Judy & Brian Tour Oz

  Thursday Island Qld Sunday 14 August 2002 We departed at 7am from Bamaga, Seisia actually, on a private charter of the ferry, because, like most things here, it doesn’t normally open or work on Sunday. Departure lounge at Seisia Qld Free camp. Seisia Qld  We landed at Thursday Island and boarded a small bus, complete with tour guide. The bags were taken by ute the few hundred metres to the oldest (and possibly the only accommodation) hotel on TI (as its known) the Jardine Hotel.  That's it. That is Thursday Island Qld Thursday Island Qld Thursday Island Qld They had made a great song-and-dance out of this tour, so here we go. Now, TI is only the size of a large postage stamp, and came into existence in 1867 after the failure of Somerset Bay. It is the centre of Government administration for the Torres Strait Island and houses som 50 Government departments, although it is hard to see where except for a few fairly run-down looking buildings. Anyhow, The Tour. Straight...

Albany WA April 20, 2015 We awoke to another day of full on sunshine - that's two in a row... I went for an early long walk on the beach, and still only got halfway along toward Emu Point. We started our day at the Anzac Memorial, high on Mt Adelaide overlooking the harbour. To give you some background, This is the very harbour from which the 1st and 2nd convoys of Australian and New Zealand troops left for Gallipoli in 1914. Some 40,000 troops had been assembled on a whole pile of ships, and they complete with a bevy of warships, all gathered here in the harbour, right below this very point. High up here was also where the garrison and guns were housed in the Princess Royal Fortress, built in 1893, as part of the coastal defences for Australia. Princess Royal Fortress. 1983. Albany WA Time moves on and now the whole place has been turned into a really nice park with museum pieces all around the place. The National ANZAC Centre was opened on November 1, 2014 and so is re...

Today the car was due at Stillwell Ford for it's 15,000km service. We turned up about 930, left the car  for their attention and took advantage of the courtesy car into town. We walked up and down Rundle Mall, checking out some of the large and glossy department stores before walking down King William Street to Victoria Square and thence into the Central Markets. One thing for sure, the howling wind was glacial and we both froze our chops off before gratefully turning into the marketplace itself. These markets are quite similar to the Vic Markets in Melbourne but with more emphasis on fresh food and goodies and almost none of the tat that makes up a lot of the Vic. We took coffee and a yummy Portuguese Tart and a Lemon Flan at Lucia's, not the only coffee shop there but probably the best that we saw. After marching up and down all the aisles and back and forth across all the rows, we  went back up toward Rundle Mall looking for lunch and perhaps a visit to the SA Museum. ...