Sydney, Reliving the Past

Week three was spent around Sydney.  One of the most common birds in Sydney and Australia in general is the Sulfur-crested Cookatoo.  Here they are feeding on fruit from a tree in front of Betty's.

We took a walk to the local Carss Park.  Here Marion and I observed Cookatoos and the the Rainbow Lorrikeet.  This can be seen in the picture below on the main branch.  We had a nice walk and stopped for the typical morning tea.

On Tuesday we took a tour of downtown Sydney to visit sites we have frequented in past years.  we took the train from Allawah Station to Town Hall in downtown Sydney.  We went to the Queen Victoria Building to visit the ABC (Australian Broadcasting Company) store.  Following that we had morning tea.  The QVC building is an historical three-storied building that today houses many of the upscale stores and businesses from around the world.

QVB first floor

View of one of the large clocks in QVB

We then walked over to Darling Harbor.  The monorail that used to service the harbor has been dismantled.  We had lunch here and walked around Cockle Bay.  Darling Harbor has the Aqauarium, Navy Museum, the Worlds largest IMAX theater aned many restaurants.

Cock;e Bay at Darling Harbor

We then walked back to Pitt Street and then onto Circular Quay.  The weather was clearing and getting warm. The cruise ship "Soverign of the Seas" was in port.  The Opera House is located at the harbor as well as the  Sydney Harbor bridge.  We decided to take the ferry over to Manly.  We have managed to do this almost every time we have been in Sydney.

Soverign of the Seas

Sydney Opera House

Sydney Opera House

Sydney Harbor Bridge

The ferry ride to Manley Beach is a short cruise on Sydney Harbor past the harbor opening to the sea.  We walked across the Corso to the beach, stopping for ice cream.

The Corso

Manly Beach was quite busy with surfers and boogie boarders.  I think the water was still too cool for just swimming.  Many sun bathers were present.  Marion and I sat and relaxed for about a half hour.

Manly Beach

Back from Manley we continued on our walk past the Opera House and onto the Botanic Gardens.  We past the tree that had been planted in Surreys memory.  Surrey, Betty's husband, was a botanist at the garden for 38 years,  His specialties were grasses, water plants and Chenopods.  Barre worked with Surrey for 12 years studying the water-lilies of tropical Australia.

Royal Botanic Gardens Sydney

We were now going to visit one of the women who helped Barre last winter at Kew Gardens in London with the web site they were setting up.  Niamh is presently working with Crustaceans at the Sydney Museum.  We passed St. Mary's Cathederal and walked through Hyde Park.

St.Mary's Cathederal

Hyde Park

We met Niamh, had dinner and took the train back to Allawah.  We walked home arriving around 9:30pm.  I have no idea how many miles we walked that day, but we were truly exhausted.

Australia, week 2, Tasmania

Marion, Betty, and Barre flew south to the island State of Tasmania.  Tasmania is the southern-most state in Australia.  It is approximately the same latitute south as the Massachusetts, Vermont border is north.  The weather was much cooler and the predition was for a rainly week.  We got our rental car and drove to the historic town of Richmond where we met Betty's friends Ian and Gail and had lunch at a local Richmond hotel(below). They gave us suggestions of places to visit. We decided to travel the eastern and southeastern portion of the island due to the rainy forcast.

 

 

We travelled north in the interior to go to a couple of lakes and streams where Barre had collected pondweeds in 1997.  It was hoped that plants could be collected for DNA analysis. The road north brought us through rolling hills and grasslands filled with hundreds of Merino sheep. 

 



 

Field of Marino sheep

 

Opum poppy field

 

Local farmers are also in the lucrative business of legally growing Opium poppies for the manufacture of morphine.  Fields were common with plants in all stages of growth.

 

Along the roadside we encounterd an echnida (spiny ant eater),  We got out of the car to photograph him when he curled up in a ball, hiding his head and not moving.

Ross Main Street

We stopped at Oatlands where Barre hunted in Lake Dulverton for a pondweed previously collected at this site.  This was the only site Barre where Barre would be successful.  The waters were high and it was apparently a little too early for much development of aquatic plants.  We travelled on to the charming town of Ross.  The town is considered the finest 19th century village in Australia.  Originally it was a 'female factory' where incarcerated woman worked.  One of the most beautiful old bridges constructed by convict labor was built here.



