Tag Archive for 'South Australia'

South Australian Government Censors Internet With New Election Law

Published on February 3, 2010 in Australia in the News. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , .

Could this law eventually make its way to America by the 2012 election?:

  • Anonymous comments banned for SA election
  • Michael Atkinson says speech still free
  • Media says censorship is ‘draconian’

SOUTH Australia has become one of the few states in the world to censor the internet.

The new law, which came into force on January 6, requires anyone making an online comment about next month’s state election to publish their real name and postcode.

The law will affect anyone posting a comment on an election story on The Advertiser‘s AdelaideNow website, as well as other Australian news sites.

It could also apply to election comment made on social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter.

The law, which was pushed through last year as part of a raft of amendments to the Electoral Act and supported by the Liberal Party, also requires media organisations to keep a person’s real name and full address on file for six months, and they face fines of $5000 if they do not hand over this information to the Electoral Commissioner.  [AdelaideNow]

I want to see how the government plans on censoring Facebook and Twitter?  Apparently the South Australian premier is losing in the polls and is getting bashed on the Internet and in response created this law.  For those that don’t know, think of Adelaide which is the capitol of South Australia as the San Francisco of Australia.  It is a very nice town, but filled with liberals.

On Walkabout On: The Ghan Train Through the South Australian Outback – Part 14

Published on January 9, 2010 in Northern Territory and South Australia. 0 Comments Tags: , , , .

My wife and I had an absolutely great time touring the Northern Territory. The differences between the Red Center and the Top End really make the NT feel like two completely different countries. The Red Center is well, very red along with being dry and remote. However, within the dry, remoteness of the Red Center there is so much life. Not in the way of people because there are very few people who live in the Red Center, but in the way of wildlife. Just the amount of kangaroos, camels, eagles, and other animals, along with the various plant species you see surviving in remoteness of the Red Center is truly impressive. Oh yeah, Ayers Rock (Uluru) was cool too! The Top End felt more touristy then the Red Center, which is saying quite a bit because Alice Springs is definitely a touristy town. However, Alice Springs has more of a backpacker feel to it, while Darwin combines both the backpacker and wealthy tourist cultures. It seems like for every backpacker hostel in Darwin there is at least one 5 star hotel to counter balance it. In the Top End the best times my wife and I had were not in the touristy areas, but in areas recommended by locals such as the Arnhem Land tour at Kakadu and Edith Falls in Katherine though I would have done the Jumping Crocodile cruise no matter how many tourists were on that boat. The Jumping Crocodiles are just incredible. But, once again we had an absolutely great time in the Northern Territory and hopefully we will be back one day.

However, to get back to our home in Victoria from Darwin we had nearly 2,000 miles of rail between Darwin and Adelaide to cover and then another 500 miles of driving from Adelaide to Melbourne. The train journey was going to take two full days.  The amount of traveling was definitely getting to us now, but I did get plenty of reading done and saw more of the Australian Outback from the train:

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Just south of Alice Springs we also got a good view of Chambers Pillar:

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The white pillar has long served as a navigational land mark and was named Chamber’s Pillar after the Adelaide man who had helped fund Stuart’s expeditions across Australia, which ultimately led to him being the first person to travel from the south to the north of Australia and back in 1862. His expedition led to the successful completion of the overland telegraph a few years later. To reward his chief financier, Stuart named many things after Chambers, and one of them was Chamber’s Pillar.

Here is another well known landmark to anyone who has ridden the Ghan before, the Iron Man:

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The Iron Man located to the south of Alice Springs was constructed in honor of the railworkers who laid the track that made the Ghan possible. The statue is is holding the one millionth railroad tie laid down during the Ghan line construction.

Past the Iron Man was more of the deep red Australian Outback:

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The terrain stayed like this until the train came within three hours of Adelaide where the terrain slowly changed to lush farm fields. Overall it was two solids days of travel to reach Adelaide and we arrived at around 10:00AM in the morning. However, we had to wait for nearly two hours before our bags were found and we could load them up in my Jeep.

