Time for another look around Australia.

These are random picks from my pictures files.

Blue Lake, Mt. Gambier SA, so named because it is always a brilliant
blue colour, at certain times of the year much bluer than shown here.
It is located in an old volcano and is very deep and cold (and blue.)

This is Endeavour Bay taken from Cooktown, Qld. this is the last
outpost before you head off into the unknown on your trip to Cape York.
The trip to the Cape is still regarded as an adventure, and as we become
more a civilization that lives in Cities the adventure becomes more real
even though the road conditions and available services keep improving.

The Valley of the Giants is located near Walpole, WA. it is home to
some of the biggest trees in Australia, the Karri and Tingle trees
found here are in fact some of the worlds largest trees.
There is an elevated walk that takes you some 150 feet up so you
are up there in the tree-tops.

This is Jim Jim Billabong located in Kakadu National Park, NT.
Kakadu is an enormous Park and sits on a huge flood plain
East of Darwin, one boundary is the NT. escarpment which
is a sandstone escarpment up to 100 feet high which runs
for about 600 kms near the northern coastline of Australia.
In the foreground is a water buffalo wallow from the wet
season when this whole area is inundated with water.

I found this figure of eight pool along the coastin the Royal National
Park, NSW. filled with clear water that made estimating the depth
difficult I was surprised to find that it was about 10 feet deep.

Australia All Over

These photographs come fro all over Australia, no theme.

This is a man-made ford ,or crossing, to allow vehicles access
to a settlement on the opposite bank of the Daley River in the
Northern Territory.
The river on the left of the photo is tidal and quite salty, while
the right side is fresh water and a favoured site for Barramundi
to go to spawn, fishermen with spears patrol the crossing at
night during spawning season to spear the fish while they are in
the shallow water and quite vulnerable.
There is a downside to this activity, in that Barramundi are a
favoured food of the deadly saltwater crocodile, while I have not
heard of any attacks on the crossing, it was enough to keep me
from trying out a new fishing method.

During the late 1800, early 1900 era there was an overland
telegraph line built across Australia from South to North, this
project required the building of not only a transmission line but
also "telegraph stations" to pass on messages along the line.
The most Southerly of these stations was at Eucla, a tiny remote
settlement on the SA/WA border, due to the encroaching sand
dunes this is all that remains of the Eucla Telegraph Station,
In a relatively short time this will also be swallowed up by
those unstoppable sands.

This is Jim Jim Lagoon ( or Billabong) in the Kakadu National Park,
in the Northern Territory, The depression in the foreground is a
Buffalo wallow, formed during the wet season when this area would
be under water for 3/4 months.
Water buffalo were introduced to Australia from Asia as a beast of
burden, when released into the wild they bred into large herds it
was unfortunate that they contracted and spread TB into the NTs
large cattle industry, the buffalo (and the cattle) were all shot to
stop the spread of disease to the rest of Australia during the
1950s.

This is the Mt. Tom Price iron ore deposit in the Pilbra in north
West of WA.
There are millions of tons of this almost pure iron ore in this
area, so pure is the ore that it needs to be mixed with some dirt
from the overburden to be on specification for export to Japan.
The development of this resource has led to the building of huge
deep water ports, several sizable towns and a huge rail network
between the mines and the ports.

This is Mt Connor, located only 30 miles from Ayers Rock (Uluru)
it is often mistaken as the first sighting of the Rock by tourists
travelling to the Rock. This tabletop mesa is however not a
monolith, so is not similar to the Rock in anything but location
and similarity of size.

Vic. NSW High Country

These photos are all taken in the high country around the
Victoria, New South Wales border.

The snow gums indicate the snow line in winter, our minimum
temperatures don't get very far below freezing so we have no
permenant snow fields.

During winter, while it is hard for us to imagine, these ranges
would be all snow covered, it has been estimated that Australia
has more snow in winter than Switzerland as these mountains
go on seemingly forever.

This shows, from a great distance, via zoom, the chair lift to
the top of Mt Buller which is the premier ski resort in Victoria

A typical track, come fire trail, that can be found throughout
this area, bushfires are a constant threat during summer.
This is because our native gum trees are full of eucaliptus oil
and explode into flames in the tree tops with a hot fire.

