Australia Job Exchange

2007-02-26T22:37:00.000-08:00

Good bye to Bankstown City Library - wonderful lunch and tea...despites their arguments that Australia is a much better place to spend the next 4 months I am NZ bound.

2007-02-26T15:16:00.000-08:00

Starting March 1st 2007 I will be offering a NZ BLOG celebrating my third and final job exchange. This is the new BLOG address:

http://newzealandjournal.blogspot.com/

2007-02-25T14:41:00.000-08:00

Sydney Aquarium - This is a really magical place where the creatures of the sea give you a fantastic show just being themselves. They glide and twirl and float without effort above your head, beside you, underneath you as you are surrounded by their sea world. The sea turtle seems to be suspended and appears to love to float upside down. He or she was there a long time and didn't seem to need to breathe. The sting ray was so huge you just see his/her great big white belly. The low swimming fish are flat head sharks and they were huge.

2007-02-25T14:37:00.000-08:00

Rookwood Cemetary and Sydney Aquarium - my time in Australia is coming to a close and so I am just putting my final parting shots from paradise up on the BLOG. The first shot is the grave marker of "Copper Lady" aka Margaret Newton who had the foresight in the 1800s to preserve her photographic image from that time with a multimedia copper flap that can be retracted upward to show the photo but normally resides over the photo to protect it from the elements and the sunlight. The other two shots are of the colourful flora in the Sydney Aquarium, red coral.

2007-02-25T14:29:00.000-08:00

Sydney - Castle Hill Library - take note of the laminate floor, the well used 'sound and vision' area for youth, and the area for patrons to plug in their laptops or use their wireless. What a bright and airy hi tech atmostphere that is obviously attractive to the youth.

2007-02-25T14:27:00.000-08:00

Sydney - Castle Hill Library - the first two images are of the high visibility group meeting rooms that are popular with youth who are planning projects as a team. The final image is of an area where people can "chill out" and just relax and enjoy the beautiful gardens and fountain outside.

2007-02-25T14:26:00.000-08:00

Sydney - Castle Hill Library - Wanted to show you the task lighting in the multi-media area populated with youth. The graphics are appealing, colourful and youthful. The middle shot shows the importance the Library places on attracting the business community and entrepreneurs.

2007-02-25T14:23:00.000-08:00

Sydney - Castle Hill Library - Signage is big, cheerful, and clear. Look at the RFID self-checkout. Book returns are a snap with RFID because the return bin itself can sense the item's return and issues the patron a receipt immediately.
Note the excellent, modern computing facililties and the task lighting.

2007-02-25T14:17:00.000-08:00

Sydney - Castle Hill Library - the whole effect of this library is one of a chic bookstore/boutique in a high tech world. No ones

has to question what is housed where or what an item's functionality is. The first shot is an innovative idea and its called "Titles from the bottom shelf"...just like in a food store where the loss leaders are placed on the bottom because they require more work to retrieve, great books can be relegated to the bottom shelf by the classification system even though more often than not they are "winners' and Castle Hill celebrates them.

2007-02-22T22:54:00.000-08:00

Steve Irwin's Australia Zoo - the tigers are quite moody and were affected badly by the heat. To make matters worse the male tiger was Siberian and he was considerably bigger than the female bengal tiger. Also the Steve Irwin Australia Zoo does not believe in forcing the tigers to entertain so when they would not play with the toys the keepers were flinging around that was kind of the end of the show. The first shot is of a 'cub' [pretty big cub if you ask me!] drinking milk out of a bottle. This was one occasion when my instincts for animal rights were outmatched by my desire to see something entertaining but it never happened.

2007-02-22T22:50:00.000-08:00

Steve Irwin's Australia Zoo - I really found it relaxing watching the elephants enjoy their shower.They love to roll and get caked in mud to fend off the heat and scorching sun and then have all that mud washed off.

2007-02-22T22:44:00.000-08:00

Steve Irwin's Australian Zoo - in order the animals are an emu [as big if not bigger than an ostrich! and socialable too!], a koala with some kind of skin problem but at least in an natural place up a tree and not being bothered by humans, and a green parrot that appears to be camouflaged.

2007-02-21T22:51:00.000-08:00

Steve Irwin's Australia Zoo - there is a "show" at scheduled times and they have fantastic trained parrots who fly amongst the audience and crocodiles who are so huge but so fast it is astounding. The sun was very strong and we moved to a part of the bleachers where we were in partial shade. The 'roos' were very friendly. A joey was putting on a show for everyone making a big drama about getting in his mother's pouch. He looked kind of big for the pouch as his feet were dangling out. It was emotional seeing the tribute wall for Steve Irwin. He really does promote animal welfare in his show and gives a large portion of the proceeds to animal welfare projects.