So that meant we left Adelaide at around noon and then had to drive the 9 hours to Melbourne. After two days on a train the 9 hour drive to Melbourne really wasn’t to bad. However, we did learn another thing from this drive, whatever you do don’t eat at Australian roadhouses. We bought a quick dinner at a roadhouse while I was there gassing up and the food was barely edible. Just disgusting and this wasn’t the first time, but I promised after that time it would be the last time I ate roadhouse food.

I hope everyone enjoyed my Northern Territory Holiday Journal. I plan on doing more postings in the future of the interesting things I saw during my time in Australia. If you ever have any questions about touring around Australia feel free to leave a comment and I will make sure to answer promptly.  Thanks for reading.

Click to go to Northern Territory Holiday Journal Archive

Northern Territory Holiday Journal – Part 1

Published on December 26, 2009 in Northern Territory and South Australia. 0 Comments Tags: , , , .

The first holiday my wife and I took while we were living in Australia was to the Northern Territory.  Australia is composed of six states and two territories; the Northern Territory is one of those territories with the Australian Capitol Territory (ACT) where the national capitol Canberra is located being the other.

Image from here.

When looking at the above map try to picture the continental United States over laid on top of Australia because that is how big Australia is, which means the Northern Territory would be roughly the size of the American Midwest.

To reach the Northern Territory we planned on driving from our home in Victoria to the South Australian capitol city of Adelaide.  From Adelaide we would board the famous Ghan Train to take us into the interior of the Australian Outback where the small city of Alice Springs is located.  From Alice Springs we would hit our first major tourist destination which was the world famous Ayers Rock, which is called Uluru in Australia.  We planned on camping for two nights out at Uluru before driving back to Alice Springs to reboard the Ghan train to continue our journey north to what the Australian’s call the “Top End” of Australia.

The major city in the Top End and the Capitol of the North Territory is the city of Darwin and that is where the Ghan train ends at and we planned on beginning our campervan tour from there. With the rented campervan we planned on traveling to the major attractions in the Top End such as Kakadu National Park, Katherine Gorge, and Litchfield National Park before getting back on the Ghan and heading back home to Melbourne. The total distance between Melbourne and Darwin is approximately 2000 miles one way we covered by both road and rail. As you can see Australia is truly a vast country.

The Journey to Adelaide

Living in Victoria you tend to feel you live in a small state because Victoria is so much smaller than most of the other Australian states. However, when you have to drive across Victoria you realize how big the state really is. To put the state of Victoria in to perspective, crossing the entire state would be like driving from Atlanta, Georgia to the city of New Orleans back in the United States. So basically the state of Victoria is the size of the American south and this is considered a small state in Australia, so you can imagine how big the other states really are.

We had to drive from Melbourne to Adelaide in order to catch the Ghan train heading to the Northern Territory. The drive between Melbourne and Adelaide is mostly an extremely boring 9 hour drive through pastoral land. Between Melbourne and Ballarat there are some hills which are famous in Australia for the Gold Rush they produced in the 1860’s and the gold that can still be found there today. The highway is a modern two lane highway with a maximum speed of 110kmph (65mph). Once past Ballarat the highway turns into a small single lane highway all the way to the city of Murray Bridge near Adelaide. It is amazing to think that a major interstate highway in Australia is a small single lane highway. To make matters worse the speed limit is 100kmph (60mph) on the interstate.

Even with the speed limit this low, there are still slow pokes on the road that halt the flow of traffic that you have to pass. Fortunately there are usually passing lanes about 20km to pass these people. Another annoyance on the highway is that the single lane highway goes through every poe dunk town along the route. So you have to slow down and stop at traffic lights and navigate your way through the town to get back on the highway again. Australians I’m sure are used to this, but coming from the US the slow speeds and single lane interstates are very annoying.

Really the only scenery along this single lane portion of the highway are the Grampian mountains. You can spot the mountains about 4 hours into the journey from Melbourne. The mountains are quite beautiful in contrast to the flat surrounding countryside.  Once past the Grampians it is 5 hours of nothing but flat farm land. You do cross the muddy Murray River which is the largest and longest river in Australia (which isn’t saying much), but besides that, nothing until you get to Adelaide.

