Historical railways and nostalgia at Central Station.  The Southern Aurora was the overnight service Sydney to Melbourne, 956ks, 1962-86. The arrangments was of sleeper rooms, lounge cars and a dining carriage with tables, white tablecloths and all the rest

Progress? On a recent journey the overnight first class service had a brown paper bag delivered containing the items for breakfast.  Maccas has set the standard!

 

The Melbourne International Flower show includes a view over the veteran Exhibition Building.  The straightforward style, yet with restrained elegant decoration - not so apparent in this photo - is unique in this country in my humble opinion.

At Glenrowan, Ned lives forever, the mythology is strong, a most notorious bush ranger.  Today, Ned Kelly, would be akin to a terrorist. 
 Glenrowan, Vic, is not far from the free way.  There, the site of all the action is marked and interpreted in a street on the other side of the rail line. It is free..
  A contest is on in between the towns of  Glenrowan and Beechworth to secure a centre devoted to all things Ned Kelly. His trial was held in Beechworth.

Believe this horse is Cliff, steady and reliable on track back to Victor Harbor (yes, harbor) from Granite Island on the Fleurieu peninsula (after a French explorer) of South Australia. A grand horse.

Once upon a time there was a nice horsey custom in Indonesia and was seen displayed in Yogya but the present day horses, as well as the cats, only haunted and disturbed me. 
Tourists in Kuta, and elsewhere hop in a horse and cart. Heat, one lane streets, thick traffic, hard surface underfoot, smog, noise, fat tourist groups and the small stressed out ponies were horrible to see late at night still dragging themselves around their head lowered to the ground. How inconvenient to notice 'incidentals' instead of the fun fun fun..My first world problem.

  

Road Trip

Bird's nest. Red soil is the material that the 'potters' fetched and carried beak by beak full. The parents were vocal and warned us to keep away.
 By the roadside, a small patch yielded sightings of a lizard, birds, bird's nest, bees, an array of wild flowers, tall grasses a lavender coloured crop a buzzing silence and an over abundance of warm sunshine.

Farewell... vale... George Aditjondro.  Indonesian scholar.
During a sojourn at Newcastle university surely he stimulated new insights into South East Asia and in a measured way considering his background in his homeland where he did not avoid controversy.

   

Vintage road trip last century

History last century
Yvonne Margarula Senior Traditional owner of the Mirrar Gundjehni homelands surrounding the proposed Jabuluka mine site:
 We live the environmental damage and negative social impact from mining development.  We believe that uranium mining has negative consequence for all Australians.  

............................it is hard to say what the current status is of the uranium mine inside a World Heritage Park......see Ranger web site.....Yvonne Margarula's work has been recognized and awarded...also Jacqui Katona....

On Safari

Glam camping - Not!  Camping, three, all alone, on a big vacant lonely roadside rest area, close to the geographical heart of the continent and miles and miles from signs of habitation.

In the steps of the explorer John McDouall Stuart hence the Stuart Highway.  His exceptional explorations took him across the continent from the south to the north coast in 1862 - on his third attempt.

Three times.  Persistence pays off.  Vote early vote often. 
 Australian correspondents will be relieved when the U S election ends and they can finish taking us to state after state to witness all the whohar while autumn leaves in Pennsylvania and all sorts of backgrounds flash past on media.
Democracy has declined and some wish to go backwards to certainty while change is where it is all at.
Forget about the biggest and the greatest. A just society is best but look at the opposition to any good moves.  In the U S it gets the label of socialisation and meets resistence - all our minds are shaped along certain lines while we could expand and explore new ways.
AT least the $US exchange rate is becoming more favourable for us - it is such a temptation.
  

On safari

 

In the grand old Flinders Range in S A,(in country  pretty similar to this photo), the earliest place of habitation in the central region by Aboriginies has been found and researched and dated 49 000 years ago - a new find has just been announced. Just imagine life there with the mega fauna in our pre-history. Reported on ABC (Au) RN.
 
49 000 years.  It is not a contest but here are some time scales roughly speaking.  Cave paints in Spain are thought to be round 38 000 years, Neolithic sites about 10 000BC, Sites in middles east round 10 000BC,
 Stonehenge 3 000BC, Egyptian pyramids 2630BC.

Listed historical Walka Water Works near Maitland, Hunter Valley.  Old machinery is displayed.  Otherwise, the area is used for outdoor recreation. This was the site of the original water supply.

