Year: 2014

ARIA, Matt Moran’s restaurants have some fantastic venues. In Sydney at the corner of Macquarie St and overlooking the Opera House, in Brisbane by the river and over looking the Story Bridge which on Sunday night was lit up in a purple haze.Picture courtesy of a friend who lives just by the bridge. She probably…

There is a special place in Kurunda which is worth a visit in itself and that is the Butterfly Sanctuary. A place dedicated to nurturing all kinds of butterflies and actually the biggest of its kind in Australia. The information booklet suggests that this is home to over 1500 tropical butterflies that are hand reared…

This town in the middle of the rainforest was known by the Djabugay people who lived there, as the “place of the platypus”. The first settlers came in 1885 and the railway reached Kurunda in 1891.It became a health resort and was also a very in-place in the 1960s which encouraged a flourishing arts and…

This outing transported me back to India and our adventures on the Shimla-Kalka railway in the foothills of the Himalayas. The Shimla Kalka railway was completed in 1903 and was built on a narrow gauge. It had 103 tunnels. Here the mountains are not so tall, the people not so plentiful, but the effort and the…

Apparently the 1st of September is the beginning of spring in Australia. Technically it is only on the 21st of September – like the summer and winter solstice in the western Hemisphere, but the Australians like to keep things simple and easy – and the beginning of the month is easier to remember then some…

Life in the first world, lets be honest, is exceptionally easy for most of us, and if you haven’t seen Catherine Tate in her skit about Posh parents trying to survive without “essentials” here is the link :  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VJBpGrWr_o0 You might wonder why I am telling you this but recently we had an experience that…

Wherever I go it is important for me to grasp the history of the city as much as the places and the people who inhabit it. EKKA, one of the country’s biggest agricultural shows, is so much a part of erstwhile Brisbane but is also a celebration of all that is wonderful about current Brisbane.…

Becoming a judge crossed my mind in another life. My enthusiasm however was always muted and so it is not something that I pursued. Today, however I became a judge of a rather special kind and it was so much fun. Together with two friends, fellow judges, we set about judging a school competition.This is…

What is so special about this rainforest in Northern Queensland? Well in a very short answer it is said to be the oldest rainforest in the world. They say it is over 135 million years old. Australia was covered with rainforests, but as the conditions became drier, they died off. In Daintree however, the frequent…

I am sitting up above the trees, nearer their crowns then their roots. In front of me are stag horns, elk horns and crow’s nests. This animalistic image bears little resemblance to what is in front of me. Softly shaped horns, it is true, but ones that bend and flow in the breeze in vibrant…