Rise and Shine Skywatch

This was taken by my colleague Adrian on his phone while at work early one morning last week.
It's from the top of Mount Coot-tha looking north-east-ish towards the glinting ocean and Moreton Island beyond.

Does having a heavenly scene like this to look at make up for having to be in work at that un-godly hour? It's a close one.

Part of Skywatch Friday.

Taking a break from the kayak, Bribie Island.

Canteen Blues

The view from the Channel Ten canteen at the top of Mount Coot-tha looking east and slightly north towards the Port of Brisbane, Moreton Bay and the faint blue haze of Moreton Island on the left.

Bribie Island Deadwood Forest

A king tide washed across the whole of the narrow northern tip of Bribie Island in Moreton Bay last year, killing a lot of the vegetation and leaving this skeletal forest in it's wake.

About as bleak as Australia's World Cup hopes.

Happily, new vegetation is starting to spring up and as for the Socceroos.... NEXT time!

Bribie Island Pacific Stripes

The northern-most point of  Moreton Bay, between Brisbane and the Sunshine Coast, lies Bribie Island. It's a sand island about 34kms long. People live on the southern part but up in the north,  and a large section of it is national park. The beaches on the ocean side are gorgeous with fine, white sand and largely empty.

The guide I was with told me that the sand comes from the Blue Mountains in New South Wales, a thousand kilometres south. The mountains erode and make their way into the water systems eventually getting washed out to sea. The eroded material gets rolled around and ground into sand in the ocean and travels up the pacific, depositing on the coast as it goes. By the time it gets up here, it has been ground up so much that the sand is very fine - almost like flour.

Shorncliffe Pier Skywatch

Shorncliffe pier was built in 1872 and is reminiscent of many piers in England from the same era. This area was once a seaside town but as Brisbane's footprint continues to expand it has become an outer suburb. You can tell as you walk around that the people in charge have tried to retain the character of the place with all sorts of historical buildings and street furniture - like these great Victorian-looking lamp posts.
That's the southern tip of Moreton Island in the distance - one of the worst-affected areas of the horrific oil-tanker disaster in March. Thankfully after months of hard work and millions of dollars, the mess has been cleaned up.