Hi Everyone!
Thank you for sending me all the way to Brisbane, Australia for my vacation! I got to stay with Brennan’s Aunt Katie, and we spent a couple of days seeing the sites all around the city. We had a ton of fun, and Aunt Katie was able to take pictures of me all around Brisbane. I asked Aunt Katie to help me post my letter online so that I could share more pictures!
Brisbane is the biggest city in Queensland, which is a state in Australia. So, it’s kind of like Atlanta, because Atlanta is the biggest city in the state of Georgia in the US. Brisbane was founded in the 19th Century on land that was already inhabited by Aboriginal people, specifically the Turrbal group of the Jagera people, for tens of thousands of years! So this place has a very long history, and a lot of the people here talk about how people have always come here to visit, learn, and enjoy all of the cool things this area has to offer.
On my favorite day we went on a visit to the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary, which was founded in 1927 to protect koalas! These days Lone Pine is also home to many other animals native to Australia. I thought it would be fun to share my whole trip to Lone Pine, and some of the animals I got to see!
First, we had to take a bus from Aunt Katie’s house to downtown Brisbane, which they call the Central Business District (the CBD), so that we could catch the boat to the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary.
Then we walked across the Kurilpa bridge, which was so cool!
Then we walked along the river to catch our boat to the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary: The Koala Express
The boat ride was so much fun! It was really hot that day, but the boat went really fast sometimes which cooled us down. On the ride to the sanctuary the boat captain explained a lot about the history of Brisbane, the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary, the Brisbane River itself, and about some of the Aboriginal people who have lived in the area for over 40,000 years!!
When we got to the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary we walked up a lot of stairs and then went through the Entry gate
Later I had Aunt Katie look up the distance between Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary and Holy Innocents’ Episcopal School, and she found out that it is 14,545 kilometers which is over 9,000 miles!
The biggest reason to visit Lone Pine is to meet the Koalas, but I want to show off some of the other cool Australian animals that I got to see first!
Flying foxes, a type of bat, sleep all day! It looked like they were dreaming though, because their wings were moving around a bit. Kind of like when Brennan’s dogs Tink and Townshend dream about running outside. Flying foxes are one of Aunt Katie’s favorite animals, because a lot of them live in her neighborhood and she gets to see them flying around every evening.
The Tawny Frogmouth kind of looks like an owl, but is actually a different kind of bird. It was making lots of funny faces at me, but I didn’t get a great picture of that.
I also saw lots of these friendly lizards wandering all over Lone Pine, and even checking out some of the other animals with me!
One of the most fun areas of Lone Pine was the big open field where you could see Emus, Wallabies, and a few different species of Kangaroos up close. Some people were even feeding them!
These kangaroos were very hungry!
This Emu was playing around at first, but then it laid down for a little nap.
These wallabies were having so much fun together.
When we were finished wandering around the big field, I had to use the child exit while Aunt Katie used the adult one!
Then we went to watch the Australian Sheep Dog show, where we got to see a dog herd sheep through some obstacles to show how these dogs work on sheep farms here in Australia. Do they have sheep dogs back home in the US?
After the sheep dog show we walked around to see more animals!
Like a lot of the other animals the dingos were taking a cute afternoon nap!
When we got to the wombat exhibit there was a lizard already checking it out!
This fluffy wombat was sleeping in the shade of a big tree.
Then we went to see the Tasmanian devils.
Can you spot one in the middle of the picture?
The Cassowary was up next. This bird is pretty and scary!
Then we checked out the freshwater turtles.
Lone Pine also has a few different species of bigger lizards. This one is a Perentie.
This one is a Water Monitor Lizard
Then we stopped by the Birds of Prey show, and afterwards I had a surprising meeting with a Barn Owl!
Ok, I think that’s enough suspense, it’s time for the Koalas! First I popped in to see some koalas eating some young eucalyptus leaves for lunch.
If you want to see more of the Lone Pine koalas you can watch the Koala cam: https://koala.net/webcams
Then we saw a Mom koala with her baby on her back.
Here’s a clearer picture of the mom and baby koalas! SO cute! For the first few months a newborn koala lives in the mom’s pouch, and then for a few months the mom will mostly carry the baby koala on her back. When a young koala reaches 12-18 months old it becomes more independent, and begins to make its own way in the world.
Most of the koalas were more like this guy, taking a nice afternoon nap!
Then it was time to head back to Lone Pine’s dock to catch the Koala Express back to the central area of Brisbane.
We went right by the University of Queensland on the boat ride back to the city from Lone Pine. This is where Aunt Katie works!
We went right under the Kurilpa bridge on the ride back!
The boat trip was really fun, but I was also glad to get back to dry land again.
The boat ride ends in the South Bank area of Brisbane which also has a few fun things to see, and so we walked around a bit before heading back to Aunt Katie’s house.
One of the most relaxing parts of all of Brisbane is called the Grand Arbor. It’s this beautiful walkway with a metal arbor that stretches over the top, and that has lots of pretty plants growing on it to provide shade.
This is a manhole cover, but I thought it was really cool because it has the seal of Brisbane which is an important symbol for the city.
Streets Beach is a famous landmark in Brisbane. It’s kind of like a big pool right in the middle of the city and next to the Brisbane River. There are some parts with waterfalls, some that are more like a normal pool, and then this part that actually has a sandy beach! It’s open all year, but it’s just starting to get really popular now because Australia’s seasons are opposite to seasons in the US. So, while it’s the middle of Fall in the US, it’s actually the middle of Spring in Australia! It’s starting to get really hot here, and so I am not too sad about heading home to the US.
After checking out Brisbane’s “beach” we headed back to Aunt Katie’s house.
That evening I got to enjoy the sunset from Aunt Katie’s deck.
The next day I went to the Univeristy of Queensland campus with Aunt Katie because she had to attend a workshop with students from all around Australia and New Zealand. Although it wasn’t as fun as the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary it was still interesting to see Aunt Katie at work, and to hear about what older students are working on and learning about over here!
Thank you again for sending me to Brisbane! I had so much fun on this visit because I was able to learn so much about Australia, and I hope I can visit again soon.
Signing off from Australia!
Flat Stanley