One of the four Ross churches

 

We spent the night at the Ross Motel.  In the morning we had breakfast at the local bakery and then travelled over the highlands from Campbell Town to Bicheno.  A stop was made at Lake Leake to look for plants to no avail.  The water was too high.  We were now encountering our first rain.



Shoreline at Bicheno

 

We  travelled north along the shore to Bicheno, had tea and went down to the shoreline.  The rocks were quite colorful with a red lichen occuring just above tide level.  Our next destination was Freycinet National Park which is located on a long narrow peninsula.

Coles Bay, Freycinet Peninsula

 

The weather when we arrived at the Park was starting to deteriorate with on and off showers.  We had lunch at the Freycinet Lodge and then decided what we would like to do while there.  The initial plan was to take about an hour round trip hike to a viewpoint for Wineglass Bay, a long curving white-sand beach.  But, it started to rain, so we drove around to various viewpoints.  At Cape Tourville, the showers subsided so we had a chance to walk the trail up to the lighthouse.



Cape Tourville lighthouse



View south from Cape Tourville to Wineglass Bay is distance

Marion and Betty along footpath to lighthouse

 

That night we stayed at the Swansea Motor Lodge.. That night it poured all night.  In the morning we found out that the town of Gray, not too far north of us, had 250 mm of rain (ca. 10") overnight.  We did not have that much but it was evident as we drove south that much had fallen

Flooded field

Swollen River

Spiky Bridge

 

South of Swansea we stopped to take a picture of Spiky Bridge.  The bridge was built by convicts in 1843.  One of the legends as to why the rocks were laid sharp end up along the top, like spikes, was to keep cows from "jumping" off the bridge.

 

Burned countryside heading south onto Tasman Peninsula

 

We continued on south to the Tasman Peninsula.  We travelled though miles of burned forest.  The town of Dunalley was hard hit in this January 2013 fire.

Tesselted Pavement

Closeup of Tesselated Payment

 

We stopped to view the Tesselated Pavement at Eaglehawk. The strange rectangular configurations of the sedimentary rocks (sandstone) forms the pavement along the shoreline. These are formed due to the combination of erosion and salt deposites in the cracks.  We had lunch across the street at a Best Western Lodge.  We decided to book the night there.  The weather clearned for the rest of the afternnon which was a pleasant surprise. Then we were off to view three more local attactions along Pirates Bay:  the blowhole, Tasmans Arch, and the Devils Kitchen. 

water exiting the blowhole

looking through the blowhole to the other side

 

The blowhole was formed by a hole worn through the cliff to the open ocean. As the waves crashed into the wall, the water was forced through the opening to a large "bowl" on the otherside.  Many of the larger waves were quite violent.

Tasmans Arch

 

The arch connected directly to the sea.  I would guess it is approximately 75 ft. high.

Pounding surf at Devils Kitchen

Devils Kitchen

 

Devils kitchen is a deep chasm formed by the waves entering a narrow passage.  Photos do not do it justice.  It is about 200 ft. deep.  Our last srop was the Port Arthur Historic site at the south end of the Tasman Peninsula.  The Port Arthur site  was initially utilized as a timber camp utilizing convict labor.  Then in 1833 it was convertd to a punishment station for repeat offenders from all Australian colonies.  The site includes the penitentiary, a community for the military where they and their families lived in stark contrast to the prisoners.

Penitentiary (1857)

Guard Tower (1835)

Church (1837)

Large Eucalyptus by Commandant's home

evening view from motel at Pirate's Bay

 

Tasmania is the only state where the Tasmanian Devil occurs.  Today it is an endangered species due to a fatal cancer.  The northwest corner odf the state and the Tasman Peninsula are the only two areas that are free from the cancer.  We saw many Tasmanian Devil road signs, but no devils.  The morning of our departure it was raining again.  We arrived back in Sydney around 1:30 PM.  We had a great trip!



