Days 12-16

The last half of our stay in Brisbane has been much more eventful than the first half. For two days after we returned from the Gold Coast, we spent most of the time working at the library and in our rooms on our thesis research. This included a meeting with my thesis instructor, Anoop Sattininni. He was able to help me focus my research more and find ways to go about performing my research more effectively. His assistance in these matters will really come in useful as I really get in to the research I am doing here.

After the two work days, we spent a day going to the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary. This was definitely one of the most interesting trips we have taken. The sanctuary has a lot more than just Koalas, including Kangaroos, Dingoes, Wallabees and Echidnas. It was especially fun because, unlike the Taronga Zoo, we were allowed to go in to the habitats and interact with the animals, particularly the Kangaroo and Emu habitat. Feed was sold at a store in the park and we all went around and fed different Kangaroos, from babies to the larger males of the group. Some of it got a little weird, for example, Jason kissing one as he fed it.

Me hanging out with a Kangaroo buddy

The next day was also spent researching, with a bridge tour of the Brisbane river following in the afternoon. We walked across several of the 17 crossings of the river while our structures professor Michael Hein gave us some insight on the design and construction processes of the bridge. They were all interesting and had a lot of interesting history behind each design. My favorite bridge is a pedestrian bridge completed in 2010. It is considered a "tensegrity" structure, in which columns and cables, in compression and tension respectively, act as a unit to support the bridge deck. It appears as though the bridge is a tangled mess of wires and sticks, but miraculously they combine to carry the heavy load of the bridge across a great span.

Kind of looks like Spaghetti

Sunset over another bridge

Brisbane by night from the Story Bridge