Where : Eastern Road, Turramurra, Ku-ring-gai
When : 3-00pm, Friday, 23rd November 2007
Weapon : Panasonic Lumix TZ3
Over the last few weeks, there have been many photographs of Jacarandas in flower from the southern latitudes. All of them beautiful.
The challenge is on .. here's my shot !
Where : Brooklyn, Hawksbury River
When : 5-10pm, Thursday, 22nd November 2007
Weapon : Panasonic Lumix TZ3
Here she is LFB 11305. Licensed Fishing Boat 11305 ... "Australia Star". Isn't she a beauty ! Not quite the "African Queen", but in there with a chance.
There are a few prawn trawlers operating on the Hawksbury, fishing for school prawns, broad and bottle squid. Their operations are confined to specific times and a specific area around 50% of the tidal space. The majority of prawn catches are landed at night during the 'dark side of the moon' (between the last and first quarter), on either run out or 'slack' tides.
A single net is used, connected to a pair of otter boards to spread the net which is towed behind the boat. At the completion of a shot (i.e. setting, towing and retrieval of the net) the net is pulled back onto the boat by hand or a small winch.
Where : Bobbin Head, New South Wales
When : 1-20pm, Wednesday, 21st November 2007
Weapon : Panasonic Lumix TZ3
This is an elk horn, platycerium bifurcatum. . I found this magnificent specimen at Bobbin Head, in the Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park. To give you some idea, this doozie measures about 3 metres in diameter - say about 11 feet or so in old money.
These ferns are epiphytic, which means that they grow on another plant but don't get food, minerals or water from the host. They occur naturally in New Guinea, and along Australian coasts of Queensland and New South Wales.
The elkhorn has also now been cultivated in many countries, and spread into the wild in Florida. It's been listed as an environmentally invasive species in Hawaii. Each plant is composed of a mass of plantlets and can be divided. It can also be propagated from its spores.
P. bifurcatum plants require a shady but damp area to flourish. Rain forest is ideal. They are not prone to attack from many pests and insects, but may be preyed upon by scale bugs and mealy bugs. Although these can be scraped off, the most delightful fix, is for Ladybirds to eat these pests.
Where : Galston, New South Wales
When : 10-20am, Tuesday 20th November 2007
Weapon : Panasonic Lumix TZ3
This bridge is some 112 years old, and located at the bottom of the Galston Gorge and is sometimes referred to as Tunk's or Pearce's Creek Bridge. This is wild and rugged, steep and heavily timbered mountainous country, with the typical local topography featured with challenging vertical bands of Hawksbury Sandstone outcrops.
The bridge is as originally designed and constructed, a single lane, all-timber bridge without any steel or iron supports, planking or metal components other than nails and bolts.
It's known as a "McDonald timber truss road bridge", used extensively in New South Wales because of the high quality of local hardwoods and the shortage of steel during the early decades of settlement.
This crossing over Tunk's (Pearce's) Creek is a rare example of a 65' 19.96m truss span. It was designed and built by John McDonald for the NSW Public Works Department in 1893 - 1894 at a cost of 295 Pounds, and consists of a single span supported at each end on timber abutments which also retain the road earthworks. The bridge width is 4.57m (15ft) between kerbs and at both ends the approach road turns sharply at right angles.
Where : Brooklyn, Hawksbury River
When : Sunday, 4th November 2007, 6-00pm
Weapon : Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ3
This is Brooklyn, on the Hawksbury River, about 20 minutes from my home. This is a top spot, with a small marina ... not a lot of tourists here, but a few ferals, bikies and day-trippers. Locally, there are lots of market gardens up river on the flats and lots of mangrove stands (more than 10 sq kms) and important prawn, oyster and other molluscs in the lower reaches. This is NSW's third largest oyster producer.
Brooklyn still has its awkward, rather primitive, run-down Australian charm.
Today, there were 3 or 4 fishing boats tied up, with their nets out to dry, slung over the rails of the jetty. I think these must be estuary fishermen, as is it's a fair way out to sea from here. Fishing is good here on the river for bream, snapper, whiting or flathead.
It is very bright and yes, the water really is that blue in this sunshine.
Where : Darling Harbour, Sydney
When : Saturday, 3rd November 2007, 3-00pm
Weapon : Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ3
Here's the Pacific Sun, tied up and waiting to get on with its Summer cruising program.
This is a reasonably big ship, some 46,000 tonnes, built in 1986. She carries 1900 passengers and has 9 decks. The Pacific Sun is a modern, luxury liner of the P&O Line.
I came to Australia on the SS Britanis. She was built at Massachusetts as the Monterey in 1932, for the Matson Navigation Company and was 17,000 tonnes. She later became the Matsonia and later the Lurline. Finally, the ship was sold to Chandos Lines and became SS Britanis, making many trips to Australia full of assisted migrants, like me.
We sailed to Australia the long way round, via the Cape of Good Hope, as the Suez Canal was closed due to the Gulf War. Departing on July 4th 1971, the journey took us from Southampton to Las Palmas, Dakar, Capetown, Fremantle, Adelaide, Melbourne and then up to Sydney. We arrived at about 7-00am.
I will never forget that feeling - sailing into Sydney Harbour on that cold, sunny Winter's morning, 4th August 1971, with just 50 quid in my pocket.
Yes, sailing into the most beautiful harbour in the world, and then disembarking at the International Terminal opposite the Opera House, under the iconic Sydney Harbour Bridge, right slap-bang in the middle of this fantastic city really is still I guess a most wonderful experience, BUT after 5 weeks at sea all those years ago ...
... I never want to go on board another cruise ship. It is soooooooooooooooo boring !
Post Mortem
The SS Britanis sank off Capetown in October 2000.
Where : Bobbin Head, Cowan Creek
When : Wednesday, 31st October 2007, 7-55am
Weapon : Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ3
Banksia Serrata (after Sir Joseph Banks and the Latin meaning "saw edged"), also known as "Old Man Banksia" for unknown reasons, may reach 15 metres in height in favourable conditions.
Prolific in suburban Sydney, it is often only 5 metres or so, forming a gnarled and stunted small tree with blackened rough bark as a result of surviving many bush fires.
The wood is a beautiful red colour and the thick rough bark allows it to regenerate by sending out epicormic shoots from beneath the bark a week or so after the fire has passed. In exposed coastal areas the plants may develop a prostrate habit of growth and these forms generally retain that habit in cultivation away from the coast (eg Banksia serrata "Austraflora Pygmy Possum", a form from the south coast of New South Wales).
