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We are winding down the trip with one more National Park, this one called Lamington, which was founded in 1915.  The park, which sits in the McPherson Range, is a sub-tropical rainforest that sits mostly at 3,000 feet above sea level, so the temperatures are thankfully much cooler than we experienced in Daintree National Park.

At the very end of the road into the park sits “O’Reilly’s Rainforest Retreat”, a privately owned 4th generation family operated lodge that has been here since 1926.  We stayed in one of their Villas, which have an amazing view!

Upon arrival we had a welcome talk about the history of the lodge, complete with sparkling wine, made by the O’Reillys themselves.  Since it was dumping rain we also watched a documentary at the lodge that discussed a 1937 “Airlines of Australia” plane crash on the property, which we would hear more about during our stay.  That night, we had a visitor  on a tree next to our balcony,  this Mountain Brushtail Possum.

He even jumped on our balcony, clearly looking for food.  You are reminded to keep the doors closed to prevent these guys from coming in.

The next morning we walked up for breakfast, and got a better look at this mock-up of the Stinson airplane that crashed into the rainforest.  The plane, carrying two pilots and five passengers from Brisbane to Sydney, crashed during bad weather.  The McPherson Range is known to have unpredictable winds and heavy downdrafts.  Upon crashing, both pilots and two of the five passengers were killed.  One survivor went off the find help, while two stayed at the crash site and hoped for a rescue.

Back in 1937 there were no flight-plans and the plane didn’t have a radio, so nobody knew which route they took or where they crashed.  Everybody thought they flew over the ocean, and nobody was looking in the McPherson Range.  After a 8 days they plane had not been found.

Enter Bernard O’Reilly (note the last name) an accomplished bushman living in Lamington, who deduced that the plane must have flown over the McPherson Range.  He set off on a hike into the rainforest, and trekked for a full day before seeing a burned tree across a valley.  Thinking this was from the plane crash, he hiked all day the next day and found the crash site, and the survivors.

After giving them the rest of his food and some hot tea, he hiked 16 miles back home for help.  This story was huge news in Australia, prompting documentaries (which we watched) and movies!  This statue near the Stinson mock-up memorializes the moment Bernard helped out the survivors.  Unfortunately, the third survivor who went for help died on the way.

We took a hike that day to Morans Falls.  On the trail were several trees that show how much the vines make up the foliage in the rainforest, with estimates that vines are approximately 60-70% of the plants here!

The vines take on some interesting shapes.  Look at the size of that vine!

It had been raining heavily, so Morans Falls was in excellent form!

We exchanged photo duties with some other hikers.

This is Moran Creek above the falls.  Such a beautiful spot in the wilderness!

Right above the falls is this stunning view into the valley below.  It’s like something out of Jurassic Park!

The falls deserved a video on our way back, when there were no screaming children to ruin the vibe (there have been a LOT of screaming children in this park).

Near the lodge is a boardwalk hike that is great for anybody.  This unusual vine, called the Wonga Vine, is on the side of the trail.  It wrapped around a small tree on it’s way up into the canopy, and ended up killing the tree.

Just off the boardwalk is a Tree-Top Walkway, with multiple suspension bridges that cover 180 meters of walking path.

It allows you to get up into the canopy to see the trees at a different perspective.

We hit the bar at the lodge and discovered a new beer that we LOVED, Burleigh Brewing’s Japan Black!  Excellent beer!  We have no idea how the Japanese are involved, but it’s a great brew.  We also got a nice shot of the sun slanting through the clouds from the bar.

Coming up next, we do a couple more hikes in Lamington, and make our way back to Brisbane, visiting Mount Gravatt for a birds-eye view of the city.

 

Brisbane has a wonderful ferry service that is easy to use.  No special card needed, just tap your credit card on when boarding and off before disembarking.  The best part, the fee to take the ferry is $0.50 cents!

We took a “CityCat” ferry from near our hotel to a region known as South Bank, an area favored by tourists for it’s waterfront views, restaurants and museums.  Just off the ferry is this “Rainforest Walk”, which for a lot of tourists may be the closest they get to the real thing.

According to historical records, this area was a rain forest at one point in time, before the city was established.

Since it was lightly raining we pretty much had the place to ourselves.

There’s even a small creek running through the middle of it.

Directly adjacent to the rain forest is this Nepalese Peace Pagoda.  Brisbane was the site of the World Expo in 1988, and this building was constructed for the Expo.  The timber for the pagoda was sourced from Nepal, where 160 Nepalese families spent two years crafting each element of the building.  It was shipped via  3 containers, where it took 6 months to put it all together.  This is the last international exhibit remaining at the site.

It started raining in earnest, so we headed to the Queensland Museum Kurilpa.  Free to enter…we like free!

