Gallery Pick of the Week
Instead of just showing pretty pictures only, here we have space for contributors to discuss their images every week.
This is a great opportunity to get some insight from the original photographer and the content is entirely open. It could be anything from the personal feeling of the photographer about the image to any photographic techniques or location knowledge he/she would like to share with our visitors.
Gallery Pick of the Week > September 2009
 |
Golden Relics 24/9/09, Gary Chapman The discovery of gold in the 1850s and 60s is the most significant event in the evolution of the state of Victoria... One of the more obvious signs of those activities, still with us today, are the many poppet head towers still dotting the region. |
|---|---|
 |
Bungle Bungle 17/9/09, Pele Leung Life became safer to emerge from the water when the ozone layer started to form to protect our Earth in 450-350 million years ago. At the end of this life migration period, a sandstone formation was formed... |
 |
Borrowed from Our Descendants 10/9/09, Pele Leung An extreme hot summer may be welcomed by some beach lovers but it is certainly a threat to many of us. Drought and bush fire are just two of many known threats in our mind. Why the weather has been changing badly against us? |
 |
Can We Do More for Domestic Tourism? 3/9/09, Pele Leung According to the latest statistics, the number of Australian travelling overseas grows and exceeds six million per year. In all aspects, this number is fairly high to a country with the population of only twenty-one million. |
Gary Chapman - Golden Relics 24/9/09
The discovery of gold in the 1850s and 60s is the most significant event in the evolution of the state of Victoria. Gold fever hit Victoria following the early gold discoveries in and around Clunes, Warrandyte and Ballarat. But the real rush began with the discovery of the Mount Alexander goldfield 60 kilometres north-east of Ballarat. The field, known as the Mt Alexander diggings, initially drew prospectors from Melbourne, so much so that the road from Melbourne was known as the Mt Alexander Rd. Mt Alexander goldfields (taking in Castlemaine and Bendigo) was one of the world’s richest shallow alluvial goldfields but also supported shallow and deep lead mining operation to extract the precious metal from the surrounding hills.
One of the more obvious signs of those activities, still with us today, are the many poppet head towers still dotting the region. Essentially a poppet head was a broad based tapered tower with staging platform for a set of large wheels set atop. These ran cables vertically up and down the mineshaft directly below. Attached to these cables were cradles for ore and in some cases cages, which could contain men and equipment.
The first poppet heads were constructed of wood but gradually, as mines went deeper; the poppet heads became more substantial and taller and build of steel. While these large tapered towers more prevalent during the height of the Gold rush only a handful remain today. Gladly, some are now being restored as part of the growing interest in the regions golden history.
The immediate Castlemaine area has three such poppet heads still visible and some still quite accessible to the public. Interestingly the tower on top of Mount Tarrengower in Maldon (23 km north-west of Castlemaine) can still be climbed and provides panoramic views of the area. This structure was originally used over a Comet Hill mine in Bendigo and was transported and erected in its current location in the early 1920’s.
The Tower at Mount Tarrengower
The Red, White & Blue Tower is located on a scenic reserve set amongst the ironbark trees of the Muckleford Forest; 10mins drive from Castlemaine on the Maldon Road. It is currently under restoration and is the centre point of a circuit walk and bush picnic area.
The Wattle Gully Tower and Mine was still in operation until recently and is now closed to the public however it is easily viewable from the Chewton-Fryerstown Road, a short 5 minute drive south from the town centre.
The Red, White & Blue Tower (left) and The Wattle Gully Tower (right)
Pele Leung - Bungle Bungle 17/9/09
Life became safer to emerge from the water when the ozone layer started to form to protect our Earth in 450-350 million years ago. At the end of this life migration period, a sandstone formation was formed due to the sediment of an ancient river in Eastern Kimberley. Initially it was a big block but the the weak areas was eroded by the natural forces after millions of years. Finally the Beehive domes of Bungle Bungle were formed.
