The Frog and Toad

Hi all,

Just a short note - like many others, I have been shocked and distressed by the stories and images as a result of the extensive flooding and devastation that has taken place throughout Queensland over the last few weeks. From the widespread flooding of Rockhampton and Far North Queensland, to the dramatic images from Toowoomba, the Lockyer Valley and of course the extensive coverage of the flooding in Brisbane, there are many who want to help by donating their time and money to the recovery efforts.

With floods affecting a large part of Queensland, as well as Northern New South Wales and now many parts of Victoria, the damage bill is estimated to be measured in the $billions, and recovery in some cases is estimated to take months, if not years. If you are able to assist by donating you time or by financial means it would go a long way towards assisting in these recovery efforts. Some of the vision I have seen of people volunteering their time to assist complete strangers throughout this crisis has brought tears to my eyes. Aussies in times of distress and destruction are indeed a wonderful people!

Many homes and businesses have been extensively damaged or completely destroyed, and many lives have suffered dramatic and traumatic consequences as a result of the devastation. If you are able to help, I have included some links below to some of the organisations where you are able to donate your time and / or money to assist people or businesses to get back on their feet.

I hope you have had a great Christmas this year. To be honest hasn't really been the best summer so far in many parts of Australia, but after years and years of drought, it has been a welcome relief to finally have some water. A little too much water now - I think many of us are thinking it would be nice if someone could turn the tap off so we could get back to enjoying summer..

However, there are still some good Aussie getaways to be had! We recently had the opportunity to head up to the Queensland Gold Coast for a bit of a pre-Christmas family getaway, which was a great time away. Somehow, I find it a really nice alternative to go away before Christmas - no maddening peak-holiday crowds, and it is a nice relaxing way to lead into the holiday season. And it is a lot cheaper!

So, we packed the car (yep - we drove!) and fuelled up for the drive up the coast. Stopped a night at Coffs Harbour - staying just 100m from the "Big Banana" (it's a bit sad to see the attraction past it's prime..) - before continuing the drive up to Surfers Paradise. I much prefer to take the 1hr 15min flight up, but it was nice to have the car while up there!

Anyhow, we decided not to do the over the top theme park thing this time, but did spend a day at White Water World (next to Dreamworld). Unfortunately we picked one of the two days it rained during the week we were on the coast, but had a great time. Would love to go back on a hotter day. Maybe next trip. Anyhow, the kids are 9 & 6, and the park offered something for everyone, so it was an awesome day.

Most of the stay was at Peninsula Apartments, which used to be the tallest building on the coast in the pre-Q1 days. Just a couple of blocks from Cavill Avenue, so quite a good location. In some ways it doesn't really matter where you stay - there are so many options these days with the skyline seemingly forever changing with an endless array of new developments. I must admit, we were left wondering when does it ever get to the point where there is too much development? Anyhow, our accommodation at Peninsula was on a high floor, so it was great to watch the summer storms out over the ocean!

Well, the old Frog and Toad website is slowly fading into internet history, and what a history it was.

Here's an excerpt from the original "About" page on the site. The figures have changed but the facts have not.

(Written in 2005)

After travelling around Australia on a motorbike, in 1999, the owners of FrogandToad realised the need for an Australian based web site for local and international tourists, holiday makers and the business community needing to travel within Australia. Initially their aim was to create a site thorough enough to meet the needs of those simply wanting to know about their travel destination, but over time, FrogandToad has developed into one of the most comprehensive Australian travel websites ever created - and it's about to get a great deal better.

Within five years, the Frogandtoad website has grown into one of the most comprehensive travel information site documents anywhere in the world today. Currently we boast over 5000 pages of information; thousands of carefully selected photographs; unique locality and regional services; a host of tourism ideas and traveller hints; discount and standby rate on-line booking pages; plus purpose designed and uniquely created advertiser pages and links.

Now if that wasn't comprehensive enough, Frogandtoad also contains a purposely created Australiana section that incorporates one of the best "Indigenous Australia" segments ever compiled. Written and compiled exclusively by Aboriginal people, this is a segment so unique, that it's constantly used by local students for school project material and by a host of other educational institutions for similar purposes throughout the globe.

In its current format, Frogandtoad has been dubbed a site without peer by many of those within similar industry groups both in Australia and internationally. Little wonder the site constantly attracts visitors from over 80 countries and generates around 2.5 MILLION HITS A MONTH.

 

Then again, what most people are not aware of, is that we get around the same amount of hits as do Australia's major national sites including See Australia, major national motorist sites such as the NRMA and RACV, and the major national motel sites such as Flag Choice (formerly Flag Motels) and Best Western websites. That makes our web site response amongst the TOP 10% OF WEBSITES WORLDWIDE (source = trafficranking.com).

Clearly, times have changed, and now our Frog and Toad has become Travel Around Australia. We hope you get what you need from this site and if there is something that you think we should have then please use the "Feedback" tab (on the left) and let us know.

Cheers for now,

Sean