2007-02-21T22:45:00.000-08:00

Steve Irwin's Australia Zoo - as an animal rights advocate I always think twice about going to a zoo but this was a wonderful place. There was no litter anywhere and the animals lived in clean surrounding. There were no piles of dung and flies, and the water was clean, the vegetation well watered and every animal and bird was engaged and happy. Even the staff were really great and trying to do their best for the people and the animals. The pictures here are a koala [sleeping again!], and American crocodile, and an elephant. For a small fee you could go up and feed the elephant a portion of a cob of corn and have your photograph taken. If you went up the elephant slimed you with its trunk and/or its mouth.

2007-02-21T22:39:00.000-08:00

Ettamogah Pub - I couldn't believe that the genie from the movie "Big" with Tom Hanks was just out in the courtyard. No one else noticed it. I went and looked and decided to go back and get money and have my fortune told but I found it confusing that your fortune was told to you out of a speaker and not in writing. Being the lawyer type ['I want that in writing!'] I walked away so I never got to experience what the genie would have for me.

2007-02-21T22:33:00.000-08:00

Glass House Mountains - Panoramic View- Aren't the shapes of the mountains amazing. It defies logic that so many extinct volcanoes could be situated in nature so close together. Apparently hikers like to climb them. I was happy just to admire them. The Pacific Ocean is just beyond them at the blue horizon.

2007-02-20T22:53:00.000-08:00

Secrets on the Lake - Lake Baroon - Montville - This is a really ritzy and fantastic resort complete with a treetop walk for guests. This cute little wooden structure is high up in the trees over the driveway leading up to the resort.

2007-02-20T22:46:00.000-08:00

Kondalilla Falls in Kondalilla National Park near Montville in the Blackall Range in the Sunshine Coast hinterland - We hiked to the falls and this very enticing pond and swimming hole to put our feet in the cooling water. Youth were jumping from a cliff into the pool of water. One young woman was afraid to jump but felt committed. We hiked 20 minutes away and came back and she still had not jumped but finally made the plunge. There is a lovely valley near the pool of water. The final image is a rather big lizard that lives beside Lake Baroon at Montville near Maleny. Its a man- made lake formed when a dam was constructed.

2007-02-20T22:30:00.000-08:00

Montville in the Sunshine Coast Hinterland --- Had to take a picture of these pink proteas that cost an arm and a leg in Canada but you can buy by the bunch in Montville. Montville has antique, candy and fudge, and holistic as well as "arty" stores. The middle picture is surprisingly what you can see off the back balcony of one of the stores. The valley and tropical vastness is all around the thin veneer of civilization that is the town on both sides of the road. The image of a tropical rain forest is taken at the Kondalilla National Park where there is reputedly a Komodo dragon [the world's largest lizard]. Usually its found only on the Indonesian islands of Komodo, Rintja, Padar, and Flores. As there are only an estimated 1,000 to 5,000 of these lizards [at 3 m in length and weighing up to 126 kg ...bigger than me and ...they can run fast too and climb!..look at the picture from Wikipedia] I was highly skeptical but I was certainly on the lookout.

2007-02-19T22:12:00.000-08:00

Brisbane - Mt. Tibrogargan is one of the Glass House Mountains named by Captain Cook. They are extinct volcanic crags just 20 km north of Caboolture. There are some fabulous scenic drives through the Glass House Mountains which you can see depicted in my shots of the valleys that look out onto the Pacific Ocean. The Glass House Mountains also hold a rich Aboriginal historyand I was fascinated with the pineapple, avacado and banana farms.

2007-02-18T22:47:00.000-08:00

Garie Beach Hike - the forests are very dry as you can tell from the images and they contrast with the abundant and liquid sea very close by. As long as you were in the shade the heat was bearable but without that protection the sun was blazing hot. The big bug in the person's hand is a cicada. There are millions of them in the forest and they create a buzzing sound. We have the same thing in Canada but Australia's version are giants.

2007-02-18T22:35:00.000-08:00

Hiking to Garie Beach- Burning Palms - Figure of Eight Pools - If you have X-Ray vision you can see all the way to Wollongong which is about 50 miles south of Sydney and also on the coast. I liked the old cottages from the Depression years that are allowed to remain as long as someone with the same name owns the cottage as the original builder. So precious are these rustic cottages to the families that people change their name to keep the cottage. The hikers who accompanied me went swimming in the pools of water that are left filled with salt water when the tides goes out and the pools of water get warmed by the sun. There were surfers all along the beach.

2007-02-18T22:18:00.000-08:00

Blue Mtns - Devil's Hole - the description of the hike said we would only have to ascend 400 metres but if you look at the peak and then the valley I should have understood it would be a lot more than an ascent of 400 metres. Anyway the adventure got way beyond hiking into hand holds and climbing as we made our way up Devil's Hole to a ridge. Since I couldn't go back I focused on watching where the hike leader found his way up the "crack". Someone gave me a push in one spot where I got stuck. While I was proud of myself for enduring the hike I would never do it again.

