Friday, April 14, 2006
Last days in Queensland: March 29
Finally, excellent but expensive internet services in Wellington, NZ. Here are several posts which should almost catch us up to the present.
Today was rainy and warm. This weather is not atypical of Queensland in March, but until today the rain had occurred mostly in brief light showers, conditions that had permitted us to enjoy a lot of outdoor activities. Yesterday was by far the best day for us to have taken a boat to the Barrier Reef; most visits to the reef occur during the Australian winter, when south Australians escape cool conditions for the mild tropical climate of north Queensland but find stronger winds and rougher seas offshore. This morning we boarded the Rainforest SkyRail just north of Cairns and enjoyed the three-segment hour-long ascent to Kuranda, on the crest of the Great Dividing Range. West of the Dividing Range lies the elevated flat plateau which forms most of the Australian land mass. In east Queensland, this area is known as the Atherton Tableland, and it is drier and less heavily forested than the moist coast. The cyclone that hit the region a coule of weeks ago struck about an hour’s drive south of Cairns and traveled over the mountains into the tablelands, where it caused massive damage to crops and communities. We had originally intended to explore the flora and fauna of the Tablelands but were advised to abandon that plan due to the widespread damage to that area.
Karunda, a tourist-trap site, would be the closest we would come to the Tablelands, and we used it primarily to reverse our course on the SkyRail. This very long cable-car system takes passengers over the rainforest, and we could look down onto a thick mass of very tall trees, most of them carrying as much epiphyte foliage as tree leaves. The massive staghorn ferns and other epiphytes, as well as the thick drapery of lianas and vines, leave a very strong impression. The canopy is very thick, even though a guide estimated that the cyclone hyad removed about 20 percent of it. Some of the trees consisted only of dead, branchless trunks rising a hundred or more feet vertically, entirely cloaked with ferns and other rainforest plants. The north Queensland rainforest is considered to be the oldest rainforest ecosystem in the world and, along with the Great Barrier Reef, has been designated a World-Heritage site.
March 30
Enjoyed our last sumptuous breakfast with John and Pam before driving down the Captain Cook Highway to the Cairns Airport for our flight to Sydney. We checked into an awful hotel near the Sydney Airport after waiting an hour for the courtesy shuttle to pick us up. There was virtually no space for luggage in our room; the shower head was broken; the hotel had no ATM; there were no eateries within walking distance; and the hotel’s restaurant was far worse than a college cafeteria. But it was quiet and cheap, and after splurging at the Marae (our luxurious Port Douglas B & B) and spending too much for meals in up-scale Port Douglas, it was appropriate to revert to more economical lodgings.
Before we leave Australia, it also seems appropriate to pay tribute to this wonderful country. We’ve been driving on the left-side of the road (and the right-side of the car) now for three weeks, and it has finally begun to feel more natural than it ever did during our travels in England. The efficient use of round-abouts here, as in Europe, makes American traffic-stalling intersections seem appallingly inefficient. The Australian perspective on world events is far more cosmopolitan and global than that of most Americans. The superiority of American plumbing, particularly in sinks and showers, remains obvious, although the standardization of half- and full-flush options on the Australian toilet is something we would do well to emulate. An Australian hotel room is decorated with a great excess of tiny electrical switches whose functions sometimes remain obscure; flip them as many times as you will, nothing seems to turn on or off. The Australian television system seems impoverished (seldom does a hotel offer more than 3 or 4 stations), but at least one isn’t subjected to a proliferation of shopping channels competing with Fear Factor. Internet access is not widely available in hotels here; when it is, wireless service is uncommon and broad-band service isn’t guaranteed. Sometimes only one or two terminals are available, for a fee. Internet cafes are popular, but I’ve seldom been able to use my own laptop, which has made blogging a challenging proposition.
The landscape is interesting (though not grand in the manner of New Zealand or the American West), and the flora and fauna are infinitely fascinating and unique, as I had expected. I quickly abandoned any attempt to survey the Australian flora, aside from observing in general the prominence and diversity of eucalypts and the impressive variety of lianas (including palms with a vine habit!) and tree-ferns. I focused on mammals and birds, and by the end of our stay had identified 96 bird species, only a few of which I’d seen elsewhere. Here I encountered for the first time entire families of birds and experienced the delightful and perplexing sensation of seeing birds whose affinities I could not begin to decipher. Most of these birds were colorful, often brilliantly colorful. And, of course, we watched koalas mating and saw at night roadways lined – and often blocked - by marsupials, some large and some small. We saw marsupials with joeys in their pouches and learned the distinctions between kangaroos and wallabies and wallaroos. We saw tree kangaroos and possums with bushy tails. Of course, we ate kangaroo, finding it more interesting than ostrich but far less appealing than bison or elk. We were chased from beaches by deadly box jellies, marveled at the extent and richness of the Great Barrier Reef, and were soaked in the rain forest. And we saw fruit-eating bats as large as small dogs, hanging from branches and flying about. For a biologist, these were a richly rewarding experiences.