The roads to the resorts are all bitumen, and access is usually
available with snow chains fitted for the final few miles.

West Australia.

West Australia, Large and Beautiful.

This amazing rock formation is at Hidden Valley, just out from
Kunanura in the far north of WA

The Gibb River Road is a gravel road running between
Whyndham and Derby, a popular 4WD destination in the "dry"
season, impassable in the "wet" season.
Beautiful arid country, great barramundi fishing.

Cable Beach Club Resort, just outside Broome in the far north
west of WA.
Opened in 1988 this was the long term dream of an Englishman,
Lord McAlpine, a man with vision and money, a wonderful
combination, not enjoyed by many of us.

The Resort has been designed to offer the ultimate in luxury and
comfort while at the same time providing a setting for some of
Lord McAlpines vast furniture and art collection.
Oh to have been blessed in this manner.

We are now in the very south west corner of WA at Cape Leauwin
where the Indian and Southern oceans combine, the magnificent
old lighthouse is open daily for inspection tours.

From Here and There.

Photo's from here and there on my travels around Australia.

Looking over the many vinyards in the Barossa Valley SA.

Julie sitting on a ledge at "The Grampians" in Victoria.

She nearly had a fit when she saw this photo though.

The coast line of "The Great Australian Bight" in SA.

Stalagmites and Stalactites in Jenolan Caves NSW.

(if you are having trouble remembering which is which,

just think tights come down.)

Some Australian Scenes.

More pics from Australian travels over the years.

This is Marble Bar in WA. it is a bit of a misnomer as the
bar is Jasper not Marble.

This is the hottest town in Australia with a record of 161
consecutive days over 100 degrees F, and a hottest day
of 127 degrees F.

This is the dry bed of the Gasgoyne River, the river only
flows after heavy rain, but still manages to sustain a very
good agricultural area, this comes about because there is
a huge underground river flowing some 20/30 feet below
the river bed

The Devils Arch was a natural bridge to Port Arthur penal
settlement back in our "Convict Days" being so narrow it
was easily guarded to stop the convicts from escaping.

The Blue Lake at Mt. Gambier in SA. is in the centre of an
old Volcano, at certain times of the year the water turns a
brilliant blue, while it always has a blue colour when these
flushes of colour come it is quite impressive.

This bar across the Daley River in the NT. is a natural
feature but has been enhanced with concrete to allow easy
vehicle access, there is normally only about 12/15 inches
of water over it in the dry season.

A favoured "Barramundi" fishing spot at night, it is not
unusual to see up to a dozen fishermen lined up on the
ford with spotlights and spears, as the fish swim upstream
and over the ford they become fairly easy prey to those
who can thrust their spears accurately in the water.

There is a further downside to this, the Daley River is
home to saltwater crocodiles, there has been no recorded
deaths or attacks at this spot, but it does cause a certain
feeling of danger when you are in the water.

More Bits and Pieces.

Photos from some of my travels around Australia.

These two Brolgas are not at all the normal, they are
normally very shy birds, they travel in large flocks to
their feeding grounds, usually wet-lands in Northern
parts of Australia.

This is the Broome Jetty, because Broome has one of the
worlds biggest tides, (up to 30 feet) this is a very
substantial jetty and is about a half mile long.
There are often spectacular fish catches from the jetty,
with the fun of hauling a 50/60 pound fish 20/40 feet
onto the jetty, the locals employ a heavy line and hook
that slides down their lighter fishing line as their
method of landing their catch, an art in itself.

This is the Ivanhoe Crossing on the Ord River near
Kunanurra WA, as there was a lot of water being released
from Lake Argyle at the time, the ford was closed to traffic.
You can normally drive across this crossing with only a
gentle flow of water about 12 inches deep.

The Pinnacles cover an area of about 1 square mile and
consist of millions of stalegmites that protrude from the
yellow sand in sizes ranging from 15 feet tall to the size
of your finger.
It is an uncanny experience to drive around this area
with its moon-scape appearance.

From here and there.

No theme again here just some pretty Pictures.

Lake Lonsdale, near Aarat in Victoria, over the years this lake
has given us some very nice catches of Redfin, Brown Trout
and Yabbies, as well as some great camping times.

