Cudda been Sydney, cudda been Canberra!

We spent the weekend exploring the Port Stephens area, up the coast north of Newcastle.

Captain Cook noted the fine sheltered harbour in 1770, as he sailed up the coast after leaving his recommended settlement site, Botany Bay, which later turned out to be a dud. On the way up he'd also noted Port Jackson (Sydney Harbour), which turned out to be the 'best harbour in the world' and which became the actual 1788 settlement. But if he hadn't, then Port Stephens might have become Sydney instead. The harbour is the same size, and geographically as complicated. It's not as deep though.

We enjoyed our visit to the volunteer-staffed marine rescue centre, near the mouth of the harbour.


In the 20th century, when the newly federated Australia was looking for a site for its permanent capital, Port Stephens was one of the contenders. Walter Burley Griffin even drew up plans for a capital city, looking rather Canberra-like of course. It never got built, and one reason I heard for it not being chosen was that it could have been too easy to invade from the sea. (It's also not somewhere between arch rivals Sydney and Melbourne.)

Here's a link to a Newcastle Herald piece showing 'Pindimar City', which could have been the 'New York of Australia', overlaid on Google Maps: http://www.theherald.com.au/story/1412468/topics-pindimar-city-now-figment-of-google/

Below: the marina at Nelson Bay

World's tallest

The Q1 building in Surfers Paradise was indeed the world's tallest residential building when it was completed in 2005. It's been overtaken by five others since then, but it's still Australia's tallest building overall (though only the 80th tallest building in the world!)

It has a big spire on top, and they tend to include the spires in the quoted heights, which I think is cheating, and the top of Q1's spire is one metre higher than the top of Dubai's Burj Al Arab's spire. I imagine that's not coincidental.

I had to go up to the observation deck of course, and as these things go, it was a pretty good observation deck experience. You do have to pay, but there are no pesky metal detectors or other security checks. You just get in the lift, press the button, and up you go.

And it's a pleasant and relaxing observation lounge too. No time limits, no crowds, and wonderful views of that oh-so-familiar strip of unreal Gold Coast real estate.

The view to the south.













And to the north.







A somewhat optimistic world's tallest comparison chart. World's 80th tallest in yellow.

Bird books ain't bird books - and a tale of three wattlebirds

My best Christmas present this year was a new bird guide. The 2012 (ninth) edition of Pizzey's 'Birds of Australia', no less.

I already had two well thumbed, trusty books at my disposal: the 1981 Pizzey, and Simpson & Day's 'Field Guide to the Birds of Australia' (fourth edition, 1993). So why would I want another?

Well the Simpson & Day had been leading me astray with its wattlebirds. It said there was the Little Wattlebird in WA, the Yellow Wattlebird in Tas, and in Sydney it said we got the Red Wattlebird and the Brush Wattlebird. Yet I kept hearing references to Little Wattlebirds in Sydney. What was going on?


Pizzey had no Brush Wattlebirds gracing its pages. And we got the Little Wattlebird in Sydney. The big disadvantage with my old Pizzey was that the picture pages had all the birds bunched close together, and these, as well as the descriptions and the distribution maps were all in totally different sections of the book, which was a real pain.

All was revealed re the great wattlebird conundrum recently when I heard that the Brush and Little Wattlebirds had now been reclassified as the same species. There's no longer a Brush Wattlebird, and yes, it really is the Little Wattlebird here.

And pages 386 and 387 of my new Pizzey are devoted entirely to the three Australian wattlebirds. Pictures, maps, and descriptions are all there together now. All just as it should be! Good work Mr. Pizzey. (And Mr. Knight, the illustrator.)

Collaroy collapsing

We've visited Collaroy's Beach Club many times, usually in the company of an old friend who lived in the area. He died a few months back, and then two weeks ago a big storm came through and nearly washed away his beloved club.






 Several waterfront homes were nearly washed away too. Collaroy's been front page news, and there's lots of debate about sea walls, whether they're more trouble than they're worth, and who should pay for them if they do get built.

The Man from Stuart Town

Driving from Dubbo to Orange the other week, we called in on Stuart Town. I noticed the pub there is called the Iron Bark Inn.

