Terry & Dave's Australia Blog: Brisbane City & Lone Pine Koala Santuary

Great weather today! We started out in the city with our tour guide, Mick, and only 5 people total on the tour. As we drove throught the city, Mick gave us great commentary on the city and some of the buildings. One of our first stops was at St. John's Cathedral, an anglican church, built in a mixture of French and English Victorian Gothic Revival styles.

These 2 sets of windows are called the Australia / USA Friendship Windows. They were installed after WW2 to commemorate the USA's involvement in helping to protect Australia during the war.

This is a smaller chapel within the main church

The church was actually built in stages, beginning in 1901, and ending in 2009. Most of the sandstone used in the building is from Brisbane and the stone-vaulted ceiling is the only one of it's kind in Australia.

This photo was taken from Kangaroo Point, across the Brisbane River from the city. The Botanic Garden is right in front on the river.

Another view of the city from farther down along Kangaroo Point

Next we boarded a ferry from outside of the city and travelled into the city to the South Bank area.

The Story Bridge

After lunch at South Bank ( I was too busy eating to take any pictures! ) we headed out to the Lone Pine Koala Santuary. It was established in 1927 to increase the koala population, because before that it had been legal to hunt koalas for their fur, and the population was dwindling. There are lots of other animals living at the santuary as you will see.

A Wombat

Dingos

I asked a couple of Australians why these dingos looked so good. They look like really nice dogs! They said that in the wild they are a lot more scruffy looking, and that the zoo dingos are obviously well fed. They said that, in the wild, if campers make the mistake of feeding them, they are in deep trouble!

Emu

A couple of little Crocs

Lace Monitors

Blue-winged Kookaburra

Kangaroos!!!!!

This guy just cracked me up! Just chillin'...posing for the camera!

I was looking for a female with a joey, but could not find one. Darn!

And now for the KOALAS!!!!!

Aaawwwww! Aren't they cute?

Next I watched a sheep dog show and a sheep shearing. The dogs were so talented! They didn't let those sheep get away with anything. The first 2 dogs were the ones that rounded the sheep up out on the fields.