Our Little Koala

We spent this past weekend in Brisbane attending an exchange teacher conference put on by the Queensland Exchange Teacher Association. We met some new Aussie friends, some new Canadian friends from Ontario, and were also reacquainted with Alberta friends we met at the Edmonton exchange teacher meeting put on by the Alberta Teachers Association. We were very well received by the Aussies and had great conversations about teaching in Australia. The Queensland government has decided to discontinue their involvement in international teacher exchanges due to the cost of the administration. This Association may save the program if they are able to take over the administration the way that the ATA did for Alberta.

After an info session, the volunteers of the Association lead us in a car convoy to Mowbray Park where we caught the City Cat for a tour of Brisbane by river. We stopped off briefly at South Bank for a splash and play in the park before catching the City Cat back to our cars where we said farewell until the next meeting. 

We spent the night in Cleveland, a suburb of Brisbane, with our Albertan friends Nancy and Boyd, also on exchange. While there we walked a couple of blocks away from their house to a small treelined park where we saw giant fruit bats, termite nests and KOALAS! The Koalas were such a highlight that we visited them again the next morning before walking to the Sunday market.

We spent the rest of the day at sunny Wellington Point where there are huge trees shading a playground. The beach is so shallow that young children can be seen playing quite far out without any fear of waves or a dropoff. A young Aussie girl seemed to be quite fond of Fenton and kept rocking the turtle he was riding. Fenton just gave her a hard look and she went on her way.

Next weekend we will head to the famous Noosa and finally hit a beach!