With more heat in the north (I'd had enough) and a cyclone coming towards Carnes, it was onto Brisbane!

Like Perth, Brisbane is back from the sea, on appropriately enough, the Brisbane River -- a winding river with a myriad of pedestrian bridges and express ferries. Population 2.28 million (Perth is about 1.98 million)

A mix of some old, historic buildings and A LOT of new ones with more going up!

Fun night out walking the south bank of the river, capturing Brisbane at night ...

Sun setting, lights just starting to come on ...

17 minutes later and night has settled in on Brisbane

The South Bank on the left ... wonderful waterfront area to walk the entire length of Brisbane with a number of pedestrian bridges connecting downtown with the South Bank.

Part of my time in Brisbane was spent attending the QODE (pronounced "code") -- a tech conference featuring new innovation and technology ... especially interested/terrified by the presentations on AI ...

Believe it or not -- a meatless burger! One of the presenters was an entrepeneur in the emerging meatless-meat market and invited me to join his group for a taste! It was delicious!

From Brisbane I ventured north towards the southern tip of the Barrier Reef -- Hamilton Island in the Whitsundays...

Sunrise - Hamilton Island Reef

Not a bad view to wake up to!

Most of the accomodations are clustered on this north shore...

Like Hawaii, but not! Different vegetation and soo many more islands (79) of the Whitsundays to visit

Whitehaven Beach

Popular with seagulls and humans alike -- its brilliant white sand is among the purest in the world!

I took my hat off to the beach and for the selfie (and then quickly put it back on!)

On my last morning, got down to the beach for the predawn sky ...

1/2 hr later and the clouds had rolled in -- a good time to leave this tropical paradise and head back to Sydney ... See you there!