Monthly Archive for July, 2007

On Walkabout In: Namadgi National Park’s Honeysuckle Creek

Published on July 29, 2007 in ACT. 0 Comments Tags: , , .

Much like how Canberra is a very under appreciated city, Namadgi National Park is also very under appreciated for being the fine park that it is. Namadgi is located on the outskirts of Canberra and makes up the vast majority of the land of the Australian Capitol Territory. The park is easy to reach by just being about a 20 minute drive outside the city on a well maintained road. Interestingly enough though is that to get into the actual park land you have to drive across an old rickety one lane bridge to get there:

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Not to far from the bridge is the visitor center. This peak dominates the view from the visitor center:

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From the visitor center they have a short nature trail to check out and for the more energetic you can get a variety of park maps for the various bush walking trails around the park.  The trail I decided to hike was between the two old NASA tracking stations in the Orroral Valley:

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The visitor center is also serves as one end of the 650 kilometer Australian Alps Walking Track that begins in southern Victoria:

This is a trail I would really love to tackle one day but being able to take the time off to do something like this is impossible for me right now. So I have to stick with shorter treks like the ones Namadgi National Park offers. The hike I went on was a day hike between the Honeysuckle Creek Tracking Station to the Orroral Valley Tracking Station. Both of these tracking stations were once used by NASA for receiving and transmitting data from outer space before they were closed and scrapped in the 1980’s. The trail is located towards the center of the park and is only about 60 kilometers outside of Canberra.

The Honeysuckle Creek Tracking station is reached by driving up a steep windy paved road until you are high and deep into the mountains to where the old satellite antenna was once located. Here is a picture from the Honeysuckle Creek website of what the complex looked like back when it was operating:

The antenna station opened in 1967 and was closed in 1981. It was most famous for receiving the first pictures from the Apollo 11 moon landing. Most Americans don’t know it, but Australia has played a key part of the American space program for decades and this is just one example.

The antenna at Honeysuckle was relocated to the Canberra Deep Space Communications Complex where it is still used today before this site shut down. Here is what the complex looks like today:

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Honeysuckle is nothing more than foundation ruins today but the open area is a great place to view local wildlife like this wallaby:

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Besides the wallabies there are lots of kangaroos to check out as well:

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I think the wildlife was just as curious to check me out as I was checking them out. If you look closely you can see the kangaroo has a baby joey in its pouch. The wildlife of Australia to me is my most favorite aspect of the country. The animals here are just amazing to observe.

From Honeysuckle Creek the trail heads off into the dense bush land. Once you get into the forest you can still see much of the area is still damaged from the 2003 Canberra bushfires that actually threatened to burn down Canberra. The following graphic shows the progress of those bushfires and how they nearly burned down the Australian capitol:

As you can see below the forests have noticeably recovered from the epic bushfires of 2003:


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As you get deeper into the mountains you can actually find forest that was not harmed by the fire that surrounds some of the higher peaks:

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When get up to the higher altitudes you actually will find some boggy marshes as well as a number of running creeks. Nothing like wading in one of the creeks to make your aching feet feel a bit better.

I always enjoy hiking through the high country in the Australian Alps because of the spectacular scenery and solitude. There is just nobody up there. The whole day on this trail I saw two hikers and one mountain bike rider. Actually let me correct myself, there is solitude, if you don’t count the locals that like to pay you a visit from time to time:

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These guys are company I don’t mind having around.

Next Posting: Orroral Valley

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On Walkabout Around: Canberra’s Lake Burley-Griffin

Published on July 26, 2007 in ACT. 0 Comments Tags: , , , .

Lake Burley-Griffin is a large lake that the Australian national capitol of Canberra is built around. The lake was formed with the damming of the Molonglo River that runs into Canberra. The lake is named after American landscape architect Walter Burley Griffin who designed the city of Canberra. From the lake you can see just about every important monument and building in the city.

