Archives: 2007 March

The effect of the drought, seen at the Hume Weir.
The effect of climate change on Australia’s water resources.
At around 30 metres (100 feet) below the high water mark, long dead and submerged trees in the bed of the Hume Weir present a stark image of the effects of the combination of the regular cycle of [...]

Willaroo Lagoon as seen by John McDouall Stuart.
On his 1858 trip of exploration, John McDouall Stuart covered 2400km over four months. Three men on horse back.
John McDouall Stuart would have taken in a vista, pretty much unchanged from this as he overlooked Willaroo Lagoon, not far from Andamooka Waterhole, in outback South Australia.
Of course, there’s [...]

Shoe from John McDouall Stuart’s horse.
Well, G’day. You wouldn’t read about it!
On returning to camp after the sunrise, wilderness photography session, my gaze lighted on another “stone,” fair in the middle between the bike and the tent. With a bit of a kick, a horseshoe emerged, worn and rusted.
Given that I reckon this was the [...]

John McDouall Stuart camped here.
G’day.
There’s been significant erosion in the arid region due to the combined effects of overgrazing, rabbit plagues and drought.
However, in the region of Andamooka Waterhole, the damage seems to be not a severe as in some places. It seems reasonable to suppose that the landscape seen by John McDouall Stuart [...]

Overlooking Andamooka Waterhole.
Studying the journals of John McDouall Stuart, one of Australia’s great explorers, has been an eye opener. Here is an extract from the journal of his trip in 1858, through outback South Australia:
Monday, 21st June, Water Creek.
Started at 9.30 a.m. on a course of 25 degrees. At a mile passed a small table-topped [...]

Fresh, hot, camp oven bread.
This young fella is getting stuck into a slice of Granddad’s fresh, hot bread, made in the camp oven.
Slathered in butter and Grandma’s home made raspberry jam, it fills the typical gap created by the fun and activity of camping in the bush at Aragunnu Beach.
With assistance from his big sister [...]

Indio flowering in the bush.
Early spring and the bush was alive with colour, mostly yellow, mouve and blue.
Legumes, plants from the pea family, are often predominant in the Australian bush and this was no exception. Indigo, pictured, yellow pea shrubs and several wattles were glorious in the morning sunlight among the greens of the trees, [...]

Camp oven cooking. The camp oven half buried in the coals with the billy beside.
Well,G’day.
There’s nothing like a roast dinner when out camping in the bush. A forequarter lamb chop in the bottom of the camp oven, and half a dozen veggies: potato, sweet potato, carrot, parsnip, pumpkin and onion. Oil coating the oven with [...]

Blazing campfire at Yankie’s Creek.
G’day.
It was coming on dark, so I got a small campfire blazing in just the right spot so I could rest my weary legs and aging back on a log with a convenient branch.
This campfire cost me! It was a mistake that someone of my camping and outdoor experience shouldn’t have [...]

Yankie’s creek camp.
G’day there.
Out the back of Bemboka, there’s some pretty rough and steep country. These are the hills and mountains adjacent to the escarpment thet seperates the coastal fringe from the high country of the Monaro, on the Great Dividing Range.
At Bemboka, the elevation is about 200 metres above sea level, while the higest [...]