2007-02-18T22:12:00.000-08:00

Blue Mtns - Hiking- This was rated as easy and it was anything but. I loved the mist in the early morning which makes the trees look like they are "Out of Africa". We got up on some ridges on our way down into the valley and I could not look over the edge. Other hikers not afraid of heights were jostling each other close to the edge and laughing whereas I had to avert my glance. Anyway what goes down must come up and we had to gain back all the height we lost by descending into the valley.

2007-02-15T22:47:00.000-08:00

Bankstown City Library - Just wanted to relate the story that Mayor Tania Mihailuk explained to new Australians at a citizenship ceremony Dec.12 where the library had a presence. She explained that she was a first generation Australian whose parents migrated to Australia from China. The Mayor's parents were of Russian descent and were born in China as a result of her grandparents fleeing to China on foot with no possessions after their village was destroyed in Russia and set on fire during the Russian Revolution in 1917. In the many years that her grandparents and parents lived in China, they did so without having the privilege of citizenship and were eternally grateful to be accepted as citizens of Australia.

2007-02-14T22:53:00.000-08:00

Sydney - Bankstown City Library - Just two examples of the summer holiday activities at Padstow and Greenacre branches of Bankstown City Library. The format is the children come and have 3 stories read to them, watch an entertaining children's movie and make a craft they can take home with them that celebrates summer in Australia. The activities included making a scarecrow garden stake, a fishing line with a sea creature attached with a paperclip, keyrings with the child's photo laminated and attached with a grommet machine, and a shark kite among others. I actually got to know mothers and children and felt good at the Summer Reading Awards night when I recognized a family from one of the branch SHA events.

2007-02-14T22:19:00.000-08:00

Fremantle Prison was constructed by convicts shipped over on tall ships by the UK between 1851 and 1855. Many were Irish whose only crime was stealing food to survive. Surprisingly the building was in use as a maximum security prison until 1991 when one summer day it reached 54 degrees inside in the so called shade. After a fire set by the inmates, the Fremantle Gaol was decommissioned.The Fremantle Arts Centre was also built using convict labour and it has sordid connections to the Gaol which contributed to its haunting by not one but 3 different ghosts. The nets you can see between the floors were to save convicts pushed over the edge by other malcontents in the prison. You can see the spartan cells. In the 1850s the cells were like a ship with hammocks and scratchy wool blankets no pillows and two men per cell. The gallows were a nice touch. The hangman could deliver a man or woman to their reward in 37 seconds. Men or women who could not stand up because of the fear of death were killed seated in a chair that dropped and they were hung regardless.

2007-02-12T22:55:00.000-08:00

Perth - Skyscrapers and Harbour - both of these shots are taken from Kings Park. Who ever said Perth is dull were wrong. You can just notice the Perth Convention Centre in the bottom right of the skyscrapper image. Its also know as the "thong" or the "boomerang" for its unconventional no windows on the harbourside and its unappealling design. The expected rush of tourists never materialized and the managment contract will see the Centre reputedly lose over $20 million in the ten year life of the contract.

2007-02-12T22:40:00.000-08:00

Perth - Kings Park tree-top walk - You can go on this fantastic walk in the tree tops on an elevated walkway with kangaroos living in the park below. This is a very popular spot for summer weddings which happen in January here and we passed a bride and groom plus entourage of photographers. The water is Perth harbour and the Swan River.

2007-02-08T19:26:00.000-08:00

Perth - Penguin Island - the sea lions in Perth and the Indian Ocean also segregate themselves into male and female colonies so the females and pups have access to the greater supply of food and no competition from the males. At mating season the males swim up to the coast off Broome to create the next generation and then leave the females to raise the pups on their own. The Ferry penguins are so sweet. These fellows are all no longer able to be out in the wild and are socialized as a colony. Much pampering has taken place and each penguin is rather eccentric and hilarious in their feeding habits.

2007-02-08T19:06:00.000-08:00

http://www.mediamax.com/donkathylea/Hosted/DolphinMovie.MPG

This is an awesome videoclip of the dolphins running with our boat at Rockingham near the Indian Ocean. The screaming sounds are the squeals of delight from the kids on board who just loved the dolphins!! [we adults were pretty impressed too!]

2007-02-08T18:31:00.000-08:00

Perth - Rockingham - Dolphin Watching - we went on an adventure to find a pod of 20 dolphins. As it was explained to me, the adult male and adolescent male dolphins swin in their own pod distinct from the females and nursing calves. We found the group of females and calves and they swam with our boat. I am pictured on the boat in pearls no less camera at the ready but the best I could do was the second picture with the fins of the dolphins. Most of the time I photographed blank ocean even though seconds before as many as 5 dolphins were swimming and jumping out of the water. What really got the dolphins excited was when another boat pulled up and humans jumped into the water and attempted to swim with them in their own element. It apparently scars the dolphins permanently if human swimmers grab and touch them because the mucous coating on their skin is taken off and they get a sun burn and permanent white scar.

