizard explores an urban park.
The dingo, descended from the south Asian wolf came to Australia more than 5,000 years ago and we catch a fleeting glimpse of one of the many who run wild across Frazer Island.
Just imagining what is out there in the deep on the east coast of Frazer Island – where nobody sane dares dip a toe – is enough to give me goose pimples. It’s said a bull shark can grab a paddler only up to their calves from the waves.
The west side of the island, where we spend two days enjoying a taste of royal luxury (Prince Harry and Meghan had also chilled at Kingfisher Bay Resort (www.kingfisherbay.com) a few months earlier at the end of their official visit to Queensland) is reputedly safe for swimmers, away from open sea and with less fish around to entice Jaws. But don’t take my word for it!
Ninety minutes north of Bris- airport, our first port of call is the Glass House Mountains Ecolodge (www. glasshouseecolodge.com), taking its name from the nearby volcanic steep sided mountains. We are also close to the famous Australian Zoo (www.australianzoo.com.au) , founded by conservationist and TV star the late (‘crocodile hunter’) Steve Irwin. The zoo is an outstanding wildlife up close experience with a hospital where only native species are treated.
We watch a badly injured Koala bear, run down by a car, brought back to life. Later I am allowed to hold cuddly Dexter, a five-year-old Koala and stroke a chubby wombat. But when it comes to a love-in with Dart the black-headed python I make my excuses and escape.
Young visitors holidaying up the Sunshine Coast will equally enjoy, as my three-year-old grandson later does, the opportunity of finding Dory and his friends, the seal encounter and petting the creatures of the deep, including starfish and a unfertilized shark egg at Sea Life Sunshine Coast (www. sealifesunshinecoast.com.au) Here Terri who has worked at Sea Life for many years gave us a fascinating behind the scenes tour of the giant aquariums, explaining care of the marine life and fish- breeding programme at his longestablished favourite attraction in Mooloolaba.
The unavoidable jet lag – a trade off when you visit amazing, bigger than Europe and so far away OZ - is challenged by cicadas whose chattering light switch flicks on as darkness falls. Numerous cane toads croak and a 5am deafening wake-up call emits from Whipbirds lashing the air just like the cracking of whips outside my window. When a couple of laughing Kookaburras join the hellish feathered orchestra I reach for my earplugs, stifling my wish for a gun.
Mark from ‘peaceful’ and ‘relaxing’ Glass House Mountains Ecolodge takes me to my selfbane
contained lovely bungalow decorated with Aboriginal art, shooing the many large cane toads off the path. ‘Think they’re big, you should see the ones up Cairns way, big as dinner plates’, he chuckles, kicking an aggressivelooking specimen away from the door. The cane toads were introduced to Queensland to devour parasites that were wiping out the sugar cane plantations but their population has exploded of late.
One of Australia’s famous off road trips, the Great Beach Drive stretches for 80km from Noosa along the golden sands of Great Sandy National Park up to Rainbow beach. It’s a spectacular journey ‘just make sure the tide is going out before you jump aboard that 4 x 4’ advises our guide and driver Greg. He tells of stranded foreign drivers saved in the nick of time from being swept out to sea by rescue authorities off Double Island Point headland, named by Captain Cook who passed in May 1770.
At Rainbow beach we take a dip, encouraged by all the swimmers and surfers, and I have a sudden nervous introduction to the infamous rips which scream caution, even when you’re knee high in the water.
GREG has a theory that shark attack stories are promoted here and elsewhere off the south Queensland coast as a precaution to keep people out of the water due to the risky rips outside flagged areas where ‘95% of rescues occur’.
Greg is an excellent raconteur of Aboriginal history and customs of the area, bringing their traditions alive by painting designs with grains of multi-coloured sand taken from the millions-of-years-old sand dunes at Red Canyon along our beach route.
Only now are many Australians waking up to the wrongs inflicted on the First nation, he says. But It will take time to build a proper appreciation of their heritage and wisdom and it could take another generation through education and reconciliation for past wrongs to be forgiven and forgotten.
One of Australia’s truly epic spots Fraser Island off Hervey Bay, a must-visit Sunshine coast side-trip is more untamed wilderness, easily accessed by regular ferry from the mainland.
We take a thrilling rainforest walk and hear how Prince Harry explored its trails, steering clear of the reptiles – six of the world’s most dangerous snakes live here.
Then, like him I cooled off in mirror clear blue McKenzie Lake, reputedly with enough PH in its water to make you look ten years younger.
I have to be practically pulled from the lake after our sojourn so great is my enthusiasm for its youthenhancing properties.
It may lack the vast expanse and renown of The Great Barrier Reef’s coral framed underworld paradise further north in Queensland, yet exploring the 15 purposely sunk wrecks around Moreton Island’s marine park at Tangalooma Island resort (www.tangaloomaisland.com)produces a stunning Jacques Cousteau panorama.
The shadowy hulking marine graveyard wrecks are full of ghostly nooks and crannies, the perfect home for armies of cascading, gliding, darting and hunting multi coloured inhabitants.
Queensland, known as the ‘Sunshine’ state, is over 22 times bigger than Ireland, covering more than 1200 miles and 20 hours of driving between Cairns in the far-flung tropical north, gateway to the Great Barrier Reef and the overdeveloped Miami-like Gold Coast to the south. The interior includes unpopulated bush wilderness and sheep and cattle stations so vast it can take more than a day to cross their perimeters.
Brisbane bills itself and rightly so as Australia’s New World city. What began as a tough prison colony is fast emerging from under the shadow of cosmopolitan Melbourne and showy Sydney to take its place as a centre of culture, great museums, galleries, shopping and world class hotels and restaurants. Devote at least two or three days at the start and end of your exploration of South Queensland to enjoy this charming walkable city built on water and making the most of that whilst on the doorstep off pristine world heritage nature reserves and parks.
THE rough and tumble early history of Brisbane and succeeding stages of gentrification unfolds during a ramble around the city with a Brisbane Greeter (www.brisbanegreeters. com.au) – locals who provide a free service showing tourists their favourite places.
Once Brisbane became a free settlement the usual assortment of entrepreneurs and ex-convicts grabbed their opportunities and by the late 1880s the settlement had already grown into a leading centre of commerce for the region, developing its own distinctive architecture and culture.
To this day, touring the city you come across well-preserved remaining landmarks from the early days, now dwarfed, yet architecturally at peace with progress against a spectacular high rise skyline in this clean, prosperous metropolis. ÷Isabel Conway is a multiaward winning travel writer. www.isabel-conway.com.