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Category: Australia (not WA)

“Outback Art” #2 (#21 in SA/NT “outback” single image teaser series)

 

 

“Plane Henge” is the signature “permanent exhibit” in what at least one writer has described as “the world’s largest art gallery”.

Mutonia Sculpture Park sits beside the Oodnadatta Track, less than one hour’s drive west from Marree.

If you were overhead, in a functional aircraft, Lake Eyre South would also be within your field of view.

The “park” includes the ruins of the Alberrie Creek Siding, on what once was “The Ghan” railway line.

Arguably, Mutonia strains to near or beyond breaking point any reasonable definition of “art gallery” or “park”.

Inarguably, its sheer unlikeliness leaves a lasting impression on most visitors.

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Easily overlooked… (#20 in SA/NT “outback” single image teaser series) + suitably sunny musical bonus

 

 

Some arid Australian plants are flamboyant, immediately arresting, intensely colourful.

However, to a hasty, inattentive human, not a few of them look “plain”, “drab”, barely-there.

Rich rewards await the more attentive: if you stop, and “zoom in”, you will discover that many such plants are exquisitely structured and their colour palette is much richer, and/or more variegated, than was initially apparent.

The petite, pictured example is probably a member of the genus Ptilotus; the name refers to their flowers’ “hairy” appearance.

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Mount Sonder (#19 in SA/NT “outback” single image teaser series)

 

Even by Australian standards, this post’s hero is a relatively modest mountain.

130 kilometres west of Alice Springs, Mount Sonder (1,380 metres) is the Northern Territory’s 4th highest peak; with the sole exception of Western Australia, all other Australian States (& the ACT) have considerably higher mountains.

Everest (which I have seen, “in person”, albeit from some distance) comprehensively dwarfs it, but is no lovelier.

Mount Sonder is one of the most beautiful mountains I have ever seen.

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“Tenacious”, in full context (#17 in SA/NT “outback” single image teaser series)

 

 

This post’s photo was taken from almost exactly the same vantage point as the previous post’s…and only a few seconds later.

In “standard format” terms, #16’s photo was a cropped version of a 120mm (short telephoto lens) view, whilst this post’s is a wide angle (24 mm) shot, unedited.

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Zebra finches at waterhole (#15 in SA/NT “outback” single image teaser series + suitably fleet musical bonus)

 

 

This post’s photo is far-from-perfect.

Nonetheless, I think/hope it conveys a sense of just how fleet-and-flurrying (and splashy) is the to-and-fro of zebra finches at a drinking/bathing “station”.

In arid regions such “stations” can themselves appear and vanish, very rapidly.

The pictured pool sat at the base of the eastern wall of Jessie Gap on 14 June 2023. (photo is copyright Doug Spencer. Jessie Gap is a short drive from Alice Springs)

Musically,  I agree with the listener who suggested that if J.S. Bach had heard Chris Thile play, there’d be a set of Bach mandolin suites.

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“The Breakaways” (#14 in SA/NT “outback” single image teaser series)

 

Generally known simply as “The Breakaways”, Kanku-Breakaways Conservation Park is an “unearthly” and beautiful place.

Nearly 900 kilometres north of Adelaide, it is also very “remote”.

From Coober Pedy, however, it is less than a 30 minute drive.

You probably have not visited this part of the South Australian outback.

Nonetheless, it may look “strangely familiar”…

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Coober Pedy, boasting (#13 in SA/NT “outback” single image teaser series)

 

Its boastful sign notwithstanding, Coober Pedy is definitely not a city.

846 ks north of Adelaide, Coober Pedy has fewer than 2,000 “permanent” residents, and the local housing market is decidedly “depressed”.

The town’s self-declared status as “opal capital of the world” is, however, defensible.

Reportedly, its name derives from kupa piti – a phrase coined by the local Aboriginal people whose ancestors arrived in South Australia’s outback more than a few thousand years before kupa piti described any of it.

Kupa piti translates as “whitefellas’ hole”.

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Ephemeral mirror in ancient “frame” (#12 in SA/NT “outback” single image teaser series)

 

The pictured puddle’s probable lifespan:  a matter of days…or very few weeks.

Age of the creek bed and gorge in which it sits: circa fifty times older than The Grand Canyon!

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