the best bits of queensland {guest post}

Today's guest post is from my friend Annmarie, from Annie's Lane

Cate is celebrating living in Queensland longer than living south of the border (V.I.C). After living in Queensland for only 18mths I’m going to share with you what I love about living in Queensland.

Richard Marks once sang ‘Oh those endless summer night’s” after our first week of living up here I think I was ready to die from the heat day & night. I started dreaming of snow angels. But it took a while to get use to. I’m still on the lookout for a really good hat to suit the climate up here. I feel now that I’m coping better with this heat. After I stopped whinging about the heat…..I started to enjoy having the warmer days nearly all year round.

We live in Brisbane, which is so wonderful to live in a capital city. We are 1 hour from the Gold Coast (Goldy as the locals say) 1 hour from the Sunshine Coast (sunny coast). Right smack bang in the middle of it all. Brisbane is the BEST city to live if you have children. After living in Sydney & Melbourne, Brissy seems to be more family orientated. A few things to back this up….

What my family love about Queensland

The park’s there are so many. Always somewhere to go and have a BBQ or a picnic, very well looked after.

The Theme Parks, need I say more…

South Bank (where Expo ‘88’ was) always something going on there ALWAYS.

The free stuff, they have free swimming pools or lagoons as they call them. Most people would think or have been to Street’s Beach at South Bank. Great in the middle of summer to go late in the arvo give the kids a quick swim. This is a big hit with my children. 

The Beach now if you don’t mind getting a bit of Sand between your toes you can go for a drive to one of the many beaches Queensland has to offer, the added bonus of QLD’s longer summer means more time to swim.

 Brisbane Roar after moving we needed a winning team to support.

A hidden gem I thought I found but the locals had kept it a secret was Maleny. Not to mention how good the cheese is at Kenilworth I was told about this little gem and had to make my hubby drive the long way home just to buy cheese.

Find Annmarie on facebook

the view from home {guest post}

Today's guest poster is Amy from Actually Amy

So Cate is celebrating living longer in Queensland than living in Victoria and I wanted to share some things that I miss about living in Queensland.

You see we moved from the Central Queensland coast to the Pilbara region of Western Australia towards the end of 2012 for my husband’s work and whilst we are enjoying living here I still miss Queensland immensely.

I'm not quite sure what it is exactly about Queensland that I miss. Some would say my family, but they sure ring me often enough to make sure I don't get a chance to miss them (joking!).

The thing is that QLD is just well QLD, if you've lived there you'll know what I mean.  But the people, the atmosphere, the wildlife it's all great. Overall it's a pretty friendly place. And I guess there I'm not referred to someone from 'over east'.

You see, Western Australia is very different from the rest of Australia. It certainly feels like a different country sometimes and I'm not saying that in a derogatory way, so you Western Australians can stop feeling offended! The terminology is different, Rugby League is not simply Footy, they call it Rugby here. Where I'm from if you were talking about Rugby you were talking about Rugby Union.

Devon is polony, desserts are sweets, shoes or runners are sneakers, swimmers or togs are bathers, the list just goes on! I've even heard soft drink being referred to as soda! See it IS like living in a different country.

I can tell you one thing I DON'T miss about Queensland, it's the cane toads. For the first few months here it was strange going outside and not seeing any. The kids kept asking where they were too. Now we just don't notice that they aren't around. It makes a nice change from finding them everywhere.

Would I move back to Queensland? If B got offered a super great job then yes, but until that day I think I just have to go on remembering about how big cane toads can get!

Queensland in the 80s {guest post}

Today's guest post for Queensland Week is from Holly at Simplify.Create.Inspire.

When I was 4 years and 11 months old, my family moved to Queensland. The year was 1988. Before that time we were living in the small town of Portland, Victoria, towards the end of the great ocean home and the place of the first convict settlement in Victoria. Looking back, it was a place filled with some fairly unique history. 

While I was too young to remember it clearly, I have flashing memories of our big trip to Queensland. We travelled up in 2 cars. One was blue and the  other brown. One may have been a Valiant Charger... still Dad's favourite model of car. One of the cars also had a trailer attached. We had CV radios connecting us (mum, dad, my brother and I) to my sister and her boyfriend in the other car. 

family

I remember going down Cunningham Gap as we neared Queensland and having mum say it was a bit 'hairy' and asking her how on earth the road could be hairy? What she actually meant was "This is really freaking scary as our breaks have failed and a truckie just said over the CV radio that his mate crashed over the edge last week and died". Glad I was too young to remember that part of the trip. 

We lived with my mum's older brother and family for about a month or so. We lived in the big shed, while my sister and boyfriend lived in a caravan. I remember waking up for my first day of school in that shed, in my bed, unable to open my eyes as I had conjunctivitis and missed around a week of the start of grade 1.

Soon after starting primary school in Queensland we moved into our own home. An old Queenslander style double story house. I loved that it had a massive front veranda that I could play on and a window that opened from my playroom onto the veranda. Crime wasn't really an issue back then compared to now.

