Queensland, Australia

Australia is known for its particular set of strange animals.  Strange as kangaroos are, everyone in the world knows about them (medium-large animals that travel around our open grasslands using prodigious hops) so they are not surprising.  What many people, even some Australians, don't know about is a group of kangaroos that have reverted to the arboreal habitat of their ancient ancestors - tree kangaroos.

Here on the southern Gold Coast, Queensland, we’ve recently had lots of rain and storms. 

This has flushed tonnes of debris out of our local waterway, Currumbin Creek, onto the nearby beach.  Most of this debris is wood that ranges in size from small twigs to entire tree trunks.  Beach visitors have been having a great time using this as building material for beach sculptures! 

Bribie Island is a sand-barrier island that runs for over thirty kilometres south from Caloundra, where I’m staying.

The southern end of the island is quite developed, but the northern end near Caloundra is natural and wild, so it’s an attractive place to visit as a contrast with the highly urban development of Caloundra.

We are staying at the northern end of Alexandra Headland, on the Sunshine Coast in Queensland.

The southern end of Alexandra Headland leads into Mooloolaba Beach and then on to Mooloolaba.  Mooloolaba is exclusively a tourist destination, and a popular one.  It has numerous restaurants, coffee shops, and tourist trinket shops, with a nicely developed esplanade area.

   We’re on the Sunshine Coast, Queensland, while waiting out the coronavirus restrictions. 

Since our initial stay at Kings Beach, Caloundra, we’ve spent the last four months at nearby Alexandra Headland.  It’s another nice place to be while we can’t travel.  

When the onshore wind picks up Happy Valley at Caloundra become a popular place for kite surfers. Kings beach, where we are staying while we see out the corona virus lockdown, is just around the corner from Happy Valley.  

The boardwalk which runs along the shore at Happy Valley is one of our favourite walks, so I usually get to see the kite surfers when they’re in action. 

Coronavirus has brought our travelling to a halt! 

We have decided to come "home" (whatever that means) to the Sunshine Coast in Queensland until this blows over.  We are in Caloundra for a few weeks until we move to a slightly longer-term situation at Alexander Headland, where we will wait to see what happens in the next several months.

I've been flying back and forth between Launceston and South East Queensland again, and, as before, what I see out of the window as I fly over Australia reveals humanity's vast effect on the landscape.

This flight takes me across an immense fertile plain in the middle of New South Wales and Victoria.  Most of this 1500 kilometres of landscape is co-opted to serve humanity – it’s just one big machine for feeding and clothing humans.