I was reading my travel diary of our last trip last night and came across something we never asked and should have. When we were driving from Kuranda to Daintree, we came upon 9 Mile Road. This seemed curious to us in a country using Kilometres.

So, by chance, does anyone know the story of why there is a 9 Mile Road in Australia? Just Curious!

toucan, I think its just a hangover from our non-metric days. Metric measurements started to be introduced in Australia in 1966, I think. Further west between Ravenshoe("Ravens-ho", not "Ravenshoe" as some like to say) and Undara there's an area still known as the 40 Mile Scrub. Am sure there's plenty of other examples around the country.

Ah! I didn't now that Australia went through a conversion...guess I shouldn't have assumed they were always metric, eh? Thanks Pat.

We converted from pounds, shillings and pence to dollars and cents in 1966 - I guess that counts as the first step. The procedure was so painless, helped by careful planning and education campaigns, that the government was probably encouraged to go all the way, to metric weights and measures, in the 1970s.

Just as Americans sometimes still refer to cents as "pennies", there are hangovers from the old system, often because it some situations it's more convenient to think of something as 6 inches than 15 centimetres long, or describe a person as six feet tall rather than 183 cm. "14.5 Kilometre Road" is certainly not too snappy.

The key to successful conversion is to stop thinking in the old measures and doing conversions in your head. This is made easier when temperatures, for example, are never ever quoted in fahrenheit.

I must admit though that to this day I pump my car tyres to 30 psi.

Interestingly, when we drove in the US, even though miles are familiar to us, we had trouble getting out of the kilometre groove - you'd see a sign indicating that it was "50" to the next town, and even though intellectually you know what that means, and you could even tell yourself it's "really" 80 (km), it still seemed like an awfully long time to get there.

thanks Neil, I knew the currency conversion was Feb, 1966, can still remember the jingle, but couldn't remember how long after metric measurements were phased in.

toucan, you probably also went to 4-Mile Beach, at Port Douglas. That's a fairly unusual route you took from Mareeba to Daintree, did you visit Mareeba Wetlands? Notice from one of your previous posts you're a birdwatcher.

Well, we drove up the road to Mareeba Wetlands, but it was closed that day. But, even the road up had some good birdwatching, and it was where I saw my favorite, the Bustard! I loved them, they just strutted about. My husband is amused by my affection for them.

It's still over a year off, but I've been working a bit on our next trip, and have been looking at the Mareeba Wetlands. I didn't realize you could stay overnight there, so that is also a possibility.

That route, coming around from Cassowary House in Kuranda, was a really fun day. We stopped at a Rotary International Park in one small town while my husband birded, took the side trip up to the gate at Mareeba Wetlands, stopped at a blind somewhere I can't remember, and stopped in a roadside park where we had some of the best birding all day. It was fun to get off the beaten track as well.

What a shame, Toucan. Mareeba Wetlands are closed Monday and Tuesday, also in wet season, although they have special access arrangements for visitors staying at their Jabiru Camp. Over 200 species have been identified there including brolgas, saurus cranes, black-necked storks, red-tailed black cockatoos. Especially admire their efforts in re-introducing the incredibly colourful and endangered Gouldian finches back into the wild. I like bustards too, they pose well.

For those who are interested in wildlife (kangaroos, wallabies and other mammals), Mareeba Wetlands are only about one hour's drive from Cairns or Port Douglas. Its in typical outback savannah country,a total contrast to the nearby tropical rainforests. www.mareebawetlands.com

Yes, we definitely plan on going there on our next trip. We were disappointed to miss it, and are unsure how we missed checking on dates it was open. Ah well. The next question will be whether to actually stay overnight or not