Australia, week 1.5

On Tuesday afternoon we took a trip to a local botanical garden to look around. Barre got to see a few aquatic plants  and various Eucalypts.  We saw the frilled lizard below.

 

This was followed by visit to a Koala rehat center south of Gail's home.  Here we saw the laughing Kookaburra below plus four Koalas that were in various stages of eating and sleeping.  This animals had been injured or had a health problem, so were confined to the center.

 

 

 

 

 

The rehab center was located at a large park where numerous Red-necked Wallabies were roaming freely around the grounds.  We saw around 6 wallabies here, some with joeys.  One female was hopping around followed by her joey.  Another came right in front of us with her joey in the pouch ( below).  On the way home we drove through a housing development that is known to be home of many Wallibies.  We saw approxinmatel 15-20 more roaming freely.

 

 

 

On Thursday afternoon we headed north of Brisbane to the shoreline community of Redcliffe.  Here there is a tribute to the Bee Gees singing group.  After moving from England the family settled in Australia near here. The tribute included the statue below and a number of photo murals along the wall of a alley way.  Marion and Gail are seen in the second photo looking at the murals

 

 

Friday we headed back to Sydney.  The flight took a little over an hour.  Monday morning we head south to Hobart, Tasmania for a 3 night/4 day tour.

 

 

 

Week one in Australia

                                                The Domain and Botanic Garden, Sydney
The trip to Australia was uneventful but with a long lay-over at the Newark, N.J. airport.  Thank goodness we had United Airlines club passes to help pass the time.  We were happy to learn that we were eligible for the fast screening procedure in Albany, so we did not have to take off shoes, belts, jackets, and did not have to remove the computer for inspection.  When we arrived in Sydney we were the only plane. We were in row 2 of economy class, so we breezed through security.  We arrived at Betty's around 8:30 am.  We spent 4 days there, having a chance to get over jet lag.  Barre went into the Botanic Garden to visit and collect pondweed data.  On Saturday night we went to dinner with Betty, daughter Ellen and family, and son Geoff and wife.  There was still smoke in the area on Saturday from the fires to the west of Sydney. Sunday morning we flew to Brisbane to spend time with friend Gail.  Gail was originally from Adams, MA. and served as host to Barre during his 1997 sabbatical in Australia.                                          

Queensland University of Technology Interactive Wall





 We went into Brisbane for the day on Monday.  We took the ferry up the Brisbane River to the center of the city.  Our first stop was to the University of Queensland Technology to check out the Interactive wall in the Science and Technolgy Center.  There were three sides to the display.  The first was the Barrier Reef (above), the second side was the Brisbane Flood of 2011, and the third was the demonstation of what gravity was like on the different planets.  The reef displayed allowed you to touch the screen as the fishes swim by.  This would bring up information segment s for the fish.  The gravity display allowed you to change the gravity to correspond with that on the various planets.  You could "throw" various things into the air.  Jupiter material hardly moved, while Pluto and Mercury went very high.

 

 Brisbane City Hall

 

 We went then walked to the Brisbane City Hall and took the tour through the building. The most interesting area was a wall that was above a "long urinal trough" that was used during World War 2.  Soldiers from Australia and the United States had signed the wall.  The guide told about people on tours over the years recognizing names of relatives.    We toured the museum while there.

 

 

 

                                                         Ferris wheel long Brisbane River
                                          

The first Tuesday in November, Australia is totally involved with the running of the Melbourne Cup horse race.  This is the richest horse race in the World.  First place is over six million Australian dollars.  We went over to Coochiwmudlo Island for the celebration.  Gail had lived there previously, so we joined her friends for lunch and to wait for the race.  It is hard to expain how "crazy" Australia gets over a horse race.  This was the number one news item.  Melbourne Cup day is a holiday in the State of Victoria.  The rest of the country literally comes to a halt at race time.  We enjoyed the time on the island visiting and playing various "horse racing " games.

                                                                  Coochiemudlo Island

So far the weather has been fair and warm.  Rain is desparately needed.  We will stay here in Queensland until Friday, then fly back to Sydney.  Betty will  join us next week for a trip to Tasmania.