Wildlife Wednesday 3 - Kookaburra

This little chap makes one of the most recognisable animal sounds in Australia. The laughing Kookaburra is often heard cackling away all over Australia. They are of the Kingfisher family but much larger than the famous blue Kingfisher. This one was particularly friendly and seemed to enjoy having his picture taken.

Mount Gambier - The Mysterious Blue Lake

This amazing image is of 'The Blue Lake' in Mount Gambier, South Australia.

This image has not been enhanced or had the colours changed. The blueness is seasonal and apparently can be even bluer than this... if you can imagine that!
There is a scientific reason for the blue colour "it revolves around the warming of the surface layers of the lake during the summer months to around 20 degrees Celsius (70 °F), causing calcium carbonate to precipitate out of solution and enabling micro-crystallites of calcium carbonate to form. This results in scatter of the blue wavelengths of sunlight. (thanks wikipedia)"

Anyway, enough of that, we love the lake just because it's blue! :)

Great Ocean Road

Here we have an image of one of the worlds most scenic drives. It is 400kms of road along the south eastern coast of Australia in Victoria. It was built in 1919 by servicemen as a memorial to their fallen colleagues in WWI.

It rained a lot whilst we were in this area and we had to wait a while to get this beautiful photo opportunity.

White Cliffs Budget Accommodation....!

In Whitecliffs, New South Wales we were looking for somewhere to stay and drove passed this nice looking place. What do you think?

Busselton - Picture Postcard

This little gem is 220km south west of Perth in Western Australia. The place is Busselton and it's their 2km long jetty started in 1865. This shot reminds me of a painting or postcard and it's one of my faves. We had fun here taking images of the jetty and I have a couple more up my sleeve for the future...

Wilpena Pound - Rugged old world

Australia is an extremely old land geologically speaking. The Flinders Ranges is an example of a very old weathered mountain range in South Australia. This shot is of one of the sides of Wilpena Pound, Wilpena pound is a natural amphitheatre created by mountains. A long time ago cattle owners used the pound as a natural barrier to keep their cattle safe.
I love the contrasting 3 colours in this shot and the way the clouds thicken across the image....

Cooktown - Sun down......

The opportunity for photographing sunsets in Australia is huge. The weather and the big open skies see to that.
This shot of palm trees in front of a pink / purple sky was taken in Cooktown in Northern Queensland. It it is not a shot I had been planning and standing around waiting for, i just hopped out of the car and there it was. I reached for the camera, snapped and this is the result - I love it.

Wildlife Wednesday 2 - Lizard

Here is the second instalment of Wildlife Wednesday.
This is one of my favourite images....
One of Australia's many types of lizard sunning itself on a termite mound waiting for breakfast.
Maybe an expert could fill me in on what type of lizard?

Botany Bay - A New World...

This sign is located in Botany Bay near Sydney and speaks for itself really!

Captain James Cook mapped the whole east coast of Austraila in 1770 and claimed the area for the British Empire. He also helped  to give names to many places up the coast, including Cooktown, Botany Bay and the interesting Seventeen Seventy (1770).

If you are interested in the full history lesson it can be found here - Captain Cook - Wikipedia

For me it was a reminder of how young this country is...

Canberra - The Nations Capital

Well Monday is here again and a lot of us will be back at work... sadly!

Today's image is from Canberra, a new city designed to stop the bickering about becoming the Capital between Sydney and Melbourne.
Canberra is a very attractive city with lots of parks and memorials, even the roads are beautiful. That's just as well as if you have ever tried to drive in Canberra you will understand how easy it to take a wrong turn!
This image is of the Captain Cook Memorial Fountain with the Cook Memorial Globe in the foreground and the National Library in the background.

Super Size - Australian Road Train

In a supersized country you need move a lot of things at once to keep the number of long trips down.
One way of doing this is the famous Australian Road Train. Here I caught a Shell one at an outback fuel station. Not sure what his superiors at Shell would say about him filling up at Mobil :-)

This image is now available for purchase at my store Image Australia

Great Dividing Range.....

The Great Dividing Range runs all the way from Far North Qld to the bottom of Victoria where the land drops into the ocean (3,500 kms). The highest point of which is Mt Kosciuszko in the Snowy Mountains.
This mountain Range is a huge feature of the East Coast and to go anywhere inland from the east, you need to cross this barrier. Wonderful views are on offer all the way up the range. This shot was taken on The Great Alpine Road not far from the town of Omeo. We felt like we could see forever...