We had an above ground pool installed in the backyard soon after we moved in. We spent so much time in that pool since the weather was hot enough for it. So much fun! I had a swing set and trampoline too.

3 years later we moved house again. Another old Queenslander, this time with a massive inground swimming pool and 1/4 acre block. So much of my summer was spent outside. I loved the summer weather and being able to get up and go straight for a swim in the morning, then lay in the sun reading a book for hours. That probably explains all the freckles I have now. Red hair and tanning isn't such a great combination.

I am now 31. I've lived in Queensland since I was almost 5 years old. I feel like a Queenslander... not a Victorian. I am a hot weather loving, sunshine-type of gal. While I don't necessarily need the beach nearby, I love being able to spend my days outside in the sun or get away with shorts and t-shirt most of the year. Winters in Queensland are mild, just the way I prefer it. Victorian winters can be awful!

Although if you ask me who I support in the state of origin... I will gladly tell you neither... as I am a Victorian, but in actual fact it's because I simply hate football! But if you ask me where I'm from... Queensland comes to mind first these days.

Don't get me wrong... I still love visiting my home state and seeing relatives and reminiscing. But I belong here in Queensland. This is my home! 

I’m Holly. Aussie mum of one, part time professional, small time small business owner, life long student, travel addict, amateur photographer & DIY-er. I have a lot for all things creative and am on a journey to turn my creative mess into life simplified, all while trying to survive the work life balance and have a whole lot of fun along the way. Facebook  |  twitter  |  pinterest

celebrating this life

June 1st marks I've-lived-in-Queensland-longer-than-Victoria day for me. If you had told me twenty years ago that I would still be here, I would have laughed, I had plans to leave as soon as possible!

sunset from my sister's balcony in Airlie Beach

1994 was a year of mixed blessing for my family. The bank foreclosed on the company my parents had run together for twenty five years, and we left the only home we really knew, but we were together and we thought we would always have each others backs.

Our arrival into Airlie Beach was fairly low key, we all fell out of the vehicles, into the shower and into bed. Our first day was spent unpacking vehicles, and hunting down lobster (mum had a dream about eating lobster on the deck watching the sun go down - it didn't work out that way, but the lobster was fabulous cold the next day!)

Things didn't stay sweet and happy for very long. Airlie Beach was the place where our family was ripped apart - parents torn apart after huge loses, kids torn from parents and life turned upside down from the life we were "supposed" to have. We all went our separate ways, and have worked for a long time to rebuild family.

I left Airlie Beach in 1998, when Chloe was just 2 months old. We were heading to the Sunshine Coast, where her dad's family was living. We thought we would have a better chance to build the life we wanted. And we were partly right, we just didn't realise at the time that we didn't want that life to be together.

In early 2000, Chloe and I moved to Brisbane. We found a house close to the university I was studying at, and settled in. Except for the house I spent my childhood in, it was the house I had lived in for the longest (now I have lived behind my purple door for longer than that house), and when Steve and I met, we made the decision to stay in the area because it was growing, and was great for kids.

All those years ago, I thought I would one day leave Queensland, and head back to Victoria. After all, it was what I knew, it was where my friends were, it was my home. But these days comes the wisdom of age. It is true that home is where your heart is. And right now, my heart is tucked in firmly behind the purple door, in suburbia in Queensland.

twenty years in Queensland {guest post}

Today marks twenty years since my family and I arrived in Queensland. It also marks the start of Queensland Week celebrations this year. I thought a week of guest posts about people living in Queensland (and one far, far from home) was a good way to celebrate.

To kick it off, here's part my story, as told by my mum.

photo from my sister's balcony

Have you ever made a decision that you thought was the best one for you and your family, put it into action, found that it totally destroyed your life as you knew it but in the long run was probably the best thing that could have happened to you?

In late July 1993, a one week family (well most of the family) holiday from Victoria lasted 3 weeks. It started as a 2 day road trip to a favourite northern holiday location but that place had changed so much that, after one night, it was back in the car and driving further north.

Next stop on the road, half a day further on, was a small but very ‘touristy’ village. After a one night stay, the next day saw a drive further north. The intended destination was at least another day or two away.

An early start and 8 hours drive and we’d earned a short detour to a place we’d heard of but never been to. The error (or was it a fortunate decision) to ask for information from the people who should know the area culminated in booking scuba dive lessons on the Great Barrier Reef in the Whitsundays.

Absolutely magical.

We not only learnt to breath underwater, but seeing the amazing sights of the Great Barrier Reef changed what was important in our lives.

That clinched it Going back to our mundane jobs, although at our own ridiculously successful business, just wasn’t enough.

He couldn’t do it

She said ok.

The rest is history

4 months later and 2 flying trips to the Whitsundays saw the decision put into action.

Bought the property, started the process of changing the business structure, spent our first Christmas holiday as a family in beautiful Queensland, and planned when the final move would take place.

June 1^st 1994 was the first day of this lifestyle.

And we still haven't made it to the final destination on that fateful holiday.