Nicholas Crowe
Nicholas Crowe is a 2nd year student, currently taking part in a fieldwork trip to Australia, as part of his International Tourism Management & Consultancy (ITMC) studies at NHTV, Breda University in The Netherlands. This blogpost is a personal account of his perspectives and experiences during his time in Australia.
It’s an odd feeling looking back at the past 3 weeks or even the days back in Breda. It seems like a lifetime away although we’ve only been by ourselves for a net 10 days. After the last scheduled part of the trip, the tour of Brisbane Airport (which was very interesting btw), every group set of on their own, towards their selected destination.
North Stradbroke Island was only about a 1 hour train-trip from Central Brisbane, which might seem a fair distance by Dutch standards, but is nothing more than a skip for Australians. However, the Island was only reachable by ferry so we ended up waiting for quite a while during which we started collecting information about the island. The two charming ferry service employees were very helpful in providing us with first-hand information as they had both been living on the island for over 20 years. Turns out that Straddie, considering its proximity to Brisbane, is still a very isolated place and is treasured as such by the locals. This impression was also further confirmed by many of our future interviews, although some business operators expressed concerns about the extreme seasonality on the island.
North Stradbroke Island
After arriving on the island we took a bus up to our actual living destination where we had rented a house for the duration of our stay. Unfortunately we quickly discovered that we had made a mistake and had booked the house for a day later than needed. So we had to find an alternative accommodation for the night until the house was vacant and ready the next morning. While that was a bit of a bummer at first, we used the opportunity to explore the beaches of the Island and “oh my god” was it a view. Immediately after setting our eyes of those isolated, yet beautiful beaches did we know why people came to this island. We latter learned that the sand on Straddie was in fact so fine and delicate that it was also the prime industry on the island, next to tourism. I hadn’t been aware of the fact that sand was actually mined in such a fashion, until I saw it on North Stradbroke Island.
Anyhow, during the following days we visited all the “attractions” the island had to offer, including a small national park and a “brown lake”, consisting of sweet water saturated by the surrounding tea trees, giving it a very unique brown look and smell. During this time we tried to talk to as many locals and tourists as possible, constantly enhancing our understanding and conception of the island.
Island Walk
I’m now writing this on our last full day on the island. We’re just taking down some final notes from our interviews yesterday just to make sure we remember it all once we get back home. While the 10 days together as a group were very enjoyable I think I can safely say that all of us will enjoy some personal space during the final chapter of this trip.
I’ll probably be on the road hitchhiking up north past the sunshine coast and just see how far I can get before needing to head back to Brisbane in order to catch our return flight home.
See ya then!