They are currently hosting an exhibition on Ancient Egypt, which we skipped, but the first item you see upon entering the museum is this “pyramidion”.  This once stood in the tomb chapel of Amenhotep-Huy, a royal steward and chief scribe.  It dates from about 1390-1353 BC, and the tomb was located in Saqqara, Egypt.  Ok, enough Egyptian history.

In the main lobby is this Giant Squid that some fisherman brought up from the depth years ago.  I don’t think the eye in this thing is real.  There were signs all over the top telling kids not to climb on it.

There is also a Giant Cuttlefish.  I’ve never seen one in the wild, but we have found numerous cuttlefish bones on the beaches of Australia.  They look a lot like pieces of styrofoam.

There is an interesting and informative exhibit that discusses the plight of the Australian “South Sea Islanders”.  These are the descendants of Pacific Islanders from over 80 islands who were kidnapped or tricked (referred to as Blackbirding) into coming to Queensland, Australia to work as indentured servants in the sugarcane fields during the mid to late 19th century.  I had thought the Australians just had issues with the Aboriginals, never knowing that this region (Queensland) had a history of slavery.

In 1901, Australia passed a law that described itself as a country for “skilled white labor”, and the majority of remaining South Sea Islanders were repatriated back to their homelands.  Many, particularly the children of these slaves, resisted.  The 1901 law was not repealed until 1975.  The below artwork is a room filled with wooden carvings meant to represent South Sea Islanders in the hull of a ship.

In an exhibit called “Secrets” what appears to the casual observer as a brown suitcase is in fact a Type 3, MK II suitcase transceiver from WWII.  The MKII was used by agents, resistance groups and special forces.

They have a whole permanent section regarding dinosaurs.  This Muttaburrasaurus Langdoni skeleton was discovered in Muttaburra, Queensland in 1963 by Doug Langdon.  The Aussies even get literal while naming new dinosaurs.

This portion of a tree known as the “Investigator Tree” has an interesting history.  It was originally growing on Sweers Island in northern Queensland, and was visited by Captain Matthew Flinders on his vessel the “Investigator”.  Captain Flinders was the first to circumnavigate Australia (then New Holland) in 1802-1803.  Flinders is also well known as he was the first person to refer to New Holland as Australia.

In 1841 the HMS Beagle, of Charles Darwin fame, visited Sweers Island and the Captain was surprised to find this tree with “Investigator” etched into it in large letters.  The Captain also cut “HMS Beagle” on the tree, and many other explorers who visited the island after this also etched them name on the tree.  Here is an artist depiction of the tree from 1857.

In 1887 a violent cyclone hit the island and damaged the tree.  They ended up bringing two portions of the tree back to Brisbane, and this section has been in the museum since 1889.  Just goes to show you never know what you are going to find in a museum!

Speaking of oddball finds, this German tank from WWI, the Mephisto, was in the military exhibit of the museum.  In April 1918 this tank was part of a battle on the Western Front and become stuck in a shell-hole, where the crew ended up abandoning it.  It was recovered by Australian troops and brought to Brisbane as a trophy of war.  It spent years outdoors in various locations until they decided to give it a permanent home here.

This sign is on the South Bank waterfront.  Despite the rain it took a few minutes to get a photo without people in it.

Reminders of the British colonial past are everywhere in Australia.  Here is a statue of Queen Victoria in front of the former Treasury building.

We went into Brisbane City Hall to check out their museum, which is quite small.  The current exhibit is called “Precious”, and includes collections from various people in the community.  As Kim told me, it was like being at our local county fair.  Most of it was blah, but I do like antique toys.  I wouldn’t collect them, but I admire that somebody else does.

The City Hall building is beautiful.  Opening in 1928, it is still the seat of the Brisbane City Council.  Up until 1958 this was the tallest building in Brisbane.

This photo was taken about 10 days before Australia’s election for Prime Minister, and there were all these political activists in front of City Hall vying for votes.  I told one guy “sorry, we’re from California”, and he said “vote anyways”.  I can’t tell one party from the other here.  The conservatives are actually called “Liberal”…it’s very confusing!

However, this is likely the most confusing thing we saw in Australia.  Do they realize their clothing, umbrellas, backpacks and even their wigs are made of oil?

A quick rundown of restaurants we visited in Brisbane;

Moo Moo Wine Bar – Good, great steak, nice wine list, excellent company!

Short Grain – Wow, this is excellent Thai food!  Do not miss!

Agnes – Highly acclaimed restaurant, but the place is very loud, too dim to read a menu, and the pacing was way off.  The food was also unimpressive.  Oh well.

Coming up next, we pick up a rental car and head south to Lamington National Park for the last part of our trip.