A koala gatecrashed our Friday drinks on the deck this afternoon.

He quickly scrambled up the paper-bark tree then jumped into a neighbouring eucalypt before munching on some gum leaves.

When I took this picture he was probably less than a 2 metres away.

While I was leaning out taking photos of a Koala I didn’t realize how close I was to this golden orb spider. Looking like a strange little potato with spindly legs, these little creatures can be found all over our garden

It’s wonderful to get such amazing visitors.

This little fellow and his friends visit our place regularly. Sometimes before I can drive up the driveway, I have to get out of the car and shoo them out of the way.

This afternoon he was checking us out, so I snuck up on him with Liz’s camera and took a few shots.

Liz’s camera is much easier to take good photos with than my mobile phone!

Local historian and friend Leith Barter recently sent me a copy of a photo taken near the bottom of my street around 1930.

The footbridge was built to allow local children to get to North Pine (Petrie) State School school on the other side of the river, without having to go all the way down to Gympie Road and back again.

Harrison and I went out exploring today to see if we could find where the photo was taken so we could get a “then” and “now” photo.

The Llawnton Llama of Lleis Park

We saw a couple of kangaroos while we were out cycling this morning, but this Llama wins the prize for the most unusual animal we’ve seen today.

He was just trotting around Lleis Park at Llawnton today (pardon the double LL’s but when you see Llama it affects your spelllling).

He had decided to wander off from the circus that has set up camp in the park.

No one was harmed, and he eventually went back home to the circus.



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I see this Eucalyptus Tree every day from my front deck, and never grow tired at looking at it. I’m very grateful that we have such beauty at our front door – literally!

What amazes me is how the same tree can seem so different each time I see it

Bell’s Scrub, Lawnton

This is the only remaing parcel of virgin rainforest in the Pine Rivers district. It’s never been cleared, and apart from a few noxious weeds like Lantana and Umbrella Trees, it’s pretty much the same as it was before Europeans arrived 200 years ago.

Ironically it’s in the middle of a gravel quarry. The ground around it has been excavated to such an extent that it’s almost an island.

Before Europan settlement, all the land around our neighborhood along the river looked like this. I half expected early 19th century elder, Dalaipi, to peer out at me from behind the trees.

Environmental reports suggest that the salinity of the soil is increasing due to the surrounding excavation, so its lifetime is limited.

I just wanted to capture a glimpse of pre-colonial Australia before it disappears.

And to touch it.

Here’s an excerpt from the Australian Heritage Database about Bell’s Scrub:

Bell’s Scrub is one of the very few remaining patches of lowland rainforest in the Pine Rivers Shire and one of few in the wider area of south-east Queensland. However, the site is small and not in good condition. Bell’s Scrub represents the southern limit of distribution of brown pearwood (AMOPHOSPERMUM ANTILOGUM), and the crown of gold tree (BARKLYA SYRINGIFOLIA). The fig trees on the site are utilized by brown (MACROPYGIA AMBOINENSIS) and topknot (LOPHOLAIMUS ANTARCTICUS) pigeons.

 




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Just north of Lawnton Station, in a quiet back street, you’ll find an old grape vine growing on a chainwire fence next to the railway line.

It’s all that remains of a vineyard that Nikolaus and Christina Ebert planted on this spot in the 1860′s

His house was about 100 metres north of these vines, on what is now Ebert Parade.

Nikolaus, Christina and other members of the family are buried just up the road in Lawnton Cemetery alongside some of the other pioneers of the area.

The vineyards were ripped up before the railway line to Petrie and Gympie was laid. This vine re-grew and is a beautiful example of how the echoes from a bygone era may still be heard today.

There were three airfields in the Pine Rivers area during World War 2.

Most people are aware of the “Spitfire Avenue” Airstrip, also known as the A2 Strip in Strathpine. It was paved, and used heavily.

But not many people are aware of the A1 grass Strip which was built in the vicinity of Lawnton Pocket and Bells Pocket Roads.

It wasn’t paved, and was built as an emergency strip at an angle of about 60 degrees to the A2 strip. When planes were unable to land on the A2 strip due to wind, they could use the A1 strip.

Nothing much of it remains today. You can’t see any sign of it, except for the memorial erected by the council in 1995.

But the land is pretty flat!

There’s also a third strip south of here in Brendale. The A3 strip. One of these days I’ll ride down there and photograph it too!

In the meantime, I won’t have to try too hard to imagine the drone of Spitfires flying over my house.

UPDATE: I’ve just discovered Peter Dunn’s excellent Australia @ War site. He records that in 1942 2nd Lieutenant Maxwell J Jones (0429769) was tragically killed when his P-400 aicraft struck a tree while landing at the A1 airfield. Peter writes that the airfield was dangerous due to the fact that it was surrounded by large trees, and pilots often had to fly in an “S” shaped path on approach to the airfield in order to keep it in view – something that was very dangerous at low speed and low altitude.



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After a tip-off from our local historian, Leith Barter, I found these Pecan Nut trees growiung in Stephen Lawn park, Lawnton.

They were part of a grove planted by “The Acclimatisation Society” in the 1930′s – an organisation created to investigate how best to use the land in this area.

They’re almost 80 years old, and I was curious about them because we live not far from here, on land that was also part of the Acclimatisation Society, and we have a Pecan Nut tree too. But ours is nowhere near as well grown as these majestic specimens.

So the best that I can hope for is that our Pecan is the “son” of a historical nut tree!

Who knows? Maybe it sprouted from a nut dropped by one of the originals.

Thanks, Leith, for patiently answering so many of my questions about our local history!

Koalas

A mother and joey koala who visted our house this evening.