Life in Toowoomba

Toowoomba is a city of about 100 000 people located approximately 2 hours west of Brisbane. It is situated on the Great Dividing Range and is 700 meters above sea level. Toowoomba is a unique place in Australia because it combines the best of Queensland - the warmth and sunshine with the welcoming and liveable climate of a mountain city. It is very famous for its gardens, waterways and beautifully maintained parks, though Jodi often comments it should be the "Windy City", not the "Garden City". Unlike many places, Toowoomba usually has 4 distinct seasons, though recent years have seen longer and drier summers and short springs. The name is Aboriginal, believed to derive from Tawampa (swamp), Woomba Woomba (reeds in the swamp), or Toowoom (Aboriginal term for a native melon growing here).

Just a block away from our house is a beautiful park and playground and, as is the case all over Australia, it is thick with stands of gum trees, or eucalyptus. Every park has tons of benches and picnic tables and the larger ones have public BBQs and covered eating areas. On weekends and fine-weather days, these are hard to snag, so you must get there early. Many people cook Sunday breakfast here, for example, and then picnic in the park all morning. Gorgeous views over the Range (top photo) can be had from Picnic Point and a lovely lagoon serves as yet another place for all kinds of birds from larakeets to cockatiels at Lake Annand Park.

Our house is just about two years old and is very comfortable. It sits on a small crescent in a part of Toowoomba called Rangeville. Like so many other homes, it is a rancher with a brick exterior. Most interiors make extensive use of tile and there are typically no furnaces providing forced air heat. While dryers are in most homes, they are rarely used as the sun is so much more effective at drying clothes. None of the dryers are vented, though, so when you do need to use one, it is a hot and humid endeavour! Roofs are usually metal, occasionally tile, though tile roofs are a hazard when hail comes. You can see the mailbox out on the front corner of the lawn. Mail is typically delivered by a postie on a motorbike. They drive right up onto sidewalks to hand deliver the mail. If you look at the edge of the curb, you will see it is stained red. That is because the soil here is deep reddish-brown. Once it gets in your socks or into your running shoes, it is next to impossible to get out! You can bleach, soak and wash, but the colour remains. We're grateful that Hannah's uniform is dark blue!

Hannah loves her room! Jo was very thoughtful and left a collection of stuffies and knicknacks for Hannah's enjoyment. We have all settled in well and are adjusting to life here. We spend a lot of time outdoors, whether it be playing, cooking, or eating. When we arrived, those outdoor times were limited to early in the morning as the temperatures regularly soared to the high thirties, but now that fall has arrived, the leaves are turning, mornings are crisp, and the overnight lows go down to about 10 degrees. The difference is that daytime highs are still in the low twenties! Winter weather will bring colder temperatures and a sharp wind, which makes it seem colder still.

Our house is in a new subdivision which is adjacent to a large bird sanctuary. Hannah enjoys opportunities to feed the birds and we are making an effort to get out and about as often as possible. The weather here has been very dry; however, afternoon thunderstorms occur once in a while. Most of Australia is in severe drought and many communities have extreme water regulations. Houseowners often collect rain water to irrigate gardens and some people will even use collected water to flush toilets. In fact, all new houses being built now must put in tanks to store rainwater.
Our first morning here, we were awoken by the sound of a lawn mower. A garden service had been hired to cut the lawn during the period between Jo and Phil's departure and our arrival. With Hannah's curriosity and propensity to pick up things while playing , we asked the guy mowing to provide a brief overview of insects and reptiles of which we should be aware. He was promptly able to show us a red back spider living in one of the potted plants on the patio! Apparently their bite will send you to hospital in severe pain and can be fatal to the very young. He informed us that there weren't too many snakes about as they prefer quieter environments, but there is a brown snake we should be aware of called the Common Brown Snake. I immediately wondered why it is called the Common Brown Snake if there aren't too many about? Since the start of school, many a student has also told us about losing household pets, usually cats, to bites by common browns. Sort of like our coyotes, I suppose, but much more deadly.