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The Forum > General Discussion > Beautiful Queensland.

Beautiful Queensland.

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In the same vane as the song, Oh Lord it's hard to be humble, those of us lucky/smart enough to live in South East Queensland can't help feeling a little sorry for the rest of the country's population.

Forget all the tourist promotion, the weather, beaches, nightclubs & casinos are great in their way, but they are only a little special, we have much better. In this specially favoured area just north of the NSW border, everywhere I drive I am greeted with the huge spires of solid gold that are the silky oaks, [Grevillea Robusta]. Better still in this area of acreages, everyone plants trees. Add a few Jacaranda to those grevilleas, & you have an incredible display, but then add a couple of Illawarra flame trees, or Poinciana to the mix, & you have colour no artist would dare to mix.

In a year like this, with spring rain running a bit late, the purple, pink & white Bauhinia smaller trees are also running late & joining in the display.

As all of these are trees that drop all their leaves, before flowering the effect has to be seen to believe. With the Bougainvillea doing it's usual thing, even the despised cadge gums of my 100 metre windbreak are getting into the act this year, with their white flowers looking like they are covered in snow.

It is only a couple of times a decade that everything is this flamboyant simultaneously, but it is a sight that is hard to forget when it happens.

Grafton's Jacarandas are pretty spectacular in a good year, & Bowens Poincianas will take your will take your breath away, but is this fairly small favoured area, the mix is unbelievable, unless you see it.
Posted by Hasbeen, Wednesday, 28 October 2015 7:07:38 PM
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When I first came to Australia I missed the change in seasons when the deciduous trees erupt in a blaze of colour preceding their gracing the landscape with skeletal limbs. The gums drop their leaves all year without any spectacular blaze of colour, and the sere and withered leaf trodden underfoot made all year seem like perpetual autumn. Then I started to see the beauty of the gums. Their trunks have a sinuous feminine quality unlike the straighter trunks of the American oaks, pines and beeches. Seeing a ghost gum against a blue Queensland sky is a vision of great beauty. The drooping gum leaves moving in a gentle wind, the grass tree with its spikes, ixora blossoms, cycads, the poinciana and the dilly bushes which I can see outside my window make me also glad I live in Queensland.

http://www.allposters.com/-st/Maxfield-Parrish-Posters_c27217_.htm?AID=99623043&VTP=Start&VTP=End&NetWorkType=%7bnetwork%7d&PAdCopyId=%7bcreative%7d&ClickPos=%7badposition%7d&KWID=1954819686 shows the work of the American artist Maxfield Parrish. He incorporated Australian vegetation in some of his pictures. His works are eclectic mixing scenes from different parts of the world. Because of him Australia was not completely alien when I came here.

Hasbeen, thank you for starting this thread.
Posted by david f, Friday, 30 October 2015 12:04:40 PM
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Sounds beautiful.

In SA we have Jacarandas and Silky oaks. With our climate similar to Sth Africa's, the Jacarandas do much better in a dry year. Because of our alkaline soil, grevilleas don't do well, except for the needle-leaf kind, so the robustas don't flower as well as they would up your way. You have every right to brag, though.
Posted by ttbn, Friday, 30 October 2015 12:35:16 PM
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G'day there HASBEEN...

There's no doubt Queensland is a beautiful part of this great country, and Brisbane is the quintessential city at it's centre. My only worry is the sub-tropical climate can be a bit of a bugger at times, with these cyclones and massive storms that seem to emerge during the summer months.

Personally I'm really attracted to Queensland people with their easy going persona, and relaxed attitudes. Be assured, I love Sydney my own city where I was born and bred, but over the last quarter century the city's changed and not for the best. I know you're talking of States as opposed to cities.

Anyway, I love NSW particularly along the NSW/QLD border, the St George area to be precise, with it's beautiful black soil. Soil with which you could grow literally anything, anything at all ? But not the best tarmac to drive upon during periods of rain, even with a 4x4?

Broken Hill is my favourite NSW country town, and I've 'relieved' there when I was working on several occasions, and I thoroughly enjoyed it every time.

In conclusion HASBEEN, I too share your sentiments apropos your beautiful State, Queensland !
Posted by o sung wu, Friday, 30 October 2015 1:49:52 PM
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Hi O sung, I can understand your love of NSW & Sydney. I was a Sydney boy from when I finished uni to when I got sick of the rat race, & went off sailing the Pacific. It was a much smaller town then, when you could still find parking in Pit Street in the evenings, for a trip to the movies.

I found the essence of Sydney late one Saturday morning. I was driving up to Pittwater, & saw a sign pointing east, reading Long Reef Point. It was pointing out over a nice golf course.

Long Reef Point is a few miles north of Sydney heads, & extends well out to sea between Dee Why & Collaroy. I had sailed past it many times, but never seen it up closer. On a whim I drove out to see it from the land side.

Out at the point, the gathering north east sea breeze was blowing up the few hundred foot cliff & about 50 people were flying radio controlled gliders, or slope soaring planes as they are called today, in the updraft.

We sat transfixed watching them looping & barrel rolling for half an hour or more, it was such a fantastic sight. I couldn't believe you could do so much with a glider. One of us finally asked, "is there anything you can't do in Sydney". She a geographer & budding ballet choreographer, me a plastic design engineer, & budding racing driver, watching a bunch of enthusiasts indulging in their sport that we had not known existed. Sydney offered almost everything you could desire.

Well of course not everything, I couldn't sail the coral atolls, & she couldn't attend the New York Julliard school of music in Sydney, but there was really not much Sydney did not offer.

I don't think I have the patience to handle the Sydney traffic today, but I'm sure it's fine for those more recently born to it, but it can never put on a floral show like Queensland can.
Posted by Hasbeen, Friday, 30 October 2015 4:19:12 PM
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Queensland is lovely, most of the time, and I love going on holidays there. My father and his wife live in Noosa.
I love all the beautiful rainforests and beaches in Northern Queensland, and enjoy the outdoor lifestyle in the drier months.

However, coming from the Southwest of WA, I found the humidity too much to handle when I visited Dad at Christmas a few years ago.
I am happy living in beautiful Southwest WA, but love traveling to all our other beautiful states and territories as often as I can.
Posted by Suseonline, Friday, 30 October 2015 6:08:01 PM
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