2007-02-01T20:13:00.000-08:00

Perth - Fireworks for Australia Day, sunset, lightning and comet McNaught all in one picture with another awesome Aussie beach as context. Look between the two displays lighting up the sky to see the third - McNaught's Comet in between the fireworks and the lightning. The photo was taken just north of Hillary's Marina in Perth, where you can see the harbour wall on the left with fireworks being launched. This is not my photograph but I was in Perth harbour listening to the simulcast on MIX 94.5 with such songs as "I come from the land down under" as the fireworks went off. That song really made sense to me for the first time as I experienced all the wonders of Australia.

2007-01-23T22:35:00.000-08:00

Tasmania - Grotto - there was this fantastic pool of water with caves all around and if you climbed over a cliff there was a second pool of water. It seemed like we were explorers and the clearing with the grotto was mysterious.

2007-01-23T22:31:00.000-08:00

Tasmania - Tree Ferns - these are really big ferns that are really trees. Our tour leader thought a movie had been shot at this location because it is so exotic.

2007-01-21T22:54:00.000-08:00

Tasmania - Temperate Rain Forest - just some more shots of how thick with vegetation it was.

2007-01-21T22:48:00.000-08:00

Tasmania - Temperate Rain Forest - Lush, Dark, and Deep - The paintings of Emily Carr come to mind in describing the thrill of being in this lush world. The soil is spongy with moisture, and the tree ferns are so big and tall and healthy the place has a science fiction feeling. You expect Tarzan to come swinging down out of the trees.

2007-01-21T22:40:00.000-08:00

Tasmania - Hiking in the Temperate Rain Forest - Unfortunately the only entrance to the rain forest is through a logging road. Every indication is that the logging companies will destroy the old growth forests to plant fast growing trees that are easy to harvest. However, I want to focus on the positive and tell you that all the life was in the natural woods and not the monoculture as so if tourism keeps up at the pace it is the forests may be saved.

2007-01-21T22:31:00.000-08:00

Tasmania - Temperate Rain Forest - The Tarkine - you can see what the area looks like from the air and then inside if from the ground. The smells are unbelieveably trancing blending as they do the aroma of sassafras, cedar and moss. The perfume woodsy smell was so fantastic. The earth was soft and spongy and teaming with life and bio-diversity. There are small little blue wrens that stole my heart.

2007-01-18T22:47:00.000-08:00

Tasmania - Dismal Swamp - early explorers got lost in this swamp and the heat, humidity and insects just about drove them mad so they gave it the name it has today. There is a giant slide that you go down in a special body bag. The slide looks like a big white caterpillar in the first shot. As part of the experience you get to hike in the swamp on a boardwalk and you marvel at the huge trees still standing [middle shot]. The last image is what I could see of this area from our plane as it banked at a perilous angle.

2007-01-18T22:39:00.000-08:00

Tasmania - Stanley - The Nut - surprisingly a major export of Tasmania is the opiate distillates of oriental poppy seed heads for pharmaceuticals. The fields are secured against anyone entering them. The other main producer in the world is interestingly enough Canada. I couldn't resist showing you one of the many beaches with no one on it. The sea is beautiful colours and there were sea shells on the beach.

2007-01-18T22:23:00.000-08:00

Tasmania- Stanley - The Nut- The Nut is a large rock outcropping that was formed when a plug developed in an erupting volcanoe eons of time ago and solidified. If you are the hiking type it creates quite the challenge but for those who don't want to put out much effort there is a chair life. From the top you have fantastic views of surrounding islands of which there are hundreds and on a good day mainland Australia. Tasmania and Australia were connected long ago.

2007-01-18T22:10:00.000-08:00

Tasmania - Chocolate Factory - I am a real sucker for old houses and ones that have been lovingly restored. A chocolate factory was housed in just such a lovely home and it had equally beautiful gardens. The chocolates were fantastic too. The last shot is the shoreline where the ferry penguins come up from the sea at dark. I didn't have time to see them but I wanted to have a bit of the experience.

2007-01-18T22:01:00.000-08:00

Tasmania- Launceston - I actually liked the city of Launceston better than Hobart. The San Franciscoesque hills and the artsy flavour of the cafes and boutiques clothed in a frontier ambiance was really appealing to me [reminds me of the rough and tumble of Canada]. The shot from the air is the Tarkine where I fell in love with the temperate rain forest shots of which are coming up soon!

2007-01-18T18:02:00.000-08:00

Hobart - housing prices are still reasonable in this Tasmanian city and it has the most Federation style houses with leaded glass windows anywhere including Melbourne. It also has a rich cultural life. The population of Tasmania is small at 300,000 approximately. It would be a great place to retire as many people have already decided.

