Visiting Friends – by Gary

What's this???

Do you know what the above is? Can you guess?  Set in a low sandstone wall, it's a horse hitching wall out front of an Ipswich church.  Cool huh?  Recently we spent several very pleasant days in Ipswich visiting friends and, amongst other things, discovering that this small city of 160 odd thousand people boasts some really interesting historic architecture.

The real highlight of the town's built heritage are the 'Queenslanders', that unique form of vernacular architecture, responding so beautifully to climate.  Raised high on stumps these houses escape the radiant heat of the ground, capture breezes and, with their low thermal mass, cool off quickly at night.  Wide shady verandahs and high pitched, vented roofs help keep the interior cool.  The verandahs of course also provide wonderful outdoor living opportunities – even during an afternoon tropical downpour.  Utilising the State's formerly abundant timbers, and cheap galvanised iron rooves, they could be built inexpensively.

Mein host Brian took us on a guided tour, explaining some of the 'nuts and bolts' of the style. He showed us how at the simplest end of the 'Queenslander 'spectrum there is your basic workers cottage.  It's a small square house, built on stumps,  with a high pitched roof and modest sun control over the windows.  In its very simplest form front steps lead directly to the front door.  Brian then went on to show us how this simple form can be amplified to find a solution appropriate to all tastes and circumstances.

Here is a workers cottage, but a flash one, it's fitted with a front verandah.  As you can see the verandah has been closed in at some stage to provide extra internal volume.

Painted and restored the workers cottage can be a charming place to live.

If you'd got more money you could ask the builder to add some further complexity, a wrap around verandah, a gable end over the entry, some more decorative elements.

With even more money you could 'bigger' the whole thing, integrating the verandah under a single pitched roof and add more decorative elements.  The bit on the back is most likely a later addition.

Still more money?  Put the house on a bigger block, get the builder to add more detailing to the verandah and roof line over the entry statement.  Perhaps splurge on some bay windows.

Filthy rich?  Get the big block, depart entirely from the basic square, add wings, bays, french doors and lots of detailing.

Verandahs – ultra cool and stylish or down to earth slobby, wonderful either way.

Throw in a bit of landscaping and what more could you possibly want?

Brian's explanation of the Queenslander, for me really captures the essence of its beauty.  The form allows for such a wide range of personal expression depending upon your taste and financial circumstances, yet creates towns and neighbourhoods with extraordinary cohesiveness, so conspicuously absent in contemporary Australian suburbs.  But I guess you have to like painting.

Our architectural guided tour took in some other notable works.  I'm a sucker for a bit of built humour.

But how about this?  Walter Burley Griffin, the American architect, landscape architect cum town planner is well known for giving us Canberra, less well known for his Sydney suburb of Castlecraig and a whole slew of private houses, but perhaps even less well known for his industrial architecture – the hand of the master is so evident in this Ipswich incinerator plant.

On the right, in order after Zeke are our wonderful Ipswich hosts, Majella, Brian, Jean, Tasman and Yogi the dog.  Thanks for a great time guys.

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Hey we're famous! - by Gary

While in Apia, Samoa we were approached by the editor of an online travel magazine aimed at families.
"Could I do a story on you guys?" she asked.

"Us!!!??"   Being perhaps our one and only chance at fame, however tiny and fleeting, of course we lunged at it.  Our interview is now a feature in their November issue.

If you are interested, a link to the November issue is RIGHT HERE.  The home page for Awesome Family Adventures is here.  Above is the promo that I think the magazine put up on its facebook page.

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Bundaberg Floods – by Gary

Some of you may recall my entry on the severe Bundaberg floods of 2010.  These floods inconveniently curtailed my Christmas visit to Adelaide, forcing me to hurriedly return to Kallisto to look after her.  Remarkably, just 2 years later Bundaberg experienced even worse floods when Cyclone Oswald brought torrential rain to southern Queensland, causing the Burnett River to again burst its banks.  

Returning once again to Bundaberg, this time in Mojombo, and cruising the Burnett from mouth to town centre, a distance of some 10km, we were shocked to see the amount of damage so indelibly visited upon the banks by these two events.  Great swathes of vegetation have been laid waste, severe erosion can be seen in places and a considerable amount of property damage is still evident.  What really captured our attention was a set of markers attached to a building, indicating just how much worse the 2013 flood was.

The 2013 flood level was about 1.5 metres higher than in 2010 – when you spread that out across the entire flood plain that's an astonishing amount of additional water!!!!

The 2013 flood was the worst in recorded history, it was 7.34 metres above the high tide level, and as I said, came just three years after the bad floods of 2010.  Global warming strikes again???  I was intrigued, so did a little rummage through the internet on the topic.  And came up with a fascinating find - a graph of peak flood levels since the beginning of records (not that long ago) prepared by our very own Met Bureau (they wouldn't lie would they!?).

Marvelous what you can find on the web!!

As the graph shows, the Burnett floods reasonably regularly, and ok, the 2013 flood was a record – but not by all that much.  Considering how much development now crowds the banks I wouldn't have thought a modest increase was hardly a cause for surprise  But here is the real surprise, a major flood occurred in 1890, followed by another major flood just three years later in 1893!  Hows that for a coincidence.  And get this, the 1893 floods were actually two floods, spaced just two weeks apart!

One thing I still wonder about though is whether the environmental damage to the river was similar in those earlier floods, or whether perhaps the bank ecology is now more fragile.  I suspect it is.

Damage to mangroves is astonishing in places.  Regrowth is occurring, but basically from scratch.

Bank erosion is severe in places.

Some of the cane fields look a might smaller.

So much of the bank vegetation has simply died or been swept away!

Asset damage in the the 2013 floods must have been severe.  For instance the Midtown Marina complex, which prior to the 2010 flood was quite extensive, has not recovered – it has simply ceased to exist.

Going up the river to Bundaberg in Kallisto prior to the 2010 flood we were charmed by the natural beauty of the scenery.  It seems recapturing that experience may take some time!

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