So, after checking the weather, decided not to stay on the coast. After some Mexican food and a three hour drive inland  we parked the car on the side of the road and went to sleep. Several hundred other people had decided to do the same. 

I slept in the drivers seat. 

Woke up at four a.m. to see the Large and Small Magellanic through the windscreen (they're big wonderful smudgy galaxies).

Parked next to us were a Japanese couple. They started whizzing around at about 4 o'clock, setting up telescopes. They were wearing headlamps, so all I saw was a couple of technically able fireflies.

Here's the car silhouetted just as the sun Rose:

Here's what someone looks like standing next to a telescope after sleeping in a car:

Here's the view through said telescope just before totality (when the moon fully covers the sun)

And finally. YES. We saw the eclipse. Here's me photobombing it (6:40 in the morning. It was proper daylight ten minutes before):

It was actually one of the weirdest things I've ever seen and I've seen some weird stuff.
About fifteen minutes before totality it started getting darker and darker. The birds started singing their bedtime stories, and then suddenly, "POP": it was late dusk.
You could actually look directly at the sun. The big black circle of the moon hiding it and the chromosphere radiating out like a cheap but beautiful crepe flower. Basically it looked exactly like the pictures you've seen. But it was right in front of us hanging above the ground which is not the same as the pictures you've seen.
Then "POP": light exploded like when someone switches on the toilet light in a hotel room and you're trying to sleep.
This was actually an occasion for the word awesome!

Also: the weather cleared up in Cairns!