Time to turn up the power

Solar power, that is.

My 3 kilowatt system has been proving its worth for nearly three years now. But there's room for another 2 kilowatts worth of panels on the roof.

Thursday was the big day. Up go the panels.

And in go the batteries. 11.4 kilowatt hours worth. Batteries are the contentious bit. I'm not usually an early adopter of technology, but I clearly am here. Batteries are still a little on the expensive side. Payback periods are still of the order of 10 - 15 years, so most people are waiting a bit longer for the prices to come down further. Some will probably be waiting for the promised battery rebates that were announced the very same day by the soon-to-be-back-in-power Labor Government.

I decided not to wait though. The real value will be in saying goodbye to household debates about heaters, coolers, and thermostat settings. Sydney's usually a bit too cool or a lot too hot. We plan to be comfortable from now on.

And somebody has to have an energy policy. Our current federal government certainly doesn't. 

Thornleigh to Parramatta via the scenic route

 

I led a group of bushwalkers on one of my classic walks the other day. We did Thornleigh to Parramatta, not along busy Pennant Hills Road, but mostly along a series of bushland corridors. You can do this sort of thing all over Sydney.

It had rained overnight, and the Darling Mills Creek was a little higher than usual. Some of the creek crossings were a little challenging, but it takes a lot to stop the All Nations Bushwalkers. The same couldn't be said for some of the other groups we encountered. One group stood transfixed as they watched us show them how it's done. They stayed transfixed there too, and didn't follow us.





Another challenging creek crossing, and some of the party opted for a less conventional technique.

And what about this for a barrier? It's the 'North Rocks Dam', officially the Loyalty Road Flood Retarding Basin. It was built about 20 years ago to protect Parramatta from floods, by slowing the flow after extreme rainfall events. So far it's never really been tested, but one day it will be.

The retarding tunnel through which the creek flows, serves also as the walkway for bushwalkers, most of the time at least.

It was a little bit wet in there this time, but fortunately quite negotiable.

You emerge out the other side, and tip-toe along a narrow walkway, before heading up a concrete stairway to dry land above.

Then it's on again downstream, past some striking sandstone cliffs. The suburb of North Rocks was named after one of the local sandstone outcrops, from which the stones for Parramatta Gaol and Lake Parramatta Dam were sourced.

















There's a bit of a weed infestation going on in some spots. Needs a bit of attention from a Bushcare group maybe.

Here's Lake Parramatta. When I'd first heard of it, I'd thought it must be something within Parramatta Park. But no, it's an entirely separate place, a few kilometres to the north. It's got a cafe. picnic and barbecue facilities, and a swimming area. And it's very popular on sunny Sunday afternoons.



Below: my intrepid group 

Some photos courtesy Paul Monaghan & Molly Huang

Burnie - (once were?) City of Makers (and platypuses)

The North-West Tasmanian city of Burnie is trying hard to cash in on Tasmania's tourist bonanza. It's promoting itself as the 'City of Makers'.

It certainly once was a city of makers. It made most of the country's fine paper for a while, at one of the country's biggest paper mills, located through most of the area in the picture above. I used to work there, in the Research Laboratory, back in the days when research, and science generally, were still thought worth the effort (rather than just exporting woodchips or other raw materials).

I found that where the main paper machine building used to be, there's now a Bunnings Warehouse! It's a pretty big and impressive Bunnings Warehouse, but still..... it's only another hardware store, selling the products of today's real makers, the Chinese.

I called in at  the Maker's Workshop, the embodiment of the 'City of Makers', and it is indeed a worthy establishment. There are several local artists and craftspeople-in-residence, there is homage paid to the makers of yesteryear, and I wish them luck.

I wasn't sure, though, what to make of the publicity blurb from Crystal Cruises, one of many cruise companies calling in on Burnie these days:
In fact, Burnie is famously the “city of makers,” boasting a proud heritage of craftsmanship and homegrown specialties that are known worldwide for their artistry and flavor. Juxtaposed with the surrounding untamed Tasmanian brush, Burnie’s creative industries give the town a hand-made ambiance, that welcomes travelers to indulge in its wares.

That wasn't really the Burnie I used to know. I suspect it isn't really today's Burnie either.

What else was Burnie famous for? Well, sometimes during my lunch break I'd go to the Fern Glade Reserve, and have my lunch while watching platypuses. It was a renowned platypus-watching spot.




Didn't see any the other week. Seems they might have gone missing. I did see locals with fishing rods though. Hope they haven't fished out all the platypuses!

Waratah blooms again, industrial relics and all

Waratah is an old mining town in Western Tasmania. It's said that at one time, its Mt Bischoff mine was the largest tin mine in the world. It was also the first town in Tasmania to have electric street lighting.

