A small island tale...

The island states in the world represent - I remember this number - one-half of 1 percent of the carbon emissions in the world. And they will - some of them will disappear. Steven Chu.

In Moreton Bay, just south of Brisbane, lies the shining jewel of Brisbane, Coochimudlo. Her glory is a little tawdry & tarnished these days; too many people discovered her & thought they could improve upon what God had wrought but I remember the glory days! Living where I do you'd think I'd be over islands but they hold an eternal fascination for me. I just don't want to be on one when Armageddon begins.


Coochie is tiny. You can walk around the whole island in about 1/2 an hour. Even dawdling it couldn't possibly take you longer than an hour. Some farsighted person ensured that no~one was allowed to build on the foreshores so all the foreshore is public space & the island is girded by it's sand & trees & the rich red volcanic soil that will grow any seed that has the good fortune to fall into it.

Coochie is beloved of artists & has a thriving art community. It is pretty & cossetted & still a pleasant day trip but I miss the old Coochie. I'm pretty sure no~one who actually lives on Coochie misses the old days & I'm pretty sure my mother would think the new, modern Coochie an improvement.

See we holidayed there once when I was a child. Before there was electricity ~ or sewerage ~ or bitumen roads when you had to remember to prime the generator if you wanted electricity to cook dinner & no~one drove anywhere because all the roads were sandy tracks between big old trees.

Coochie still has a church. Last time I visited, when Ditz was small, I had trouble finding the church. The church I remembered was at the end of one of those long sandy tracks surrounded by acres of bushland & the big plate window behind the alter framed the most wonderful view of God's creation. The church I found is a museum piece. Whoever now owns it refuses to allow it to be used as a church but visitors can creep into the silence & sit awhile in the dim & dusty peace though very few bother. The window behind the alter still frames a wonderful view but it is somewhat spoiled by the knowledge that houses press up close on either side & cars whirr past on the bitumen road outside.

I notoriously sailed backwards around Coochie. *shrugs* As a Sydney girl where a breeze actually mean wind for your sails I had very little experience of places where tides were stronger than your breeze.

And then there was the swimming. Sub~tropical summer beaches; tepid blue waters; sun & sand , salt water & kids. We swam every day off one of the more secluded beaches to be away from the throngs, within sight of a very large, very red buoy. Only as we were leaving did local residents inform us that the buoy was a notorious shark breeding ground!

Matthew Flinders notoriously landed on Coochie, the first white man to do so anywhere in Queensland. He was looking for rivers that would give access to the inland, a vain hope given the Great Dividing Range but no~one knew that back then. However his sloop, the Norfolk, navigated & charted the waters of Moreton Bay & his historic landing is re~enacted each year on the Sunday closest to July 19th, which is the day he landed in 1799.

For my insatiably curious Canadian friend [& anyone else interested] in all things Australian I hope the link works for you. It will also tell you what the name means ☺ Enjoy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lpyB6BrYFXE