After a month in which I seem to have been travelling more often than not, and cold almost constantly, I’m settled back in Brisbane, enjoying, as Tex Morton put it[1] “our beautiful climate! Where we never see ice or snow!” I was talking to a taxi-driver who mentioned that he’d been attracted to Queensland by this song, also a favourite in my household.
fn1. Or, more precisely, pinched it, from Pappy O’Daniel
John Quiggin 
Yay!
climate is good, so is employment.
I paid my first trip to Brisbane last month, from Melbounre, and in the middle of winter there are powerful urges to emigrate north.
North Stradbroke island was an utter gem, too.
And the coffee wasn’t bad either.
Pity I had to rinse my mouth out after the XXXX, but at least there was a selection of drinkable beers available.
But snow and ice are not seen in Melbourne either, outside fridges and such. It just feels like it.
Actually I quite like ice and snow, they’re far more interesting than sleet and grey clouds.
Can’t stand country music, BTW.
Stradbroke is great, especially in summer. fourex bitter I find better than VB, but not better than crown lager. its fourex gold that is hideous.
All the classic Carlton beers are being made in QLD now (around Yatala way) so soon the great ‘is XXXX crap’ debate will be over.
Tex was an interesting bloke. He had this whole other career in the US where he was very famous as Dr Robert Morton, a stage hypnotist. He might also have been the first in the fine tradition of us claiming NZ performers as our own.
In Perth we could do with a bit of snow and sleet, instead of the mind-numbingly hot and dry summers we normally experience.
Curious. I know someone who has had to do some weekly commuting to Perth, and apparently they are having unusually cold weather there now – even subzero, to hear tell. The largest problem is that not only are the buildings only designed for warmer temperatures, there are few heating systems or improvisations. When his family recently did a reverse commute, his wife reported that her husband (reverting to bachelor standards) had taken to wandering around carrying a fan heater with an extension cord.
Yes, we have had a recent cold snap. And yes, the town of Norseman south of Kalgoorlie did get a spot of snow and sleet at the time. But (?due to global warming), Perth’s rainfall has declined 20% since the mid-1970’s; a bit of a worry in a State that’s already too hot and dry.
Ah, sorry, I didn’t realise you were thinking of the water in the horrible weather, I was just thinking of the horrible part.
I enjoyed Goldcoastworld’s floods the other week. They were a beautiful simulation of the real thing for the first 2 days, and perfect on the last 2 as we were flooded into our resort. 3 weeks or so of chill weather and then it’s springtime in Melbourne, which hasn’t been particularly cold this year because of an absence of cold southerly wind.