Description
Our island home is situated near the newly created City of Redland( We changed from a Shire to a City in April 2008) which is in the south eastern corner of Queensland, Australia. We are within 10 minutes walking distance of the water taxi which travels regularly between the islands and Redland Bay.
The house is built entirely of cypress wood. It has a large veranda upstairs overlooking the islands of Moreton Bay, with a direct view of Karragarra Island and North Stradbroke Island.
Our upstairs accommodation consists of an open plan lounge with covered deck, kitchen and study, with a computer which connects to the internet. The large main bedroom has an en suite bathroom and walk in wardrobe. While lying in bed, you can watch the sun rise over Stradbroke Island and listen to the dawn chorus.
Downstairs there is a second bedroom, living room, bathroom, laundry and a sheltered deck.
The house has all amenities including modern kitchen appliances, dishwasher, washing machine, 50 inch plasma TV, DVD player and CD player. On the top veranda overlooking the bay there is a heated spa bath and gas barbeque.
Our garden contains many indigenous plants and shrubs, specially chosen to attract the local bird life – sulphur crested cockatoos, rainbow lorikeets, plovers, curlews, galahs, kookaburras, to name a few.
Neighborhood
The island is about 40 km from Brisbane, the capital of Queensland, and is accessible by water taxi from Redland Bay. The journey takes about 20 minutes across Moreton Bay on comfortable catamarans leaving the mainland regularly. Our island is the largest of the bay islands, which comprise Russell, Macleay, Lamb and Karragarra Islands. The population of Russell Island is around 2000 depending on the time of year, as a large number of houses are only occupied during the holiday season or weekends. The island is equipped with amenities such as a Doctor’s surgery, a hairdresser and a number of shops, service clubs and a restaurant. A new small shopping centre is currently being built (scheduled for completion in June 2008) and a public swimming pool will be opened in April . Russell Island is the ideal base from which to explore the other islands or the mainland. The famous Gold Coast and Surfers Paradise are within a 45 minute drive south of Redland Bay and the Sunshine Cost is a 90 minute drive north. Alternately you may just want to go Brisbane for some serious shopping, the museums, restaurants, theatres or the casino. The local area can be explored with public transport by getting a bus from Redland Bay to Cleveland within 25 minutes. From Cleveland you can take the train to the centre of Brisbane and be in the fastest growing city in Australia. That is, if you want to - we moved to Russell Island to get away from the hustle and bustle of the major city
About Us
Rudi is a retired Automotive Service Manager and Cherryl is the Director Information Management(retired) with Queensland Health. We have two grown sons who live and work locally.
We own a small local business (an Internet cafe) which is operated by our younger son.
Cherryl originates from just outside London in England, Rudi from Frankfurt in Germany, and we travelled across Africa during 1980 finally settling in Cape Town where we had our children. We lived in Cape Town for 8 years then migrated to Australia in 1989.
We love living in Australia however we still want to see more of the world. We plan to spend at least a few years exchanging homes and we both enjoy travelling, reading, movies, and did we mention travelling?
When we are not exchanging homes or enjoying life in our island home, we take off in our off-road caravan to explore some of the many beautiful locations around Australia.
Destination
We have already secured home exchanges in Germany from June and Canada from 22 July through September 2008. Our House would be available for a non-simultaneous during this period or any other time
