At arms' length

Being in the thick of a crowded urban streetscape is a joy: such a visual feast, such a cachophony, such an assault upon all senses. However, they say you only know happiness, real happiness, when you have experienced its polar opposite. Could it perhaps also be true, that you only fully appreciate the hurly burly of a city, when you can experience it from a short distance, at arms' length.

Come sit with me a while down on the pier beside the tall ship 'James Craig'. On your way down, grab a coffee and a warm plain croissant from 'Yots' at the Maritime Museum. That's it. Lean back against a bollard, and take a deep draught. Listen to the sound of my city with the mute button on.

This is my contribution to the Skywatch Friday Community.

Watching the Bondi sky at dusk

Bondi Beach reminds me of a bite taken out of a piece of toast. Over the other end, the northern end, the area is known as Ben Buckler.


Over this end, the southern end, the area used to be known as 'the bogey hole'. Now it is just called 'Icebergs'.

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Skywatch - Bench with a View

South Head is a peninsula. Along one side, we face east and look out to the Pacific Ocean (upper photo). Along the other side, we face west and look up Port Jackson, Sydney Harbour (lower photo).

Come sit with me a while.



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What happened to Sydney's blue skies?

We waited out the drizzle, but last Sunday morning never did amount to all that much, weatherwise. However, I did enjoy the visit to Camp Cove with my girls. The photograph, taken by Kirsten, shows us in our 'hatties'. I only have the one summer hat. However, Alannah likes to colour-coordinate her hatties.

This is my contribution to the Skywatch Community.

45 degree pivot

In my best tour-guide-ese, on my right, and to the NW, we have a distant view of the Sydney Harbour Bridge dressed in its best naval industrial frock, provided by the Garden Island Naval Base and engraving dock.

On my left, and to the SW, 'the mighty heart is lying still', but continuing to loom over bays and ridges between us. From the left there is Centrepoint (always Centrepoint, no matter where I roam!), then the MLC Centre in Martin Place, then ... golly what are the next three ... Jim? Ann? Peter? Jo? ... help. Is one Deutsche Bank? I do know that the waterway in both images is Rushcutters Bay, that I am standing on New Beach Road close to Yarranabee Point. And at 9:30am the sky is clouding over menacingly.

Yes, yes ... I just realised, that if I go from NW to SW, then I have not pivoted 45 degrees at all.

Lord Howe Island - an idyll

This morning I returned from five days on Lord Howe Island, which is part of the state of New South Wales but about 750km to the east of the mainland in the Pacific Ocean. Spending the time with a bunch of bird fanatics, the days were jam-packed, the walking continuous, and the sights just wonderful.


These shots were all taken on my very first day on the island. They were taken from the 'boatshed' belonging to the guesthouse at which we stayed, 'Pinetrees'. The island out in the coral fringed lagoon is Blackburn Island. More on LHI over the weekend, followed by a more fulsome report on my travel blog, 'Hither & thither'.


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Just to emphasise - all three images are 'straight out of camera'.

The wreck of the Dunbar

In atrocious conditions on the evening of Thursday 20th August, 1857, the clipper 'Dunbar' approached the entrance to Sydney Harbour. Having successfully navigated the journey from England to Sydney just three years earlier, Captain Green felt in control.


However, with visibility less than 100m due to the driving wind and squalls, he misjudged the entry, and the ship floundered at the base of South Head, with the loss of 58 crew and 63 passengers. Just one person survived - James Johnson. There is a memorial here at South Head, and another at St Stephen's Church at Camperdown. Collected relics are also on display at the National Maritime Museum at Darling Harbour. The siting of the red-and-white striped Hornby Light on the tip of South Head, is a direct consequence of this shipwreck.


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A paean to the much maligned Ibis

Prehistoric remnant Migrating for survival Sacred Ibis.

In Ancient Egypt, the god Thoth who helped the sun journey across the sky, was often depicted as an Ibis whose crescent shaped beak was reminiscent of the moon.

Garbage rummager Scavenging for survival Straw-necked Ibis.

Although the Ibis has all but disappeared in modern Egypt, archaeologists have found the mummified remains of over a million Ibises in the Serapeum at Saqqara near Memphis.

Urban asylum-seeker Pilloried victim Australian White Ibis.

