A Journey to the Aussie Bush!

There are no photos for my next foray into the Australian Bush, a trip to the top of Mount Mee.  As you may have seen from the other posts, the Geology around here is one of high rolling hills descending into the sea.  This trip would take me into the higher hills west of the beaches.

Eddie and I departed on a cloudy and rainy morning.  In three weeks of being in Australia we have only had three rain days.  This was one of them.  We headed into the hills and I was enamored with them right off the bat.  Steep inclines with gum trees (eucalypts) spread out on them.  The trees are far enough apart and the leaves are at the very end of the branches so that grass grows on the hill sides.  This is the true Australian Bush.  Everyone thinks of the Outback as the bush but it’s not.  The Outback is just that, the Outback.  The Bush is the rural areas that have the occasional farm with cattle, horses and sheep.  The farms are not the huge 5,000 acre sheep stations, they are 100 acre family farms on the steep hill sides.  Since Queensland is in the grip of a flooding rains, all of the grass was green as emeralds.  This is also the home range of the Koala.  We did not see any in the wild, but, they really don’t do much so it would have been difficult to see them anyway.  Some of the territory reminded me of the hills of southern California so I asked about fires.  Eddie said that there are enormous fires in the area during the dry season which happened to coincide with the last seven years of drought.  The gum trees are very oily with turpentine-type sap.  When the fires come, the trees burn very easily and the Koala, not known for being either fleet of foot or exceptionally bright, runs to the top of the tree.  Not exactly where you want to be when the tree is on fire.

The twists and turns of the Mt. Mee scenic highway led to the top of the mountain and some of Australia’s wine country.  While not the Bourassa valley, there were several small wineries at the top.  I also got the privilege of showing Eddie some of my instrument navigation skills because the top was completely socked in with cloud and rain.  The fog was so thick, that we could not see more than 50 feet in front of the truck.  Normally, when the rain is not in, you can see all the way to the coast and Bribie Island from the top of Mt. Mee.  The flora and fauna is decidedly tropical.  There are plants growing in this part of Australia that are not seen outside of the far north part of the country, which is in the tropics.  The environment is truly unique.

It was a quick trip, not more than a couple of hours so there is not much more to say about it.  I did get some photos from my next foray away from Bribie, Montville.  Stay tuned….