Piccaninny Creek with beehive domes on both sides of the dry creek banks
As the darker layers of the sandstone could keep more moisture, cyanobacteria (previously called blue-grey algae) could survive and grow on the surface. The survival of the primitive organisms helps to protect the sandstone by forming a thin erosion resistant layer. On the other hand, the dry layers are more exposed to the air and rusting occurs and gives the sandstone ranges an orange colour that we see today.
Bungle Bungle, officially called Purnululu National Park, was only known to the outside world since 1983. It suddenly became an icon when it first appeared on TV in 1987. Now Bungle Bungle receives more than 40,000 visitors every year. Although half of the visitors only come and visit by plane without actually landing there, the environmental impact could still be quite significant.
Why Bungle Bungle is so magical to its visitors? Needless to say, its beehive dome formation is very unique and there are only a few places on Earth exhibiting something similar. Bungle Bungle is probably the largest of its kind. Other than visiting the beehive domes, the following features are the most common items on the itineraries of the most tours to Bungle Bungle:
- Echidna Chasm
Echidna Chasm is an easier walk, about 2 km, a narrow gorge with walls towering 100 metres and adorned with tall palms.
- Mini Palms Gorge
This 5-km return walk takes you to a viewing platform from where dwarfed Livistona Palms can be viewed.
Echidna Chasm (left) and Mini Palms Gorge (right)
- Piccaninny Creek
Creek water is available only during and immediately after the wet season. To most visitors coming in the dry season, the creek is just a dry river bed with large cracks and beehive domes on its banks. Hiking along the dry creek is a common close-encountered way to see Bungle Bungle.
- Cathedral Gorge
The destination of this 3-km return walk is a large natural amphitheatre carved out of the sandstone dome walls.
Cathedral Gorge. Photo by Rob Gray.
While most visitors come to Bungle Bungle by taking a tour but individual visitors with 4WD transport can take their own adventures in a more flexible way. Entrance and camping fees apply. Although Bungle Bungle is closed during the wet season and will not be re-opened until April, the vegetation is at its best while water is still abundant.
If you pass Kununurra by any chance before or after visiting Bungle Bungle, it is worth visiting the Lovell Gallery as there is a large 20-square-metre painting of the Bungle Bungle beehive domes by the local artist, Nadeen Lovell. At the time of writing, the painting was taken to Perth for exhibition but there is another even larger one coming in life hopefully soon.
Pele Leung - Borrowed from Our Descendants 10/9/09
Both Brisbane and Sydney have recently hit the high temperature record of warm winter and it was a welcoming news to some great outdoor people. Now spring has quietly arrived and there is no reason why we cannot believe that an unusual warm spring would hit us as well. If a record warm spring really turns up, we all should be aware of another extreme hot summer like the one in 2008-9.
Drought of Lake Fyans, Grampians National Park, Victoria
An extreme hot summer may be welcomed by some beach lovers but it is certainly a threat to many of us. Drought and bush fire are just two of many known threats in our mind. Why the weather has been changing badly against us? Perhaps global warming is one of the reasons. In fact, there are many other environmental issues out there. Just to name a few from the national to local scale:
- Oil leaking in the ocean near Kimberley, Western Australia
- Massive rubbish dump that can be handled by land mine only
- Misuse of toilet facilities on the top of Uluru Monolith
In the long run, it is time to reconsider the global plan of maintaining a sustainable environment. If our land becomes warmer, our rivers may not even flow anymore and there is no doubt that our land will not be useful for agriculture and settlement. In the end, it could be a serious disaster. In addition to what the government could do by executing some environmental protection policies, we all can contribute.
- Save energy at home
From choosing the energy efficient appliances to operating them wisely, there are many things we could do. For examples, insulating our home, using energy saving light bulbs, turning on heating and cooling facilities only if needed, switching to green power if possible.
Large wind mills for wind power generation
- Green transportation
Reduce the mileage of your cars if possible. Extensive use of bicycles could be a good way for short distance travel. - Consume only if needed, conserve more if possible
Recycling is not a new concept to all. If you notice the massive annual dump of personal computers, mobile phones and plastic bags, I am sure you will be aware of the destructive power of our wastage. The concept of recycling can be applied to a lot of areas even water. For example, re-using the shower water or collecting raining water for toilet and gardening uses. - Tell and educate others about environment protection
Environment protection could be much more effective if everybody is doing it. Instead of just taking this matter seriously between us, tell others and educate them how important this mission is.
