Brisbane - Queenslander Air Lines - Roma St. Parkland and Ipswich

Already the11th. After catching Queenslander Air Lines aka Virgin Pacific, we were in Brisbane a day early and to the motel by 2:00 PM, thanks to a great effort by the Queensland Railroad. From the Brisbane Manor Motel it is a brief 5 blocks down to the Brunswick Street Station and Mall, about another 15 blocks to the center of the CBD, so we planned to do a lot of walking around. The rest of this day we did a walk to the mall, checked it out, had some fettuccine. We returned to the motel, contacted John & Julie as to where to meet tomorrow, for as we were a day early.

On Wednesday - To mall, to muffins & cappuccinos. Starting out on our planned city walk we walked up by a stone & brick Windmill built by convicts in1828, then powered by them as a form of punishment. Then on past several very old and original buildings on the way to the beautiful Roma Street Parkland. Spent about a hour & half at this most gorgeous rebuild of a railroad yard.


Windmill - built & operated by Convicts - 1828


Red, White & Blue - Beautiful


Red & Yellow Flower -Gorgeous


Very Good mix - plenty of color in this area.


They didn't miss the boat here.


Outstanding - Very well done garden.



CBD from Roma St. Parkland.

Now on down thru the CBD to the North Quay dock, caught a river ferry to the Queensland University dock to meet John, Julie and Andrew.


One of the several ferry docks - John & Julie are there - look

Then on to campus, catching Ellie in cap and gown, having just graduated with first honors in Food Technology.

~~ CONGRATULATIONS ELLIE ~~

We went and had a great 'fish and chipper' nearby with Pauline and the rest of the gang. Then Phil & Trish, good friends of John & Julies dropped us off at Hertz for our rental. We worked our way back to our motel for a couple of suds and snacks on the deck before retiring.




Brisbane Manor's deck - We visited it several times. Great
for beverages, relaxing & people watching place.

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On Thursday we thought we'd try a rideabout going west to Ipswich. First stopped at Dinmore, featuring the 'Christmas Loft' store (The Queens choice). Now on to real mans stuff, the 'Workshops Rail Museum' in Ipswich.

The Workshops is a large complex. In its active lifetime over 200 steam engines were built there . We spent about 3 hrs wandering around this huge place. They had rolling stock, a few steam engines, couple of diesels, a rail car, a lot of interactive things for kids, a model railroad, boiler shop, paint shop and several other displays of historical interest. It makes you hungry enough for a couple of burgers - so we did, at the museums Trackside Cafe.


#444 Santa's very own 4-6-0


When lambies went to market.


#6 Little Red Switcher w/ tender 0-4-0


#3 built by Perry with a sidetank - probably used on a
lumber or sugar cane line.

What a classy looking passenger car.

Passenger version of our 'Galloping Goose". crank er up.

# DL 1 -Diesel Switcher – check out the drive system.

Finishing the museum, we drove around Ipswich, got lost, found myself in an underground Target parking lot. That's enough to make you head out of town. Onward, westward, over to Rosewood, looking for another museum & tourist train. Found neither, so headed north to Marburg up on the A2, we drove around the countryside for while and returned to the motel.

Entrance to Chinatown. Our restaurant was just down

the mall a little bit.

After a rest & clean up we wandered down to Chinatown and had a good dinner at the 'China House'. After a little walkabout, we made it back to the motel and retired.