Building a car space

We bought a block with no off-street parking 36 years ago.
As we get older carting goods up or down doesn't get easier.
There have been falls and Chris recently had a leg fracture from
one.

Parking inspectors want to book us for parking in front of our
property. There is nowhere else to park anywhere reasonably
closer.

So with the very generous work of Mike and Bec we are aiming
for 3 - 4 car spaces.

 From a long neglected jungle of weeds and exotic trees and shrubs like Privet, 

and an old Jacarandah, to a more cleared space. Weeds like Fishbone Fern,
and Asparagus Fern, some succulents, and Agapanthus too. The Agapanthus
finding new homes and lots of free firewood. 

 A sloping site which needs retaining and raising the level closer 

to the verge height, with a slight incline. 

 Revealing sometimes overgrown items like the water meter.
Deciding if we need to move the meter. 

 Stumps of sizeable Privet and the old Jacarandah which wasn't
too healthy, and over the power lines, and cars. 

 3 old Camellia shrubs are happier, seeing the light of day again 

and flourish and bloom in appreciation.

 Building on bedrock, and careful to see that we don't impact
on the root system of 3 mighty Blackbutt Trees. 

 A high pile of free delivered fill and large sandstone blocks. More historic, 

hand hewn sandstone blocks were relocated by trailer from friend's of 

Mike's family in The Blue Mountains.  

 The fill is a good mix of clay and crushed sandstone.

 We get a handy loan of a cement mixer from Gordon, and his concrete saws. 

 Bec and Mike do the hard yakka, lifting, rolling, and hoisting stones 

with the aid of ropes, pulleys and Mike's 4WD. 

 Levelling the wall with minimal cement. A large weeping wall takes shape.
It is backed up and plugged with smaller rubble. The fill is raked in and compacts nicely. 

With the aid of mattock, steel tooth rakes and shovels, the fill mound 

gradually lessens and the retained area rises. 

The wall grows.

 So half way now, and maybe only one more course of stone. A path is left between properties to access the gas meter and not impact on next door's carport and it's brick basement storage. 

 Essential refreshments, my job to supply as I can't work as physically hard
as the young. I can plug the back of the block wall and rake in fill. 

 Mike rakes over the fill at day's end, planning to test the space by bringing on George,
his large 4WD Jackaroo. It is a good test, there is just the right length off street,
and there is minimal depression of the fill which shows it to be quite stable. 

Magnetic Island - Tropical Foliage

Sandy bays, palm trees, and other tropical plants make this
place a tropical paradise.

Magnetic Island - Bush Stone Curlews

I had some great sightings of these curious birds. Very well
camouflaged, quite shy and unique looking.

They have long, stilt-like legs, and earthy-toned plumage.
The most striking feature are their enormous eyes.

They have even been celebrated with metal sculptures outside
a local history museum.

 They have this strange streamlined stance when they move away and are feeling threatened.

Magnetic Island - Townsville Aquarium

Townsville Aquarium Headquarters has a 30-year-old living coral exhibit
with associated sealife, and I decided to see this instead of sailing tours,
jetboats or snorkelling.

Still sore from a bad fall down the flight of stairs the morning I left for
the trip to Queensland, I wasn't prepared to get my grazes infected or was
confident in my full capacity for swimming with a bruised or broken rib.

So a wonderful compromise was seeing the Aquarium in easy comfort.
The collection there was amazingly comprehensive, the talks and tours
informative. We were able to see up close, touch some exhibits and had
a great time, including a sightsee of the turtle hospital.

 

Magnetic Island - Lunch with a local

I was told that Green Ants can give a nasty bite. So I was a little
perturbed to have one right in front of me, on the table at the
Bikini Tree restaurant.

On a short coastal walk, I also found one of their ingeniously
constructed hollow nests formed from leaves that had fallen from a
tree to the ground. Apparently, these can get as big as footballs.

I bought Bec a small sculpture of one too made from wire and beads.

 There are still some ants visible on the top edge of the nest. 

 My little friend posed for this shot and was safely, for both of us, gently relocated. 

Magnetic Island - The wallabies of Geoffrey Bay

Coming into dusk you can see many of these sweet small wallabies
at Geoffrey Bay.

The very diminutive rock wallabies are only maybe a quarter of the
size of the large Black Tailed Swamp Wallabies we have at home.

They approached down from the tumble of granite rocks along the
shoreline. People visit with carrots to feed them, and get a very close
encounter.

 They silently and effortlessly leap down these huge rounded granite outcrops. 

 

 These perched rocks form an arch and are high enough to walk through.

  These baby pines are growing through cracks in the rock. Pines and figs seem 

to be two of the most prevalent species growing on the island.