Dumped metals that could be recycled
Saving the environment could be just a small step for us but it would be a huge step for our future generations. So it is important for us to return what we borrowed from our descendants in good condition. Act now before it is too late.
Pele Leung - Can We Do More for Domestic Tourism? 3/9/09
According to the latest statistics, the number of Australian travelling overseas grows and exceeds six million per year. In all aspects, this number is fairly high to a country with the population of only twenty-one million. Arguably we would have one less local traveller if we have one more overseas holiday seeker. If the trend of overseas travelling continues to grow, we would have to do more to keep our domestic tourism in good shape.
Nature asset is one of our inborn advantages and it will be extremely powerful if we could use it wisely for tourism. Devils Marbles, Northerm Territory.
To address the issue properly, we have to understand the root reasons first. According to some surveys, the reasons of the growth of overseas travelling could be summarised as below:
- The competitiveness of travelling cost
During this global recession period, our economy seems to be stronger and stabler than other developed countries. As the Australian currency is still relatively high, the attractiveness of travelling overseas remains strong. In addition, the cheaper international airfares and competitive overseas hotel packages push our Australian travellers out of our soil even more. - The variety and concentration of places of interests
There is no doubt that Uluru and Great Barrier Reef are great but there are not many Australians would visit these iconic locations every year. Strictly speaking, many people would only visit them once or perhaps twice in their whole life. We may be able to break this trend but this would happen only unless we have a new approach to showcase these iconic locations in the future. Meanwhile, our local travellers need more variety than what we have now. Australia is a large country and travel between two places of interest takes time. It would not be easy to cover more places of interest unless a longer holiday is available. - The quality of services
We all believe that Australians are generally polite and friendly but there seems to be a growing number of complaints lately. - The effectiveness of tourism marketing campaigns
Various tourism campaigns from quarter-of-million-dollar logo replacement of a major city to the Island care taker seem to be quite popular. At this stage, apart from the gain of publicity, we are still not sure whether these kind of expensive campaigns have brought significant actual benefits to the domestic tourism.
As in business, the cost of getting new customers could be ten times more than serving the existing ones. Can we get the previous visitors back regularly is arguably one of the the most effective ways to keep our iconic tourism locations growing. Uluru, Northern Territory.
Now what do we do to improve our domestic tourism? I am sure Tourism Australia is working hard on it. Here are a few suggestions that may help to trigger more collective thinking.
- More value added packages
Due to the difference in the living standard between overseas countries and Australia, it would be difficult to compete in the lower price range offered by those overseas tourism facilities especially in the Asian countries. Instead of cutting our prices beyond an acceptable level, the best we can do would be providing a value added offer such as complimentary breakfast for accommodation business. Obviously there are already quite a few tourism operators working on this strategy. - New wine new bottle
Instead of providing the same local attraction programmes we offered since day one, it is time to think outside the box to re-brand our attractions. For examples, Uluru should not be limited to watching the monolith at sunset. With the same token, Great Barrier Reef could offer more than just cruising, diving etc. Perhaps we could setup a programme with both learning and excursions to attract the younger generations. - Watch out for our quality of services
Regardless of the current quality level of our services, there is always some room to improve. To maintain our 'welcome-tourism' image, we must continue to review and improve our services. - Targeted at the right audiences and utilise new appropriate advertising channels
With the heavy bombardment of many tourism advertisements, relaxation is the primary selling point for the Australian tourism. This probably is a right bait for the mature and senior generations but may not be the perfect attraction for the younger ones who are one of the major groups pushing hard for international travel. To attract the generations of X and Y, we might have to work out something more energetic, educational and adventurous programmes. Instead of promoting our tourism campaigns in the traditional channels, the new Internet channel which are full of younger audiences can be utilised even more. The sky is our imagination.
Protecting what we have now is also a key mission to maintain our long term assets. Heart Reef, Great Barrier Reef, Queensland.