Brisbane Day 1 & 2 - Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary

Brisbane Trip Index

Day 1 & 2: Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary
Day 2 to 4: Around & Night Views of the City

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This is the first post in a series of posts about a trip to Brisbane, Australia to attend the 14th International Conference on Database Systems for Advanced Applications (DASFAA 2009). For those interested in viewing my previous DASFAA 2008 trip in India, it is here.

19 Apr 2009

Boarded the plane at home on Sunday morning for about seven hours of flight to Brisbane. This was rather rushed for me as I had just completed some end of semester projects on Friday. The week that I will be away is reading week. I guess preparing for exams will have to wait till I return. Although this will be my first time in Brisbane, I was beginning to have doubts during the flight as to what there is to see in the city itself. In fact, I was actually looking forward to my flight more than the trip itself. To my delight I realised the plane I was on is fitted with spanking new, roughly 10 inch screens with VOD features!

Lunch, on board SIA, Sweet & Sour Pork


Snack, some tuna sandwich

Arrived at about 7:30pm local time and hopped onto my pre-booked coach (for AUD 14) to Hotel George Williams on George St in the CBD area. This will be my little single room for the next five nights. Had some indigestion with the tuna sandwich previously. Then, watched an exciting episode of 24 hours before drifting off to sleep after a tough day at the movies.

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20 Apr 2009

Woke up at eight, grabbed my meal coupons, and went downstairs to the cafe for breakfast. Immediately I regretted not bringing along my windbreaker.

It can get a little chilly as it is al fresco

Scrambled eggs, sausages, and bacon on toast served piping hot with coffee or tea. The portion is huge for me. I had mine with a cappuccino. After breakfast I took a quick look at the pamphlets at the lobby. Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary caught my eye. Reading further, I discovered there's a cruise across the Brisbane river that departs at 10am and it is 9:30am! Fortunately, the city is rather small and I managed to reach the jetty of Mirimar Cruises in about 10 mins. It costs AUD 50 for a return trip to Fig Tree Pocket where the sanctuary is, inclusive of entry fee.

Blue Line -- route to Mirimar Cruises Jetty from Hotel George Williams


The cruise jetty on at South Bank viewed from on board, it should be in front of the Queensland Art Gallery


Departing soon, it will take more than an hour to get there


A glimpse of a City Cat, these are public hi-speed ferries that plough along the river


Off to Fig Tree Pocket. It is called pocket because it is the land that juts out at the meander of the river. Seems like the river is brownish as they used to do dredging, or so they claim...


It takes about an hour and a half due to the meandering of the river. Bus will probably be a faster way to get there, but the cruise is more relaxing


Passing the first bridge for rail


Hanson display centre for erm... concrete


An old preserved row of apartments with twelve chimneys


Oakey's, supposedly a good restaurant for seafood


An old red gas stripping tower painted built in 1912 to remove tar and ammonia from raw coal gas [1]


Hospital, there's an old mansion in front of it that belongs to the infamous Patrick Mayne whose children later funded the St Lucia Campus for the University of Queensland


Some houses by the river, each has their own jetty. It is said that recent increase in real estate prices along the river has caused investors to buy up a house and built two on the same plot with two jetties


Some park with century year old trees


First glimpse of the University of Queensland with a little guilt for skipping the first day of the conference


The university has its own City Cat jetty


One of the more expensive houses


I presume this is one of the least expensive


This is popularly rented for weddings



More heritage real estate with chimneys


Here's an interesting bridge (with windows behind the steel bridge), it was privately built and the toll collectors actually lived in it.


Here's a bigger picture. Now it is someone's residence. Imagine telling your friends, "I'm going home to troll around" for real


This was designed by some award winning architect


Finally, I disembarked at Lone Pine, on the way to the entrance I caught an iguana slacking off


The entrance to Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary, the world's oldest and largest koala sanctuary founded in 1927


They spend most of their time sleeping and all they do when they are not sleeping is eating


Here's another looking like it will fall asleep while chewing


This koala looks old and wise


This is the only koala that is neither eating or sleeping, its exercising! I never knew they love to walk around on the ground


They spend lots of time sleeping as it takes a lot of effort to digest the eucalyptus leaves


I wonder if they ever fall off while sleeping


This one looks like it has got the falling off part covered


A male koala has a scent patch on its chest


There's an open field where you can get up close to other animals


Walking with the emu, beware the poop on the ground


Chubby house where the young are


Here's a koala joey (young) munching away


This young one looks like it is shy


Some sort of turkey


Back to the cruise


There's a whole lot of catfish by the jetty!


A hot day calls for a cold beer, there's a bar on the cruise


More heritage houses on the way back


Returning to the city proper

That marked the end of the morning trip out to Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary. The koalas here are smaller and seemingly less hostile than the ones I saw during a Philip Island trip from Melbourne. That is probably why one can actually pay to hug a koala and get their picture taken here while touching a koala over in Melbourne is illegal. Going through some of the leaflets I was handed over at the sanctuary, I realised I had missed out on an offer for a huge hotdog and drink. No wonder everyone was happily munching away at the cafe. In any case it was a pleasant visit. Now is 3pm and time to look around Queens St. for lunch.

Read the next related post here.