Posted By Timothy Capner Dear Skippy Rub it in why dontcha! Have fun and keep us posted. Cheers Tim C

Posted By Marc Hi, Could you please let me know what kind of regs they have over there for governing FLT operating, also do they have anything similar to our RTITB Marc..

Posted By Richard Spencer Bryn – so you’ve decided to become a Banana Bender (nickname for Queenslanders) That means you’ll be supporting the reds at the state of origin and drinking fourex beer (they reckon the four xxxx is because Queenslanders can spell beer ha, ha!) You seem to be right at home, goodon’ya mate. Well you’ll now have to ‘slap on the sunscreen, put on the shades and slap on a hat’, because the sun can get fierce, particularly if you’re not accustomed to it. You’ll be right, my three kids grew up in Queensland they had a ball. My oldest is a high school teacher in Jurien Bay WA, the youngest is a medical scientist at the Monash medical centre in Melbourne and the other guy stayed in Qld and is living in Kallangur, which is about 30minutes north of the city. I also have a good friend working on the Gold Coast and he bought property back from the coast and toward Brisbane. Personally I spent 5 years working in Gladstone and 2 years working in Cairns far north Qld. I worked for Queensland Transport Marine Division as a Shipping Inspector out of the Cairns office. Most days were monitoring the catamaran’s going too and from the reef. So equipped with ‘docksiders’, shorts, tee shirt, dive bag and brief case I went to work monitoring the safety requirements of these vessels and their crew. I would monitor the vessel on the way-out about 1 ½ to 2 hours depending on where it went, complete the inspection at the pontoon on the reef, do two dives, get full seafood lunch, and chat with the master on the way back to Cairns, “ah those were the days”. When you get a chance in the coming years, take a trip to Cooktown and the Daintree it’s quite interesting. There are some nice island holiday resorts also and not that expensive if you have a family, for instance around the Whitsunday’s and here are lots of hotels in Cairns and Townsville. Although for me as a keen SCUBA diver I prefer the Reef and Cairns. I remember back in 2000 being on a reef drift dive on the outer reef and being followed back to the boat by a white tipped reef shark. At the time I didn’t know it but the dive master who was ahead of me saw it come to the back of the boat and check me out. Well what they say in the advertising blurb is “Ah Queensland beautiful one day, perfect the next”. I’m sure you’ll ‘give it your best shot’. Regards Richard