First we were in the island\u2019s main village, watching the ibises and their jaunty walks around the local cafe dining tables. It is said the bin chickens once lived a dignified life in wilderness wetlands but now they\u2019re forced to be urban survivors and souvenir fodder, feathered foxes but without the screeching.<\/p>\n
A bevy of weird birds populated the not-so-floridly-named Chamber of Commerce Park and the town seemed like the most relaxed place on earth.<\/p>\n
My travel buddy and I had some time to kill so admired the suburban homes in quiet streets and beheld a huge RSL \u2013 Returned Services League.<\/p>\n
It was only about noon on a weekday but the RSL club had a lot of cars and in the mists of likely unreliable memory, the building resembled a white megachurch, something from a neo-pentecostal vision a charlatan preacher might have dreamed up.<\/p>\n
My travel buddy told me the place was packed because it was full of pokies. But we didn\u2019t have time for a flutter.<\/p>\n
We drove up to the state forest entrance and with a few minutes before Jason and his other guests arrived, took a walk to the beach. It was impressive, with soft, golden sand on unbroken coast and hardly anyone around.<\/p>\n
It reminded me of beaches around my hometown when I\u2019d bunk school and walk home for hours, bush one side, ocean the other, cool wind drifting in from infinity, not a soul in sight.<\/p>\n
Soon we were picked up in a minivan, with one of the first stops a lake in the dunes, a freshwater lagoon.<\/p>\n
The water was cool and it was about 1pm when we got to jump in. Brisbane is known for its brutally humid summers but we got lucky. There was light cloud and a cool breeze. But at the lagoon, look before you leap, or feel around the lakebed, because the water can be shallow and is dark with tannins extracted from all the trees along the water edge.<\/p>\n
Soon everyone in our group was in kayaks. Jason took us round the lagoon bends and the water sparkled, shadows of the leaves a pretty sight. The most common trees here are melaleuca, sometimes known as paperbark. <\/p>\n
My good-natured travel buddy joked that we were practising for the Brisbane 2032 Olympics. Go Team Kiwi. It was a mostly languid trip, though. After a few minutes you felt far from the city, far from any hassle, and heard trees heaving with the beat of cicadas.<\/p>\n
It might be what Midnight Oil\u2019s young but already bald Peter Garrett sang about in Koala Sprint when he spoke of escaping Sydney for summer sun and the smell of sand and sea again.<\/p>\n
A World War II coastal defence installation on Bribie Island. Photo \/ John Weekes<\/p>\n
Along the coast, there were sea eagles, goannas and more wallabies and kangaroos you\u2019d care to count. The marsupials and humans mostly ignored each other.<\/p>\n
The goanna was surely Varanus varius, also known as the lace monitor and of the Varanidae family, inspiration for the 1950s Godzilla-style giant Japanese movie monster Varan the Unbelievable.<\/p>\n
The lizards were once thought not to be venomous but to have nasty bacteria in their mouths that could cause infection vile enough to trouble the taxpayer or your health insurance company. Research this century suggests the critters are closely related to snakes and produce a similar venom.<\/p>\n
Luckily we didn\u2019t see the monitor\u2019s legless relatives. The island is thought to host 37 reptile species, 12 of them snakes. The snakes include carpet pythons and the bandy-bandy, which sounds cute but is venomous. <\/p>\n
Up the coast we saw the ruins of World War II installations designed to fend off a Japanese incursion, even before Varan the Unbelievable.<\/p>\n
We saw a little goanna too. It froze and looked cute. Even reptile babies can be cute. We were reminded not to provoke it. It was small but could still give you a nasty bite.<\/p>\n
Small and sassy. A bit like Bribie Island. <\/p>\n
The Herald travelled to Brisbane courtesy of Qantas, Beda and Moreton Bay Tourism. <\/p>\n