Downunder 2016

My trip to Australia was to last about one month. It was good to get away from the messy weather in Penang as the wet months applied for an extension. The plan was to go to Cairns for a week with a friend from Singapore, then I would go down to Brisbane and catch up with Glen and Debbie and kids and shoot around the general area. Helen was to join me from Coolangatta airport and we would go and see friends in Noosa, stay with G and D for a few nights and then set off for the red centre. Three nights in Uluru, three nights in Alice Springs, a day on the Ghan and 2 nights in Darwin before flying home via Singapore. We were hoping to go to Adelaide on the train to see friends there but it was booked out.

From Penang it was Jetstar to Singapore, then Scoot followed by Jetstar again from Sydney to Cairns. The flights went without anything notable…but there were no meals nor water included. I picked up a rental car at Cairns airport and went to find Colin who had arrived a day earlier. He had been out fishing and his hotel offered to cook the catch for our dinner.

We had nothing booked for the week but had some targets in mind. We booked in at Kingfisher Park for 2 nights and looked for subjects around the grounds and in the wider area. 

Chestnut-breasted Mannikins

Red-browed Finch

One target was the Great Bowerbird whose bower was in the playground of Mount Molloy School about 10km away. I had not been in the area for 2 years but the bowerbird was still in residence. He had shifted his bower several times but was in the same general area. The school has a sign on the gate indicating that birdwatchers are welcome…..and I have waved several times in the past to the headmaster as he prepared the morning coffee from his adjacent house.

side view

The Bowerbird in question had a full range of toys around his bower. He has a terrace front and back that were mainly bleached snail shells plus a range of pink and purple sex aids that he had purloined from around the school. 

We dined twice in 2 days at the Mount Molloy pub as the day drew to a close. The village has a pub, a restaurant, a general store and not much more.

I took Colin down through the Daintree area and around Port Douglas since he had not been in the vicinity before. Colin is a professor from England who works in the same complex that IMCB is in. He has been to Penang to shoot the Bee-eaters with me before.

We next went to Granite Gorge where I stayed for 4 nights on my last trip. 

Our accommodation

There was another Great Bowerbird at this location plus nesting Rainbow Bee-eaters which were our main target. The Bowerbird had moved his bower about 600 metres away and the new one was placed under a low-slung tree which made photography impossible without half a day of work with a chainsaw.

 We located some Bee-eaters and found an active nest. It was in sandy soil with scruffy vegetation around it and trees quite close. We decide to try setting up a perch so went to the nearest hardware shop for some wood and a mallet. The nest was near a small side road budding off from the road into the camp. It was unsealed and rarely used. We set up the perch and angled the car rakishly off the road. The only passing vehicle stopped and asked if we needed any assistance. It was difficult shooting because the trees were close by and because the feeding birds already had favourite perches…they ignored our construction. You have to focus on the hole and hope the incoming birds fly into your focal plane while shooting at 10 frames a second. I lucked in a few times. 

Colin was not keen on the location because it was semi-arid and quite hot in the middle of the day. He had a slightly different view after the barbecue was fired up in the cooler evening and the corks and bottle tops were removed.

On the way into the campground I clobbered a Wallaby who had the try-line in his sights…..I was not going fast and pulled up the horse quickly. It was  tackle that Richie would have been proud of….but thankfully the victim soon picked himself off the deck and hopped away leaving no marks on the car or his fur. Cheika still grizzled about a dangerous tackle.

We moved on the next day to my favourite area around Lakes Barrine and Eachem. We had three nights in the rainforest at Chambers Rainforest Lodge, a place I have stayed 4 times before and have supplied images to Chambers website. John now looks like Noah. The Golden Bowerbird at Hypipomee Reserve was our next target. We were told there was a new bird in residence and was a bit shy. This was not the case as I soon recognized my old mate from two years ago. He was courting a reluctant lady near his Maypole-type bower. A beautiful bird he allowed us to approach within 2 metres at one point. We had three sessions with him. This species is the smallest Bowerbird...the Great BB being the largest.