I had not thought much about the national temperament and culture before we arrived here, but I probably harbored an unarticulated expectation that the Australian mannerisms would be a bit rustic and coarse, though quaint in an easily caricatured way. In reality, the people were remarkably gracious, generous, friendly, helpful, patient, and amusing. When we visited the UK in 2004, we found the Brits, if a bit reserved, very cordial and far more courteous than most Americans, but the Aussies clearly surpass their English brothers in good spirits, apparent sincerity, and good will. If we paused on a street corner in Melbourne or Sydney to orient ourselves, within seconds a native would stop to ask if we needed help finding our way around. If we asked a simple favor of a store clerk, we were rewarded with strenuous -- and sometimes extreme -- efforts to satisfy our requests. One almost hesitated to ask the slightest favor of these extremely obliging people.
These Australians are unfailingly cheerful and chipper, but they are also capable of a very sharp and self-deprecating humor, sometimes in response to trifling or meaningless small talk. When we asked a friendly Sydney bus driver about his impressive consumption of coffee, he responded with a hilarious speculation regarding how a chap might feel in the morning had he had a difficult time with his wife the prevous night. When we remarked on the large number of joggers in the Royal Botanical Gardens, he noted that most of them were female and told us that the average Australian bloke spent more time in the pub and on the sofa in front of the tellie than working out. This sort of sardonic humor was never hard to evoke. Lynn toured Government House in Sydney and reported that her guide was not only very enthusiastic about the history of this official establishment, where he organize diplomatic events and maintained protocol, he was also uproariously cynical about politicians and about his role in the affairs of state.
We saw no evidence of the rowdiness and antisocial behavior so common in English cities, and although the Aussies are renowned drinkers, we saw only one minor incident of public drunkenness. We found little sign of crime or vandalism, seldom noticed a policeman or a police car, and witnessed no obvious concern about personal safety. Both men and women walked through the streets at night without looking over their shoulders. We were harassed only once: we were accosted by several thoroughly drunk aborigines in a nearly empty pedestrian mall in Adelaide, but those poor folks weren’t aggressive and no one else in the mall seemed concerned or made any effort to avoid the scene. This is a society that treats its pensioners and workers with great dignity and provides proper healthcare for its members. The Australians, both young and old, place great emphasis on treating each other with respect and courtesy; even people whose appearances would suggest a cautious approach were they encountered in the States treated us with distinct courtesy. Our birding guide, a thoughtful middle-aged fellow, agreed with our suggestion that the Australians are largely self-regulating and are willing to relinquish some opportunities for self-aggrandizement or personal success in order to maintain a strong community and a high degree of mutual trust. He speculated that, given its dark history as a penal colony (read “Fatal Shore” by Robert Hughes), the populace was determined to out-do the English in propriety and decency and to show that a peaceful and prosperous commonwealth could be maintained without strong class distinctions or pretensions to high status.
Australia is also an extremely multicultural society, with a strong flow of immigrants from Asia and the Pacific. A vigorous sense of political correctness seems to govern relations with these new immigrants, although recent rioting in Sydney, a shocking event for most Australians, reveal some resentment of Middle Eastern and Islamic newcomers among working-class white Australians. The recent Sydney riots shocked Australians because they pride themselves on being laid-back and accommodating; one of the most commonly heard expressions is ‘no worries.” Our host at the Marae, John Burden (a retired BBC and NY Times journalist) speculated that a forgiving climate encouraged the good will and anti-elitism he enjoyed in his adopted country but also promoted a general lack of ambition and dynamism. Concomitant with the Australians’ optimistic good will, he suggested, was the greatest threat to their long-term prosperity – a sense of complacency. And, of course, beneath the impressive civility and cordiality remains the unresolved dirty issue of aboriginal rights and welfare.
I won’t try to formulate a finely nuanced conclusion about the Australian character, footnoted with precise caveats and counter examples, but will adopt a narrowly practical outlook in predicting that if you travel here you will enjoy a level of hospitality and personal comfort that can be matched almost no where else in the world. (Except perhaps New Zealand, eh?) We give Australia several thumbs-up!