This rang a bell. We'd been taking an interest in Banjo Paterson and his poetry during this trip. In Walgett we'd discussed the stranger who'd outwitted the yokels by successfully pelting a stone across the 'Darling River'. (Google Maps says it's the Barwon and the Namoi that meet at Walgett, but never mind!) They'd made a wager about it, knowing that "there wasn't a stone within 50 mile, For the saltbush plain and the open down, Produce no quarries in Walgett Town".  His trick was to bring his own stone. He knew about that: "..... he had wandered down, On a previous visit to Walgett Town". (Been There Before: http://www.wallisandmatilda.com.au/been-there-before.shtml

Anyway, back to Ironbark. The Man From Ironbark is the one about the Sydney barber who plays a practical joke on the yokel who turns up at his shop, There's a theme developing here. Paterson must have had a bit of a thing about outback yokels. They must have given him a hard time in his travels. In the poem, the barber pretends to cut the throat of the poor visitor, who runs screaming out of the barber's shop. This explains why "flowing beards are all the go way up in the Ironbark". Do check out the musical adaptation from Wallis and Matilda: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=POgKYH3JTC8



Well it turns out that Stuart Town used to be called Ironbark, and this is indeed where the Man From Ironbark came from.

Outback wildlife

All the usual suspects were on parade for us during our edge-of-the-outback trip the other week.

The coat of arms was well represented, as ever. So kangaroos popped up all over the place.  Unfortunately they were often horizontal on the road, being eaten by birds of prey. Emus sensibly lurked a little further from the road, and were mainly to be photographed using the telescopic end of the lens settings.

 

There were pelicans on the banks of the mighty Darling River. There were herds of grazing cattle and sheep who were, like the kangaroos, quite oblivious to road rules or personal safety.

And then there were apostlebirds. They're quite common west of the Dividing Range. They're not at all shy, and they tend to get around in groups of 12 or so. Hence the name!

The wedge-tailed eagle takes the crown for me  for its sheer magisterial presence. This one had been feeding on a dead kangaroo on the road, and was annoyed by the presence of our car. He decamped to the paddock nearby to await our departure, flapped his enormous wings a few times and did a few circuits. But he wasn't going to yield possession of his tasty find.

Millers Point housing sell-off

A marathon day out

It's 42 or so kilometres from Hornsby to Brooklyn, and that makes it an ideal candidate for a marathon-length walk for my bushwalking group. We usually take 13 hours or so over these little expeditions, but the surplus of big hills on this part of the Great North Walk, and a somewhat unsettling navigational blunder, meant that this one blew out to about 15.


In fact there were lots of little adventures and challenges. There was an Eastern brown snake (which I've since read is the world's second most venomous land-based snake! See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eastern_brown_snake) Then, after dark, there were lots of enormous spider webs to walk into, with enormous garden orb weaver spiders hanging upside down in them. Fortunately these spiders are reluctant to bite, and their bite is relatively harmless. I just read that they weave their webs every evening, and then take them down again in the morning!

Another unexpected obstacle was the half-marathon trail-running event we discovered, and they were coming the other way! We dodged out of the way of about 270 mostly very fit looking participants of the 'Galston Gutbuster', an event which starts and finishes in Hornsby Park, we found out. Here are a couple of videos, one that's mostly us crossing the old wartime 'Steele Bridge' between groups of runners, and the other of the runners in full flight.

And of course we needed to cross Calna Creek, whose bridge collapsed a couple of years ago.
Fortunately it was low tide when we got there, and the 2-metre depth signs were showing much less than this, so no great dramas here.

The biggest drama was the unexpected separation into two groups event (USITGE), followed by the wandering around a pointless little loop track event (WAPLLTE), the totally misunderstood phone conversation about locations event (TMPCALE), and the wasting an hour or two missing trains and discussing what had gone wrong event (WHOTMTDWHGWE).

It was all a bit much for 50% of the party, who perhaps wisely chose to drop out at Cowan, (where some promptly missed their drop-out train in the attempt!)

The remaining three of us pushed on regardless, thinking we might just make it to Brooklyn in time for the 7:38pm train back. If not, we would comfortably make the 9:05pm one. It got dark, as it does. No problem, we had torches, we knew the track well, and the last few kilometres were on good fire trails. Progress seemed swift. We got a bit too comfortable about it though. We had a pleasant break on the rocky lookout above the Hawkesbury River, and we spent time admiring and photographing those enormous spiders. There was  no chance of making our 9:05pm train. The next one was 10:05pm,and that would be the last for another hour and a half.