Photo from Aquila Helicopters

The lake is ringed with walking paths and jogging trails and usually when I visit Canberra I usually go for a jog around the lake. I get up early in the morning to go for a jog and occasionally I see hot air balloons rising above the city:

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In the early morning the water is almost glass like with how smooth it is:

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Much of the lake is surrounded by leafy trees such as this:

The lake is also populated with many ducks and swans:

From just about anywhere along the lake you can see the Telstra Tower that hovers over Canberra:

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The Telstra Towers sits on top of Black Mountain and rises 195 meters. Like most towers it has a viewing platform and a rotating restaurant that are of course pricey.

Besides the Telsra Tower there are plenty of good views of the Australian national capitol to be had as well:

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Lake Burley-Griffin is just one of the many things I like about one of the most under appreciated cities in Australia, Canberra.

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Aussie Science

Published on July 25, 2007 in Australia in the News. 0 Comments

Maybe this explains why the bikie gang was found to have so much alcohol in their clubhouse.  They were just conducting scientific research!

22% of Australians Related to Criminals

Published on July 24, 2007 in Facts About Australia. 0 Comments

This is interesting:

JOHN Howard and Kevin Rudd share something in common – both have a convict ancestry.

As a federal election looms and the nation’s political leaders attempt to differentiate themselves, an ancestry website revealed that the Prime Minister and the Opposition Leader both have ancestors who arrived on Australia’s shores in chains.

Mr Howard and Mr Rudd are part of an estimated 22 per cent of the Australian population who have a distant relative with a criminal past.

They and other Australians will now be able to trawl through the records of most of the 163,000 convicts who arrived in Australia from England, Ireland and Scotland thanks to a new collection of records which has been launched on the ancestry website Ancestry.com.au.

Considering the countries convict past, the vast majority of Australian I talk to are immigrants rather than decendants of convicts and this statistic seems to confirm this. 

Former Young Australian of the Year Plans to Sue

Published on July 24, 2007 in Australia in the News. 0 Comments

The 22 year old Iktimal Hage-Ali, last year was the New South Wales Young Australian of the Year until she was forced to give up her title after she was arrested as part of a cocaine drug bust in the Sydney area.  Now she plans to sue the NSW government for falsely arresting her and causing her to give up her title.  Why the lawsuit you might ask?  Because she says she was wrongly arrested for cocaine distribution when in fact she is just a cocaine user. 

SE Queensland Water Prices to Rise

Published on July 23, 2007 in Queensland. 0 Comments

Bad news for all my Brisbane readers:

SOUTHEAST Queenslanders could soon be paying some of the highest water charges in the world, according to research by economic consultants.

The research showed Brisbane prices would soar past those in some of the world’s biggest cities - including Amsterdam, London and Paris.

Brisbane residents currently pay the seventh-highest water charges in the world, according to data released yesterday by natural resources consultants Marsden Jacob.

However, a report by the consulting firm shown recently to a private investor’s lunch at stockbroker ABN Amro Morgans found water costs in Brisbane would surge past those in most of the world’s big cities within five years.

Here in Victoria I pay about $15 a month which isn’t to bad. So SE Queenslanders must pay significantly more.  Any Brisbane area reader who is reading this, how much are you paying now per month for water? 

Australia Needs 95% Cut in Greenhouse Gases

Published on July 23, 2007 in Environment. 0 Comments

Just another reason why I can’t take the global warming alarmist seriously:

IN A wonderful act of subversion, the Sydney Morning Herald’s splendidly-named Stephanie Peatling this week managed to sneak a comic gem past her vigilant editors: "The greenhouse gas cuts Australia must achieve to prevent dangerous climate change may be substantially higher than thought, with modelling to be released today suggesting it should be as much as 95 per cent by 2020."

That modelling was the work of a leftist panic hive called the Australia Institute, presided over by director Clive Hamilton.

I called Clive on Thursday to discuss how we might achieve this reduction, which essentially would require that Australians stop doing everything, including breathing.

I also wanted to know how even a 100 per cent cut in Australia’s carbon output could influence the global climate, given that we only generate about 1.5 per cent of all global emissions.

