Saturday, July 16, 2022
Tanks a Lot
If you have any interest at all in military history, you must visit the Australian Armor and Artillery Museum at Smithfield, just north of Cairns. This is a huge shed full of tanks, mobile artillery, personnel carriers and field guns from around the world. The vehicles are mostly from WW2 or later. Over 100 are on display and many others are being restored. I will not name all of ones in these pictures for you (because I don't know all of them). The second one is important for Australian history. It is the Sentinel, the first tank designed and built in Aus. Only a few were built because tanks from the US were soon available. There are many signs forbidding climbing on the exhibits but we all know that they only apply to people, not small bears.
Labels: army, Cairns, museum, tanks
Saturday, July 09, 2022
Fishy Business 2
Here are a few more of the fish. The ugly one hiding in the third image is a Stone Fish. If you tread on one of these it is agonizing, so we wear beach boots when wading in tropical waters. In row 2 there is a puffer fish. Scare one of these and it blows up into something that looks like a spiky football.The spotty one in the second row is a Moray eel. The one in the bottom row is a small leopard shark, pretty and harmless. There are some big lobsters and really blue crayfish, also crabs but I don't like them. There is also a section with tropical reptiles. You may not like lizards but I do. The displays in the aquarium are great, but the behaviour of visiting schoolkids was not. Hordes of screaming and yelling munchkins made some of our visit a bit unpleasant. Still worth the visit though.
Labels: animals, Cairns, fish
Saturday, July 02, 2022
Fishy Business
Cairns has a new aquarium. I love aquariums because it is the one way
that I can get close to fish; Mum just will not let me snorkel. There
are some huge tanks in the complex, full of corals, colourful fish and
well-fed sharks and rays. Some of the huge tanks have seats where you can sit and watch the fish. There are also tunnels where you can see them swimming all around and over you. Coral fishes are very pretty, like the angel, parrot and lion fishes in row 2. There are also some dull-coloured whoppers like the blue grouper at the bottom; I have patted one of these which weighed over 250Kg. Other marine life is included, like this little pig-nosed turtle. And of course, being tropical Australia, there are (small) salt-water and fresh-water crocs. The entry to the crocodile area is past this life-sized monster that Dad is rescuing me from. Well worth visiting if you are in Cairns and love marine critters.
Labels: animals, Cairns, fish