 

The bower is a ramshackle construction consisting of 2 towers with a perch in between. The sticks are glued together with spit and the whole structure can get as high as 2.5 metres. The decorations consist of lichen and some random green vegetation. When a lady shows interest he will call and wiggle and pick a flower to place it on the bower

We dined at the nearby Yungaburra Hotel, which is fairly rustic and also bought food to cook for ourselves. Yungaburra is a small village and has many well-kept hanging plants along the main street in the township. Even the trees are dressed up, albeit in swimwear. One of our other prime targets was the displaying Victoria’s Riflebirds. We heard them around and saw one limbering up but did not get a display. We talked at length to a birder while with the Golden Bowerbird and he was in the area for 6 weeks. He said they were going hammer and tongs about 3-4 weeks prior and ceased about 10 days before we arrived. I had photographed one near Lake Barrine in 2014 and the birder said there were three of them doing their act at once in that same location.

Lake Barrine

We did however locate a Tooth-billed Bowerbird singing his heart out in dense forest above his meagre 'Stage' bower which consisted of a cleared area on the forest floor with a few upturned leaves arranged therein.

 We went on a few side trips to a watering hole where there were literally hundreds of ducks and another reserve where Sarus crane stay overnight.

The week seemed to end quickly and we had to stay near Cairns for the final night as I had a very early flight the next morning. I was booked on Virgin at 5.30am but was told when I arrived at the airport that there was a four hour delay. I was not a happy punter as the system had failed to inform me. Colin is keen to return to the area next year.

When I finally arrived in Brisbane I picked up a rental car and headed for the hills. I stayed three nights at O’Rellys….a favourite place where the wildlife is always around. As coincidence …..or astute planning…….. would have it………I was near Canungra where I watched the Melbourne Cup last year. Near is possibly an exaggeration as it would be close to an hours drive over a windy and narrow road. I debated whether I would go to the pub….but decided against it when told they would show the race in the bar at O'Reilly's and have a sweepstake. There were few takers for the sweep and I was allocated four horses….none of which ran in the first three. It was an exciting finish but my two mile picking streak has galloped away.

Looking towards the Gold Coast at dusk

I found two bowers belonging to Satin Bowerbirds and even saw an elusive Lyrebird. The Regent Bowerbirds were around in numbers as were the King Parrots and Rosellas. You only had to put a few sultanas out on the balcony and you would have many of them lining up. I kept the front door open when in residence and often had Parrots and Rosellas sitting on the bed with me.

Barking Owl

Eastern Yellow Robin

Male Regent Bowerbird

The challenge was to get flight shot of the male Regent. I had someone hold out some sultanas and shot the incoming bird. The following is a sequence of the same bird at 10 frames a second.

Female Regent Bowerbird (young males look very similar)

Female Satin Bowerbird

Crimson Rosella

Male King Parrot

Female King Parrot

Eastern Spinebill

 I had a packet of mixed nuts that was unopened and one Rosella did his best to breach the cellophane. He liked almonds and I called him Lionel…because he was messy. 

Lionel

Great Bowerbirds have their bowers in the open but Satin Bowerbird have theirs in dark, deep forest which makes photography difficult. I did have one male get a female into his Bower but he did not seem to know what to do next. 

Three nights never seems enough especially as I had some guides looking out for me as well.

On the way back from O'Reilly's I noted a lane of Jacaranda trees that was adjacent to O'Reilly's vineyard....not far from Canungra.

From there I went to the Gold Coast where I met another old photographer from Singapore who had an apartment there and where I was to stay for 2 days. It was nice walking the beach in the morning and we even saw some whales breaching offshore. We drove down to Byron Bay one day hoping to sea some interesting sea-life. Together with Helen and the girls we had once seen whales breaching while we had a quiet ale on the front lawn of the pub. They place has grown in the ugly direction and I only saw one whale from the lighthouse but there was a flotilla of dolphins passing by.

