Fradam

I’ve just spent a sunny weekend up the coast, and whilst there, learnt a few random things about the land to the north.

• The speed limit for Learners is 110 km/h (in Sydney, it’s 80 km/h). It is debatable whether it is safer having 16 year olds doing 110km/h on a motorway, or having them driving at  80 km/h in the left lane (particularly in merging situations) is safer… but needless to say, discovering this on my last day certainly explained why so many cars were happy to sit right on my tail on the motorways. Good thing Queenslanders are renowned for being relaxed on the roads and all.
• You can’t do a U Turn at a set of lights, unless you see a specific sign indicating it is permitted. I’m sure it’s the other way round down here..
• This isn’t specific to Queensland, but I love Wikipedia to a fault - but need to be reminded every now and then to not simply believe everything I read there: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/05/07/wikipedia_jarre_hoax/
• It is possible to purchase adult cinema tickets, at full price, and be paying less than $8 - it wasn’t even tight Tuesday! Unheard of in Sydney.
• The expansion of the Gold Coast airport, in order to allow it to field more international flights, is in a southward direction, i.e. further into NSW. On my return back home, I drove from QLD, to NSW (entrance to airport), walked back to QLD (where the gate was), then flew across the border into NSW (in a plane!). All in the space of an hour or two. I consider myself now a seasoned traveller.

Keep your eyes peeled for more trivialities in my soon-to-be-published “Guide Book to QLD”.