2007-01-18T17:55:00.000-08:00

Tasmania from the Air - I got a free trip to Hobart when the Virgin Blue airplane we were travelling in made its descent to Launceston and the small plane ahead of us had an accident and flipped over on the runway. Immediately, our landing was aborted and we were diverted to Hobart. Six or seven hours later we were bused back to Launceston where in my case the tour of the Tarkine and the Nut at Stanley were to begin early the next day. It was amazing to see the whole interior of Tasmania and get to meet interesting people on the bus.

2007-01-18T17:52:00.000-08:00

Kangaroo Island - Last of the Surf Images - Just loved the contrast of the deep blue sea with light clouds off in the distance, and the green colour of the sea and the shallow bits showing up through the water. Everything looked so wild and pristine.

2007-01-18T17:45:00.000-08:00

King Island - Bass Straight - there used to be a land bridge between Kangaroo Island and Australia and Tasmania and Australia for that matter. It allowed species to come to the islands and free from many predators prosper. You can see King Island in the far distance of the first picture and flora along the beaches.

2007-01-18T17:33:00.000-08:00

Kangaroo Island - Surf - I am sorry to obsess about the surf but its just so dramatic and magical. Please bear with me as I make several posts with beaches on them. You can get the sense of the Antartic's influence in the wildness of the waves and demeanor of the coastline.

2007-01-16T22:53:00.000-08:00

Kangaroo Island - Surf - Just wanted to show you what the coastline looked like and the colour of the water and the sand.

2007-01-16T22:44:00.000-08:00

Kangaroo Island - Seals sunning, Admiral's Arch - The life of a female sea lion is not one I would relish. Basically she is constantly pregnant. As soon as she gives birth she is attractive to the males and becomes pregnant but is already nursing her new pup whom she has to drive away when she gives birth and gets pregnant again. Every three days she has to go out to sea to catch enough food to sustain herself the nursing pup and the growing foetus. All this real life issues seem so remote when the seals are lying on the rocks and sunning themselves. The Admiral's Arch is a dramatic place but the toilet smells from the seals is not a good thing.

2007-01-15T22:54:00.000-08:00

Kangaroo Island -Erratic Rocks - these rocks were carved by the actions of sea water over millenia sweeping over them and eroding the softer rock. You can get a feeling for the size of them with the human figures at the bottom. Tourists have fallen to their deaths by getting too close to the rounded smooth edge and falling in to the sea.

2007-01-15T22:50:00.000-08:00

Kangaroo Island - Two more pictures from the farm where I ate lunch. I have never seen a bread truck like the "Quality Breads" example. A shy little wallabie was lying in the bushes at the farm. Finally a view of the surf at Kangaroo Island.

2007-01-15T22:34:00.000-08:00

Kangaroo Island - Koalas in trees - part of my tour on Kangaroo Island included a meal at a farm where I got the most delicious vegetarian lunch and the chance to photograph koalas in the gum trees in a natural setting.

2007-01-15T22:24:00.000-08:00

Kangaroo Island - Seals - There is a story to the picture of the lone seal. They get up out of the water at night if its a cold night and get really high up the shoreline even though they have to waddle to do so and it must take alot of energy. But some seals are not morning people and they hate crowds of tourists and this female on the right was in a foul mood exaserbated because her descent to the water was not lady-like and she needed a caffeine fix. Unfortunately for a poor little pup who was not bothering her whatsoever, the pup was in her way as she ungainly made her way to the sea. Well the adult female took out all her rage on the pup who was without a mother out hunting for food in the sea. And the lone female bit into the pup and made it scream. All the tourists scolded the lone female and waited for blood to come gushing out of the pup but it looked okay. The pup waddled out of the way and no more drama occured. Some tourists still got really close to the seals after that but I was giving them alot of respect. I like it best when the seals are sunning themselves in pools of water on the ocean rocks. They look the most relaxed and in their element.

2007-01-15T18:28:00.000-08:00

Kangaroo Island - Sea Lion 'seals' -- the seals look exhausted because every 3 days they have to swim out into the open ocean and hunt for food and stay awake day and night to avoid becoming prey themselves for whales or sharks. Mothers have to leave their pups on the beach and hope other aggressive seals do not hurt them. The small seals in the pictures are just such pups left on their own by their mothers out hunting for food.

2007-01-14T22:59:00.000-08:00

Kangaroo Island - Some 120 kms south of Adelaide is Kangaroo Island that you can fly to or be taken by sea on a ferry. Our approach was by sea and you get the same view we had leaving mainland Australia in the first shot and approaching the coast of Kangaroo Island. True to its name it is home to kangaroos but also koalas, wallabies, and seals.

2007-01-14T22:53:00.000-08:00

Adelaide - I really liked how much of this city is beautifully preserved and lovingly adorned. The palm trees make it look exotic.