I stayed with G and D over the weekend and arrived for Phoebe’s 10^th birthday and a dozen young ladies on a sugar high. We watched Nathan play basketball (in the centre of each picture) and his team had a comfortable win. I took the family out for a meal the first night except for Nathan who was on duty at Hungry Jack’s. On the Monday Deb was on night duty and Glen had flown off by 6am so I was left directing traffic. Debbie does a great job handling her own work commitments as well as marshalling the troops. They still had a student from Macau staying with them and attending the same high school as Nathan and Hayley. She has now completed. The next morning I went out to Nudgee Beach where there was supposed to be plenty of birds in the nearby marshlands. The location, the boardwalk and the sunrise were nice but no serious bird photography eventuated. On several mornings I walked Murphy, the chocolate Labrador….which is a slightly different proposition to walking Coco. He is well behaved and did not snatch food from Phoebe although the lounge was flooded with his drool.

I had three nights before Helen arrived so I headed for Coolangatta….and walked the beach. The weather was not extra kind but the last morning saw the fishermen out rather than the surfers. They were doing well despite some splashing waves hitting the rocks around them. 

I did manage to do some photography in one wildlife park

Australian Moorhen

Goanna

Water Dragon

Dingo

Bridled Nail-tail Wallaby (highly endangered)

Cassowary portrait

One sunny day while in town  I saw a good catfight. It was a bit uneven with a heavyweight against a bantam-weight. It started off with a native dance involving a lot of F-words and then punches were thrown .......and then it was full scale on the ground with legs and knees and fists. I wondered whether the good guys should form a posse to break up the fight and I looked around for other participants for the OK Corral…..they were all 10 years older than me. The heavily, tattooed and perforated ring-assistants eventually broke up the fight and when I emerged from the newsagents with a morning paper…there were 5 cops on the scene….the combatants had seemingly fled. The paper in question had the following headline. I had watched the results unfold and like many citizens of the world I was also saying WTF.

One thing that is very obvious around most Australian towns and cities is that they have great facilities and very little litter. A tractor was on the beach flattening the sand almost before sunrise on nearby Rainbow Beach. A path ran adjacent to the beach for almost 40Km and this was very popular with joggers and walkers. There were various decorated Koalas from the Gold Coast to Tweed heads adorning the walking trails.

Again however I/we found Australia expensive. The average main course in a restaurant would be around A$30 which is about 3-5 times more than we would pay in Penang. Airport parking for one hour was $10 or around $34 ringgit…which is 17 times higher than Penang airport parking fees. The list goes on. The facilities, as mentioned are great….but you pay for it.

Helen duly arrived and we headed up to Tewantin, near Noosa. We were to stay two nights with Bim and Tania. Bim had worked on oil rigs for Petronas when based in Penang and like many in the oil business had found work getting scarcer and scarcer. They moved back to Australia and Bim, in his early 60s, is now semi-retired. They have a nice house near the local township and were in easy distance from the sea and its associated activities. They have two Brittany Spaniels, which were with them in Penang. We dined at the local Boat Club, walked in the National Park and lunched at a seaside restaurant. Their daughter and her boyfriend were also staying but were due to go to Cairns where he had a teaching appointment. 

On the way back to Brisbane we called in at Maroochydore to see Nancy and John. I flatted with Nancy in Adelaide and now they have three grown boys who have flown the nest. John works as a part-time tax accountant and Nancy has recently completed a degree.

We had to sit patiently in traffic on the way back to Brisbane but made it in time to see Nathan play another game. This was a close one which they won by one point. That night we dined out at an Italian Restaurant. Next day Debbie had a day off and she and Helen went shopping while I watched the cricket.