Today was rainy and warm. This weather is not atypical of Queensland in March, but until today the rain had occurred mostly in brief light showers, conditions that had permitted us to enjoy a lot of outdoor activities. Yesterday was by far the best day for us to have taken a boat to the Barrier Reef; most visits to the reef occur during the Australian winter, when south Australians escape cool conditions for the mild tropical climate of north Queensland but find stronger winds and rougher seas offshore. This morning we boarded the Rainforest SkyRail just north of Cairns and enjoyed the three-segment hour-long ascent to Kuranda, on the crest of the Great Dividing Range. West of the Dividing Range lies the elevated flat plateau which forms most of the Australian land mass. In east Queensland, this area is known as the Atherton Tableland, and it is drier and less heavily forested than the moist coast. The cyclone that hit the region a coule of weeks ago struck about an hour’s drive south of Cairns and traveled over the mountains into the tablelands, where it caused massive damage to crops and communities. We had originally intended to explore the flora and fauna of the Tablelands but were advised to abandon that plan due to the widespread damage to that area.
Karunda, a tourist-trap site, would be the closest we would come to the Tablelands, and we used it primarily to reverse our course on the SkyRail. This very long cable-car system takes passengers over the rainforest, and we could look down onto a thick mass of very tall trees, most of them carrying as much epiphyte foliage as tree leaves. The massive staghorn ferns and other epiphytes, as well as the thick drapery of lianas and vines, leave a very strong impression. The canopy is very thick, even though a guide estimated that the cyclone hyad removed about 20 percent of it. Some of the trees consisted only of dead, branchless trunks rising a hundred or more feet vertically, entirely cloaked with ferns and other rainforest plants. The north Queensland rainforest is considered to be the oldest rainforest ecosystem in the world and, along with the Great Barrier Reef, has been designated a World-Heritage site.
March 30
Enjoyed our last sumptuous breakfast with John and Pam before driving down the Captain Cook Highway to the Cairns Airport for our flight to Sydney. We checked into an awful hotel near the Sydney Airport after waiting an hour for the courtesy shuttle to pick us up. There was virtually no space for luggage in our room; the shower head was broken; the hotel had no ATM; there were no eateries within walking distance; and the hotel’s restaurant was far worse than a college cafeteria. But it was quiet and cheap, and after splurging at the Marae (our luxurious Port Douglas B & B) and spending too much for meals in up-scale Port Douglas, it was appropriate to revert to more economical lodgings.
Before we leave Australia, it also seems appropriate to pay tribute to this wonderful country. We’ve been driving on the left-side of the road (and the right-side of the car) now for three weeks, and it has finally begun to feel more natural than it ever did during our travels in England. The efficient use of round-abouts here, as in Europe, makes American traffic-stalling intersections seem appallingly inefficient. The Australian perspective on world events is far more cosmopolitan and global than that of most Americans. The superiority of American plumbing, particularly in sinks and showers, remains obvious, although the standardization of half- and full-flush options on the Australian toilet is something we would do well to emulate. An Australian hotel room is decorated with a great excess of tiny electrical switches whose functions sometimes remain obscure; flip them as many times as you will, nothing seems to turn on or off. The Australian television system seems impoverished (seldom does a hotel offer more than 3 or 4 stations), but at least one isn’t subjected to a proliferation of shopping channels competing with Fear Factor. Internet access is not widely available in hotels here; when it is, wireless service is uncommon and broad-band service isn’t guaranteed. Sometimes only one or two terminals are available, for a fee. Internet cafes are popular, but I’ve seldom been able to use my own laptop, which has made blogging a challenging proposition.
The landscape is interesting (though not grand in the manner of New Zealand or the American West), and the flora and fauna are infinitely fascinating and unique, as I had expected. I quickly abandoned any attempt to survey the Australian flora, aside from observing in general the prominence and diversity of eucalypts and the impressive variety of lianas (including palms with a vine habit!) and tree-ferns. I focused on mammals and birds, and by the end of our stay had identified 96 bird species, only a few of which I’d seen elsewhere. Here I encountered for the first time entire families of birds and experienced the delightful and perplexing sensation of seeing birds whose affinities I could not begin to decipher. Most of these birds were colorful, often brilliantly colorful. And, of course, we watched koalas mating and saw at night roadways lined – and often blocked - by marsupials, some large and some small. We saw marsupials with joeys in their pouches and learned the distinctions between kangaroos and wallabies and wallaroos. We saw tree kangaroos and possums with bushy tails. Of course, we ate kangaroo, finding it more interesting than ostrich but far less appealing than bison or elk. We were chased from beaches by deadly box jellies, marveled at the extent and richness of the Great Barrier Reef, and were soaked in the rain forest. And we saw fruit-eating bats as large as small dogs, hanging from branches and flying about. For a biologist, these were a richly rewarding experiences.