Endeavour River, Cooktown.
Two months earlier, June 1770, explorer, Cook, limped into the sheltered waters. The isolation was rather extreme in the event of shipwreck yet a whole nation of indigenous people was near.
About 6 August 1770 the Endeavour left after repair work and sailed north to Indonesia on the return to England.
The recorded details are tragic, it was no love boat. 
The township is below hidden from view.

 White House. Autograph from a diner who was a president.  Who, where?

Months of who-ha on the presidential election are ahead. Ho hum.  Please, not all that to end up with a Donald Trump or his ilk.
Photos from Port Douglas, Queensland and from the top tropical Salsa Bar and Grill. Is that THE seven eleven?
Is it an urban myth that the president made a hasty retreat back to the US after receiving reports of the disaster while he was out dining.

Shocking error. 9/11 is more accurate and Clinton was an ex-president by then, it is believed.

Skeletal remains of a rail link ran near a cattle yard.
Then disused rail lines were put to use to build the fences.
Once upon a time the steel came from Scotland it seems.
No rail, it is road transport nowdays.  Of southbound traffic, 98% were vehicles moving cattle to Roma area. Northbound traffic was 98% southerners heading to warmer latitudes in recreational vehicles.

Endeavour River just inside the entrance. Cooktown. 

The barque, Endeavour, was repaired on the shores of this side, below Grassy hill in 1770.

Where were the planets in July 1770? The transit of Venus was specially observed by the expedition.
At dusk to the NW in Newcastle, Venus and Jupiter are seen close together and to the east a splendid full moon is rising for all humanity see. Here, the planets will set in several hours time.  

 Cooktown, far north Queensland, with the Endeavour River just in view, where explorer Captain Cook stayed June to August 1770 to repair his ship.
From the museum balcony.  The anchor and other items have been salvaged after their jettison in an attempt to refloat the good but troubled ship Endeavour

Australian age of Dinosaurs Museum is just south of Winton.
The building alone is notable and sits on The Jump-up on top of a rocky mesa.

History and drama.
On 11 June 1770, Captain Cook and his ship The Endeavour, ran aground on a reef a little north of this point. In the Coral Sea off the coast of far north Queensland.
Photo taken this very morning while standing on Cape Tribulation about which Cook's journal states ...here began all our troubles...
Visibility was not good this morning with frequent light rain showers.

Who was Charlotte Rose?  Our tabby cat. We don't have a cat now days.
Charlotte arrived at the time of the Bicentenary and was named after the ship in the first fleet.

  The good ship, Charlotte, a fully rigged sailer, launched 1787, sailed for Botany bay in May of that year as part of an impressive saga when the first fleet took on the southern oceans, eleven ships, staff, convicts and supplies.
   Firstly, crossing the Atlantic the fleet stayed in Rio for a month to clean up the dreadful conditions on board and to restock.
   Then westerlies took them to the other side of the Atlantic to Cape Town in Oct 1787 to take on livestock and stores.
   From there it was into the Roaring Forties for a very challenging run to Australia and Botany Bay (pictured) Jan 1788, to set up a colony after a 252 day voyage.
   After several months, the ship Charlotte sailed for China to carry tea for the East India company. Later she took up a London to Jamaica run then was lost off Newfoundland in 1818.

  Sail on Sydney harbour on the ferry, Charlotte, as eleven ferries were named after the first fleet ships.

  A Charlotte medal, commemorating the voyage, was made by a convict forger on the first fleet, using improvised material to create the first work of Australian colonial art and is in fine style now owned by Australian National Maritime Museum.     Information thanks to Wikipedia.

Ladles. Once upon a time: at BHP Newcastle the BOS furnace is charged with hot metal from a ladle. "Each hour or so the great BOS furnace is turned down to run 200 tons of steel into the waiting ladle below.  With an absence of fuss that belies the scale of the operation, the furnace turns to receive its clanging charge of scrap, and then to the other angle for molten iron (pictured). Within minutes of the tapping, the furnace is re-charged, the oxygen lance lowered then the rising roar of sound marks the beginning of a new blow."
Lower image: No 1 BOS furnace under construction. Newcastle 1962. Drives can be seen on either side of the trunnion ring, with the water-cooled hood above.
BOS or basic oxygen steelmaking was an innovation using pure oxygen under high pressure to charge the furnace with oxygen and with hot metal from a ladle and with scrap steel from the opposite sides of the working floor. Steel production was increased a whole lot.
from Giant Strides 1965 BHP Publicity Dept.

Post industrial presence.

A church in Paterson.  Even some church members wish to combat global warming. President Obama is tackling that problem and targeting power generation and its emissions. What sort of a last century type government do we have for it has no initiatives around climate change.