Helen and I had an early start the following morning. Dropped the car off and caught a flight to Sydney and then on to Ayers Rock…(not Uluru). It was interesting viewing from my window seat as we flew over Lake Eyre and then Ayers Rock itself before landing. We were staying at ‘Sails in the Desert’ and had to wait a few hours until our room was ready. The room itself was a fairly typical hotel room. In the next few days we did a tour of the ‘Field of Lights’, Kata Tjuta (previously called the Olgas) and a late afternoon tour of Ayers Rock.  We saw a local production of an Aboriginal myth that utilized holograms very well. It was done by a man and a young woman. We had good evening light for viewing Uluru and good morning light for Kata Tjuta. Other mornings and evenings were not so good. The surrounds looked fairly green, which was also the case around Alice Springs….so the rain had been down here as well. (Tasmania has had its wettest year in recorded history).

We were most stimulated with the 'Field of Lights'. It was uplifting to see it from a distance and walk amongst it. It was set-up by Bruce Munro, an English artist who was particularly inspired by a visit to the rock previously. There are 50,000 lights that change colour continuously. This is detailed in the following link. I was surprised how many negative comments there were to this article. Clearly they had not seen the spectacle.

Our one criticism of Uluru resorts was that all activities are late afternoon or early morning. Some walks and climbs are closed when the mercury rises in the middle of the day. We feel that meeting rooms could be utilized to give talks by aboriginals or experts on the local wildlife, art forms and customs. The food was adequate in later meals but the breakfast buffet was really good. Advice for future visitors to the area; Hire a car at the airport and don’t be dependent on tours.

From Ayers Rock it was only a large hop to Alice Springs. We stayed in the Hilton DoubleTree, which was nice. The warm chocolate cookies on arrival were real nice. The hotel was across the road from the dry Todd River. Both at Uluru and Alice we tended to buy food from the supermarket and eat in our room. I brought along some plastic utensils for eating on the go.....a hangover from Jucy days. 

The hotel was also near the Botanic Gardens that we checked out later in the day following our arrival. There was a nice Bower of a Western Bowerbird there and I spent about three hours photographing the behavior of the owner and was joined by the occasional Black-footed Wallaby. I had not seen this Bowerbird species before. The Great, Spotted and Western Bowerbird are in the same family and they all have the cryptic Lilac-coloured feathers at the back of their heads. There are 20 Bowerbird species in the world.....all in Australia and PNG. Australia has 8 unique species with two shared with PNG. This bowerbird has a spectacular construction but was a bit frugal on the toys with balled-up Glad Wrap being common. When a female came into his domain he deployed his lilac bouquet.

Black-footed Wallaby

We noticed around town that there was some tension between aboriginals and the police. Wikipedia indicates that there was practically a meltdown in this relationship about three years ago. Other travellers  later told us they saw some violence but we did not…..not like Coolangatta. After shopping in the supermarket we went to buy some alcohol…which is always adjacent to supermarkets and noted they did not open until 2pm ......until 9pm. When the doors went up it was like the start of the Melbourne Cup…..when you had your clammies around a bottle or two.......you had to stand in line away from the tills. This was under the vigilant gaze of a policeman….we wondered if he noticed the ankle bracelet on the gentleman in front of us. We later saw two cops outside a bottle shop…they would challenge anyone as to where their alcohol was being consumed. 

We liked Alice Springs though. We booked two trips on each of 2 days. One was a full day exploring landmarks in the West McDonnell ranges. We had a young lady driver/guide and a vehicle that looked like a cross between a bus and a four-wheeled drive…..that was badly sprung and vibrated. One large  Pom who had had a few pints, Mowbray pies and Chelsea buns too many did not like is adipose tissue doing gymnastics for 6 hours....yet you can buy slimming apparatus on the TV shopping channel that does the same thing. We explored Simpson’s Gap, Standley Chasm and the Ochre Pits before having a nice lunch at Glen Helen station and later visited Ormiston Gorge and Ellery Creek, both of which had cool swimming holes. We enjoyed the day. The ochre is used exclusively for aboriginal body painting and there is a $5000 fine for any unauthorised removal. One tour guide wet some of the powder and applied it to his customers to demonstrate....and was fined the aforesaid amount.

