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 > April 2010
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Crossing Deserts in Australia, 22/4/10, Pele Leung The weather was hot and sand was everywhere. The wind was blowing and the sands were fighting hard for their path to your eyes, nose and mouth. There wasn't any way to escape because you were in their territory. |
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Dicky Beach, 15/4/10, Victoria Purdie On Queensland’s Sunshine Coast is a beach north of Caloundra called Dicky Beach. It’s made famous by the wreck of the Iron Screw Steam Vessel called “Dicky” which ran around in a severe gale in 1893. |
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Hidden Gems of Sydney - Walking around Sydney Harbour Foreshores – Part 3, 8/4/10, Barbara Bryan Continuing on my walking explorations around Sydney’s Lower Northshore, I keep discovering hidden pockets of bushland where I have not ventured before. |
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Although water seems to be abundant here, only a small fraction (3%) exists as fresh water and the rest is undrinkable saline water in the oceans. This is not the worst fact about water but the next one is - the majority of fresh water is not easily accessible... |
Pele Leung - Crossing Deserts in Australia, 22/4/10, Pele Leung
Chambers Pillar in Central Australia. This famous Outback icon is actually located outside the Simpson Desert
The weather was hot and the wind was blowing. The sand was fighting hard for their path to your eyes, nose and mouth. There wasn't any way to escape because you were in their territory. The desert kingdom in Australia is huge and occupies 18% of the continent. If you intend to cross Australia in an explorer way from south to north or from west to east, deserts set an impassible challenge for you. Crossing a desert without sufficient preparation could lead you to a life threatening situation. Sometimes even if you were equipped with the latest technologies, your desert journey still might not be that smooth as you could have expected. The reason is simple as any delicate equipment could fail due to the merciless and unpredictable desert environment.
If desert is such a horrible place why there are still so many challengers would like to take their chances. The answer is obvious because people are born to be curious. Their curiosity and will to conquer the unknown horizons are sufficient enough to drive any risky activities. Nowadays we are much more luckier than the early explorers as we have relatively more choices in transportation and equipment. Most modern cross-continent travellers would prefer taking their 4-wheel-drive to riding horses or camels like their ancestors. However, there are some exceptions - bike riding and walking with trolley. With such a basic type of transportation, the journey will definitely be a hardship but the achievement and satisfaction are even more.
The famous orange-sand Simpson Desert. Photo by Barry Allwright.
Although most of us probably have no ideas how a cross-desert adventure works we do have some information. Regardless of the type of transportation you use, the route, navigation, resource supplies, communication and backup plans are all required. Moreover, you need to check these critical items regularly during your journey. Your route would have to be changed if there is any unexpected event ahead. Although GPS becomes a popular tool for navigation this kind of equipment could fail without any warning. So you should never completely trust and put your fortune on any electronic devices. It is obvious that a map is needed as a backup plan. For such a long journey, refilling your supplies such as fuel, food and water is almost unavoidable. Needless to say, communication with the outside world is also vital when urgent help is required.
Seriously speaking, every step in such a journey could be a trap. Disaster might come even for a small mistake. Having said a lot of discouraging words, crossing deserts in Australia could be joyful and a sweet lifetime memory for you. Imagine sleeping in a starry night without any disturbance. Desert at night could be very quiet and silence may be the only noise. This close feeling with the nature is something you cannot get when you are in civilisation and this experience could be fully understood only if you have tried before. As human beings, we like adventures as well as the feeling of completing a successful one. If you are a photographer, the photos of the great desert wilderness would be an additional bonus to you.
Wildflowers in Simpson Desert. Photo by Barry Allwright.
If you are hooked with what we wrote here, let's plan a desert trip. Perhaps you could start from the most popular Simpson Desert and then slowly proceed to conquer the others - Great Victoria Desert, Tanami Desert, Great Sandy Desert etc. There is one last thing to say - don't get lost because we want you to come back and tell us your cross-desert story.
Victoria Purdie - Dicky Beach, 15/4/10, Victoria Purdie
On Queensland’s Sunshine Coast is a beach north of Caloundra called Dicky Beach. It’s made famous by the wreck of the Iron Screw Steam Vessel called “Dicky” which ran around in a severe gale in 1893. The boat was of German origin but registered in Brisbane.
The Dicky was carrying sand and water ballast from Rockhampton to Brisbane. She couldn’t round Point Wickham (Caloundra Head) so her captain John Summers Beattie ran her around on the beach to save the lives of those on board. No lives were lost. However, the wind and waves built up a sandbar behind the ship and it was unable to be refloated. The propeller was salvaged from the wreck and is mounted on a big plaque outside the toilet block next to the carpark. This was unveiled by the then Premier of Queensland, Honourable G.F.R Nicklin in 1963.
The Dicky Beach area is a very nice family camping spot with the caravan park right on the beach and shops just across the road. The surf is open to the ocean and waves and rips can sometimes cause problems for swimmers and surfers. The beach is patrolled by lifesavers.