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The mighty Murray River.

Before you can enter Adelaide you have to cross the Adelaide hills. These hills reach up to a 1000 meters in altitude and are a steep drive up and down them into Adelaide. These hills are quite nice and green and a welcome change from the hours of nothing we had to cross.

Once we descended the hills the road emptied right into the city of Adelaide. Adelaide is just like other Australian cities to where the interstates just empty into the city and you have to make your way around without the benefit of a highway with exit ramps, like we are used to in the states. Good city maps are essential in Australia because it is easy to get lost in these cities. Even Aussies who live in the cities carry the maps to get around with because the streets can get so confusing.

Anyway we had two hours before our train departed and I followed the map directions to the Adelaide train station which is right in the middle of down town and it took me forever to find parking. I finally found a parking garage, parked my vehicle and we walked over to the train station. By this time we had about an hour and 15 minutes before the train left and we were shocked to find out that the Ghan train does not run from this station it runs from another station from a different part of town.

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Sunsets on the Ghan Train in Adelaide

From what I thought would be an easy journey to the train station had suddenly turned into an episode from the Amazing Race. We ran to get back to my Jeep and then I began again trying to drive through heavy traffic and read a map to find the other train station. Fortunately we found the correct station for the Ghan and there was even plenty of parking room. We pulled into the parking space with about 30 minutes to go before the train departed.


Sun sets on the South Australian city of Adelaide.

We were supposed to check in our bags one hour before departure but checking in our bags late didn’t turn out to be a problem with the staff there. I asked about leaving my Jeep parked for two weeks there and they said it was free which was nice, but they couldn’t guarantee security of the vehicle and recommended that I made sure there was no valuables in the vehicle. It was 16:30 and we boarded the train, found our seats, and relaxed after the initial stress of making sure we made our train. We sat back and watched the sun begin to set over Adelaide and South Australia, however I couldn’t help but think that maybe my wife and I are not ready for the Amazing Race, but we were definitely ready for our holiday in the Northern Territory.

Next Posting: To the Red Center

Small Tornado Hits South Australia

Published on July 13, 2009 in South Australia. 0 Comments Tags: , , .

A small tornado wreaked some havoc during an Aussie Rules Football game in South Australia:

A MINI-tornado has wreaked havoc on a suburban Aussie rules football ground in South Australia, pelting players with debris as it picked up cars and tore apart buildings, the Sunday Mail reports.

Several players were taken to hospital after sheet metal and debris from a glasshouse showered the Port Noarlunga oval, 30km south of  Adelaide.

The storm hit in the early afternoon as the Port Noarlunga versus Reynella match approached half time.

Up to a dozen cars were towed from the ground after they were pushed across the ground by fierce winds and battered by metal from nearby buildings.

Port Noarlunga Football Club runner Todd Stokes said it will be several weeks before the ground can be used again. [Sunday Mail]

Tornadoes are rare in Australia but this is actually the 2nd time in two years that a tornado has struck South Australia.

Hoons Taunt Police on YouTube

Published on January 3, 2009 in Australia in the News. 0 Comments Tags: , , .

This is something I really find annoying in Australia, which is the number of hoons the speed on the roads here.  Now the hoons have taken their antics on to YouTube:

FURIOUS police are scouring the internet for the irresponsible antics of hoon drivers and have vowed to use covert sting operations to catch them.

The warning to exhibitionists who post videos of their potentially deadly stunts on website YouTube has been issued by South Australia’s police Traffic Support Branch Superintendent Mark Fairney.

“We’re not taking it, we’ve had enough,” he said.

A series of hoon videos made in SA has been posted on YouTube in the past six months. The footage outraged police and the RAA, with both saying innocent motorists were at risk from the stunts.

In one video clip, a motor-cyclist was filmed from different angles and can be seen reaching a speed of 210km/h at Eagle on the Hill. The white-knuckle ride was filmed by a bike-mounted camera and several roadside positions.

The title of the clip boasts that the rider hit 215km/h.