Mrgaret River - Rural Charm...

Despite the dry climate Australia still has some beautiful green countryside. This is typified best in the main wine regions.

This shot is taken in Margeret River in Western Australia. A small Vineyard in the front with cute little farm buildings behind.
Margaret River is very popular with visitors, it has many wineries and is also famous for food (the cheese factory particularly caught my eye!).
It is a reasonable 272kms or 3 hours drive south from Perth and is also famous for an awesome surf spot called 'Surfer's Point'.

Outback Emptiness - The Birdsville Track

The Birdsville Track is a not well travelled route between Maree in SA and Birdsville in Queensland.

The track is 700kms of dirt and gravel and skirts 3 different deserts. It was carved by a delivery driver called Tom Kruse. He was a mailman that delivered to all of the stations along the route. An average delivery run would take 2 weeks in his 2wd Bedford van, but if the weather was bad it could take up to 6 weeks!

The mail is now delivered by plane and the road is so much better that the deliveries come in every 2 weeks on a road train.

Even though the landscape is so empty it is still an amazing site, the view and clouds just go on forever.

(This is one of my favourite parts of Australia...)

Wildlife Wednesday 1 - Koala Bear

I have decided that each Wednesday is going to have a Wildlife theme...

Australia has some very unique wildlife and I enjoy photographing it.
When you think of Australia 2 very famous species spring to mind immediately, so I am going to start with one of those...

This shot was taken late in the day, this Koala was being harrassed by another and was stuck up a tree away from the bully. Koala's make a very stange noise when they are angry!

Rainforest Tranquility - Mount Field National Park

This photo was taken in Tasmania, Australia's island state. The waterfall is called "Horseshoe Falls" because after heavy rain both sides of this waterfall flow in a curve and meet in the middle. When I took this shot there was only enough water for half the horseshoe but it still makes for a beautiful photo.
Tasmania is an affordable 9 hour ferry trip from Melbourne Victoria.
The falls are located in central Tasmania in Mount Field National Park and are 100 metres up stream from the amazing Russell Falls (photo still to come  ;-)

Kalgoorlie - Gift of Gold

Todays image is of "The Super Pit" open cut gold mine in Kalgoorlie Western Australia. Kalgoorlie is an old mining town still thriving thanks to the gold. It is in the Eastern interior of WA - 4 hours drive from the end of the Nullabor crossing.

Most of the year it is extremely hot here and visitors are few. In the winter however curious tourists venture over. The Super Pit is becoming a major attraction and you can get to the viewing platform I took this photo from for free. You can also pay to take a tour and see some of the HUGE machines they have working the mine. If you look really hard you can see a truck hauling the rocks, makes you realise how big this hole in the floor is!

Broome - A Land of Contrast

Today we go from the heart of the outback to the tropical waters of Cable Beach in tropical Broome.
Broome is on the north west coast of Western Australia and is somewhat isolated. It has an oriental heritage and started out as a pearling village.
Broome is great at the time of year these shots were taken (June - winter)
It is the best time to visit, as in the summer the tropical storms come and I imagine this palm tree would be blowing sideways!.


I have added 2 pictures today because I am away Saturday with no internet....

The first shot was taken from the promenade looking out over Cable Beach to the ocean.

The second shot was taken at sunset and typifies the beautiful scenes on offer all along the west coast of Australia

First Post.... Uluru / Ayers Rock

My plan is to upload an image that I have captured from around Australia every day (when I have access to the internet of course!) and provide readers with a little info about the destination.

It's difficult to know where to start...

Australia is a country of stark contrast and amazing natural beauty of course, but there are many other interesting things that you see out and about in Oz.

Whilst I am sure many of the images I share will be awesome landscapes I also hope to get a good share of the more unusal as well.

Seeing as this is my first post on this photo blog though, I will go for something very cliche.....

Uluru is a must see for any visitor to Australia - It is truly awe inspiring, when you see it you can't help but keep looking at it!

The main issue for travellers is getting there...

Despite what many people think Uluru (Ayers Rock) is not that close to Alice Springs NT, it is still over 400kms - which is a days drive. Yulara is the closest place to Uluru and is a purpose built modern town to service the many visitors to the famous rock. Accommodation at Yulara ranges from un-powered camping all the way up to hotel suites. There are shops, food outlets, a fuel station and even a bar there.

At the time of writing this, Park entry to Uluru National Park is AU$25 per Adult so be prepared.