Amazingly both the botanical – not so amazing – and zoo were free in Rockhampton.  The city council had just spent over a million dollars building a new chimpanzee house.  Not much in the zoo, it has to be said, birds, couple of sad looking dingo’s, chimpanzees and a few other monkeys but kept us entertained.  Backs onto the river,  lots of picnic tables and BBQs dotted around the place.  The Australians really do live outside.  Wherever you go you see large groups gathered around tables, BBQs.  They bring their own gazebo’s, chairs and blankets.  Men with stubbies, well the women too.  A parcel full of kids, bikes, skateboards etc. etc.  And everyone wears a hat.  Slip, slop, slap.  Slip on the thongs (flip flops), slop on the sun tan lotion, slap on the hat.  A nectar munching parrot.

Guess who laid these eggs?  Note the size of the feet, or foot in this shot.

The endangered cassowary.

Big lizard.  This is the lace monitor lizard (Varanus varius).  Common in eastern Australia.  You often see these scavenging for left overs in national park picnic areas.  Apparently they are mildly venomous.

A not so good looking emu.

Clean ears? And big feet.

Kneeling in reverse.

The rose-crowned fruit dove (Ptilinopus vergina), another bird we have glimpsed but never been able to get a photo of.  These feed entirely on fruit from trees, shrubs, vines and plants.  Bad news for them when chopping down rain-forest trees.  They only lay one egg at a time but can have three clutches a year.

The superb lyrebird (Menura navaehollandiae).  This is the bird we could hear on one of our walks in Queensland, I forget where.  Caught the tail but nothing else.  Another mound building and ground dwelling species.  The males can mimic calls like bog barks, chain saws, car alarms and other local bird noises.

Great kookaburra shot, you can see the kingfisher connection.