The video, posted in July, included a Google Earth map following the route.

A fourth video captured a cat-and-mouse game between a high-powered Mazda RX7 and a motorbike in the Hills.

Supt Fairney said: “Police scan YouTube and any other medium for examples of idiotic behaviour and 2009 will certainly be a year when we will be taking those reckless individuals out of the picture as best we can.”

He described the videos as “reckless”, saying police were already using covert investigations to combat hoons risking the lives of other motorists on Adelaide Hills roads.  [Sunday Mail]

Australia has a large number of single lane roads and I have lost count how many times I have had a hoon pass me at break neck speed and nearly caused an accident with an oncoming vehicle.  By far I have found the speeding hoons in Australia much worse then those back in the states.

Great White Sharks Spotted Near South Australia Holiday Spot

Published on November 10, 2008 in South Australia and Wildlife. 0 Comments Tags: , , .

I don’t think this is too much to get alarmed about considering how remote and depopulated the community of Streaky Bay in South Australia is:

HUGE sharks chasing fish and cruising off holiday beaches pose a threat to swimmers as warm weather draws sunlovers to the coast.

Police in South Australia renewed warnings to swimmers at the West Coast holiday spot of Streaky Bay, where a monster great white has been seen cruising close to shore, The Advertiser reports.  The 5m shark had been seen in the water around Streaky Bay township and Little Islands for the past three weeks, police said.

Today’s warning follows an incident yesterday in which a man in a dinghy was attacked by a shark while fishing off North Haven at Gulf St Vincent.  [The Advertiser]

Here is a map to give everyone an idea of how isolated the community of Streaky Bay is:

The Streaky Bay community of just over 1000 people is on the edge of one of the world’s most isolated areas, the Nullarbor Plain and is over 700 kilometers from the major South Australian population center of Adelaide.  Considering how rare shark attacks are combined with how few people actually use the beach in Streaky Bay, I wouldn’t expect anyone to get eaten by a shark anytime soon.

Friday Eco-Fact: The Meteorites of the Nullarbor

Published on October 3, 2008 in Environment, South Australia and Western Australia. 0 Comments Tags: , , , .

The Nullarbor Plain is a spectacular place holding may treasures for those who would look. Among its claims to fame is its reputation as one of the world’s richest sources of meteorite specimens:

A Desert plain in Australia may become the world’s largest source of meteorites, according to preliminary surveys which have already recovered more than 1000 fragments of stones and lumps of iron from space. The fragments are of about 150 meteorites that fell up to 20 000 years ago. An initial analysis of the fragments suggests that the proportions of different kinds of meteorite have changed significantly over the millennia.

The new source of meteorites is the Nullarbor Plain, an area of limestone that stretches for 600 kilometres along the south coast of Western Australia and South Australia. Alex Bevan, of the Western Australian Museum in Perth, has been leading the search for meteorites in this region. He says it is unusually easy to find meteorites on the plain, because the pale smooth limestone pavement provides a perfect background for spotting the meteorites, which are dark brown or black. In addition, the barren plain has very little vegetation to cover up the meteorites (its name comes from the Latin nulla arbor, meaning no trees).

The aridity of the Nullarbor Plain has not only made meteorites easy to spot, but it has also prevented rain and chemical reactions from eroding them. There is no shifting sand to cover them, as there would be in other desert regions. ‘We can pick them up from the surface just where they fell,’ says Bevan, ‘possibly as long as 16 000 to 18 000 years ago, when the region began to experience severe aridity.’ [New Scientist]

Read the rest of the article but it goes on to explain how the Nullarbor has gone on to replace Antarctica as the top place to look for meteorite fragments. Some of these fragments are especially large. For example one fragment, found in 1966 near Mundrabilla Siding, WA, weighed in at an incredible 11 tonnes.

You can see my own pictures of the Nullarbor Plain here and here.

Barossa Valley Makes NY Times List

Published on December 13, 2007 in Australia in the News and Touring. 2 Comments Tags: , .

