Hiking the South East Queensland Coast

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BRISBANE, Australia is the home of Walkabout Jeff. It is a subtropical city in the southern hemisphere along the middle of Australia's east coast. Brisbane has two nearby sattelite cities, Sunshine Coast to the north, and Gold Coast to the south, along with several other smaller nearby cities. The Brisbane River, the largest flowing into the east coast, runs through the city centre. The area bound by the Brisbane River, Gold and Sunshine Coasts make up South East Queensland, where Walkabout Jeff lives.

Being in a subtropical location, South East Queensland does not have the dramatic changes in season as seen in the temperate latitudes, with hot sunny weather and bright greens and blues in summer, fiery autumn colours in autumn, the whites, greys and blacks of winter, and the vibrant colours of the spring flowers. South East Queensland does not have these seasons, but the changes here are more subtle. The summers are very warm and humid bringing much of the annual rainfall. This continues into autumn as the temperature gradually cools into the sunny cool days of winter with its westerly winds at the start and end of the season. The last of the winds bring the very dry spring dry season before the late spring to early thunderstorms bring their destructive winds and rains. In the absence of deciduous trees, the vegetation shows little change as the year progresses.

Australia is surrounded by 32,000 kilometres of some of the most beautiful coastline on the planet. The journey Walkabout Jeff takes hiking the length of the South East Queensland Coast only covers 1100 kilometres, or around 3% of the coast. The trek takes place over 52 days, each day representing one week of the year, where details are given about what is happening over that week, the season, the weather, the sunrise and sunset. You'll notice the days start and finish early due to the easterly location of the coast in the timezone, and the lack of daylight saving, where even in the middle of summer, the sky is dark by 7:15PM.

Captured over 3 years and 136 different hikes all stringed together to give a 52 day weekly snapshot of the entire year and the entire length of the South East Queensland coast. Perhaps this trek will inspire you to come over sometime and visit the cities and beaches of South East Queensland.