Bungling onwards.
'You can trust Australia America Europe any of us to do the right thing after we have tried everything else!'

Copenhagen Countdown:  7 days.
To the land of classic fairy tales.  Recalling The Emperor's New Clothes and our expectations for a transparent genuine and decisive gathering (of men).
The Copenhagen Summit, Denmark, is a UN meeting, Dec 7 - 18 aimed at coordinating action against climate change.

In a wildnerness area but never far from a jet route overhead.
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These birds were asking- even demanding- some share of our picnic lunches!

Australian King Parrot, scarlet head and dark green, male, found on the eastern coastal strip.

Crimson Rosella, the bird on the wire.

Pied Currawong, Black. Widespread on the East Coast areas.

As elsewhere, some bird species are very scarce and endangered or are gone forever.  

Countdown to Copenhagen Summit: 8 days.

Arguments are for and against global warming...denial is heard.. stop denial.. end denial..eat-drink-and-be-merry-denial..  ill-informed denial.. anti-intellectual denial..skeptical denial..devisive denial..head-in-the-sand denial..outrageous denial..smug denial..unwise denial.. .denial..denial..d....d...

                                                                                                                                                                

Telegherry River, Chichester State Forest, noisy rapids, shallow streams, small, deeper swimming holes and chilly refreshing waters, most inviting at high noon. Anyone for a skinny-dip?

 















Goanna Monitor Lizard. The lizard was busy scavenging and came under attack by two birds who swooped down close and made lots of noise. Lizard climbed the tree and became even more exposed.


Countdown to the Copenhagen Summit: 10 days.

Our policy on climate change has big concessions made in response to the opposition party even when the opposition is just fooling around.
They are deflecting attention onto their issues when the attention is not deserved although their rants echo the doubts and the questions that arise.
Parliamentarian's ego is not a priority but media has made their goings-on sacrosanct. 
I want 'the real'. I want effective climate change policy even if it costs us, not just a policy made to make a political party look good and seem forward thinking .

Scenes from nature fill us with thanksgiving.
Beyond Dungog and north-west  of Newcastle.

Cattle were grazing in Ferndale Park. Parrot was another visitor. Beam me up!  The Hadron or Haldron Collider, in background, emerged there all the way from Switzerland !

Travellers behaving badly. Booked for a flight to Asia, we got as far as Brisbane and were disappointed that we had to totally disembark and change planes with a two hour interval. It was about 10pm and a toddler was in the group and we put her in a wheelchair while we negotiated the procedures such as arrangements about the duty free we had foolishly got in Sydney.
The wheelchair was quite a hit, in fact, seem to lead to priority with reboarding, which was unintended, yet gave us a chuckle.
Another time, a wheelchair came in very handy to cart my gear around when there were no trolleys at all, and nothing but perfumes, chocolates and liquor to look at during a three hour wait for another flight. (In each case other wheelchairs were available for others to use).  But all that was before the days of climate change when travel was carefree.

School children from Newcastle after a walk to see the dam and the river.
An adult was overheard.  "Children: stop having so much fun ! "

Where to stay in Dungog Shire. Website www.visitdungog.com.au

Up-market resorts and a range of places are available there but a real classic sixties caravan park is found at Ferndale Park with vernacular buildings that grew like Topsey and grassy slopes beside a tree lined babbling brook all hemmed in by trees and more trees. Yet there's progress in the form of a new composting waterless toilet in the middle of a clearing!  A cottage is a more recent addition seen here on the web site.

Is this our most precious resource? The dam supplies water to the Newcastle region. Where would we be without it these past few days of heatwave conditions?
The dam is in a wilderness area to the north of Newcastle; we are not talking about alps here. The mountains and the plateau are shared out between the water catchment of Hunter District Water; state forests, reserves and conservation areas; Mount Royal National Park and  Barrington Tops National Park reaching about 1500 metres above sea level.

Barrington Tops covers over 74 000 hectares listed as a World Heritage Area protecting much of it as Wilderness. It was born from an ancient volcano and forms part of the Great Escarpment.  The rugged landscape... forests and streams... provides habitat for a wide range of plants and animals. In this area many northern and southern plant species meet the limit of their range...protects more than 50 rare or threatened plants and animals..... NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service.

Chichester State Forest exists for timber production as well as conservation and recreation. As far as I know, trees are planted, grown and cut down again. Selective logging might also be carried out.

Stands of sub-tropical rainforest, thick with vines and tall timbers, are found on the steep sides of the valleys where they slope down to the streams and these stands are often left to grow undisturbed. Any opening up of the canopy or round the edge of the rainforest has its consequences.

Wangat Road begins a round trip which from Dungog and back covers about 90km of cool hilly remote country with a fair share of dust but easy enough for a 2WD in dry weather. A few logging trucks also use the roads and trail bikes could well be there somewhere..


The interior of  Sydney Opera House is of laminated Brush Box timber from the Dungog forests.

Chichester State Forest to the north of Newcastle.
A dirt road takes an easy climb through the tall timbers and constantly winds round gullies full of dense rainforst and eventually a few breaks allow the day tripper to see out further afield. At about 900 metres or 3000 feet Antarctic Beech trees begin to grow and eventually they dominate the higher cool temperate areas (not accessed by this particular road). A signpost or two could have allowed for identification of the species.