Capes Naturaliste and Leeuwin In the south west corner of Western Australia, best described by Easterners as the Margaret River region are two similar lighthouses. On the northern tip near fashionable Dunsborough is Cape Naturaliste. The lighthouse here is 20 … Continue reading Compare the Capes
2015 Up on the Irwin River lookout at Dongara, WA we stare at the ti trees on the opposite bank and wonder why they are white. What does that sign say? Oh, a cormorant rookery. Continue reading A Good Paint Job
We rarely leave the bitumen so supplies aren’t such an issue. All around Australia most towns these days have good supermarkets and I’m sure that even if our fridge/freezer broke down we’d still have enough food on board to keep us going for quite some time. Pasta, rice noodles, canned soup (there’s nothing better than soup on those cold wet nights when you are too tired to cook), rice (short grain and Arborio of course because Woody loves his risotto), small cans of tuna for lunches, sandwiches and salads. Tubs of tomato paste and bottles of passata. We always carry … Continue reading Staples to Keep On Board
Autumn 2015 We eat our sambo’s under The Big Prawn. The Exmouth, WA one. Did you know that 700,000kgs of prawns are harvested in Exmouth annually? Anyway this Big Prawn gets put into storage for safekeeping during the cyclone season. Continue reading The Big Prawn
White Rocks Reserve in Broken Hill, NSW is the site of the only bloodshed on Australian soil in World War One. This happened when two ‘Turks’ (actually Pakistanis, but Turkish sympathisers), one an ice cream vendor the other a butcher, attacked the Silverton train as it passed, the train was full of miners heading to Silverton for a picnic. Four locals and the ‘Turks’ were killed in the resulting skirmish. A replica ice cream cart is on display at White Rocks Reserve. Continue reading World War One Skirmish at Home
March 2015 It is a warm morning in Pildappa, South Australia and I’m sitting in a National Park long drop trying hard not to breathe until the day’s work is completed, when an ant bites me! Ouch!! Translation note: Thunderbox = unsewered outdoor toilet, hence ‘long drop’. Campers sometimes remark on how well the rangers have dug the hole as they often listen for the deposit to reach the bottom. Continue reading Thunderboxes
Winter 2015 Beasley River WA, a lone bird sings us awake. The inside of the van is a sea of dead bodies, a film of tiny black dots and bits of wings. It must have been a bugger of a … Continue reading Bugs
Charlie Honey was a Gulflander train driver of yesteryear. The Gulflander runs between Normanton and Croydon in the Gulf country of outback Queensland. It leaves Normanton every Wednesday at 8:30am. It then makes the return journey leaving Croydon at 8:30am on Thursday. Weather permitting the train has been running since 1891. The journey takes five hours because the track is meant to be travelled slowly but Charlie liked to work hard on improving his times. One morning he left Croydon at 8:30am and at Normanton at 11:30am he answered the telephone to be greeted by his superior. Charlie was sternly … Continue reading The Gulflander
A few days ago, thejuicenut from pearsnotparsnipsdotcom commented that she often thought of Melbourne’s street sculpture after having seen a documentary. I was still pondering her comment when Woody received a text to meet a friend at ‘McClelland Gallery’ nearby. … Continue reading McClelland Sculpture Park and Gallery
Historic winemaker Baileys of Glenrowan in North East Victoria was established in 1870. Set in landscaped gardens amid ageing peppercorn trees the original cellar of mud brick and kerosene tin walls still stands. Continue reading Baileys of Glenrowan
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