Time to download the last of my Australian notes of interest.  These are random so don’t look for any rhyme or reason to them.  We are countries away form Australia now but I needed to get this out of my head. 

1.    Chicken cone: A large plastic cone that attaches to the butcher table.  A chicken (Chook) is placed on it by inserting the cone up the butt of the bird (bird is dead, plucked and gutted. Sorry if you thought otherwise there for a second).  The cone spins so the bird spins too!  James, the butcher I staged with, said some folks use them and can cut up a chicken pretty fast.  I can’t help but think of beer can chicken.
2. Camp-trailers: and off-road trailers for the overland folks.  The Aussies sure have a lot to choose from. pioneercampers.com, ultimate off-road campers, all with kitchens, awnings (big in AU due to the sun beating you down), and a hell of a lot of staking down.  These people are masters of the tie-down.
3. I met a man named Max: at Rainbow Beach.  He is retired and fishing a lot.  He must have had seven rods all set up.  It reminds me of my Dad.  Max was using his “tinny” small tin boat to chase tannies and flatheads.  He let me have a look at a fishing magazine to explain what the hell those were.  He said the fishing was off due to a large seaweed mass that had moved into the area.  Said it hasn’t happened in about 150 years.  He jokingly blamed our current president letting me know that he knew my funny talk was American.
4. Australian English: #homeofthebundy almost all the names for things here are shortened and have a “y” attached to the end.  Bari is Barumundi (I know that isn’t a “y” but that is what I remembered just know.)
5. 1770: Where Captain Cook landed.   The only place in the world to have a number as a name Coocoo Buros with mud nests in the crouch of a tree, Scrub turkeys (aka Bush turkeys), empty beach for miles
   

   Oakley 1770

   and sea turtles seen from cliffs above. Oh and glow in the dark spiders.

6. The hand break is on the wrong side!  In both the car and on the bikes.  When riding here you must remember the rear brake is on the left and the front on the right.  Just another trick you need to pay attention to unless you plan on doing some indos.
7. The Australian Magpie: has a call (one of many) that is the same as the alien communication in the movie Close Encounters of the Third Kindhttp://www.imdb.com/title/tt0075860/. Pretty sure that is where they got it from. Steven Spielberg not the birds. I need to watch that movie again. Some have said my Dad looks like Richard Dreyfus and I would agree.
8. The 1912Queenslander: we stayed in is a style of house built on stilts to allow airflow to cool it.  We thought Brisbane was set up on a flood plane.  Nope.
9. Birds: The Bush Stone-curlew, the Watercock, and the Australian White Ibis.  Ibis is a nuisance seen below, upper right.  Watercock looks like a chicken and an duck cross.
   

   Bush Turkey always seemed to be around.

   I don’t have a photo of the Bush Stone as he was quite elusive.  There are so many more.