Minjerribah, aka Stradbroke Island

I wonder if you heard about Cyclone Oma, back in the US? We were watching its progress very carefully last month. It was thought at one time to reach Brisbane with high winds and lots of rain. It could affect our trip to Minjerribah too, since we needed to take a ferry to reach the island. Thankfully, (with the help of Marta's strong thoughts) it didn't come as close as feared. Several ferries were cancelled, but ours wasn't. We did have a windy 30 minute ride, but no rain and the weekend was great!

 This picture is of our ferry on the way home on Monday, the ocean was much calmer.  And below is a turtle shell that was in the research station, gorgeous.

Minjerribah is what the Quandamooka people call Stradbroke Island in their language, Nunukul. It means "Island in the Sun." The Quandamooka people have lived there for over 21,000 years and were given Native Title in 2011. The sand mining will finish on the island at the end of this year and the Quandamooka plan to increase the tourist business on the island.


It is the 2nd largest sand island in the world, but you'd be amazed at how many trees and plants grow there. We learned about Aboriginal history and culture and spotted a wild koala on our walk. Sooooo adorable! When we went back later in the afternoon, we spotted a second smaller koala too!

We learned Sand Island Ecology with a Walk to Point Lookout, with a stop at a Gelato cafe! The wind was blowing fiercely and had created lots of foam on top of the waves, it was spectacular.

We were introduced to Australian marine environments by staff from the Moreton Bay Research Station, which is where we were staying. The accommodations and catered food were great! We also examined marine samples and saw many zooplankton and phytoplankton.

We learned botanical ecology of sand islands and about mangroves and geology and hydrology of sand islands. We got to swim in Brown Lake, a perch lake, which was refreshing!

Biologist and filmmaker, Jan Aldenhoven was with us most of the weekend. We really enjoyed watching the documentary that she and her husband made: "Faces in the Mob." It's about a mob of grey kangaroos that they observed over a year plus. Really awesome. I purchased a copy of the DVD and will happily share it with any of you that want to watch it with us!

                                     

Minjerribah is a wonderful location!!!!