The emu in the sky

We've had some very nice clear sky nights recently, so I took the opportunity to get out and photograph the emu. This is the Aboriginal constellation formed out of the dark patches in the Milky Way.

The emu head is the Coalsack - right next to the Southern Cross. The body stretches down from that, a fair way across the sky.

The Guringai people carved an engraving of this on a rock platform in the now Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park. When the emu in the sky lined up with the one on the rock, it was time to harvest emu eggs.




Our own traditional astronomy makes its constellations by drawing lines between stars. Here are the Cross, the Pointers, and Scorpius.



Below: a visitor posing in front of the Ku-ring-gai Chase engraving.



There's a nice little video on the emu in the sky, as understood by the Kamilaroi people, courtesy of the NSW Government. Go to this link and click on the video link.
http://lrrpublic.cli.det.nsw.edu.au/lrrSecure/Sites/LRRView/14145/14145_02.htm

Dick Smith and the lunacy of endless growth

Two hundred good citizens of Ku-ring-gai and other northern suburbs packed into Killara Uniting Church Hall this evening to hear the wise words of local hero Dick Smith. The event was organised by the Friends of Ku-ring-gai Environment (FOKE).

Dick is an entrepreneur, a round-the-world helicopter explorer, an energetic and outspoken living national treasure. He's been very vocal in recent times about excessive population growth, and the lunacy of conventional economics and mainstream politics, in their nonsensical advocacy of impossible perpetual growth. He explains very eloquently how this economic and environmental ponzi scheme helps only the 1% of super rich, while it wrecks the joint for all the rest of us.

Here's Dick's population website: http://dicksmithpopulation.com/

He's also starting a 'Dick Smith Think Tank', he said, called 'Fair Go For All' or something like that. Watch out for it. Someone suggested he should be more active on social media. He could do a fabulous job in my opinion, as a sort of anti-Trump on Twitter. Instead of a constant stream of top-of-the head Trumpian garbage, we would get bucketloads of outspoken wisdom.

Stop Adani week

It was 'Stop Adani Week' this week. And hopefully we will.

Just as the world accepts that it's time to phase out coal burning, that most of the fossil fuel still in the ground has to stay in the ground if we're not to wreck the joint totally......   along comes Adani - an Indian based multinational, chaired by billionaire founder Gautam Adani.

They have plans to build  the biggest coal mine in Australia - the Carmichael mine in Northern Queensland. It would threaten the already stressed Great Barrier Reef, trample on local Aboriginal land rights, and move the world quite a bit closer to runaway climate change.

It would create a few thousand jobs. Maybe. Though it would probably destroy more coal mining jobs in older New South Wales mines. (Not that I'm a great fan of NSW coal mines.) And there are many times more jobs waiting to happen in renewable energy, when it's set free to do what it's ready to do for us.

Amazingly, the Queensland and Australian governments  are wanting to help the project along, with massive multi-million dollar subsidies and accelerated approvals. (And I'm sure they've never been influenced by any donations they received from the industry!)

So as part of a nationwide effort, the Hornsby Ku-ring-gai Greens mobilised a mass movement of the people this week, to draw attention to the thing. They staged events at local train stations and parliamentarians' offices, and in probably a first ever, they marched en masse, from Pennant Hills to Cheltenham during today's afternoon peak hour. Drivers were asked to honk their support. And honk they did!

Pictures all stolen from Hornsby Ku-ring-gai Greens Facebook page. See more: HKRG Greens Facebook

Eats mates and bushwalkers

A lot of female spiders do indeed eat their mates. In this case the male Golden Orb Weaver is yet to be eaten. He's the tiny little speck just above the much bigger female spider. The bushwalkers stopped just in time to avoid being entangled in the web we stumbled on during our Blue Mountains bushwalk last week.

Crisscross Spur and the Five Ladies

Another epic walk by my Thursday Survey bushwalking adventure group.

Crisscross Spur and the Five Ladies are spectacular and scenic land formations within the Blue Mountains National Park. (Despite the sign in the picture about the Wollemi wilderness - the Wollemi NP is a few kilometres further north). We're about 20km north-east of Clarence, and approached via the Glowworm Tunnel Road and Waratah Ridge Road.








Leader Harold, pointing out the Five Ladies from Crisscross Spur.

We hit upon a viable way down off Crisscross Spur, to the fire trail below, and continued on to the Five Ladies.

The Five Ladies are a series of excellent pagoda-rich rocky hilltops. We clambered up and over every one of them. Here we are having lunch on Number 2 Lady.

This fine dining table formation was atop the fifth one.






Everywhere you look, it's wild pagoda country.

Under the Southern Cross I stand

Apparently, it's the Australian cricket team's victory song ("with a sprig of wattle in my hand" etc). But that's not the Southern Cross' fault.

Here it is, complete with Pointers, power pylon, and a hint of Milky Way, taken from Sydney's northern suburbs, and suffering inevitably from a fair bit of light pollution. Compare the Milky Way's visibility with that from a few weeks ago out in the bush, here: http://sydneysapiential.blogspot.com.au/2017/04/kanangra-skies.html 

Jinki and Jungaburra

Not the names of my two pet koalas, but two great bushwalking ridges near Bell in the Blue Mountains.

My bushwalking adventure group were there recently, and were delighted at how accessible was this rather spectacular scenic walk, previously unknown to most of us.

There was a bit of rock scrambling and ascending of cliffs with the aid of metal steps. But rock-climbing wasn't actually required. The climbers we came across were another intrepid group.

I'm forever amazed at how many wild and spectacular places there are to explore within an hour or two's drive of Sydney. Let's hope they keep coming.