Make sure you read the whole article which is just a demolition of these global warming alarmists.  If you are not reading Tim Blair yet you really need to.  His blog is great and his commenters are extremely funny with their Aussie wit. 

11 Year Old Sex Offender

Published on July 23, 2007 in Aboriginal Issues. 0 Comments

This is some pretty disturbing news:

AN 11-year-old boy forced two pre-school-aged girls to have sex with him, infected them with sexually transmitted diseases, but will not be prosecuted by Western Australian authorities.

Police yesterday confirmed that criminal charges would not be laid against the boy from Balgo, a troubled indigenous community in the northeastern reaches of the Great Sandy Desert 100km from the Northern Territory border, despite his being above the age of criminal responsibility under state law.

Although the incident is part of a continuing investigation, senior police have decided to treat the issue as a health matter, not a criminal one.

The Australian also understands the offender was never removed from the remote community, but was warned by a court not to go near his victims, believed to be aged five and six, and several other vulnerable youngsters.

Currently the Australian government is in the midst of a controversial policy change in regards to the Aborigines and have actually deployed the Australian Defence Force into some areas in order to provide security in the Aboriginal communities to protect the children that live there from sexual abuse.  The fact that the children are sexually abusing each other just makes me wonder where they learned it from. 

Shocking News About Aussie Bikies

Published on July 22, 2007 in Australia in the News. 0 Comments

New South Wales police have made a shocking discovery during a raid of bikie gangs clubhouse, they have lots of alcohol:

"No one was at the clubhouse at the time of the police raid, however, a Nomads member who arrived during the execution of the search warrant was spoken to by police," a NSW Police spokesman said today.

It is alleged that more than 500 bottles of alcohol including beer, spirits and mixed alcoholic beverages were on the property.

Documents were also seized and police say their investigation continues.

On Walkabout: Sailing Around Sydney Harbor

Published on July 21, 2007 in New South Wales. 0 Comments Tags: , , .

During a recent business trip to Sydney a colleague of mine that works in Sydney took me on a tour of Sydney Harbor on his sailboat. I have never sailed before until I came to Australia and have since done it a few times since being here including now Sydney Harbor. The day we went sailing it was rainy out, which in a way was good because that meant there was few other boats out on the harbor that day.

Sydney Harbor is quite large and has many little coves littered all around the Sydney area as you can see in the Google Earth image below:

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The below is a blow up image of Sydney Harbor with the outline of my sailing trip around the harbor outlined in red:

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From the marina we started from we had to sail around a large peninsula that is home to the large Australian naval base HMAS Kuttabul:

Picture From Sailing Around Sydney Harbor

The HMAS Kuttabul has been in use since 1856 by the Royal Australian Navy (RAN) and was a critical naval base during World War II for the allied forces including the US Navy. The base was so critical because it had the only dry dock big enough to repair aircraft carriers and battleships. This dry dock is still in use today and it is considered the biggest dry dock in the southern hemisphere.


Helicopter view of HMAS Kuttabul

Realizing the criticality of Sydney Harbor to the allied war effort during World War II, the Imperial Japanese Navy launched an attack on the harbor on June 1, 1942. The attack ended with two Japanese mini-subs sunk and one RAN naval vessel destroyed with 21 sailors dead.

As we sailed around the naval base the Sydney skyline came into view:

Picture From Sailing Around Sydney Harbor

Adjacent to the Sydney skyline is the busy transportation port of Circular Quay and the historic district known as The Rocks:

The Rocks from Sydney Harbor

Circular Quay is the hub for all the transportation ferries and cruise boats that shuttle around Sydney Harbor. It is a very busy place that is a must see attraction in Sydney. The Rocks is located in the shadow of the Harbor Bridge and is filled with old, historic buildings that have been converted into restaurants, pubs, boutiques, hotels, and other miscellaneous stores.

