We arrived in Cairns on the 21st November 2011. After leaving Wellington at 7.25am the plane was running late due to ?? . On arrival at Brisbane international airport we made our way to the domestic airport to check in our bags and found that our plane to Cairns was due to take off in approximately 15 minutes instead of the hour and half we were told when we booked our tickets.
A very quick run from one end of Brisbane airport to the other to catch our plane was needed. Our names were being called over the information saying the plane was waiting for us and to board it.
To say the least we did make it just before they closed the doors. You sure need a small vehicle to help transport people from one end of the terminal to the other.
Ann (Johns sister) met us at the airport at 12.15 on a very hot day.
From here we made our way to Malanda 1 1/4 hours out of Cairns where Johns parents live.
A very friendly town of approx 1500 people. 1 supermarket , chemist, 1 pub and a two take aways, and a few other shops.
The Main industry is dairy with the dairy factory employing the majority of people. A large rest home called Ozcare where a lot of the woman work from the area.
Malanda is a medium sized town on the Atherton Tableland in Far North Queensland, Australia.
It is located 85 kilometres from Cairns and 732 metres (2,402ft) above sea level. Malanda was first developed in the 1880s when the discover of tin and copper at Herberton saw a steady stream of miners and engineers moving over the mountains from the coast .
Malanda is well known for its milk and cheese throughout North Queensland. Milk from here is exported to Indonesia and Malaysia.
In 1908 James English (later the publican of the Malanda Hotel) and James Emerson moved into the area and both saw the district's dairy potential. English brought cattle from Kiama and the Richmond River areas in New South Wales and Emerson had a herd of 1,026 cattle overlanded from Lismore, They took 16 months to reach Malanda and only 560 survived the journey. Despite the hard start the industry grew and by 1919 Malanda had it own butter factory. In 1973 this amalgamated with the factory in Millaa Millaa to form the Atherton Tablelands Co-operative Dairy Association.. There are only 3 organic farms suppling their milk to the region and this makes most of the specialist cheese and yoghurt and milk.One of which is Glen & Anne ( Johns brother). Glen supplys his milk to Mungalli Creek Dairy factory which is fully Bio-dynamic.
The attractions are many, swimming with the platypus at the base of Malanda Falls in the crocodile- free North Johnson river. This swiming hole is used a lot by the local school children and visitors. John has swam there many times he said.The Malanda Falls were created by the last flow of lava from the Malandfa Shield Volcano with a cascade of only 4 meters. The name 'Malanda' , according to some sources, was the local Aboriginal word meaning Waterfalls.
There are many environmental parks around the area for the day walkers, spotting the different bird life and Lumholtz` tree-kangroos
The first two weeks we did not do a lot as the weather was very hot around 8.00am the temperature was 27 degs and by lunch time up into the 30's so it was time for us to get climatized.
John's brother Glen and Anne own a diary farm 5 minutes by car from home and his brother asked John if he would like to help him rebuild the calf pens and a few sheds and fences that got damaged by the cyclone Yasi last year. John was so pleased to be able to help Glen .
Two weeks after arriving it was time to find ourselves a vehicle . We found a Nisan Navara STX twin cab Ute 2007 (white) with bull bars on the front. Every vehicle here has a bullbar attached. We thought this would be more appropriate for towing a caravan around once we found one we liked. We were very surprised with the prices of caravans' that were looking at. In the north they are very expensive.
On the 12 December John and his parents flew down to Brisbane for his sister Ann who graduated in a Diploma of Government in Financial Management .
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| Ann ( John's Sister) Don and Joyce Parents , Paul McCorry (Ann's Husband) |
In between this Marg was shredding a lot of old accountant papers that Dad had stored under the house. Time for a clean out lol. The calves on Glens farm sure did appreciate the paper for laying on as well as the chickens out on Ann's farm in Kuranda for use in there nesting boxes.
There are plenty of frogs that seem to come out in the evenings. A photo enclosed is of a green fog that enjoys sitting on the front trellis every evening and talking to us rather loudly. (Named Kiwi).
There are also a lot of albino gecko's that catch insects flying around in the dark . It is a interesting sound they make when talking to each other.
Bird life is amazing photos enclosed.
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| Local Green Frog we named Kiwi |
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| Tame Curlews and baby's at GlenView Dairy |
Margaret has manged to get herself two job's one for Rural -Remote Home Care and the other is for Ozcare . Both jobs are working in the community assisting clients with personal care on a permanent part time basis. These jobs she is starting in the New Year.
Christmas was celebrated on Christmas eve this year at Glens and Anne's farm where we had a lovely evening with the family Anne & Paul, Glen & Anne, Kathryn, Mum and Dad , John and I . It was the first time for a family Christmas in over 25 years they said Very special. We both got very spoilt by everyone. Christmas day we went to Anne and Paul's home at Kuranda where they have a farm for a BBQ with some of Paul's family. A wonderful two days with plenty of food and laughter and great company.
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| Christmas in Australia 2011 |
The cyclones above Darwin are starting to form hopefully we will miss out here.
New years eve went by very quietly in bed by 10.30 pm.
Took Mum and Dad for a walk around the Malanda Falls on the 4th Janurary. This is a conservation Park it is approximately 1 km return walk. There are many birds around if you are lucky to spot them Victoria's Riflebird ( is an Australia bird of paradise the male is renowned for its amazing fanlike courtship display), Bush turkey ( theses turkeys lays its egg in a mound of leaf litter up to 4 meters wide the male tends to the nest), Eastern Whipbird ( they are a ground bird feed off insects).
Amethystine Python and teh Boyd's Forest Dragon also live in this area No we did not see any. We were looking for the Lumholtz's Tree Kangaroo that live in this small area. I think it was to early in the afternoon when we went and they are a quiet creature. A friend Ross has some on his farm so we we will go and see them there and take some photos.
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| Bush Turkey |
Went for a drive up around Millaa Millaa which is only 20 minutes from Malanda . They have 5 waterfalls in this area all very picturesque.
There is a Misty Mountain walking track which covers 130km of medium and long distance walking with over 500 species of rainforest trees including the blackbean , milky pine water gum and red tulip oak plus a lot of wildlife.
7th Janurary,
Since the New Year we have just been busy working on the farm repairing sheds etc.
We all went out for tea for Kathryns 20th birthday to the International Club which is in Atherton.
A lovely meal and the drinks if you are members very good price.
26th Janurary Australia Day
John and I decided to go to the local pub and see what was happening there to celebrate Australia Day.
Here we found they had Toad racing. A lot of laughter and yelling for there own toad. Not sure who won as we did not stay the whole afternoon because John had to go and milk.
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| Toad Racing Australia Day in Malanda |
28th Janurary,
Some of the 2012 Coyboys Rugby League team were in Malanda doing a promo . I met Ray Thompson, Tariq Sims and Ash Graham. Sorry John you were at work.
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| Ash Graham, Ray Thompson , Margaret, Tariq Sims ( Cowboy players 2012) |