 Suddenly it was 9:55pm and we were still 1.3km from the station! I calculated we could just make it, but only if we ran all the way! Not something you expect at the end of a 42km day. And we made it onto that 10:05pm train with perhaps one second to spare!

I'm feeling good about it now though, and I'm sure we'll do it all again next year!

'Spiderman' picture courtesy Fiona B
Steele Bridge picture courtesy the helpful 'Galston Gutbuster' marshal there

Upper Lane Cove River ramble

Back home in Sydney now for a while, and I've been getting out into the bush a fair bit. Sydney's great in that there are a vast number of terrific little bushwalks to be had without even leaving the metropolitan area.

The Lane Cove National Park is a case in point. A few weeks ago I took part in a rogaine, which went by the name of  'Lane Cove Rivergaine'. (A rogaine is sort of competitive treasure hunt for bushwalkers.) I thought I knew all the tracks around this park, but the map supplied by the organisers showed lots that were new to me, and by utilising a few of them, my team excelled itself and achieved a very respectable score.

So I went back to the scene last Sunday, this time with a group of regular bushwalkers in tow, and we did a nice little circuit walk, starting and finishing at Thornleigh station. We had morning tea at City View Lookout, with, as you'd expect, a good view of the city's CBD, 20km away.














When I went back again today to get more photos, the view was somewhat obscured by fog or smog or the Southerly Buster that was on its way.

We also watched some sulphur-crested cockatoos feeding their young in a nest within a fine old angophora tree. And we posed for pictures at Whale Rock, which is of course, a very whale-like rock!

Adivasi

This lady is a Keralan 'adivasi', a member of an  indigenous 'tribal' group, in the Wayanad region, who I was introduced to. It's often been said that some indigenous Indians look effectively identical to some Australian aborigines, and I think this is a good illustration.

I gather there's still lots of discussion, and lots of research being done on the links between the two populations, but I've been reading that there's a view that about 4000 years ago there was a migration wave from southern India to Northern Australia, and this brought about similarities in DNA and in languages, and brought the dingo to Australia.

Here's an interesting piece on this:
http://www.pnas.org/content/110/5/1803.abstract

Extreme postcodes: 2000 to 7923

Postcodes 2000 to 7923 cover just about everywhere in Australia, as far as I can ascertain. And Australia's extreme in that it's about the highest emitter per capita of greenhouse gases of any significant country on the planet. And of late it's been extreme in its attempts to subvert any meaningful action to change this.

A few years ago we were at the forefront, with a price on carbon in place, and substantial emissions reductions going on. Didn't last long though, and now that the rest of the world is moving finally in that direction, Australia's government, totally in the pockets of the fossil fuel industries, has reversed it all. It's almost too bad to be true.

Anyway, this week there's a special UN climate summit happening in New York. About 120 world leaders are attending. Our 'leader', one Tony Abbott, will in fact be in New York this week, but it seems he's 'too busy' to get to the summit. He's helping to cook up another war in the Middle East, after all.

In the build up to this special meeting, there have been hundreds of mass participation events all around the world. I did my bit and turned up at the Sydney event, at Bicentennial Park in Glebe. We listened to impassioned speeches, and we formed ourselves into letter shaped groups, spelling out a slogan which was photographed from above by a flying drone. I couldn't make out the wording from ground level, but I half hoped I was helping to spell out the rather rude message to our Prime Minister that I saw on some of the T shirts around the place. Turned out it actually said "Beyond Coal + Gas".

Aerial photo stolen from Sydney Morning Herald, Essential Media, 350.org, GetUp, AYCC, or the flying drone. (Thanks very much, whoever the rightful owner is.)

Extreme postcodes: 2027

This is Sydney's (and Australia's) wealthiest postcode. It covers Edgecliffe, Darling Point, Point Piper, and Double Bay.

It's a bit hard to map wealth itself - it's too easy to hide it. But various analyses, using declared taxable incomes, for what they're worth, have come up with this one. And it's home to several of Australia's best known billionaires (and it houses the office of an almost-billionaire would-be Prime Minister, I noticed).

 I also noticed lots of fine water views (mostly blocked to the public by the mansions hugging the shoreline), well maintained streets with fine old trees, and lots of tradies carrying out 'Finest Plumbing' bathroom renovations. Come to think of it, I saw few other people about than the tradies. There was a 'lavender scented nappy washing service' doing its deliveries too. There are a few boats too, of course. But the tone of the suburb was nicely lowered by the spectacularly graffitied furniture removal van on New South Head Road.