| Brisbane is situated 25km upstream
from the mouth of the Brisbane River and is built along
the banks of this river. It is easy to explore the compact
city centre on foot. The city started out as a penal colony
in 1825 where prisoners were sent that were too troublesome
for the colony in Sydney. The area used to be home to
the Jagera and Turrbal Aboriginal clans, which led to
a few clashes and the demise of these clans. Around 1860
the city changed from a convict town to a prosperous city
and many grand buildings were constructed that can still
be admired today. The current population is culturally
diverse, over twenty-six percent of Brisbane’s population
was born overseas. |
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| Great Barrier Reef - the largest living
coral system in the world, stretching 2300km along Queensland's
coast from Bundaberg to the top of Cape York it contains
1600 reefs and a 1000 islands and is the site of the biggest
orgasm in the universe; this is one of the terms the North
Queensland dive industry uses to describe the annual coral
spawning where three to five nights after the full moon
in november or december when the water temperature hits
28 degrees, the entire 2300 kms of Great Barrier Reef
lets go of zillions and zillions of brightly colored sperm
and eggs that float around for several days and fertilize
eachother. Fish go into a feeding frenzy and the ocean
sometimes resembles an oiltanker disaster site but all
this is done to propagate new corals to ensure the survival
of the Great Barrier Reef. The Great Barrier Reef was
the first Australian site to be placed on UNESCO's World
Heritage list, now there are 15 Australian sites. |
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| Great Ocean Road - An extremely popular
scenic drive to the south west of Melbourne that stretches
for 300 km. and includes beaches, patches of rainforest,
sweeping views to a rugged rocky coastline with steep
cliffs and impressive 100 metre high rock formations like
the Twelve Apostles ( though there are no longer twelve
as from time to time one falls over and there are now
eight left) . This place hit the national news headlines
when a rock formation known as London Bridge suddenly
collapsed. For many years day trippers had walked out
along this natural bridge to the big rock at the end but
after sitting there for possible millions of years the
bridge spontaneously collapsed in January 1990 leaving
two people stranded on the rock who had to wait several
hours for a helicipter to arrive to ferry them back to
the mainland. There is an urban myth that these two people
were not actually a couple but both cheating on their
repective partners and then got caught out getting their
faces on national television but we do not know if this
holds truth or not. |
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