We spent an hour around sunset yesterday riding through the Boondall Wetlands along the Moreton Bay Bikeway.
No cars, lots of open space, and great views. What more could you want?
The Bikeway goes for miles, and for a lot of it, you can’t hear anything except wind!
I was impressed by this Aboriginal sculpture in the middle of nowhere. It’s framed by boomerangs and has a plant motif on one side, and a bird on the other.
These wetlands were used by Aborigines as pathways from the hinterland down to the sea.
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.
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.
Sweeney Reserve is a beautiful park in Petrie where we’ve often gone to have a BBQ or picnic, or just to laze around and relax. It’s full of large trees, swings and plenty of space. I often ride through there on my bike most mornings.
I was amazed when I found this old photo from 1896 at the State Library of Queensland web site. It was contributed to the State Library by Leith Barter on behalf of the Moreton Bay Regional Council along with about 150 other historical images.
In the centre of the old photo, you can see the North Pine Hotel, sitting on ground that is now part of the carpark at Woolworths Petrie. To the left and behind the hotel is the building which originally housed Tom Petrie’s hostelry and accommodation house. You can read more about the old photo here.
Today, the business centre of Petrie is close to the roundabout at the intersection of Anzac Avenue and Dayboro Road. But in the 1890’s the town centre was further south, approximately where the Woolworths carpark is now. In the early days, the main road north from Brisbane came through what is now Sweeney Reserve and up what is now Old Dayboro Road.
Out of curiosity, I had a quick look around the vacant lot near the Woolies carpark where the Hotel would have stood. There’s nothing there today. No marker, no ruins. Nothing. The pub was actually moved North East to where the current Petrie pub is today. But after that it was completely lost in a fire. There’s a replica of it today at “Old Petrie Town” on Dayboro Road.
Towards the end of the nineteenth century, hundreds of small "Provisional Schools" sprung up around Queensland.
Kids needed to be educated, and schools needed to be within walking distance.
The deal was that if a community could guarantee at least 12 children, and a suitable building, the government would supply books, and a salary for a teacher.
One of these schools, set up in 1894 was the "Short Cut Provisional School" built at what is now Joyner near the present site of the North Pine Dam.
The school was used until 1915.
Many of these schools were rationalized in the early twentieth century as transport became more reliable and children were able to get to larger schools in the area.
Here’s some pictures of our ride on the Moore-Linville-Benarkin section of the Brisbane Valley Rail Trail yesterday.
It took us a couple of hours to get up the mountain on the old railway line, and about 30 minutes to ride down the highway, racing off the cars and trucks.
The salad roll I had in the Benarkin Store was the best I’ve ever had. I can’t beleive how hungry I got after two hours riding.
Benarkin is the highest point on the ride. We had the option of riding another 5km down into Blackbutt and back, but decided against it.
Steve B did really well on the ride. His seat wasn’t adjusted properly, so partway through the ride he was pretty sore and ended up having to stand on his pedals quite frequently to get some relief. To his credit he persevered. Harrison did well too. Even though the climb was gradual, it was unrelenting. After a couple of hours, looking up the line at another kilometre of long slow hill climb can be quite depressing. He kept riding which is what counts.
The other thing that made the ride hard work is that we came across lots of locked gates. So we had to lift the bikes over the gates, and climb over.
And then there’s the ravines. When Qld Rail ripped up the rails, they also took out the bridges. So instead of rolling over bridges, we had to ride down steep gullies and up the other side. It’s fun – what Mountain Bikes are made for. We had to be careful riding down and push like crazy to pedal out of the ravine. If we didn’t keep our momentum up we’d end up having to walk the bike out of the gully which is harder than pedalling out.
At the top, we decided we didn’t want to battle the deep gullies and locked gates again, so we rode the hghway down. In some places the highway is pretty steep and we found ourselves keeping pace with the cars. It’s exciting, but there’s no room for mistakes. Luckily we made it without any incidents.
As usual on long rides, the battery on my N95 mobile phone / gps ran out. So I’m very thankful to Steve G for giving me a copy of the GPS data from his Garmin so I could share the map below.
To my dear son Jonathan, who completes his final year of school this month.
Twenty-nine years ago this month I finished year twelve at Oxley State High School.
The photos above are like book-ends for that year. The one on the left is at senior camp, end of year eleven, just before we embarked on our final year. The photo on the right is after the last day of school when one of our mates, William, was very sad to be leaving town to fly to Adelaide, so we all went to the airport to say goodbye.
The last few weeks of that year are a blur – exams, parties, excitement, thinking about uni, and planning to always keep in touch with my school mates. Collectively we thought we were the best bunch that had ever come through Oxley State High, and we were going to make sure we didn’t forget each other.
I had a calendar on the wall where I used to cross off the days until it was over. To my surprise, the last day came much quicker than I anticipated, and now, almost thirty years later I realize that the time has flown and now my own kids are doing what I did.
If my Dad had given me advice then, I wouldn’t have listened to it. So I’m not going to offer you any advice now. But I do hope you remember how brutally fast our life can fly by. We get caught up in so many things, and before we know it, the magical times of our late teens and early twenties are gone. And I also hope you remember good friends.
There are two good friends from 1978 that mean a lot to me. Greg, who is with me in both these photos. is still my friend. He still has the love for life and the easy laid-back attitude that he did in his late teens. He’s a great guy to spend time with.
And then there’s my best friend from 1978, who I’m married to now. In year twelve I couldn’t beleive how lucky I was to be with Liz. And today, I still can’t beleive how lucky I am.
Enjoy this special time, Jonathan.
I hope the time passes slowly enough for you to savour it.
