Say "Cans" not "Cairns". That's right, you ignore the 'ir' in Cairns and you will say it like a true Aussie.
We arrived in Cairns last Wednesday, Jan. 5th. We already miss the wonderful community of the Roche family and friends. On our last afternoon in Perth we went to the village's weekly dart game organized by Christine's 83 year old mother, Mikki. Don was surprisingly good, I need a bit more practice. The highlight of the outing was a story told by a ninety year old lady (who also happened to be a good dart player):
She was shopping in Coles (grocery store not books) when a young man walked up to her and handed her a card. She thought, 'How lovely. A Chrismas card from a perfect stranger.' When she got home she found that it was not a Christmas card, and tucked inside was a crisp one hundred dollar bill. On the front of the card was a wedding photo from days gone by. On the back was a faded photograph of five children. On the inside left flap was a poem about helping those in need if you are fortunate enough to be able to do so. On the facing page of the card were personal notes from the giver. He said that when he was five his father was killed in a mining accident and his mother had to raise her five children on her own.Their lives were unbelievably hard. Over the years he often wished that someone would help them. No one did. Now, as an adult, he has the means to help others. Isn't that a wonderful Christmas story?
Here are a few more pictures of Perth. The houses are brick or smooth stucco-sided bungalows. The mail boxes are pillars at the front of the yards. The neighborhoods are dotted with round-a-bouts instead of traffic lights.
Christine's mother, Mikki, had her niece, Anne, and Anne's friend, Ben, staying with her at the same time we visited Peter and Christine. As Mikki lives kitty-corner to Peter and Christine's we all spent a lot of time together.
Ben's life story is very interesting. His great grandfather founded a cattle station in 1886 - Abedoar, 'mouth of the River Dore'. At it's peak the station reached 150,00 acres in size. Ben and his brother inherited the station from their father. Together they had over 6,000 cattle. As the station was spread over 6 properties they used airplanes to service the properties. (They could not use helicopters, because they drove the cattle mad.) To move the cattle they also used motor bikes, horses, and kelpie dogs. The beginning of the end of Ben's station came when his cattle started dying off by the hundreds. By the time the authorities figured out the toxin that was killing them, he had lost 2,000 of his 3,000 head. In 1994 Ben sold out. The end of an era.
Cairns is in the state of Queensland - the state where Aussie's go to vacation. The region is known for it's warm, sunny tropical days tempered by cooling breezes. In the heart of downtown there is a huge swimming lagoon surrounded on 3 sides by an esplanade.
Nearby are restaurants serving all manner of food, trendy shops and live music dotted throughout the area. We are staying 25 kms north of Cairns at a beach resort called Palm Cove. This is just one of the many resorts along the coast-line.
Aboriginal means, "earliest known". We have observed many more aborigines around Cairns than in the other regions we have visited. There were over 400 different aboriginal groups, each with a different language or dialect, and with different cultures. The three largest groups of aboriginies are the Anangu Pitjantjatjara, the Arrernte, and the Anangu Luritja. The aborigines have suffered from the same problems that plagued North American natives; acoholism, disenfranchisement, allienation.
Happily many things have changed for the better amongst Aborigines today, and many anti-discrimination laws have been reinforced. Aborigines as of 2004, receive more social benefits than has been awarded to any other community. Many Aboriginals are completely integrated into society, through music, art, politics.
Don and I spent a day at the Hartley Crocodile Adventure park. Crocodiles crocodiles and even more crocodiles. When you are viewing the pens full of these animals, look at them and imagine a new designer hand bag, new up market designer shoes being sold to the rich and famous, and exotic leather belts and bracelets. Hartley's was the first to commercially farm crocodiles in order to protect the ones in the wild from poaching and potential extinction. Hartleys has been farming and exporting crocodile meat and skins since 1989 and have since gained a reputation world wide for the high quality skins they offer.
An interesting fact about crocodile breeding. The temperature of incubation determines the sex of the crocodiles. Temperature between 26ºC and 30ºC produces mostly females and between 30ºC and 33ºC produces mostly males. Males are the sex of choice as they grow faster and are generally larger. They are harvested at 4 years of age. A short life for a creature that can live to 100 years of age in captivity.
In addition to crocodiles the farm also has Koalas, Kangaroos, Cassowaries, Snakes, and other reptiles and birds native to the Cairns Tropical North Queensland region.
For example the Black Swan. The reports from early settlers that there were black swans was simply not believed. Swans where white. Despite the arrival of actual specimens, there remained the feeling amongst 18 century Europeans that these birds were an unnatural aberration.
And the Magpie Goose. A "doose" or a "guck"? Scientists love to classify animals into neat categories. Magpie geese are uncooperative. They share features of both ducks and geese as well as having some of their own. These include the bill, half-webbed feet and the prominent knob on its head.
Not all of the Hartley shows were about the crocs - one was about snakes. We were told that 7 of the worlds 10 most poisonous snakes live in Australia. The Inland Taipan was taken out of its basket and as it writhed in the hold of the trainer we were told that the snake had enough venom in one bite to kill every single person in the audience (which numbered over 200). When he asked for volunteers to help hold the snake there were no takers.
An interesting encounter happened at the Hartley Crocodile Centre as we waited to go on a lagoon cruise. As usual the cruise director was passing time chatting up the crowd . He asked were there any international people in the crowd. One couple was from Shang Hai. He made a passing comment then asked where I was from. When he heard Calgary, Alberta he became very excited. "Calgary, Alberta! the Rockies! Banff! I tell you, that is one of the most beautiful places on earth. If you haven't been there, GO!" Then he asked me to come forward as he wanted to show me something. I pushed through the crowd and he whipped up the sleeve of his uniform to expose his bicep on which was tatooed a grizzly bear head. After the tour when we were walking out he called, "Good on you, heh."
Yesterday we went on the Kuranda Scenic Railway to the quaint tourist village of Kuranda situated in a hilly tropical rainforest setting. The brochure about the trip read: Cairns - Kuranda Railway. Blood, sweat, and bare hands. Your journey didn't come easy.
Like most rail lines built on difficult terrain the construction took many lives. It is rumoured that some of the ones who died during the building were actually interred under the very rail lines. It was the discovery of gold that made the rail connection a must. Later WWI,I with the Pacific War so near, the railway became a lifeline. For many years now the rail line has become a popular tourist attraction.
The return trip is via a cable car gondola. The Skyrail is one of the longest in the world - the trip down takes 1 1/2 hours. The time includes the two stops you make on the way down. Australia's rainforests were added to the international World Heritage list in 1988 to ensure their protection. The first stop is the viewpoint for the Barron Gorge and Falls. The next, to go on a short hike with a park naturalist. He stated that the rainforest is a living museum. On the walk we viewed a tree that was 400 years old. The rainforest is said to have inspired the setting of Avatar.
Whew!! That's all for now. We are still trying to work out the best way to get to Sydney without just flying. The rains and consequent flooding has cancelled our initial plan to drive down in a camper van.
Bye for now,
Sheila and Don
