As some of you will know, I’ve not been very mobile during the last couple of months or so. I really haven’t got out and about hardly at all of late. That’s a bit of a shame because I’ve missed the magnificent purple blooming of Australia’s jacaranda trees.
If you live in the UK or anywhere in Europe, you probably don’t know what a Jacaranda tree is. If you live somewhere with a more subtropical climate, like South or Central America, Asia, South Africa, Zimbabwe or, I imagine you knew this one was coming, Australia, then you’d know exactly what kind of tree I’m talking about.
For nine or 10 months of the year this tree is as boring as they come, but then late spring, around October to November, they explode into purple. I may have missed it this year, but with the magic that is known as Flickr Creative Commons, we can all now take a wonder around some of the streets and parks of Brisbane to enjoy some blooming jacarandas.
Purple rain indeed.
Just don’t park your car under one of the trees. Learn’t the hard way!!
I didn’t know, thanks for the tip 🙂
Hi Bob,
Thanks for posting that. What beautiful trees! I’ve been checking out your brilliant site for a while now and found it very useful.
The reason I’m getting touch is because my family and I are actually going to be moving to Brisbane in January (2016). The primary reason is that my son has been offered a place at the Glenleighden School in the Fig Tree Pocket area and there’s no equivalent in the UK for children his age so we thought we’d go for it.
I have Australian citizenship (& passport) by descent so we’re getting into the country that way, but because we’ve never been to Australia before – it’s a complete unknown – and we’re starting to swing madly from excitement to sheer terror and back again. Is there any advice you can offer to help with that and also, in terms of looking for places to live, do you know how badly the Fig Tree Pocket area was affected by the 2010 floods? Is it worth settling there or are we on a hiding to nothing if floods like that hit Brisbane again?
Thanks ever so much and thank you again for all the hard work and informative posts that go into this site. It’s already helped me to get my head around what to possibly expect.
Kind regards.
Alastair (from Canterbury in Kent)
Ah, yes, excitement and fear; moving to Australia is a bit like jumping over a wall are not really knowing what’s on the other side. It’s something you just have to work through, but if I can give you any advice on it, it’s embrace Australia, make new friends as soon as you can, get involved and get out and about. Don’t look back.
Fig Tree Pocket is a very nice area, but when it comes to flooding it doesn’t really work by areas or suburbs, but more by specific addresses. You can find out more if you read my post Brisbane and Queensland Floods: Should We Avoid Living There?
Be sure to check out the flood maps that I link to and specifically check any address before renting or buying. Good luck, I hope your move goes well. Bob