Tambourine Mountain
| Our "backyard"
| Sienna's 4th birthday
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Gold Coast, Queensland - November 2025
Part 1: IMPRESSIONS Arrival Late November 2025
So a one way ticket and an arm full of vaccinations, for where I may eventually venture post Aus (which I really must as the flight costs will probably be cheaper than those of the vaccinations!).
Arriving on the Gold Coast SE Queensland at not the best of seasons, with possible tropical stormy weather imminent (typically further north hopefully)and extreme kids (it's their full Summer holidays)...but of course I will make the most of it.
Lamington P
| A Roller
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A wild one at Coombahbah Wetlands!
| Flying Foxes
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The GC for family, Bex, Hamish, Sienna (just 4) and Callie (20 months) have lived here for well over a year now, in the hinterland suburb of Mudgeeraba, not 15 mins from the coast but enveloped in the initiation of the rain forest slightly elevated, which provided amazing wildlife just in their garden : hand fed kookorboras, also possum, foxes, and kangaroo caught on my wildlife camera, and a tiny marsupial, an antechinus...no snakes, just yet, but watch this space!
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Lovely to see the family, with Sienna's 4th birthday on 19th December, which brought together their group of friends that persuaded them to move to GC in the first place. Understandable to raise a young family. GC is super new, didn't really escalate in growth until the 60s....so lots of space, very safe and of course very outdoors based.
Flying Foxes - just down the road at Varsity Waters
| Burleigh
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On the downside from my initial impressions, the coastal suburbs (as opposed to the lush rolling hinterland) are so new, it is all rather contrived and homogeneous, dare I say souless, lacking character., but unfair to compare with a more organically evolved city like Melbourne or Sydney...quite attractive though with many of the residences surrounding the many many lagoons and lakes, lots of space, cycle ways, open parkland, and the immediate rain forest etc.
Lamington NP
| Coombahbah Wetlands
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There seems to be no sense of community per suburb though, no organic evolvement, they all morph into one...but even with the new areas planned, wny did they not plan the occasional lakeside cafe or general shop (or attempted villagey vibe)....just residences after residences....Reminded me of Perth, where it has been possible to plan on affectively a blank canvas, but I recall less intensively there....almost certainly necessary to have a car!
Fairywren
| Springbrook NP
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One suburb runs into another, all on the face of it very similar, although I'm sure if I lived here for a length of time there would be some differentiation. The skyscrapers of the "CBD" clearly stands out which is Broadbeach closely followed by Surfers Paradise, but these are mainly apartments apparently, not business.
But unlike Perth, from what I can recall, it is fairly busy especially on the main through roads (state highways), very USA, with large intersections.
** 6 weeks later, and discovering that in between these main roads there are plenty of more chilled roads across the various suburbs
NSW Tweed Valley
| Lamington NP
| Botanical Gardens
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Nature!
I've touched on the "yard" of the house, as well as what the wildlife camera picked up, in addition the area is loaded with birdsong especially at dawn and dusk. Loroqueets are probably the noisiest but the yellow crested cockatoos sound like pterodactyls from Jurassic Park....
Blue Kingfisher
| Varsity Lakes
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On the first day, Bex took me for a short walk around where she used to live, the nearby Varsity Lakes...loroqueets again are noisy and common, but almost immediately took me to tens and tens of flying foxes resting upside down high in the trees....at dusk they take off, the sight of hundreds of these in the sky really is quite weird, again almost film-like or AI fake!
A Roo at Coombahbah
| Miami Beach
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Other fauna on that first walk were egrets, kingfisher, and lots of ibis (or bin chicken parochially named, more later).
More nature later as I report more specifically on various adventures.
Sienna's 4th birthday
| Sulphur Crested Cockatoos
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The coast!
Well this is the Gold Coast. The family residence is barely 15 mins from the beaches...we ventured en masse on our first weekend to Burleigh Beach....a very popular surfers beach..very popular, cool vibes and busy, although soon I borrowed Becky's bike and devised a 30km circuit through the various lakes suburbs and hitting the coast at North Miami then riding down to Burleigh - much more peaceful at the Miami end, which became one of my go to chill zone....anyway Burleigh. Plenty of bin chickens (Ibis) tidying up, and whilst soaking in the surf atmosphere, looking up the coast at Surfers, a bloody great dragon lizard popped up on a rock...I stepped back....as I don't know which critters are dangerous or not, afterall this is Australia! I need to learn, and fast!
So, on my first days in Aus....I encountered flying foxes, a huge dragon lizard and warnings of bull sharks.....whatever next!
So what can I explore!?
** Other observations
The vibe is very safe, the demographic is almost predominantly white, and it is refreshing that the shops openly display their goods...I assume there is no £200 equivalent of theft allowance like the UK, 😉 but then the impression is the demographic is not in place to even take advantage...there will be no doubt crime to a certain level....but all in all it feels super safe and trusting....there's no menacing gangs or groups....the only groups are young people enjoying themselves down at the beaches.
Electric bikes! Electrical generated scooters, boards to full on mini motorbikes are the trend, especially with kids but not exclusive. They currently are permitted on the cycle / footpaths which is getting increasingly challenged. They are annoying especially the large bikes going at speed, on my first bike ride I nearly got taken out by a youth where we met at a blind corner....what a start that could've been. 🤬
