We had the morning to enjoy Brisbane. Because Australia Day fell on a Saturday, today .was a public holiday. The result was downtown Brisbane was as dead as downtown Savannah, GA on a Sunday morning in 1962. We walked about 15 minutes to Roma Street Parkland, a gem of a park in the middle of the Central Business District. It has playgrounds, botanical gardens and open space. We were enchanted.
This was the end of our time in the state of Queensland. People here seem to pride themselves on being just a little different from other Australians. Geographically, it’s the northeast quadrant of this country, sort of like New England and the mid-Atlantic states combined. But Queensland is the only one of the three states in the Eastern half of Australia that doesn’t do daylight saving time. You know how so many news stories of weird events begin with the words, “A Florida man…”? Substitute Queensland for Florida, and you get the idea.
Anyway, it was time to say goodbye to Queensland, so we got into our rental car for a drive to the airport. I only missed one turn. We had allowed plenty of time, so we were still plenty early to the airport for our two-hour flight to Melbourne.
Melbourne is the capital of Victoria, in the southeast corner of Australia. If the U.S. didn’t have the Florida peninsula, Savannah would be about were Melbourne is for Australia.
Roslyn took this picture from the balcony of our hotel room. We took the free tram down to the Southbank area, a promenade along the river filled with restaurants and other attractions. Lots people, lots of energy. Very nice. The public transit seems to cover a healthy part of metro Melbourne, but riding it within the Central Business District is free. Atlanta, please take note.