That looks an absolute blast to ride. What a fantastic city Brisbane must be! Image kindly supplied by Trevor Brown

Oh to have trains with this much space for bikes! Image kindly supplied by Trevor Brown.

Yes, looks sensible. Life in Aus, eh? Great photo supplied by Trevor Brown.

Nice ride – clean, too! Image kindly supplied by Trevor Brown.

What a remarkable structure – and oh for such an azure sky… Image supplied by Trevor Brown.

The Brownhills Blog has readers all over the world – not just here in the UK, but it reaches ex-pats and families from places as disparate as Africa, Canada, South America, Russia, India and even a few in Australia, including long time friend of the blog Trevor ‘Hovis’ Brown, who’s sorely missed in The Wood amongst his former schoolmates and friends.

Trev hasn’t been enjoying the best of health over the last couple of years, but like me, he’s a keen cyclist and I’m glad to see he still gets out and about around Brisbane where he lives.

A video and some photos have reached me via David Evans who’s getting a real whizz with digital media these days, and as the cold, short days return I feature Trevor’s material here. So much to dream of – those wide, traffic-free cycleways; the atmosphere; the waterfront. Thos trains you can get all the bikes on!

And oh, for that sun. How sweet that would be right now.

Trevor wrote:

Hi Bob,

I don’t know what I am doing but young David Evans has asked me to try this little project, Its about biking and bike culture here and in Brisbane, I have told David that you might not want to do this has its nothing to do with your Blog, I won’t be offended at all if your think the idea is wrong for you,

I have enclosed a few photos, no.1 is our new cycle bridge along the Brisbane River that’s near completion, it replaces one that was washed away in the 2011 floods, It connects the river City cycling track with the rest of the bike tracks, more to my point it saves riding up two very steep hills!

Photo 2, I thought you would like this notice that the council erected some years ago I think it must relate to a cctv camera, or perhaps Walsall Council made a donation…

Photo  3 is our bikes on the train into the city – 5 grand kids with me and my kids, nine of us altogether.

Photo 4 is my bike, and photo no 5 is a new bridge over the Brisbane River for us bikers.

David surgested that I could write a bit about the different riding conditions that we encounter here in Aussie compared to back home, so can you let me know sometime,

Cheers Bob,
Trev (Hovis) Brown

Trev, as a son of The Wood, and as a fellow cyclist, I’d love to feature anything you’d like to write. Your cycling life looks so, so different to mine, and I’m sure plenty or my fellow velocipedean readers would love to read your stories too.

That’s a great steed you have there, and we’d love to hear of your adventures with it and your family. What’s it like in the hills around there? They seem quite legendary…

Brisbane seems to be a bit keener to build infrastructure for it’s cyclists that anywhere here, too. Wow!

Get well soon old chap, and when you’re feeling up to it, please do share more of what seems to be a wonderful cycling life in a way more temperate clime!