April 28, 2026

Today, we traveled from the subtropical to the tropical part of Australia, initially heading to the climatic zone boundary - to Rockhampton, the 'beef capital' of Queensland, according to the guidebook. From the quaint little town of 1770 - with a great view of the Pacific - we continued north. We had to drive about 250 km, through much farmland, but dry pastures, with places still showing the 'scars' of fires. The cattle farms here are often smaller. Sometimes the owners come up with creative ideas for unique mailboxes, like this red cow in a photo. In the guidebook, we discovered that 35 km from Rockhampton, the crocodile farm 'Koorana Crocodile Farm' offers 2 tours a day, and we planned to join the second one at 1 PM. Since we arrived around 12 PM, we had enough time for a coffee and something to eat. We also had the chance to view the exhibits in the 'education section' at our leisure, including the crocodile skins on the ceiling, which are about 5 meters long. The young woman in the second photo then took us to some enclosures and provided a lot of explanations. In the white bucket are the halved chickens used to lure each crocodile to the fence. What did we learn? This farm has been around since 1981 and also breeds crocodiles that live in the area. In total, there are 3,000 freshwater and saltwater crocodiles as well as alligators, which are primarily marketed commercially. So we only saw a small fraction. They are kept in pairs in the enclosures for the tours and fed at that time. The seemingly sluggish animals display an unusual speed while eating. Their eggs are taken from the nests and incubated in hatching devices. The temperature determines whether the hatchling will be female or male. The tiny ones in the photos are 10 days old. 'Harley,' the 2.5-year-old croc for the photo shoot, patiently tolerated the attention. His mouth was tied shut because the teeth are already quite sharp. He prefers to eat chicken eggs. It takes a long time for a crocodile to reach 'slaughter weight'; it should be at least 4.5 m long and weigh at least 500 kg. The leather has its price: 1 cm costs 26 US dollars. They also had bags, wallets, and belts for sale. You can buy them here at the hotel as well. After that, we really headed to Rockhampton, first to visit St. Joseph's Cathedral, which took nearly 100 years to build. Then we went to the hotel on the 7th floor with a view of the city. We look out at the Fitzroy River, which, unfortunately, is not as beautifully blue as the Pacific.