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We arrived at Scarborough, the yacht entry port for the Brisbane area and had
our vegetables confiscated - again! After a few weeks we moved to Dockside
Marina on the Brisbane River in downtown Brisbane - a great place to be for
Christmas shopping and partying. 
They have restored their waterfront over the last 10 years, and it is lined with
restaurants, walking paths, and artwork - a delight! With a plan to drive around
Oz, we scoured the area for suitable vehicles and settled on 'Winnie the Whale',
a 23' Winnebago motor-home (RV in the US). By mid February Long
Passages was snug on a hardstand in Scarborough Marina, 'Winnie' was
fueled up, and we set out to see a big country.
See our Brisbane
Destination Information
We headed south from Brisbane, through the glitzy Gold Coast, with its Warner
Bros fantasy land and a plethora of amusement parks full of foreign
tourists. Inland and over the mountains to Lightning
Ridge, black opal center of the country where we met miners, some who had
worked the mines for 30 years! 
Then on to the Blue Mountains with high plateaus
and waterfalls and trees believed to be unchanged for 60,000,000 years and down
the escarpment to Sydney, home of the Sydney Opera House and 4
million people. In Canberra the streets were
wide and un-crowded and the Parliament building was an architectural
marvel. Our last stop along the coast was Eden, a whaling center in its
earlier life, and recently the harbor of refuge for yachts in the disastrous
1998 Sydney-Hobart race
Victoria, South Australia, and Tasmania make up this part of Australia, and
we drove along the coast and through Melbourne and Adelaide. The
"Great Ocean Road" provides stunning views of offshore islands and
high cliffs - we took a helicopter ride to see it from the best vantage
point! Victoria is largely agricultural with large irrigation works that
draw water from the Snowy Mountains. 
In the parks the wildlife is prolific, with emus, kangaroos, foxes,
wallabies, and koalas wandering wild. In Melbourne we were lucky enough to watch the cream of the crop in
the Australia Open Tennis tournament - Anna Kournikova attracted much of the
attention this time.  Autumn
was setting in, we gave Tasmania a miss, and headed north to the Outback. But
not before a stop in Geelong, a quaint coastal town where an enterprising woman
has carved over 120 pilings (or bollards) in shapes ranging from 18th century
women to lifesaving teams for the renovated waterfront.
The Outback is an ill-defined term - it sort of means "...away from
the cities and any worthwhile agricultural land...", but mostly means
thousands of miles of red sand and hills and billions of bush flies!  On
the southern edge of the Outback lies Broken Hill, a mining town being
re-invented as an artist colony. Overlooking the valley is a collection of
sculptures rising proud under the blue skies. We drove
north from Adelaide, through the Flinders Ranges, and up the Oodnadatta
Track, a 400 km trek over dusty roads past the Ghan railway and telegraph,
remnants of the 1800's. 
The Outback, though dry and sparse, is full of kangaroos, flocks of galahs and
cockatoos, and wallabies. We saw many as we made our way towards the
Australian icon, Uluru, commonly known as Ayer's Rock. Bob climbed to the top
while Judi hiked around the base. Alice Springs with its nearby US intelligence
outpost, the only town of any size in the middle of the country is home to only
25,000 hardy folks.
Emerging from the Outback into the Northern Territory the terrain changes - a
few streams appear, and lakes actually have water. In Katherine we see evidence
of a recent flood - 40' above the riverbed! Ancient Boab trees dot the
landscape - seen only in the North End and Africa. A week in the Kakadu National Park
provide views of thousands of beautiful birds and not so beautiful crocodiles
(see jumping Crocodile to right). The main city, Darwin, a town of 80,000 is the supply center
for an area 5 times the size of Texas and the point of departure for most cruisers
sailing on to the Mediterranean or South Africa.
We arrived in Western Australia in the midst of the wildflower season and
were dazzled by mile after mile of gorgeous, indigenous flowers such as Kangaroo
Paws, Cat's Paws, Sturt Peas, Dampier flowers, Wreath flowers and
Everlastings. While traveling the coastal road around Western Australia,
we found very little
civilization between fuel stops but some places stand out in our memories:
- Broome - one of the most beautiful beaches in the world, half a
mile wide at low tide and full of Aussies who flock to the warm climes
during the winter.
- Shark Bay - with breaching whales off-shore and friendly dolphins
that come to the beach to be fed and petted .
- Perth - the most isolated big city in Australia and perhaps
the world with the beautiful Swan river
- Albany - heart of wine country and home to Tingle trees, rivaling
the redwoods for height and age
- The Nullarbor - a straight highway with few trees for 250 miles
back to South Australia.
The north-east coast of Australia is protected by the Great Barrier Reef, refuge
to an enormous array of beautiful tropical fish
and coral. We sailed between the reef and mainland for a month, trying out
the many anchorages and some of the marinas. We found "Sailing The
Coral Coast" by Alan Lucas to be invaluable. At the northernmost tip
of Queensland is Thursday Island, home to ship pilots who guide the world's
freighters through the shoals between Australia and Papua New Guinea. Three days
of motor-sailing across the Bay of Carpenteria took us to Gove, an isolated town
dedicated to mining and shipping bauxite. The last leg of our sailing in
Australia was Over the Top to Darwin for final provisioning before the push
through Indonesia into Southeast Asia.
See our Australia
Destination Information
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