2007-01-05T20:18:00.000-08:00

Green Island - Great Barrier Reef - you get out here off the coast of Cairns by high speed catamaran but even so it takes 45 minutes to get there so it is some distance off shore. I went swimming in the ocean and found the water surprisingly warm, salty and the waves very powerful. Routinely the waves would lift me right out of the water. I found it disconcerting to have the sandy bottom suddenly drop off and you are swimming. You can see in the pictures that the coral reef is just below the water and that it is a shallow world for all the sea life that is suported by the coral reef. It was blazing hot at 10 am and despite being careful about not getting a sun burn I still got a slight burn. It was difficult to leave paradise.

2007-01-05T20:13:00.000-08:00

Great Barrier Reef - Views of Fish from Sub - I tried swimming in the surf off Green Island with an underwater camera but there was only one fish that I photographed. The best fish viewing came when we went down in a submarine. We saw a sea turtle, sting rays, giant clams and eels, sea cucumbers and all manner of big and tiny colourful fish and living coral. It was a fascinating peak at another world. I learned that even the fish avoid direct sunlight if they can. Even though you are out in the open ocean the coral around the island makes a haven for the fish in the shallow water of the coral reef.

2007-01-05T20:03:00.000-08:00

Great Barrier Reef - the picture of yours truly on the high speed catamaran to Green Island signals the end of the rain forest and the beginning of pictures of fish on the Great Barrier Reef and the beaches of Green Island but before we go, a shot of a termite mound. They hate the sun and two thirds of the mound carries on underground. The actual termites are small. The sound of all the insects in that part of the savannah was unreal --- it was like a deafening hum. I threw in some last shots of the amazing butterflies.

2007-01-05T19:59:00.000-08:00

Kangaroos and Butterlies - Just some of the butterlies you might see in the rain forest and a family of 'roos' at a sanctuary.

2007-01-05T19:55:00.000-08:00

Koalas - These guys always seem in a sleepy stupor to me but then someone let me crush some eucalyptus leaves in my fingers and I realized they have to digest the really strong oils in the leaves and it must put their digestive system through the gears. No wonder they are lack lustre and tired all the time. Anyway they are so cute.

2007-01-05T19:50:00.000-08:00

Skyrail Cable Car and Crocs - Just wanted to show you how high up and on your own you are the cable cars that take you over the rainforest. Can you see the crocodiles in the two last pictures? They sure seem lazy and slow moving until food is involved.

2007-01-05T19:45:00.000-08:00

Last Views of Rain Forest and Tropics - I am going to have to move on to other aspects of the rainforest but just wanted to show you the edge of a tropical lake and more views out to Cairns and the Great Barrier Reef beyond. You can kind of see the humidity in the last picture.

2007-01-05T19:42:00.000-08:00

Lush rain forest - it took two shots to show you the tree fern, it was so enormous. Also wanted to show you a typical stream. The streams had little minnows so they were biologically active and wholesome.

2007-01-05T19:35:00.000-08:00

Copper Lode - This was a really exotic lake high up in the tropical rain forest complete with pelicans and white parrots. We had our morning tea up there and it was peaceful and lovely. There were no other tourists with the exception of the family from Denver, myself, and our guide who told snake stories all the way up the mountain including one about a python grabbing their puppy in the middle of the night and the rescue effort that saved the puppy and resulted in the python being relocated but not hurt.

2007-01-05T18:56:00.000-08:00

Kuranda Antique Rail - this old train was created in the 1930s and fell into disuse after the war but thankfully has been brought back into service to take tourists back down the mtn. to Cairns. Everything is open and you get the breezes, tropical bird sounds and all of nature wafting in through the windows. There are old historic pictures posted and a neat technoligical add-on of video display of pictures from the era flashing up when the history of the tracks is explained or some natural phenomenon is coming up. You go through 15 tunnels and over 99 bridges in your way down.

2007-01-05T18:47:00.000-08:00

Cairns - Tropical vegetation - The red poinsettia trees were a knock out. They were at their height of splendour at Christmas. The middle picture is how exotic and thick the foliage is inside the tropical rain forest when you get out of your 4WD. All along the train tracks coming out of the rain forest back down to Cairns were fruit trees that had dropped a banquet of fruit - coconuts, mangoes, papayas, bananas, pineapples which attracted beautiful birds of all colours!

2007-01-05T18:36:00.000-08:00

Cairns - rain forest valleys and more waterfalls - This whole area has been designated a World Heritage site. It has more diversity biologically than any other place on the planet. Witnessing this wonderful beauty is humbling.

2007-01-05T18:17:00.000-08:00

Cairns - ponds and waterfalls - Thought I would show you how the waterfalls happen and how lush and lovely the whole natural cycle is. I wish I could share with you the sounds of the tropical birds and show you all the big butterflies that would flitter by when you're busy trying to take a picture.

