Margaret Coon, Sherry Potts and Mary Lou Blackley spoke to Winnfield’s Rotary Club on December 6 and to Winnfield’s Kiwanis Club on December 12 about highlights of their recent trip to Australia. It is said that the British began to populate the Australian continent by exiling its convicts there in the late 1700’s and early 1800’s after the American Revolution led to formation of the United States, which was unwilling to receive British exiles. In those days, it took eight months to reach Australia from western Europe, as compared to about 22 hours by jet today.
The group began their visit to Australia in Sydney, Australia’s largest city of about five and a half million people, where they saw the city from the Sydney Tower Eye, the second tallest observation tower in the southern hemisphere, standing 1,014 feet above the ground. Highlights of the time in Sydney included tours of the city by bus and boat.
The trip included visits to the Australian outback, where they saw the iconic Ayres Rock, now known by its aboriginal name, Uluru, as well as other domed rock formations called Kata Tjuta. From there, they traveled to Alice Springs, which they toured the West MacDonnell Mountain Ranges, stopping to walk trails featuring several beautiful water holes, most of which are open to swimming.
The group next flew to Darwin, capital city of the Northern Territory, where most of its residents live, located on the northern coast of Australia. They visited a wildlife refuge as well as Litchfield National Park, home to hundreds of huge termite mounds, gorgeous waterfalls, and swimming holes.
From Darwin the group flew to Cairns, a city on the tropical northeast coast in the state of Queensland, where their jaunts included a daylong boat trip for snorkeling on the Great Barrier Reef and a tour of the Daintree Rainforest, part of a larger area of tropical rainforest in the Queensland Territory.
The final stop on the group’s whirlwind tour of Australia was the city of Melbourne located on the southeastern coast with a population of about five million people, and the capital city of the territory of Victoria. A tour of hidden attractions of Melbourne revealed street art in several lanes and alleys of the city, as well as sidewalk entertainment licensed by the city to perform in certain locations at certain times of day. Melbourne is also the location of Australia’s Federation Square where the several colonies of the Australian continent came together to form the nation of Australia.
While the group was in Australia for 17 days, that was not long enough to see other areas of interest in the country, such as Brisbane and the country’s capital city of Canberra. Nevertheless, they saw more of Australia on this adventure than most native Australians have seen.