Simpson's Gap

Standley's Chasm

The Ochre pits...fault lines are natural

Ormiston Gorge

Ellery Creek Big Hole

I only had my smaller lens with me for the day and I was pleased with myself when I managed to get a Ringneck Parrot almost full frame.

The next day we had a shorter afternoon trip visiting the School of the Air, the Alice Springs Telegraph Station, the Royal Flying Doctor service, the Reptile Centre and Anzac Hill. The guide was good and each place was informative. Alice Springs was founded as a repeater station for the Overland Telegraph Line…..it has since evolved  as Australia’s most famous outback town and has industries that service the outback.

The School of the Air was very interesting and well presented as was the original Flying Doctor headquarters……now they cover the whole of Australia from various focal points. The reptile centre was small but well presented. The curator was a friend of our guides so we had an extra special visit. The passionate owner gave nice demonstration of how cunning ‘salty’ crocodiles are……his  croc, Terry (short for Northern Territory) joined the demonstration on cue. The boss was also very interesting talking about Australian snakes.

A road train

School of the Air mural

School of the air...studio classroom...with bluescreen

Alex has similar interests

The Alice Springs Telegraph Station

Talk to the wife time

Various poles used for the telegraph (bottom one susceptible to termites)

Recommended medicine chest (circa 1950)

The pedal radio developed by Alfred Traeger made radio communication possible from remote stations

A Thorny Devil

Alice Springs from ANZAC Hill

It was soon time to join the Ghan. It had arrived in Alice several hours earlier and the punters on board were doing various tours around the town and periphery. We checked in and were allocated our cabin. It had a large seat and small table with a very small bathroom off the sitting space. When you were dining…a train fairy would come in and convert the seat into a narrow bunk arrangement. You were allocated dining times for dinner, breakfast and lunch. You could spend time waiting by drinking and chatting in the adjacent lounge car. One attendant did all the directing by deciding who sat with who and where and when. We ended up with a woman from Melbourne who if she was a chocolate bar would be a ditzy flake. We avoided her from thence on. The guy making up the foursome was fine but hardly got a word in edgeways. The meal was really nice. All food and beverages on board were part of the fare. Both breakfast and lunch were also excellent and feature a lot of local ingredients. The bunks were narrow but it was possible to get some sleep as the train rocked its way through the night. Again…it was surprising how green everything was and there was water lying in a lot of places.

The train driver mistakenly stopped at Katherine instead of accelerating and we booked on a cruise to the local gorge to see aboriginal art. We had done this with the girls some years before. Our guide was a young native man…..who repeatedly stumbled over his words and gave wrong directions. The boat driver looked like he was the grandfather of ZZ-Top members. Back on the rain we had another 2 hours before we arrived at the station near Darwin. We were in the third carriage from the front and the train was so long they had buses waiting to take the punters back to the station.

Nitmiluk Gorge (Katherine Gorge)

We enjoyed the experience as a once-in a lifetime trip. It is expensive and did not last long and we both doubted the value for money aspect. We both liked Alice and thought Uluru would be better with more daytime entertainment……we were not into solar basting during the hot hours. We thought the "Field of Lights’ was the highlight….and that will only be there for another 5 months.

We did not originally plan to stay in Darwin but Jet Star changed the timetable and we had to spend two nights there. We again chose to stay in the Hilton DoubleTree. We had decided that anything we needed to purchase would be done in Darwin so spent half a day in Casuarina Mall. We did not buy much but it found a place in a pre-arranged space in Helen’s bag.

We had arranged for an Australian couple to house-sit for us and to look after CoCo during our trip. It worked well. They had gone when we got home and we were greeted by a very happy canine.