Barossa Valley

The New York Times have released their list of the 53 places to go in 2008 and only one place in Australia was mentioned, the Barossa Valley:

The world’s love affair with shiraz is bringing wine spectators to Australia’s Barossa Valley. The hilly region is home to some of the world’s oldest shiraz vines, some dating back to the 1840s. And if the more than 60 wineries aren’t enough, Barossa also offers an artisanal cheese trail, and nearby Adelaide is a foodie destination in its own right.

There is a lot of problems with this New York Times list and the Barossa Valley is just a minor one. For starters Kuwait City made the list. I have to wonder if the people writing the article had even visited Kuwait City among a host of the other rather unspectacular places recommended in the article. At least Australia got one place recommended because northeast Asia was completely ignored. How do you recommend Kuwait City over destinations in China, Korea, Japan, and Mongolia? Heck Kuwait City was even ranked ahead of the Barossa Valley.

Anyway back to the Barossa Valley. The valley is a nice wine producing area, but would I recommend people travel all the way to Australia just to go visit the Barossa Valley? No way. The Yarra Valley area near Melbourne and the Margaret River area near Perth have just as many wineries, are more scenic, and have more things to do in the surrounding areas besides visit wineries. Visitors to Australia wanting to visit wineries while visiting the country would get a lot more out of their trip by visiting these areas. I would even say stopping by the Hunter Valley in New South Wales would be a better option than going all the way out to the Barossa Valley.

Anyone else have any thoughts on this?

On Walkabout: The End of the Rails and the End of A Journey

Published on March 5, 2007 in Western Australia. 0 Comments Tags: , , .

The Nullarbor Crossing

As the trained pulled out of Cook the wife and I were treated to more of the “scenic” Nullarbor Plain:

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The terrain stayed like this for a couple more hours and then the train stopped and some Aborigines from this vehicle got out and boarded the train:

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We are in the absolute middle of no where but some where out here there must be an Aboriginal community and whoever these people were got on the train and just left their vehicle sitting there. The Aboriginal owners of the vehicle for whatever reason must make some good money because usually you don’t see Aborigines driving nice vehicles like this SUV.

Australia’s Nuclear Past

After a while the train slowed down and the intercom announced that the train was passing the Maralinga nuclear testing site in South Australia:

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The British with cooperation from the Australian government tested nuclear weapons here between 1956-1963. The nuclear tests remain highly controversial in Australia due to fears of radiation poisoning of local Aborigines and the fact that many Australians do not like nuclear technology. The picture from the train above is of the ruins of foundations of buildings you can see located on the north side of the train track in this Google Earth image:

On the south side of the track there was a large hole you can see in this Google Earth image. What the large hole was for no one knew, but I couldn’t get a good picture of the hole because it was on the opposite side of the train from where I was sitting and people were glued to the windows during this portion of the trip. This image kind of gives you an appreciation of how isolated this portion of Australia is:

Maralinga is located in the grew box you see to the right of the Maralinga, SA Australia sign. I continued to check out the area using Google Earth and by following the road north from where the area where the train runs through I was able to find this base:

You can see an airfield on the right and probably the main base on the left. I’m figuring the base near the train tracks to the south was probably their logistical base to unload supplies to put on trucks to move to the main base located probably about 20 kilometers to the north. I continued to follow the road north and it branches off into three holes:

I’m speculating here, but could it be that these three holes may be where the British tested their nuclear weapons? Here is a Google Earth image that gives you an overall perspective of the base:

You can see the main base that is labeled as Maralinga and the three holes located just to the north. To the south of the main base just over the ridge line is the train tracks on the sub-base where the train line runs through.

All in all it was an interesting history lesson because I had no idea the British even conducted nuclear testing in Australia. However, if I had to choose a place to conduct a nuclear test, this place would be it.

Late in the afternoon the train finally exited the Nullarbor Plain and entered the South Australian outback:

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Many people don’t realize how many trees the outback has, but for having so little water the vast majority of the Australian outback is filled with these small gum trees. Before long the sunset and the next morning we were due to arrive in Adelaide.

