Townsville, Australia
Marita3
Mark & Helen Syrett
Wed 29 Aug 2012 11:00
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We arrived in Australia after a ten day passage
from the Vanuatu Islands. Our landfall was Townsville
 where we went into Breakwater Marina
 and were met by the Customs and Immigration
officials and the ''Crocodile Dundee'' lookalike from DAFF
(bio-security)
 More form filling and a seizure of some foodstuffs
and a ''high risk'' ( from termites) assessment for Marita because of her
percentage wood content. If we stayed over a year there would have to be a
further assessment at high cost and then possible fumigation etc.
The Marina was next to a war memorial park
remembering the Battle of the Coral Sea, the Vietnam war and other
conflicts.
 We went to the cathedral on Sunday
  and the following day hired a car, in fact a
minibus as we needed a 6 seater and that was all that was available
 and visited the Billabong Sanctuary to see a wide
variety of Australian animals, birds and reptiles so that we would
recognise them later on in the wild!
We saw crocodiles big and small
  a cockatoo that took a fancy to Helen
 a python (an import) that liked Oscar
 a native highly poisonous brown snake
 a koala bear
 and a wallaby with Joey
 We then drove inland to Charters Towers, a goldrush
town in the late 19th Century. 120 kilometers over long straight roads into
the outback
 Charters Towers had retained some of it's old
buildings including the Stock Exchange and City Hall
  but with the long wide street one could
imagine the people, horses and dust and the fever of finding gold and
the despair for some of finding nothing.
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