A Dust Storm, a Conference and the Flu on the Gold Coast

Shortly after returning from our trip to Canberra, I left for the Gold Coast to attend the Australian Fire Authorities Council (AFAC)/Bushfire CRC annual conference.  I had been looking forward to this trip for weeks, both because the conference sounded pretty neat, and because the Gold Coast has a reputation for being something like Florida (e.g. warm and sunny, which appeals to Melbournians about this time of year).

I have to say, the trip ended up being one of those where everything that could go wrong did, but the trip was still great anyway.  Things started off easily enough.  I successfully navigated public transportation to the airport (which is easy – it’s a straight shot from downtown) and we arrived at Coolangatta airport right on time.  I then caught another bus to Broadbeach, which is where my hotel and the conference were.  Then came the first hitch.  The hotel had no clue who I was.  Since I hadn’t handled the reservations myself (the Bushfire CRC kindly took care of all the travel arrangements for me), I was temporarily at a loss.  As it turned out, they had changed my reservation at the last minute, so I was booked at another hotel three blocks away.  No big deal.

So, I walked to the new hotel and checked in, feeling a little antsy because I knew I had already missed the opening ceremonies for the conference, and was due at a student dinner shortly thereafter.  Fortunately, while checking into my room my friend Briony showed up in the lobby and told me what the plan was and where to meet her.  So, I ran upstairs to change real quick, but as I was running out the door my damn shoe broke.  Not a huge setback, I recovered and was only moderately late to the dinner, which was great.  I got to meet all of the students the CRC is supporting in their doctoral research, and they were all very friendly.

Once I got back to my hotel, though, I wasn’t feeling so hot.  I’d been feeling like I might be getting a cold back in Melbourne, and the following morning, my suspicion was confirmed.  I was definitely sick.  But, I showered and made it to the conference with a roll of toilet paper hidden in my bag to take care of my runny nose.  I was keeping it together pretty well through the sessions, which were all interesting.

Then, as we filed out of the conference rooms for morning tea, we looked out the windows and everything was reddish-brown.  You could barely make out the buildings across the street.  Apparently, one of the largest dust storms in the past 70 years had just hit.  It originated in central Australia, and swept across New South Wales and Queensland the following day.  All of the flights into and out of the area were canceled, and everything had an eerie look to it.  As far as I could tell, the storm didn’t affect the conference proceedings at all, though on my short walk back to the hotel the dust made my already aggravated body even angrier.  By the time 7pm rolled around, I was in bad shape, which was unfortunate because there was a gala dinner that night.

My cold (or what was starting to feel more like the flu) be damned, I went to the dinner, which was pretty amazing.  Having just gone through planning a wedding, I have a whole new appreciation for what catering and decorating an event like that takes, and the conference sponsors held nothing back.  The food was excellent, and the entertainment, which included a band, a couple of aerial gymnasts and a comedian were all great…well, actually the comedian wasn’t so good.  Actually he was terrible.  But the other two were very good.

Amazingly, the storm had completely blown over by the next morning, and it was a perfect day outside.  After the conference ended, I took a walk down the beach before catching the shuttle back to the airport.  No matter how crappy I may have felt by then, it was impossible not to appreciate how beautiful the scenery was.