Last Stop Adelaide

The next morning this is the scene I woke up to:

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The sunrises over the Australian outback are always spectacular. The train ended up arriving at Keswick Terminal in Adelaide around 9AM. It took an hour before we got our bags back from the baggage car, exited the station, and got everything loaded into my Jeep that had been sitting at the station for over two weeks. Fortunately no one messed with it and everything was intact. It was about 10AM and we stopped to get breakfast and finally got on the highway and out of Adelaide around 11AM. It took us about 8.5 hours to get back to Melbourne and with the time change we were home around 9PM. It was a long day and was glad to be back after all the traveling we had done not only on that day, but for over the past two weeks as well.

Holiday Roundup

Here is a run down of the total distance covered during our entire Western Australia trip:

Air: 1700 KM

Ground: 4,400 KM

Rail: 2,400 KM

Total: 8,500 KM

Western Australia really is an amazing place with great diversity in landscapes depending if you go to the north or south of Perth. You have outback, canyons, spectacular beaches, and dolphins to the north and mountains, forests, caves, wineries, and stunning coastlines to the south. Just remember that the distances between locations is truly vast. So make sure you have a well planned out trip including knowing where you will be staying the night. Just about everyone we met in Western Australia were really friendly especially when they found out that we were Americans. Western Australia is a unique experience that many Australians have never been to and I highly recommend anyone with the time available to definitely do it.

Prior Posting: A Town Called Cook

Return to the Western Australia Holiday Journal Archive

On Walkabout In: Cook, South Australia

Published on February 26, 2007 in South Australia and Western Australia. 0 Comments Tags: , , .

A Town Called Cook

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Cook, South Australia is in the middle of the Nullarbor Plain and adjacent to the longest stretch of straight railroad track in the world at 478 kilometers.

As the train continued across the Nullarbor Plain it eventually came to stop in a town called Cook. The town of Cook is located in the dead center of the Nullarbor Plain and is about the half way point of the over 2000 mile journey between Perth and Adelaide.


In this Google Earth image you can see Cook in the center of the image and the railway you can see running east and west on the image. A small dirt travels southward from Cook. Notice how desolate the area around Cook is.


Here is an even closer look at Cook. Once again the railway line in the center with the train station adjacent to the track. You can see the homes for the people who live in Cook behind the train station.

The Indian-Pacific stops in Cook in order to refuel and resupply the train. While the train is doing this, the passengers are allowed to deboard the train for about two hours and explore the town of Cook. Trust me there is not a whole lot to see because Cook only has a population of seven people. Yes, I said seven. The seven people that live in Cook are older folks who work for the railroad maintaining the facilities at Cook.

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The Cook Train Station

Despite it’s small size there is still enough things to look at while in Cook. If you run out of things to look at then spend some time talking to the locals because they are a friendly bunch in Cook. I’m sure you learn to be friendly with the few people you do meet out in Cook when you live officially in the middle of no where:

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Be careful though, because if you are not friendly you may end up in the Cook city jail:

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Here is a sign that kind of gives you an idea how remote this place is:

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Talking to the locals they were telling me that it takes two hours of driving on a dirt road to reach the nearest paved road, which is the highway that connects South Australia with West Australia. Once they reach the highway they have to drive another 8 hours to reach the nearest city of Port Augusta. So basically a trip to the market takes you 10 hours from Cook. Because of this distance food and other items requested by the people of Cook are brought in by the Indian-Pacific when the train stops in Cook. Not only are the people of Cook resupplying the train, but the train is resupplying the people of Cook.

The train also brings in tourists that allow the residents to sell souvenirs to including these official certificates of crossing the Nullarbor that were going for $5 dollars:

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Something else I liked about Cook was that the people there definitely have a good sense of humor:

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I guess you have to have a sense of humor when you live in place like Cook.

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Cook housing area that included by far the largest trees I had seen in the whole Nullarbor.

Before long the train was blowing its horn, which signaled that it was time to load up on the train again and continue the long ride across the Nullarbor.

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Next Posting: Last Stop Adelaide

Prior Posting: Across the Nullarbor

Return to the Western Australia Holiday Journal Archive