Raeinoz

Trip to Augusta

2008-11-30T00:33:00.000-08:00

Enroute lunch and this is my host's idea of camping equipment, as 1950s as his cameras. The stove is an Optimus 00, a heavy Sweedish lump, like his car and favorite wide angle camera.

The above images were taken at Chester Forest Rescue Camp, where we stopped on the way to and the return from Augusta. Protesters are camped there to protest about the destruction of Jarrah coastal woodland by for Simcoa's silicon smelter near Bunbury, in Western Australia. Given that there is less than 5% of the original native forest remaining in Western Australia, it is a protest that I will support.

(The Japanese-owned company Simcoa has an annual allocation of 150,000 tonnes of "3rd grade" jarrah logs for making into charcoal which is used in the process of making silicon. The Labor government intends to continue supplying Simcoa with jarrah. At present the government lets Simcoa have the jarrah at around $6.08/tonne. Substitutes that Simcoa could use, like plantation timber and New Zealand coal, can not compete with this price and as a result jarrah is still being plundered from our forests at alarming rates.

Simcoa also consumes 8% of W.A.'s electricity, at very reduced rates!)

This direction marker at Leeuwin Lighthouse shows the next stop south as the South Pole and it certainly felt very chilly as I looked at.....

both the Indian and Southern Oceans.

This photograph of me at Leeuwin lighthouse just had to be taken with a nod to Bill Brandt's image of Francis Bacon taken at Primrose Hill in 1963, given the wonderful sky.

Limestone forms above Skippy Rock at Leeuwin-Naturaliste National Park, I'm not sure yet how they were formed but to me they look like the impressions of tree trunks.

A couple of pics taken at Hamelin Bay between Augusta and Margaret River, but we had to leave because of the crowds on the beach.

After lunch at a veggie cafe in Margaret River we visited the Saint Thomas More Catholic Church, a modern building, but well worth the visit for the windows, thanks to whoever it was who told me about them.

On the way back to Augusta from Margaret River I just had to return to Hamelin beach to try out the 1970's rainbow coloured, cottonknit bikini I bought at the Red Cross 'op shop' in Margaret River. The beach was just as crowded as it was in the morning.

We found this Port Jackson Shark, Heterodontus portusjacksoni, on the beach, very dead and very stinky. My host wanted to take it back in the Volvo to preserve in his workroom - "The second word is off" I said

Finally a very peaceful end to a lovely day, these spectacular birds off to bed for the night on the Blackwood River, which my hotel room overlooked.

A bit about Quinninup

2008-11-05T23:11:00.000-08:00

I enjoy the beauty and tranquility in Quinninup and Grub and I love to
walk around the Karri Lake, about 5 minutes walk from the house.

I feel very fortunate having all this.......

.......right on the door step.

I've been made to feel very welcome by the Quinninup community and enjoyed the annual
Quinninup Market Day, even helping for a couple of hours the day before to set up stalls.

Mick, Colin and

Tracey serving doughnuts.

Mary and Adrienne, part of the team who collected, researched and collated material and personal histories, an ongoing local history project, that had it's first and very interesting exhibition on Market Day.

Being a school governor in Bristol, I really liked this exhibit, a school shirt showing the last class at the local school, which was closed in 2004.

Finally the wine tasting marquee.

I just had to sample a few before I handed over my dollars.

(sorry about the hat, Bex, but it was a hot day)

A Walk In the Forest

2008-10-21T07:09:00.000-07:00

I'm taking note of the comment from JBA and getting on with the Blog and not cooking for an old man and his dog. New pages coming shortly.

Forest Flowers

2008-10-15T06:41:00.000-07:00

I have spent a lot of my time here walking and taking about 200 photographs of native plants and flowers, It's an ongoing project and I've divided them into four categories.

Here are just a few spring forest flowers, my first category. As a keen gardener I could never hope to create such a gorgeous garden as the Southern Forest is in spring.

Coral Vine

I'm not sure of the name of the flower but the (I think) Jewel Beetle is
a pretty little thing.

I can't find this flower in either of the flower books I've bought, so also nameless.

