In the Land of Oz

I should probably start off by saying that no Australian would call Australia "Oz" but seeing as I'm not Australian I'm going too, at least for this post.  Plus all of the Kiwis that we knew called it Oz, so I have been thinking about Australia as such for about 10 months now.

Sunset over Morten Bay

I'm coming up on almost a month in Australia at this point and I'm still really enjoying it here.  Work is keeping me very busy but it's going well.  The project that I'm working on is really big land-area-wise and the site has a really long history but I feel like I'm starting to get my head wrapped around it.  Because we have long field days every day and it's winter here (i.e. short days), during the week I don't see much besides the site during daylight hours.  I haven't seen any kangaroos yet though I have seen kangaroo tracks on site and the project manager saw one when she was on site in mid-May.  I have seen a bunch of cool birds, a Koala, turtles, lizards, spiders, and snakes at the site.  I haven't seen any venomous snakes yet (thank goodness!) but I did see a ~2 m carpet python last week and I got my first Australian tick on the same day.  There is no lyme disease here but, given that it's Australia (everything is more deadly here!), these are Paralysis Ticks.  Luckily I got mine off quickly enough that I didn't have any ill effects.

This guy was trying to help us groundwater sample.

Kangaroo tracks!

While I am very busy during the week, I have been able to get out exploring on the weekends.  My second weekend in the Brisbane area, I took the train down into the CBD (aka downtown) and explored Brisbane.  It is a great walking city with a bunch of interesting sculptures and the Brisbane River, which flows through the middle of the city, giving Brisbane it's nickname of the River City.  I went through Anzac Square, the City Botanic Gardens, wandered along the South Bank, and hit up some used book stores.  It was not super sunny on the day that I was there, but the overcast skies kept it cool enough to be very pleasant wandering weather.

City Botanic Gardens

Bougainvillea covered walkway along the South Bank

The River City

Australian White Ibis
These are all over the place in Brisbane

This past weekend I went exploring both days. On Saturday I went to Bribie Island which is located about 45 minutes north of Redcliffe (where I am) and is the only barrier island by Morten Bay that is connected to the mainland via a bridge.  There is a large national park on the island (basically the northern two thirds) but I just stayed in the part that didn't require 4WD - I have a decent truck for work but I am not super comfortable driving on sand.  I did some bush walks, checked out some birds, and had ice cream on the beach - all in all, a good day in my book.

Bicentennial Trails

On Sunday, I went to D'Aguilar National Park which is just west of the CBD.  The park is broken into two sections that aren't connected, so I stayed in the southern section for this trip.  I stopped by the Visitor's Center to get trail recommendations from the rangers and ended up doing a couple short but nice hikes.  I even saw a wallaby on one trail but it was too fast for me to get a picture of.

Jolly's Lookout - looking east toward Brisbane

Greenes Falls

West ridge outlook - looking west

Enoggera Reservoir

Ross is coming up to visit this weekend and we have some hiking adventures tentatively planned.  I will make sure to report back as we're planning on exploring a new national park in the area.

Across the Ditch

 When we lived in Minnesota, I worked for an awesome environmental consulting company called Antea Group.  They are part of a larger alliance of environmental consulting companies called Inogen.  When I first found out that Ross and I were going to be moving to NZ, my bosses at Antea contacted the only Inogen partner company in the Australia/NZ area, Peter J Ramsay & Associates (PJRA), to see if I might be able to do contract work for them.  Once I got to NZ I spoke with PJRA, who are based in Melbourne, and we started the process of getting an Australian work visa for me.  This turned into an incredibly long process because the Australian government is in the process of doing away with the visa that I now have.  Because of this, the visa I got in mid-April is only good until the middle of August.  Hopefully we will be able to get it extended but I'm afraid that I might have to reapply for a different type of visa...   

Masked Lapwing

My last day at my old job was Wednesday, April 26th and I moved to Australia on Monday, May 1st.  The last week (week one in Australia) has been rather chaotic.  PJRA is based in Melbourne but I will be based in and working on a project in Brisbane.  I flew from Wellington to Melbourne on Monday morning and then went straight to the office to start training.  Monday and Tuesday were spent getting brought up to speed on the project I am working on, setting up my email and computer, and doing life things such as getting my tax number and doing the final steps to open my bank account.  Wednesday I got my field PPE and then caught a flight to Brisbane in the afternoon.  I had been hoping to have a little time in the evenings to explore Melbourne but unfortunately I was busy enough that my entire experience of Melbourne consisted of the airport, PJRA's office, and my hotel, with a couple close restaurants thrown in for good measure.   

Koala that I saw my first day on site in Brisbane.

There were hundreds of these tiny Cane Toads all over the site.

Thursday morning I went to the job site in Petrie (Brisbane suburb) and got inducted.  After some initial training, it was straight to work.  I picked up my work truck Friday afternoon and then went grocery shopping, got a new SIM card, and finished unpacking over the weekend.  Now that I am all settled in, I feel like I can really start to explore the Brisbane area and further afield.   

Australian Wood Ducks

Crested Pigeons

Australian White Ibis

We're going into the dry season in Queensland, so it's been in the mid-70's with sun since I got here which is a pleasant change from Windy Welly where it is generally overcast, windy (duh), and rainy.   I got out walking in my neighborhood (Scarborough) some this weekend.  It seems like a nice, family-friendly, beach community.  Plus there are so many plants and animals here that I've never seen before; it's crazy!  I don't like to look like a tourist but I have been walking around with my camera just to get shots of all the new critters.  I use iNaturalist a lot to help identify everything - it's a great way to learn new plants and animals wherever you are in the world, plus all of your observations help track biodiversity.  Yea, citizen science!

Hibiscus Harlequin Bug

Redcliffe Pier

Just a door in a tree...

Do yourself a favor and look up "swooping season" on YouTube.
This is one of my fav's.

Rainbow over Moreton Bay

Across the street from my flat

I'll leave you with a quote from In a Sunburned Country by Bill Bryson (if you haven't read it, I highly recommend it!) that has some fun facts about Australia.  It is a really interesting place and I can't wait to get out and explore it more!  

"Australia is the world’s sixth largest country and its largest island. It is the only island that is also a continent, and the only continent that is also a country. It was the first continent conquered from the sea, and the last. It is the only nation that began as a prison.

It is the home of the largest living thing on earth, the Great Barrier Reef, and of the largest monolith, Ayers Rock (or Uluru to use its now-official, more respectful Aboriginal name). It has more things that will kill you than anywhere else. Of the world’s ten most poisonous snakes, all are Australian. Five of its creatures— the funnel web spider, box jellyfish, blue-ringed octopus, paralysis tick, and stonefish—are the most lethal of their type in the world. This is a country where even the fluffiest of caterpillars can lay you out with a toxic nip, where seashells will not just sting you but actually sometimes go for you. Pick up an innocuous cone shell from a Queensland beach, as innocent tourists are all too wont to do, and you will discover that the little fellow inside is not just astoundingly swift and testy but exceedingly venomous. If you are not stung or pronged to death in some unexpected manner, you may be fatally chomped by sharks or crocodiles, or carried helplessly out to sea by irresistible currents, or left to stagger to an unhappy death in the baking outback. It’s a tough place."

-In a Sunburned Country by Bill Bryson  

I found this sign not too far down the beach from my flat.
Read the last bullet point.