Brisbane/Gold Coast Part 2

We transferred to Brisbane for the rest of our time in Australia. In Brisbane we visited several museums and three parks/gardens.

We did a lot of walking here as well. Our first walk was to the old city garden of Brisbane. They have a new official city garden but it's way outside of town. We saw this interesting building on the way.

The old city garden was really interesting and pretty. This is the first Eastern water dragon we saw while visiting Brisbane and Queensland on this trip.

We saw eels in the small ponds within the park. I read after our visit that you need to encourage them to be seen by slapping the water with your hand. I guess we didn't need to do it, the eels were right there to be photographed.

 Lovely water features.

 Another dragon.

 Wild ibis in the trees.

 Yep, another dragon or two.

A gorgeous sunset with Brisbane City Hall is lit in red on this night. The color scheme seemed to change nightly.

We had a good time at the Queensland Museum. We explored the natural history parts of this museum. They also have special changing ticketed exhibits but none of those appealed to us.  The natural history part was great. The Wild State gallery highlights the remote outback, coastline and ocean environments showing the beauty but also the fragile state of these environments. The exhibit also suggests how we can preserve this natural world.

Beyond that, we learned a very important thing. As background, we occasionally catch episodes of Master Chef Australia. We have repeatedly watched episodes where they are passionately cooking something they call "bugs." We had guessed this was a lobster. Nope! Not a true lobster but is somewhat related. Doesn't look much like a New England lobster. Other common names include slipper lobster or flathead lobster--even though it's not a lobster. Some might call it a crayfish. They also have something in Australia they like to cook is called a yabby. This might be a freshwater crayfish but might be saltwater. It's all very confusing. At least now we know what a "bug" looks like.

We also actually saw "bugs" on a menu.

We saw all sorts of cool insects, birds and other critters. But in another area of the museum we saw this old Singer sewing machine and a Mother Pott's iron circa 1939.

Another spot we visited was the Queensland Maritime Museum.  The hotel concierge didn't even recommend going there as he said every time he passed by the Museum it appeared to be closed.  Of course we went anyway. As we got closer to the place we understood why someone would assume it was closed all of the time. You approach it from, say the south, but you need to walk practically all the way around it to find the entrance which is hidden under and bridge.

This is a small place but the highlight is the Royal Australian Navy's WWII Frigate HMS Diamantina. Built in 1945 it is the only remaining River Class Frigate in the world. The ship had 2 types of radar, the cavity magnetron Type 271 radar and for aircraft detection  radar Type A286Q.
The Japanese forces at both Nauru Island and Ocean Island signed surrender documents on board this ship at the end of WWII.

The ship was recommissioned in 1959 as an oceanographic, meteorologic and hydrographic research vessel. In February,1960, the ship discovered the 1200-nautical mile Diamantina Fracture Zone, then the deepest known part of the Indian Ocean. Approximately 150,000 square nautical miles of the Southern and Indian Oceans are named the Diamantina Zone in its honor. The research of the East Australian Current conducted aboard the ship changed the face of dynamic oceanography.The ship was very long but here is part of it.

The ship sits in dry dock. We could freely roam through most of the entire ship. Interesting.

Near this ship we also toured Southbank Parklands- another park/garden. I noticed this which I thought was really helpful to cyclists. Cool! You are free to use the station but please don't chain your bike here and walk away!

At Southbank Parklands there is a manmade lake and beach as well as a pool. I imagine this place is pretty crowded on weekends this time of year, but it was pretty quiet on this day.

It was a pretty warm day and we stopped for refreshments a couple of times. Both times B enjoyed a Coke. In version one he got a huge bottle with a small glass. In version 2 he got a huge glass and a tiny can (200 ml). Funny!

There are all sorts of gardens and plants to see at Southbank Parklands, but apparently we didn't take any photos of it we just enjoyed walking through and looking at the gardens.