This is a guest post by Willie for the Notes from Africa Photoblog.
During December 2011 I went to Australia to attend a forestry conference. After spending a couple of days in Sydney, I flew to Canberra to start the pre-conference tour – essentially a road trip between Canberra and Melbourne, stopping off to look at forestry areas along the way. From Melbourne we flew up to Brisbane on the Sunshine Coast, and travelled up to Mooloolaba where the actual conference was held.
Mooloolaba was a brilliant place to have a conference, as you can see from the pictures below. For the correct pronunciation of Mooloolaba have a look at this reference. The town lies between the beach and the marina on the Mooloolaba River. It is a popular town on the Sunshine Coast, though from the photographs you can see that we had only overcast weather during our stay there. This did not spoil the visit in any way – it was still way better being on the beach than in a lecture room.
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To the east of Mooloolaba we visited the Glass House Mountains National Park, pictured below, as well as the Beerburrum plantation area.
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A lunch break gave us the opportunity to explore some of the indigenous forests and take some pictures.
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So what is a visit to the great land of Oz without a picture of a kangaroo, this one on the lawn of the local university.
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I could not pass up the opportunity to go out on the flat sea around Mooloolaba to see how the locals fish. Mooloolaba derives its name partly from the Aboriginal word “mulu”, meaning snapper fish, so we went out to see what they look like.
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The launch from the marina was easy and access to the sea via the picturesque river mouth was an absolute pleasure.
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The marina also houses a fishing fleet making use of the secure and easy access to the sea.
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In the Postcards from Australia series:
- Sydney
- Landscapes
- Melbourne
- Mooloolaba (this post)
Notes from Africa | photoblog 
Reblogged this on Notes from Africa and commented:
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[Smiling] Well, if you come to the northern part of the coast Dec-March, you are on the fringes of a monsoonal area and it gets cloudy!! Actually like your moody catch of part of the Glasshouse Mts: I’ve always been past in hot sunshine! And just to clear one thing up to other readers: kangaroos do not normally hop down city streets or university campuses here! You go to the zoo or the Outback to see them 🙂 ! Must have been a tame one? Love the tree photos . . .
Hi Eha, glad you saw the humorous side of the post. Liked your response on the kangaroos, it is the same here where the classical expectation of visitors to Africa is to see lions in the streets! Occasionally one actually does get a surprise as in this post (If you go down to the woods today – http://wp.me/pYuZP-1nE). In the Mooloolaba case there is a bunch of tame kangaroos on the campus. We were lucky enough to see a few wallabies during part of our forestry visits.
I have not been to Mooloolaba, but your photos made me itch for the beach. Today in Tasmania, Victoria and NSW, we have soaring temperatures and high winds making perfect wildfire conditions (the beach sounds like a nice alternative!).
I am lucky enough to have a whole mob of kangaroos who have chosen to live on my back paddock. But as you have both said, neither kangaroos or lions are too partial to the traffic in built up areas! Enjoyed your post!
Thanks Madoqua. I liked the beach and vibe at Mooloolaba, a nice coastal area.
Have been following the weather conditions and wildfires situation in your area over the news, hope it is getting better now. We have had a day of 49.5 degrees Celsius in one of our forestry areas and were lucky to escape without any fires. Still have a long fire season ahead though.