2007-01-05T18:05:00.000-08:00

Cairns - Tropical Rain Forest - The upper left shot shows the ocean and a view to the Great Barrier Reef and islands. The other images are what I photographed from the Skyrail Rainforest Cableway. I risked life and camera standing up in a swinging cable car despite explicit rules everywhere not to, to get these wonderful views without shooting through the glass of the cablecar. I had no time to be afraid of hanging and swinging in the devil wind as first my batteries and then my SD cards went caput. Luckily I was in the car myself as I got everything out and raced to replace both and snap more pictures I had the floor of the car covered with packages. Meanwhile the wind raced through the open tram car making all the items on the floor gust. What I would not do for my loyal viewers!

2007-01-05T17:58:00.000-08:00

Cairns - I couldn't get over the natural beauty of Cairns surrounded as it is by tropical rain forest mountains and tropical islands in the Great Barrier Reef. When I got off the plane I felt the humidity like a pressure on my chest.

2007-01-05T17:50:00.000-08:00

Sydney Circular Quay Scenes - If you join the crowds at the harbour front you are sure to see these kinds of views: the Sydney Opera House, huge cruise liners, the Harbour Bridge where you can pay $250 and walk on top of the highest span and have a safety rope attached, and finally buskers in this case an aboriginal muscian playing a didgeridoo.

2007-01-05T17:46:00.000-08:00

Sydney - Pirates - some replica "pirate ships" in Sydney harbour and two goofy people behind pirate silhouettes [Lorna my accomodation owner and my partner in pirate crime and yours truly].

2007-01-05T17:38:00.000-08:00

Greenacres - The lucky kids not only got 3 stories read to them, they also got a Christmas video, the chance to make a Christmas craft they could take home for a gift to give and they got "lollies". A good time was had by all.

2007-01-05T17:14:00.000-08:00

Bankstown - Greenacre Branch - This is one of the branches of the Bankstown City Library where I work as Acting Customer Services Coordinator until Feb. 28th, 2007. This building has a lovely 1950's feel with its arch of windows overlooking a park. You can see a children's reading taking place. The children voted in which order the books would be read to them and I would have picked the same sequence myself.

2007-01-05T17:06:00.000-08:00

Sydney Harbour - I know you might need a motion sickness bag looking at these shots but I attemtped to take pictures of the nightscape without a flash from the deck of the ferry I was on coming into Circular Quay. In the second image you can clearly see the Sydney Opera House.

2006-12-17T22:49:00.000-08:00

Sydney Harbour - Salt Water Ferries - I just love the old yellow ferries. I am told the white new sleek ones are more expensive and to my mind less romantic. You can get a Daytripper pass that lets you combine train travel with bus and ferry and in that way negotiate the whole harbour with one ticket regarless of the mode of travel in that portion. On New Year's Eve watching the fireworks under the Harbour Bridge it was amazing there will no accidents with all the small craft mixing in the high speed ferries and my personal favourites the old yellow ferries.

2006-12-12T22:52:00.000-08:00

Sydney - just beyond the narrow finger of land is the Pacific. The harbour ferry goes in the open water of the Pacific that flows into the harbour and there are big swells like out on the ocean when you are on the ferry.

2006-12-12T22:47:00.000-08:00

Sydney in Distance - what a juxtaposition - pristine beaches and Sydney's skyscrappers just behind the hill on the horizon. Everywhere you look another sandy beach with clean clear water.

2006-12-12T22:41:00.000-08:00

Sydney - Kayaking fans please note the kayaker in Sydney harbour. There were windsurfers and on Manly Beach surfers. The water is crystal clear. There are sharks in the harbour but people only swim between the flags in areas where life guards patrol the water and there are no undertows. Can you spot the hikers in the second photo?

2006-12-12T22:36:00.000-08:00

Sydney - Beach Hiking - Some more shots of the awesome white sand beaches. You can see some of the Bankstown Bushwalking Club members ambling across the strand with their backpacks and wide brimmed hats.

2006-12-12T22:26:00.000-08:00

Sydney - Hiking -

The image bottom right is the nice 'track' provided for hikers and the welcome shade. The sandy beaches devoid of people are awesome and if you have awesome vision you can see dogs frolicking in the surf. The dogs really get you into the spirit of the adventure of life.

2006-12-12T22:18:00.000-08:00

Sydney - Hike from Spit to Manly - The Bankstown Bushwalking Club did the 9 km walk starting at the Spit, stopping at Manly Park for supper and finishing on the harbour ferry back to the Circular Quay. The pictures are presented in sequence from the Spit forward. Enjoy!

2006-12-12T22:09:00.000-08:00

Rockdale Library - Princes Highway and Bryant St, Rockdale, NSW - Councillor Poulos introduced us to the newly purchased integrated library package called 'Spydus'. It was judged to be superior for helping the public locate their local history collection and for its services online. One of the local history books on display called "Cameos of Bexley" gave a cure for the flu pandemic that worked in 1918.

