This photo is actually from the field trip day, but includes most of our group. Lea Giles-Peters, the State Librarian is on the left. Her staff organized this whole trip, although she was not able to go with us, sadly. Next is Alissandra Cummins, President of ICOM and a delegate to UNESCO's World Heritage Committee; Julien Anfruns, Director-General of ICOM and President of Blue Shield International. Standing are Amar Galla and Olivia Robinson, both of whom you've heard about before.
We arrived mid-afternoon, and were in two separate hotels. (This would be a theme, as Shannon and I were constantly unable to book in the same places owing to our government per diem limits. We stayed in fine places, it just made travel and meeting a bit more adventurous.) That afternoon, she and I visited the Aboriginal Cultural Centre and Gallery, and had a walk. We met the group, which also included Alissandra's cousin Connie from Atlanta, and Julien's fiancée Min-Jung Kym, a professional pianist based in London, for a wonderful seafood dinner. This is where I first had Moreton Bay Bugs. (They're shellfish, something bigger than a shrimp and smaller than a lobster, and very tasty.)
We spied these birds sitting on the dock building as we were heading over to meet the group for dinner.
Hmm. Big beetle. For a country that is renowned for things that can kill you, it was refreshing to see small, relatively harmless things like beetles.
Our meeting the next morning was at the Museum of Tropical Queensland, part of the Queensland Museum system. They do extensive work with the Great Barrier Reef World Heritage Area, and they also border on the Wet Tropics World Heritage Area. The museum has dinosaurs and coral, rainforest and shipwrecks. It's rather interesting.
No, not a T-Rex, but certainly a meat-eater. There are many dinosaur fossils found in Australia.
The Pandora was the ship sent to find the Bounty and its mutinous crew. The main exhibit upon entering is a replica of the prow. These cutouts help to show how the ship would have been used. I liked this use of space and structure. Below, the rest of the ship is recreated in outline form on the carpet.
More from the exhibit, including showing how underwater archaeology is conducted. Much of this work was done onsite at the museum. That's impressive, as the needs related to changing pressures, mineral composition, deterioration from air exposure, etc. are quite challenging.
There are lots of good examples and exhibition materials about corals here. In the rainforest section, there's a big walk-through area geared to making kids rainforest detectives and helping them to understand the myriad adaptations in these ecosystems.
The museum has one of the premier collections of underwater suits and masks. Some of them are remarkable! And it's fun to see how they changed over time too.
Yes, you know how I like signs.
And this shot is from the Board room. This one entire wall is glass, looking out into the museum. Quite spectacular.
After this meeting, we brought the whole group to the Cultural Centre, and then we hit the road for Cairns, a few hours drive north.
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