I have had the pleasure of staying at this great old
Queensland Pub a couple of times, it's in Cairns, north
Queensland, just on the edge of town.

I met up with this fellow at the Eucla Service Station
Roadhouse on one of my trips to Perth, he had been
roaming the highways and byways for ten years in his
one horsepowered wagon.

He had living simply down to an art form, with his horse
and dog for company he was a happy man, they carried
enough food for the three of them for about a week and
then they would restock at the next town or sometimes
the next farm/station.

Carrying enough water for them all during summer was
his biggest problem, but they managed.

Pretty as a picture, Gympie's parks in spring time are
lovely, there are Jacaranda trees everywhere and the
purple carpet underneath them is beautiful.

Built especially for the movie "The Man From Snowy River"
This is "Craigs Hut" it sits upon a majestic mountain with a
view that goes forever across the "Great Dividing Range"
that is the Victorian snowfields in winter.

Random Pictures

Some more pictures from here and there, no theme for these.

Another view of the Bungle Bungles located at the top of West Australia.

This one was taken from a helicopter flight that we went on, a marvellous way
to see the sights, the pilot hovered over or alongside many spots for photos.

The beach at Cape Tribulation, far North Queensland.

This is one of the few spots where the rain forrest comes right down to meet
the Pacific Ocean, a truly spectacular sight to see.

Another view from the top of Ayres Rock, in 1979 it had not been handed back
to the aboriginals so the name Uluru was not in common use.

This photo shows why the rock stands out so clearly for miles, just look at the
flat landscape that surrounds it, the walking track that goes around the base
of the rock is almost 10 km (about 6 miles) so it's a big rock.

This shot is of a lovely sunset shot taken at Saysha beach near Bamaga on
Cape York Peninsular in Far North Queensland.

There is a Caravan parked alongside the track up here that is known as "The
Croc Shop" it is clearly marked on all the maps of the "Top End" and may well
be the only Caravan to be shown on a map anywhere.

There is a sign at the Croc Shop that states Cairns is 1080 miles and
1,638,758 corrugations South, The Tip of Australia is 57 miles and
283,009 corrugations North. I DID NOT count them but there are lots.

This is the Fresh Water Crocodile I caught in a crab net while trying to catch
a marron, (Large freshwater Crayfish or Yabbie if you are familiar with that
name) instead we caught this not to friendly Crocodile.

There is a full story about this event at holties house on 21st February 2006,
suffice to say here that he presented some problems when I tried to disengage
him from my net, which I wanted back, please click on the photo as he
becomes much more real as he grows.

Uluru, Ayers Rock.

This is Uluru or Ayers Rock in Central Australia the worlds largest monolith

This one is fairly unusual in that there is rain water streaming down the face
of the rock, unusual because heavy rain in Central Australia is relatively rare.

We were camped at the tourist park on a visit to the rock a few years ago, at
about midnight I was awakened by the sound of rain, once the fact that we
were at the rock and it was raining permeated into my sleepy brain, I woke
Julie and said "let's go and see the rain pouring off the rock," use some
imagination here folks and you will get to gauge the reaction I got, "It's pitch
black and raining, are you mad?" (that's a VERY sanitised version!!)

Even when I explained that we had rainware, spotlight and torches, the
reaction was still the same, Sheesh!!!

Next morning, bright and early, we headed for the rock and were greeted by
the magnificent sight of rain cascadeing from all the crevices and cracks in
the rocks surface and the pools, some quite substantial, that had already
formed around the base, a lovely and unusual sight.


In this closer image it is clear that there are trees around the base and some
crumbling and breaking up of the surface.

Our home for the week we were at the rock, we left the caravan at Alice
Springs, (about 150 miles away) as the roads was pretty rough back then,
(1979)

Now the only camping allowed is at a site about 10 miles from the rock,
hidden away in the sand dunes, it's nice, BUT, I'm so glad we were there
before it got so sanitized.

From the top looking down is a different sensation and gives a little idea
of the size, there is a chain hand hold for some of the steep parts.

This area is known as "Sunset Strip" it is the chosen location for tourists,
(often in their hundreds) to gather for photos of the colour change that
occurs with the setting of the sun each day,

The colour range is from the quite vivid red in full sun, to an almost purple
as the light fades, just one of natures wonderous sights.