Views fit for Gentlemen

Fit for Ladies too. There probably weren't any on Governor Phillip's exploratory mission up the Hawkesbury in 1789, but we had both ladies and gentlemen in our bushwalking group recently,

We walked the 10km each way from the Canoelands Rd track head. It's a straightforward leg stretch mainly along a fire trail, and you get to see some very fine views of the Hawkesbury River. Governor Phillip is the gentleman who gave the place its name. He arrived by boat, and camped overnight there. Hence the name: Gentleman's Halt.

Storm in a storm glass

Meet my Fitzroy storm glass. I got it from Australian Geographic and it's got a magic mix of secret chemicals that enable it to predict the weather. Or so they say.
 
Storm glasses were popular with English sea captains, like Fitzroy, captain of the Beagle, with Darwin aboard, on his trip around the world. They got back OK, so there must be something to it, you'd think.



















The appearance of the fluid tells you all you need to know. It can be clear, cloudy, full of bubbles, dots, stars, or flakes. Just check against the key, and sail on confidently.




I've watched it carefully for a few days now, and you sure do get all those effects. But I haven't actually seen a correlation with the weather.


The smart money is on temperature though. That's about all that seems to drive it. If it's hot it's clear. If it's cool it's cloudy. The other stuff comes in between.








It makes an excellent curiosity and talking point though!

Extreme postcodes: 2127

Which Sydney suburb is the deadest of them all? My vote is for Wentworth Point. It's part of Homebush Bay, and has easy access to Olympic Park, pleasant water views, and in theory quite a good lifestyle. But gee, what a dead, soulless place.

Admittedly some of it's still being built, but some parts have been fully built up for a few years now. And where's the life? Where are the people?

There's a bit of a shopping and cafe centre, but how they survive without customers I couldn't see. Streets are narrow, there's no available parking, and it looked like most of the high rise apartment blocks had no off-street parking either. There wasn't much evidence of public transport, though it's reported that there is indeed a bus service, and there is the ferry I suppose.

Could it be that most of these apartments are in fact unoccupied? Could it be a ghost suburb, in reality just another tiny part of China's property bubble?

And speaking of property and real estate agents, I was quite taken by the photo signboards up on the Woo-la-ra lookout place. The one looking east across Wentworth Point shows the view across the suburb, and above and behind you can see the city and the Harbour Bridge. Well guess what? In real life the buildings completely block out these desirable expensive views. The usual estate agents' Photoshop distortions apply! Who knows what the poor investors in the concrete jungle down there thought they were buying!



Salvation might be at hand though. There's a pedestrian and bus-only bridge being built, which will connect Wentworth Point to Rhodes, which has a vibrant shopping and commercial area. Train station too.





Perhaps it will all come to life one day?

Sydney's biggest ever climate march

Estimates of precise numbers varied, as ever, with published figures ranging from 3000 to 60,000! I was there, and I'd put it somewhere in the middle. It was definitely big though, and it was colourful, and very uplifting.

There were groups from churches, political parties, local action groups, solar power aficionados, and health professionals. There was even a small pro-nuclear group, and two (brave?) chaps whose banners just read < coal / >.  (I've no idea what that means exactly, or whether they were pro or anti coal. Note to placard writers: don't get too cryptic!)

There was music, there were speeches from some very worthy personages, and there were giant and horribly realistic versions of Tony 'King Coal' Abbott and Malcolm 'Innovate' Turnbull to scare the children.

We eventually marched from the Domain rallying place down to the Opera House, where the giant polystyrene politicians could scare the tourists too.

We'd been asked to colour code ourselves by dress choice, and march in our coloured blocks. I chose white, which was the designated colour for medicos and scientists. Several of my fellow marchers carried giant cardboard mosquitoes, signifying presumably malaria and suchlike diseases we can look forward to in a warmer Australia. 

Yet more Dunns Swamp

More Dunns Swamp

Swamps ain't swamps

In fact some swamps are amazingly beautiful places.

A group of us spent the weekend at Dunns Swamp, and what a fine swamp it is! It's a few kilometres east of Rylestone, a couple of hundred kilometres drive north west of Sydney, and it's on the western extremity of the Wollemi National Park.


Don't tell anyone, but Dunns Swamp has just about the finest, best appointed, clean and scenic camping area known to God or the National Parks service. There are dozens of very large areas for tents. There are lots of clean toilets with generous toilet paper supplies even. There's swimming to be done in the artificially widened Cudgegong River. There's firewood provided, with fireplaces and picnic tables galore. And there are great little easy walks to follow through the 'pagoda' rock formations. All for just $6 per person per night.

We were able to use Dunns Swamp as a base from which to do some bigger exploratory bushwalks too. We did some big pagoda scrambling expeditions, and we conquered the previously unconquered (by us) Mt Touwouwan and Sheridan Hill. And in the evenings, when not dodging lightning bolts and torrential downpours, we enjoyed our campfire, our camp food (in my case the usual dried cardboard gourmet Frankenbushwalker food), plus appropriate warming beverages!