BRISBANE, AUSTRALIA February 26, 2008
Brisbane is a city in eastern Australia, capital of the state of Queensland and a seaport on the Brisbane River, near Moreton Bay. Brisbane was founded as a station for British convicts in 1824. The term POHM refers to Prisoners of Her Majesty and is usually used in a phrase “pohmy bastard” in a fun loving way.
The city is accessible to oceangoing vessels with 2 miles of wharf space. Wool is the chief export. Other leading exports are meat, hides, sugar, dairy products, corn, pearl shell and coal. Brisbane is an important manufacturing center with diversified industries, including food processing, tanning automobile assembling, brewing, and the manufacture of lumber, clothing, tobacco products, boots and shoes and machinery.
We had a chance to tour this beautiful cosmopolitan city with its old Parliament House, the town hall, Brisbane Museum and the buildings of the University of Queens land. In addition there is much modern architecture built for the 1988 World’s Fair which was held in Brisbane.
After our tour we traveled to the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary. Here in addition to the Koalas we were treated to a wonderful exhibit of sheep herding by a master of training dogs to do his bidding. He has these dogs so highly trained they seem an extension of his will. With subtle motions and signals they not only herd sheep but stop, go, sit, stand, lie down, while they are running in the field. They even go jump in the pond at his command. When we owned our sweet and loving dog and I gave her a command, she had no idea what to do. It was as though she was in a different universe, so this demonstration was a real amazement for me.
Judy was very much anticipating holding the Koala. The cute animals were very cuddly. It seemed that this “cuddling” was their primary occupation because they slept 20 hours, ate for 3 hours, performed some bodily functions for part of the remaining hour, which left about ½ hour to be cuddled. Luckily they had 139 koalas in the sanctuary so all could share the laborious cuddling task.
Judy met Specs who weighed about 25 pounds, was very sweet and awakened the maternal instinct in the holder. Specs I’m sure considered the holder more like a tree to which he was trying to get comfortable for a little nap.
Jim tried to get a small kangaroo interested in his hand but evidently the hand did not include food and the animal had seen a hand before and was not interested..
The Rainbow Lorikeets were very colorful as the name would imply and were a treat to see.
Finally we left the park and the koalas were again off duty and sleeping.
Brisbane is a city in eastern Australia, capital of the state of Queensland and a seaport on the Brisbane River, near Moreton Bay. Brisbane was founded as a station for British convicts in 1824. The term POHM refers to Prisoners of Her Majesty and is usually used in a phrase “pohmy bastard” in a fun loving way.
The city is accessible to oceangoing vessels with 2 miles of wharf space. Wool is the chief export. Other leading exports are meat, hides, sugar, dairy products, corn, pearl shell and coal. Brisbane is an important manufacturing center with diversified industries, including food processing, tanning automobile assembling, brewing, and the manufacture of lumber, clothing, tobacco products, boots and shoes and machinery.
We had a chance to tour this beautiful cosmopolitan city with its old Parliament House, the town hall, Brisbane Museum and the buildings of the University of Queens land. In addition there is much modern architecture built for the 1988 World’s Fair which was held in Brisbane.
After our tour we traveled to the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary. Here in addition to the Koalas we were treated to a wonderful exhibit of sheep herding by a master of training dogs to do his bidding. He has these dogs so highly trained they seem an extension of his will. With subtle motions and signals they not only herd sheep but stop, go, sit, stand, lie down, while they are running in the field. They even go jump in the pond at his command. When we owned our sweet and loving dog and I gave her a command, she had no idea what to do. It was as though she was in a different universe, so this demonstration was a real amazement for me.
Judy was very much anticipating holding the Koala. The cute animals were very cuddly. It seemed that this “cuddling” was their primary occupation because they slept 20 hours, ate for 3 hours, performed some bodily functions for part of the remaining hour, which left about ½ hour to be cuddled. Luckily they had 139 koalas in the sanctuary so all could share the laborious cuddling task.
Judy met Specs who weighed about 25 pounds, was very sweet and awakened the maternal instinct in the holder. Specs I’m sure considered the holder more like a tree to which he was trying to get comfortable for a little nap.
Jim tried to get a small kangaroo interested in his hand but evidently the hand did not include food and the animal had seen a hand before and was not interested..
The Rainbow Lorikeets were very colorful as the name would imply and were a treat to see.
Finally we left the park and the koalas were again off duty and sleeping.