Barbara Bryan - Hidden Gems of Sydney - Walking around Sydney Harbour Foreshores – Part 3, 8/4/10, Barbara Bryan
Continuing on my walking explorations around Sydney’s Lower Northshore, I keep discovering hidden pockets of bushland where I have not ventured before. To enjoy a solitary and silent experience of walking through a variety of bushland is a delight – very possible midweek, when so many people are absorbed in their workaday world. The suburb of Castle Cove adjoining Middle Harbour offers extensive walking along the North Arm track and other shorter tracks.
As soon as I started the walk, Sydney’s beautiful angophora trees showed their glory in the bright autumn light, along with the unexpected flannel flower and pink heath, blooming in groups in a previously burnt area.
Flannel flower
Pink heath
My first walk took me along the Explosives Track (named because this area borders on a historic place where explosives were stored in an inaccessible area during the second world war and earlier. Passing through the casuarina forest with its carpet of pine needles (#6) felt very serene before I came to a viewpoint over Middle Harbour (#9) and some rocky outcrops just made for a rest stop.
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Hoping to catch a glimpse of the black-tailed wallaby was an incentive for walking quietly but no wildlife was seen on this day. However the birdlife is quite extensive with lorikeets the dominant species and fairy wrens seen hopping amongst the lower bushes.
I then ventured onto the North Arm track which follows the foreshores for over 5 km of winding narrow track. Along here were extensive lush fern glades alongside sandstone cliffs and a creek crossing which then lead to the delightful Sugarloaf Bay with its views across the water to Seaforth and Middle Cove with its moored pleasure boats.
Lush fern glades alongside sandstone cliffs
Creek crossing
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This track winds around the bays well below the line of large homes with water views in what is an affluent part of Sydney. These walks can be accessed by local bus from Chatswood Railway Station, or car with easy parking on nearby residential streets.
Pele Leung - Water, 1/4/10
In ancient times, our Solar System triggered its first moment of life. There was no sound in empty space but a strong flow of gas and dust rushed out from the new born Sun towards the surrounding space. The shock waves came after the 'explosion' compress and heat the gas and water was quickly produced in this warm dense gas. Some of the water eventually landed on Earth and became one of the critical life creation elements for our mother planet. Water also exists outside our home planet as water vapour, ices, and potentially in liquid form as well. Some scientists even believe that a 100-km deep ocean may exist on the Jupiter's moon Europa!
Although water seems to be abundant, only a small fraction (3%) flows as fresh water and the rest is undrinkable saline water in the oceans. East Coast, NSW.
Back to Earth. Although water seems to be abundant here, only a small fraction (3%) exists as fresh water and the rest is undrinkable saline water in the oceans. This is not the worst fact about water but the next one is - the majority of fresh water is not easily accessible because it is stored as icecaps, glaciers and underground water. And only 0.3% of all fresh water flows as surface water. Up to this point, we can simply draw an interim conclusion here: fresh water is precious and it is a sin to waste any fresh water particularly in the current fresh water shortage climate.
Australia is not the only country experiencing the unusual drought. China, India and some other countries are also suffering huge water crisis so we are not alone. The drought seems to be enhanced even more by global warming.
Imagine there is no more icecaps on mountains. This simply means the water sources of most rivers will be cut off. Without the irrigation by rivers, a lot of land will be unusable for agriculture. This would eventually lead to famine and other immediate disasters. It sounds scary but some people believe we still have a few decades to repair this short-circuited nature system.
They might be right if all phenomenons behave in linear form. Unfortunately nature does not think and work in the same way. Some theories have already pointed out that many things could go wrong exponentially once certain thresholds are met. For example, the ocean currents which regulate the temperatures and moisture between continents would be stopped by the change of salinity of ocean water due to the melting of glaciers.
Believe it or not, potentially the theories and consequences highlighted in the movie "The Day after Tomorrow" could come true.
Shrinking lakes are not uncommon. Lake Fyan, VIC.
As one of the most intelligent species on Earth, do we think we can help? Maybe. It does not sound positive. Right? Let me explain. If global warming is mainly caused by our uncontrolled use of fossil fuels, we could be in deep trouble.
Although solar, wind and hydro-electric renewable powers have been pushed quite hard in some countries, the majority of people are still using fossil fuels as their major everyday energy resources. The worst trend is that we could not see any foreseeable termination of fossil fuel uses. Most people still casually drive their cars as if the crisis was completely irrelevant to petrol. We cannot blame those drivers as there is not really much they can do especially if public transport is not conveniently available.
If everybody in WA turns on their taps for an hour, this river will run dry shortly. The Cascade, Pemberton, WA.
In other words, it seems that we will not stop using fossil fuels until either they are exhausted or the renewable energies are affordable. However, reducing water consumption is absolutely possible. Perhaps water saving training camps should be organised to educate those 'innocent' minds. By giving a limited amount of water to the participants for their daily uses, they should be able to learn quickly and heartily. To those who have already started saving water with their buckets, we should salute them as they are the pioneers to save the rest of us and our mother planet.