4/26/04
Brisbane II
We walked across town from our hotel to the South Bank area of Brisbane
to see the Maritime Museum, the Queensland Museum, and the Science
Center. The view of the city from the bridge across the Brisbane River
offers great view of this compact city center.
Walking along the South Bank Parklands we found a manmade sandy
beach right in the middle of the city. It was complete with lifeguards
and sunbathers.
The Queensland Museum was a natural history museum offering the usual
collection of dinosaur bones and stuffed animals, but also had a nice
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Cultural Center on the top floor.
A macabre display in the museum's collection showed a life and death
struggle the mummified remains of a Goanna (an Australian lizard)
and an Echidna (a spiny australian version of a porcupine). The Goanna
tried to eat the Echidna head first but soon realized it couldn't
swallow the animal with all its spines, but then couldn't spit it out
because the spines only grew in one direction. The Goanna eventually
choked with the Echidna smothered in its throat.
Speaking of eating, I ordered a Moreton Bay Bug in a restaurant the
other day for dinner, and although it was quite tasty, I saw what one
of
these look like before ending up on a dish. In Australia, they have
different names for some of their crustaceans, but calling these "bugs"
is very fitting. Similar to a Lobster, these things don't seem to have
the claws and long antennas I'm used to seeing.
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