The Sydney skyline is quite spectacular and is definitely one of the most beautiful in the whole world, but the skyline would not be as famous as it is today if it wasn’t for the Sydney Harbor Bridge:

Picture From Sailing Around Sydney Harbor

The discussion for building a bridge across the harbor had been discussed for many decades prior to it being built, but construction of the bridge did not begin until 1923. Construction of the bridge took nine years with 16 people total being killed while working on the bridge. The Sydney Harbor Bridge officially opened for traffic until March 19, 1932 and charged a toll in order to pay for the construction of the bridge. The bridge was officially paid off in the mid-1980s, but a $3.00 toll remains to this day to fund further Australian highway projects.

The Sydney Harbor Bridge is an awesome sight, but not as awesome as seeing the Sydney Opera House:

Sydney's Opera House

The Sydney Opera House is one of the world’s most recognizable icons with quite an interesting history. The idea to build an opera house in Sydney actually began in the 1940s. After years of lobbying for the building of an opera house, the New South Wales government finally agreed to have one built and held a contest in 1955 for designs for the building. 233 designs from 32 countries were submitted to the competition. The winning design was awarded to Danish architect Jorn Utzon in 1957.

Construction began on the building in 1958 and was quickly plagued with problems and delays due to design flaws and weather problems. Due to disputes with the government Utzon resigned from construction of the building in 1965. The construction of the opera house had become a mess due to the delays, cost over runs, and now the resignation of the designer. Two new architects were hired to complete the building, Peter Hall and E.H. Farmer. These two architects made some design changes and pushed on with the construction of the building.

The building was finally completed in 1973 at the staggering cost of $102 million dollars. The opera house was originally supposed to be completed in 1963 at the cost of $7 million dollars. Despite the problems and cost no one can argue about the results of this beautiful building:

Picture From Sailing Around Sydney Harbor

As we sailed passed the Sydney Opera House we began to pass underneath the Harbor Bridge:

Picture From Sailing Around Sydney Harbor

As we neared the bridge we could make out people taking the climbing tour up the bridge that Sydneysiders like to call the Big Coat Hanger:

Picture From Sailing Around Sydney Harbor

The idea to allow climbing tours up the bridge is actually a fairly recent one with tours first beginning in 1998. Since then millions of visitors have climbed the bridge at the cost of $179-$220 bucks a person. Somebody is definitely making some huge profits.

As we passed underneath the bridge the Luna Amusement Park came into view:

Picture From Sailing Around Sydney Harbor

Luna Park first opened in 1935 only three years after the construction of the Harbor Bridge. The park was the premier amusement park in Australia at the time and continues to be at least the premier amusement park in Sydney to this day. Luna Park was closed temporarily in 1979 after a ride caught fire and six children and an adult were killed due to inadequate safety procedures and equipment. The park was sold, renovated and reopened in 1982, but over the years has continued to have financial difficulties that forced the park to close again over the years. The park today is open and is the largest amusement park in New South Wales.

After passing Luna Park we turned the sailboat around and sailed below the bridge again and eventually came along side of Prime Minister John Howard’s home:

Picture From Sailing Around Sydney Harbor

I found it quite amazing how easily anyone could just sail up to the Prime Minister’s house if they wanted to, compared to the heavy security at the White House in Washington, DC.

We concluded our tour around the harbor by sailing by Taronga Zoo, but the rain started coming down quite heavily so I didn’t take any pictures.  Here is a picture I did get of downtown Sydney:

Picture From Sailing Around Sydney Harbor

With the rain coming down quite steadily now, we decided to head back to the marina from where we started:

Picture From Sailing Around Sydney Harbor

Picture From Sailing Around Sydney Harbor

As luck would have it, as soon as we pulled into the marina and started tying up the boat, the clouds started to break up and the sun came out. As it turned out we could have spent more time out on the harbor, but the time we did spend was incredible and is one of the most memorable experiences I have had in Australia. I highly recommend to anyone who has the chance, to not miss out on sailing around Sydney Harbor; it is an experience you will never forget.