Increasingly over the last twenty five years, the White Ibis has migrated to urban areas depleting former breeding grounds like the Macquarie Marshes in northern NSW.

Vulnerable species Ancient symbol Ibis.

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Skywatch - Nesting cockatoos

In Rushcutters Bay park, high in this Plane tree,a pair of Sulphur Crested Cockatoos paid devoted attention to their young in the hollow of a rotting limb.


Many of your comments are focussing upon the intensity of the sky. Here is the camera data: F5.6, s/s 1/1000, ISO 100, 250mm. The Picture Style settings in my Canon 450D are those recommended by Canon for 'standard'.
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Sunset over Darwin harbour

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Skywatch - Centrepoint

Centrepoint dominates the skyline of the city. Being such an obvious symbol of the city, it is a challenge to showcase it in a different light, so to speak. The lead image depicts the nightly migration of the Botanic Garden bat colony, thousands of them!


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Skywatch - Good vibrations

This weekend will see 38,000 people jam into the Brasilian Fields and Parade Ground of Centennial Park for the annual Good Vibrations festival, over half-a-dozen stages. This tent, by the look of the clouds, protects the appropriately named "Laundry" stage.

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Skywatch - Morning glory

Swathed in early morning light, these cliffs protect the southern approach to Sydney Harbour.

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Skywatch - Gippsland idyll

Before me and behind me, the glories of a setting summer sun on the rolling hills of the Western Gippsland in Victoria, just outside Bena.


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Skywatch Friday - Black Totem II

This is part of the Walsh Bay Sculpture Walk. It was conceived by Brett Whitley (1939 - 1992) and executed the year after his death by Matthew Dillon and Wendy Whitley.


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I am sampling the joys of Melbourne - including a day at the tennis. I will be back at my desk on Thursday 28th January.

Skywatch - the value of looking up

Whilst doddling down to Central Station one day last week, I looked up and not only did I see the sky but also this old warehouse on the corner of Commonwealth and Elizabeth Streets. James Griffith established Griffiths Bros. in Melbourne in 1879 in a warehouse in Flinders Street. Being entrepreneurial, he soon established warehouses in other capital cities. The company is now owned by brothers, Peter and Dennis Patisteas only the third set of owners in 130 years.


A lot of the building is in a sad state of disrepair, even the faded sign has been defaced with an arrow! This is a danger signal, as the surrounding area is awash with multi-storey apartment blocks!


Around the back of the building, the short edge of the wedge, the decay is much more apparent, with windows cracked, pipes rusted away, and the removal of fire escapes leaving doorways treacherous.


Down on street level, I am not convinced that the sign "From factory to you" is associated with Griffiths Teas. Firstly the font is out of place, and secondly, that expression does not seem to go with either tea or coffee.


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Skywatch: The Bondi blues

Above: 5:50am - between Christmas and New Year Below: 7:30am - on the same day

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A Sydney Christmas - Eighth Day (Skywatch)

City Council banners along George St looking south

The Three Drovers (Verse 1 of 3) Across the plains one Christmas night Three drovers riding blithe and gay; Looked up and saw a starry light More radiant than the Milky Way And on their hearts such wonder fell, They sang with joy Noel! Noel! Noel! Noel! Noel!

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Sydney Eye's Twelve Days of Christmas features the lyrics to Australian Christmas songs and carols, reinforcing that our Christmas is during summer.

Looking west along Park St between the two sections of Hyde Park (North & South)

Australian Christmas stamps - 1967, 1968 & 1969

Skywatch - curiosity

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Skywatch rhapsody

Taken from the forecourt of the Sydney Opera House, the passengers are on Deck 10 sipping their champagne and cocktails as the crew readies the "Rhapsody of the Seas" for departure. This first image shows the full glory of the sun setting behind the ship; the fourth image shows the vacant dock after the liner has departed.

The second image is one of many tracking the setting sun, whereas the third image shows the departing liner doing a uie between the harbour bridge and the opera house.


The Rhapsody of the Seas is a Royal Carribbean ship that took its first maiden voyage in May 1997. At the moment, it sails around Australia (anti-clockwise), up-and-down the East Coast of the continent and also across the Tasman Sea and around New Zealand. It has a passenger capacity of just under 2,500; a length of 915 feet and a draft of 25 feet.


See Skywatch posts from all over the world at the home of Skywatch Friday.