I’m looking for ideas for a social group outing in #Brisbane or #Toowoomba region in spring for a group of international colleagues. Its been a good 14+ years since I’ve lived in QLD, so I'm not sure what's good to do...
Any thoughts are much appreciated, thanks.
Until I was 12, I grew up on the escarpment of the Great Dividing Range in Australia in Toowoomba (Prince Henry Drive). At this particular point, it rises between 700 and 900 meters above sea level, on its run down the entire east coast of Australia. Here cloud masses rush in from the coast, hit the range and drop their water down the gullies and ravines, where pockets of rainforest cling and mists and fog would often change the world into a soft blind white. Through the entire continent, it divides and separates populations, landscapes, and climates. Historically, it has provided challenges to the colonial process while protecting the Indigenous people. Its liminality is almost spiritual.
Boring #WeatherToot from #Toowoomba: it's now 34 in my loungeroom again. At just after half past one. Ooofff. BOM has just cancelled the severe heatwave warning, but I don't think the weather here has got the message yet 
. And no, not a drop of rain last night, those storms didn't eventuate. This summer is going to be a bad one.
The music scene in #Toowoomba in the late 1980s and early 90s was amazing. Dedicated people like Bailey Hilliard (anyone remember The Rocktapus at The National?), Peter and Inge Fenton (licensees of The Gladstone Hotel) and Dylan Hughes (who booked for The Courthouse) were driving so much of the scene. There were a lot of local bands plus touring bands had a choice of venues. Jimmy Aspromogos had the Powerhouse and Rumours where many national and international acts played. The Refec out at the uni was buzzing too. I saw Madness and Hoodoo Gurus there in the mid-80s along with many more. No poker machines in those days so pubs chose to develop live music as it made money. As my old friend Ian says in the video below, The Glad was a constant with bands and events. There was a real community around it. Later on The Lake opened where I remember seeing Painters and Dockers and The Wreckery among many others. Sad that this isn't an option for young people today.
An #artdeco house in #Toowoomba #Australia. Two houses of the exact copy line on the same street, but this is the better maintained one. #architecture