2006-12-12T22:03:00.000-08:00

Bankstown - Christmas decorations at the Bankstown Train Station and the Bankstown City Library where I work complete with Kris Kringle and his helper. Its my first Christmas in the tropics.

2006-12-06T22:12:00.000-08:00

City of Canterbury Library - Sydney - Australia - This is the vibrant and multicultural and very busy library where the 9 City Council launch of Audio-Read Navigator was launched Thurs. Dec. 7th. The nine local government library services cooperated to get a $149,000 AUS$ grant from the State Library of NSW to give housebound clients access to new technology that with a machine voice reads them the daily newspaper or audio books that they can have downloaded to the device by visiting a participating local public library such as Bankstown City Library where I work or they can visit the www.audio-read.com.au website and download once they have secured the permission to do so once the pilot project is over.

Mr. Ron Haddrick was the special guest and MC. He told amusing and intriguing stories about when he was an actor and worked with Sir John Gielgud and Sir Laurence Olivier for the Royal Shakespeare Company in England and when he worked for EMI, TGV, AWA, and ABC radio doing radio dramas on the fly. Lately he has been the voice for many children's audio productions for talking books.

Mr. Bernard Hemmings who is a Home Library Service patron and Audio-Read Navigator user spoke about his satisfaction with the technology and demonstrated its ease of use.

2006-12-05T22:36:00.000-08:00

Olympic Park - Sydney - Even though the olympics took place here in 2000 the residents of Sydney hold it close to their hearts. It was two weeks of excitement and being the centre of the world's attention. The poles commemorate the volunteers and the tallies for different countries. I was surprised to read and remember that Australia ranked number one overall and with the most golds. The UK was 2nd and Spain 3rd. Canada came in 4th, the USA 5th and China 6th.

I am really attracted to all the exotic folliage like the big row of palm trees. Planning for the olympics saw trees planted years ahead so they would be an appropriate height at the time of the event. The 'torch' now has water coming out of it and has bands of gold giving the names of the athletes that won respectively gold, silver and bronze medals. You will note the overcast skys. We got some welcome showers. People who want to know will enjoy knowing the price of petrol is $1.13 AUS$ per litre.

2006-12-05T22:19:00.000-08:00

Rookwood Cemetery - Western Sydney. This is a huge 300 hectare burial spot for over 600, 000 Australians starting in 1867. There are war memorials, memorial gardens for fallen war dead, educational tours and it provides a stop on ghost tours in Sydney. The first image is the pioneer portion. I just looked at one gravestone and it documented a British couple the man born in Suffolk and the woman born in Essex in the 1830s. You could clearly see the impact of WW1 on all family life. The second picture shows the lawn cemetery portion that gets regular maintenance and the exotic palm trees and Norfolk pines. The last image is the Jewish war memorial with remembrances of all the concentration camps: Babi-yar, Theresienstadt, Treblinka, Dachau, Auschwitz, Bergen-Belsen [to name just a few].
These are the words on the Jewish war memorial to the 6 million:

"This is in memory of the 6 million Jews killed by the Nazis during the war 1939-1945. May the world never again witness such inhumanity of man against man."

2006-12-04T22:54:00.000-08:00

Katoomba Falls - Just some more images of the awesome valley. It is deeper than the Grand Canyon and three times as old at 450 million years old. The trees are really tropical and include She-oaks, Mtn. Devil, Broadleaf Hakea, Heath Banksia, and Dillwynia. The sounds coming from the valley are tropical birds. There is a 14 year prison term for being responsible for causing a fire in the valley. Where I took the Skyway tram they were serving crocodile pizza.

2006-12-03T22:35:00.000-08:00

Birrong, NSW, Australia - This BLOG documents my 12 week job exchange at Bankstown City Library. I live in Birrong and take the train into Bankstown every day. The top two pictures depict what I see out my accomodation front door on Hill Road. All the bird calls are exotically different. I love the gardenias that grow as shrubs.

These are typical train stations. I bought my ticket using an automated machine that accepts bills and spits out the weekly ticket and correct change. Took the train to the Olympic Square which involved several transfers. I have been on the job two days and in that time participated in a DIS-Ability Library Promotion at Bankstown Centro and training on the Stock Taking week underway now.

2006-12-03T19:28:00.000-08:00

Katoomba - Blue Mtns., NSW, Australia
These are the Three Sisters mountain outcroppings at Katoomba in the Blue Mountains slightly north and west of Sydney. Fortunately it had been lightly raining that morning so the fires and smoke were abated from the drought and sweltering heat just the day before.

I had the courage to take the Skyway tram over the valley and got some excellent shots of a pinnacle of land that has remained there for 450 million years. You can see a ridge way off in the distance.