A day at the seaside

2008-10-09T01:46:00.000-07:00

My first visit to the awesome Southern Ocean. It was a bit of a chilly day, as it's early spring and the Antarctic is the next stop, so that has to be expected.

What was not expected were the hundreds of Portuguese Man O' Wars washed up on to Salmon Beach, the one above was still alive and, after posing for the above picture, was carefully re-united with the ocean.

These two, however, are dead and are pictured with some sponges I found.

This dead, but poisonous, Puffer Fish also posed very prettily for me.

Grub enjoyed chasing sea weed.

I enjoyed walking on the beach.

And I now know where to go to dispose of any fish offal I have hanging around.

Later, on the drive home when we had, wisely, slowed right down for a kangaroo to cross the road a second 'roo trampolined onto the bonnet, then the roof of the car and away into the bush, not an everyday happening in Bristol - my host just said "Oh not again" and thanked Volvo builders.

Welcome to Quinninup

2008-10-06T21:48:00.000-07:00

I was given a good welcome when I arrived in Quinninup but
was a little perturbed about the list of banned activities,
particularly the 'no fun'.

But the Quinninup eagle and....

my hosts Grub and John have made me feel very at home.

To show my appreciation of their hospitality I helped Grub
to roast a chook and some veggies for a warming winter dinner.

Which went down nicely with a glass or two of red.

Cheers everyone!

Leaving Fremantle and Thrombolites

2008-10-06T04:42:00.000-07:00

My second morning in Oz and a breakfast fuel-up of coffee and smoked salmon bagel at Gino's Cafe, Fremantle, before the long drive to Quinninup

When we stopped for fuel and air I was amused at this man's inept attempts at filling the wheel chair tyres with air. My driver was just impatient.

Lake Clifton is one of the few places in the world where microbialites, "living rocks", grow. (Microbialites are one of the earliest forms of life on earth). Lake Clifton is the largest lake-bound microbialite reef in the southern hemisphere

Thrombolites are the most common form of microbialite in Lake Clifton. They are formed by a variety of micro-organisms. As the micro-organisms photosyntthesise they draw calcium carbonate from the lime-rich lake water to form limestone mounds

(Stromatolites form in a different way, mats of gelatinous slime trap seiment particles, similar to the way in which the sticky hairs of sundews catch flies.)

Microbialites grow at about 1mm per year

Thrombalites are characterised by an internally granular texture whereas stromatolites have a stratified structure.

The Lake Clifton thrombolites represent extant examples of thrombolites that were common 600 million years ago. Fossil counterparts are found today in the Amadeus Basin in the Northern Territory where ancient shorelines once existed.

Microbes involved in thrombolite and stromatolite formation may have been responsible for the oxygen production which enabled life as we know it to colonise the planet.

The tragedy that is happening here is that the massively increasing suburbanisation of the Swan Coastal Plain of Western Australia is causing the eutrophication of Lake Clifton. This eutrophication is causing the algae which is smothering the thrombolites and killing them. (Eutrophication in lakes and rivers is the excess nutrient caused by run off from lawn, garden and agricultural fertilisers which gives rise to phytoplankton, or algal bloom.) The sediment and algae smothering the thrombolites can be seen in the pix.

(I've pinched some of the text from the WA DEC notice board at Lake Clifton)

Leaving Bristol

2008-09-30T21:31:00.000-07:00

But not for ever!

The first event of six weeks of saying goodbye to friends and family before
my sojourn to Oz, a great weekend in the Forest of Dean with my lovely
friend Angie and a debonair looking Phil. Good wine and food too.

Yet more wine and food and 'goodbyes' from Wendy and David and
just two of their beautiful gals in in Robin Hood's Bay.

And farewells from these two ....

.......these three and........

Jaki as well.......but......most importantly

my wonderful family.

Then great sadness: my last day at work.

she lied.

Finally, just hours until my flight to Perth.

Raeinoz

2008-09-15T05:29:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone.

I've finally set up my blog and will shortly be posting photographs
and regaling you with stories of frozen Quokkas, trampolining kangaroos
and grub.