Brisbane Summer is fucked. Off the charts heat & humidity. Air conditioning makes it bearable.

Autumn, Winter and Spring are pretty good. Winter only lasts a few weeks.

I grew up in Tasmania, and I scoff at my pathetic neighbours in Brisbane, who have a woodheater, and rather than say, put on a jumper, they make a big song and dance about lighting a fire during winter when the temperature plummets to single digits overnight. I also like watching them try to chop firewood with an axe. No clue whatsoever.

I live in an old Queenslander house, which does not contain a single fireplace (at some point, the old timers finally worked out it was a waste of time and effort to build them). It was kind of weird at first, coming from a cool climate, to not have a woodstack by the back door and at least one fireplace in the house.

My ideal Australian cycle would be to retreat to Tasmania each Summer, then head back to Brisbane for the remainder of the year.

Actually, on second thoughts, my ideal Australian cycle would also involve travelling around the country, looking for good camping spots, away from the ubiquitous trio of German backpackers.
( Ken Oath, Sun 24 Mar 2013, 11:21, 1 reply)

I'd have loved to have visited Tassie.
Sadly, Adelaide was too backwards to offer a direct flight to Hobart and we did three days' birding in south-west WA instead.
Worth it for the photos:

www.tonykeenebirds.co.uk/abirds/scarletrobin.htm
( Colonel Boris "...a desperate Buzzfeed imitation...", Sun 24 Mar 2013, 11:32, closed)

I went to an Oil and Gas conference the other week, and was chatting to a bloke who maps all the fauna in the Gas fields that needs to be avoided (I do a lot of mapping for that purposes, it's a surprisingly big issue with the Gas companies)).

We were talking about the near-extinct Orange Bellied Parrot of Tasmania. Apparently it migrates to South Australia each year to nest and breed. That's a hell of a flight for a tiny Parrot. The habitat is slowly being removed in South Australia (natural salt marshlands), hence they have virtually stopped breeding.

Quite sad. Feral cats probably account for the few that actually make the journey, breed and return to Tasmania.
( Ken Oath, Sun 24 Mar 2013, 11:57, closed)