Queensland – The Friendly State

We thought it was worth mentioning, at some point in this blog, about the actual people of Australia that we met. I don’t mean the beer soaked backpackers, I mean real Australians. Believe it or not, when backpacking you don’t always meet that many locals. That may sound surprising, given that you are living and travelling in their country, but when you stop and think about it, it is not that surprising. Moving from hostel to hostel, the people you meet day to day are fellow backpackers. When you are in a supermarket or restaurant, Nicola and I are each other’s company, we don’t really talk to anyone else. Just think, when was the last time you went into a restaurant/supermarket and started a conversation with a stranger that was not the waiter or checkout lady? It’s the same here. So we thought we would pay homage to the super friendly people of Queensland who have stood out for us on this trip:

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      Northern Irish lady in Beerwah (near Australia Zoo) – After visiting Australia Zoo, Nicola and I headed to Beerwah Train Station back on what we thought was a complimentary bus which turned out to be just a normal bus – the fact that it wasn’t bright yellow with crocodiles on should have been a clue – but the driver (in Queensland style) told us not to bother with paying as the journey was so short (would NEVER happen in UK). So Nicola and I were waiting on the platform for our train, Nicola had checked the timetable and it said 17:19 Platform 1. Well, at 17:15 on Platform 2, with no warning from the operator/voice-over-man our train rumbled into the station. We rushed over the bridge to the other side only to be greeted by the train’s backside as it shot off towards Nambour. After double checking the timetable (we needn’t have bothered because Nicola never gets those things wrong) we confirmed that the train did actually arrive early and on the wrong platform. Nicola and I were consulting the timetable for the next train when a little lady approached us and asked if we needed help. We kind of hesitated before answering coyly that we might do. She confirmed what we knew (next train was in an hour or so) and she led us into the nearest tavern across the road as the weather was getting colder and she wanted to provide us with some information about Australia:

o   If there is a “pokie” (gambling room) in a hotel/bar then by law they must provide hot drinks for the patrons free of charge. Also, at a minimum of two times per day they must provide food, free of charge. So we treated ourself to a free hot chocolate as we were provided more information that may be of use…

o   If ever you are invited to a BBQ in Australia, the general rule (unspoken though of course) is that it is BYO – as in Bring Your Own…everything. She informed us of the first BBQ she attended with her family, they didn’t bring anything and expected food to be provided and were surprised to discover that out here, you bring your own cutlery, plates, meat, drink etc. Very surprising

o   We weren’t sure about all the advice she gave however, and we’ll let you make your own minds up on this…if you are getting chased by an iguana (yes this actually came up in conversation) then you should lie down, as it’ll apparently just run past you…

o   A cheating example you may say, she’s Northern Irish not Australian. However, she said she had been living in Australia for 10 years, which makes her pretty Aussie to me…perhaps.

·         Busdrivers of Noosa – we mentioned above about one driver who let us ride the bus free of charge after Australia Zoo. We thought at the time, “what a nice bus driver” as if he was a one off; we were wrong.

o   After arriving in Noosa and having walked miles and miles and miles of coastland (in reality around 10km) we were a little tired and eager to head back to Noosa Heads where we were planning on having dinner. To our annoyance we had just missed a bus and sat back on the bench as we saw it driving away down the hill. After a few minutes of waiting, another bus turns up, slightly earlier than expected (that happens out here, buses arriving on time/earlier than expected…I know, we were shocked to see/hear of an efficient public transport system too) and we hopped on. As we were trying to pay, the bus driver asked if we were students…we said no…he said, yes you are. I was slightly puzzled, then he asked to see student ID, I reached into my wallet willing for there to be something student-ID-esque in there before the driver just punched out two tickets for half the price of the normal fare. Sitting down, I realised that the effects of the sun had made me slow and I had not realised that he was just trying to give us a cheaper ticket (I’m sticking to that “effects of the sun” excuse!). The driver then joined us for around 10 minutes while we had a general chat about travelling before he got back in his seat and we moved on.

o   On our second morning in Noosa we caught a bus to Noosa Heads from near our hotel. We were laden with bags and were a little hot in the heat and as we stepped onto the bus and tried to pay for our fare the driver turned to us and said “just have a seat, the air conditioning is not working so I’m not charging anyone”. Nicola and I sat down, amazed, and thought ”in what circumstances in the UK would we be giving a free bus ride?” The journey was 15 minutes long and we couldn’t think of a single situation…

o   Our final Noosa bus driver experience (we only caught 3 buses too believe it or not) – it’s not so nice as the above, but, when we got on the bus at Noosa Heads in order to travel to Noosa Junction, we asked the driver for our fare and were surprised to hear a British accent. The driver started chatting to us about the area, the weather and so on and continued to do so after we had taken our seats. As the journey continued on, Nicola and I almost got off on the wrong stop – the driver, seeing us getting up and trying to put our bags on, leans behind and let us know that it was the next stop that we wanted.