I had not thought much about the national temperament and culture before we arrived here, but I probably harbored an unarticulated expectation that the Australian mannerisms would be a bit rustic and coarse, though quaint in an easily caricatured way. In reality, the people were remarkably gracious, generous, friendly, helpful, patient, and amusing. When we visited the UK in 2004, we found the Brits, if a bit reserved, very cordial and far more courteous than most Americans, but the Aussies clearly surpass their English brothers in good spirits, apparent sincerity, and good will. If we paused on a street corner in Melbourne or Sydney to orient ourselves, within seconds a native would stop to ask if we needed help finding our way around. If we asked a simple favor of a store clerk, we were rewarded with strenuous -- and sometimes extreme -- efforts to satisfy our requests. One almost hesitated to ask the slightest favor of these extremely obliging people.
These Australians are unfailingly cheerful and chipper, but they are also capable of a very sharp and self-deprecating humor, sometimes in response to trifling or meaningless small talk. When we asked a friendly Sydney bus driver about his impressive consumption of coffee, he responded with a hilarious speculation regarding how a chap might feel in the morning had he had a difficult time with his wife the prevous night. When we remarked on the large number of joggers in the Royal Botanical Gardens, he noted that most of them were female and told us that the average Australian bloke spent more time in the pub and on the sofa in front of the tellie than working out. This sort of sardonic humor was never hard to evoke. Lynn toured Government House in Sydney and reported that her guide was not only very enthusiastic about the history of this official establishment, where he organize diplomatic events and maintained protocol, he was also uproariously cynical about politicians and about his role in the affairs of state.
We saw no evidence of the rowdiness and antisocial behavior so common in English cities, and although the Aussies are renowned drinkers, we saw only one minor incident of public drunkenness. We found little sign of crime or vandalism, seldom noticed a policeman or a police car, and witnessed no obvious concern about personal safety. Both men and women walked through the streets at night without looking over their shoulders. We were harassed only once: we were accosted by several thoroughly drunk aborigines in a nearly empty pedestrian mall in Adelaide, but those poor folks weren’t aggressive and no one else in the mall seemed concerned or made any effort to avoid the scene. This is a society that treats its pensioners and workers with great dignity and provides proper healthcare for its members. The Australians, both young and old, place great emphasis on treating each other with respect and courtesy; even people whose appearances would suggest a cautious approach were they encountered in the States treated us with distinct courtesy. Our birding guide, a thoughtful middle-aged fellow, agreed with our suggestion that the Australians are largely self-regulating and are willing to relinquish some opportunities for self-aggrandizement or personal success in order to maintain a strong community and a high degree of mutual trust. He speculated that, given its dark history as a penal colony (read “Fatal Shore” by Robert Hughes), the populace was determined to out-do the English in propriety and decency and to show that a peaceful and prosperous commonwealth could be maintained without strong class distinctions or pretensions to high status.
Australia is also an extremely multicultural society, with a strong flow of immigrants from Asia and the Pacific. A vigorous sense of political correctness seems to govern relations with these new immigrants, although recent rioting in Sydney, a shocking event for most Australians, reveal some resentment of Middle Eastern and Islamic newcomers among working-class white Australians. The recent Sydney riots shocked Australians because they pride themselves on being laid-back and accommodating; one of the most commonly heard expressions is ‘no worries.” Our host at the Marae, John Burden (a retired BBC and NY Times journalist) speculated that a forgiving climate encouraged the good will and anti-elitism he enjoyed in his adopted country but also promoted a general lack of ambition and dynamism. Concomitant with the Australians’ optimistic good will, he suggested, was the greatest threat to their long-term prosperity – a sense of complacency. And, of course, beneath the impressive civility and cordiality remains the unresolved dirty issue of aboriginal rights and welfare.
I won’t try to formulate a finely nuanced conclusion about the Australian character, footnoted with precise caveats and counter examples, but will adopt a narrowly practical outlook in predicting that if you travel here you will enjoy a level of hospitality and personal comfort that can be matched almost no where else in the world. (Except perhaps New Zealand, eh?) We give Australia several thumbs-up!
# posted by Ken @ 3:43 AM 