Not much going on in the 1970s and 80s, I noticed. But it seems to be looking up again. Tourists are passing through, and there's a nice feel to the place.





One of the things to do is to visit the old hydro-electric power station. Or at least, the relics of it. It's rather decrepit and unsafe, so they've officially closed the track down to it. But such tactics rarely discourage intrepid investigative bushwalkers.

You can read all about the Mt Bischoff mine at a vantage point overlooking the open cut. The mine was started in 1871 by James 'Philosopher' Smith, and it has been called the mine that built Launceston.

Montezuma Falls

Just outside Rosebery is a fine little historic bushwalk that yields maximum scenic bang for your energy input buck. It's the walk along an old tramway route, to Montezuma Falls - one of the highest in Tasmania.








I'd mistakenly thought it was an uphill walk, and probably muddy and a bit arduous. But it's anything but. It's almost dead flat, takes an hour and a bit each way, and it's extremely scenic and rainforesty.

You get to cross over a fine new swingbridge, from which there's an excellent view of the waterfall.













I started fairly early in the day, which was probably a good idea. The walk is very popular with tourists and with locals. Here are two pretty-in-pink German tourists who accompanied me for part of the way.















It's quite jarring these days to come across a cigarette packet in the middle of a rainforest walk. It wasn't there on my way in, but had arrived by the time I headed back, complete with cigarettes in it. I was trying to decide whether it was dropped by the fit young couple I'd seen running in with a baby in a pushchair, or the unfit-looking elderly couple who'd been shuffling off as I was arriving.

Tasmania's (not so) wild west

On my way up through western Tasmania the other week, I called in for lunch at the visitor centre at Lake St Clair. I know the area quite well, having visited several times in the past, and having even completed a Cradle Mountain - Lake St Clair full adventure once.

It's been smartened up a lot in recent years. Here's the new official start/end point of the 5-10 day epic.





Here's a view of part of the King William range, which I remember conquering about 25 years ago.

The Franklin River used to be a very distant destination. You walked for a day or two to get a glimpse of it, or you rafted down it, at risk of life and limb, for a week or more. Now you can peruse the upper reaches at least, via a very comfortable, well-made walking track off the Lyell Highway. It was magnificently green.



And here's Frenchmans Cap, a particularly iconic South-West Tasmanian wilderness destination, glimpsed in the distance from a highway car-park. It's typically a 5-day walk into Frenchmans. I did it once, when it involved days of trudging across the muddy 'Sodden Lodden' Plains. I understand they've built boardwalks recently that take most of the challenge out of the Sodden Lodden, but it's probably still a good hike.

I stayed the night in good old Queenstown. 'Queenie' was once a busy mining mecca, with its massive copper mine, whose smelters denuded and poisoned the surrounding hillsides. While I was there I don't think I saw any locals on the streets at all. Just a few tourists. There's talk of the Mt Lyell mine opening again soon maybe.


Upper reaches of the Franklin River

On Bruny again

It's quite a while since I was last on Bruny Island. There's lots to  see and do,and these days a lot more people are seeing and doing them. It was a Friday morning, outside the school holidays, and yet my car was only just able to squeeze into the last available space on the ferry. And ferries were running every half hour.








We drove down to Adventure Bay, and walked the Fluted Cape track, one I'd never embarked on before. It's a very scenic two to three hour circuit, and you get to peer down over some very high cliffs.

You pass the ruins of several old whaling stations along the coast here. Plus one of the most unsightly monuments you could hope to meet. It commemorates the visit to Adventure Bay in 1777 by Captain Cook during his second big voyage.

Hobart to MONA (via MONA Roma)

Hobart's Museum of Old & New Art is quite the place.

Maybe some of the artworks aren't of a Louvre or National Gallery standard, but the spectacular building itself, and the quirky weirdness of some of the experiences, make up for that.



It's in Berriedale, a few kilometres up the Derwent from Hobart's CBD, and the classy way to get there is on board the good ship Mona Roma, which is a somewhat quirky experience too. The kids riding on the sheep's backs here were looking out at the Aurora Australis.  Australia's Antarctic expeditioners' transport was about to leave on its first supply trip of the season.



I'd been to MONA a few years earlier, but I was assured the experience changes often, with new exhibits, and whole new spaces appearing from time to time. Sure enough, most of the spaces I stumbled on this time were completely new to me.

Here, people were venturing out, one by one, for a disorienting experience in a strange black-and-white cube room.





Or looking down on a weird mechanical crawling monster thing.

This chap looks pretty disoriented too, lost in a  mysterious fantasy bubble room.








The blue room is quite something. It becomes a red room or a green room now and again, by the way.