Natural splendour, real musics, wines, wordpower
Q: what do the mostly-grey, stark rocks atop East Mt Barren have in common with the mostly-white sands that are a feature of so many beaches on Western Australia’s south coast?
A: both are composed almost entirely of the second most abundant mineral in the earth’s crust, namely….
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For residents of West Leederville (in Perth’s inner suburbia) the second day of February 2025 provided yet another nice reminder that Australia’s birds are – collectively – the world’s loudest..and the most intelligent.
Hereabouts, late last Sunday afternoon was something of a “benign riot” for one species: Calyptorhynchus banksii naso – the Forest red-tailed black cockatoo.
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We briefly interrupt the “Grand sands” series to celebrate a currently-abundant, loud, exuberant and welcome presence in our bit of inner-suburban Perth.
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20 kilometres southwest of Pemberton, in southwestern WA’s “Karri country”, the Yeagarup Dunes cover circa 30 square kilometres.
They are the Southern Hemisphere’s largest mobile, land-locked dune system.
The Yeagarup Dunes are currently advancing inland at circa 4 metres per year.
This post’s photos were taken from the top of their “hungry” edge, on 27 October 2016.
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Collectively and individually, members of the genus Banksia are among the world’s more spectacular and surprising flowering plants.
If one accepts the reclassification that brought the 94 Dryandra species into the Banksia fold, the genus has circa 170 members; if one does not, there are 79 named Banksia species.
Either way, all but one species are endemic to Australia.
The overwhelming majority naturally occur only in Western Australia, and most of those have very small ranges, in near-coastal parts of WA’s southwest.
Even by Banksia standards, the six prostratae species are “wondrous strange”.
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This chapter’s hero is another of the enormous number of WA-endemic flowering plants that thrive in Cape Arid National Park.
Most “wildflowers” position their actual flowers well clear of the ground.
In Australia’s southwestern corner, however, some of the region’s plants are “prostrate” – their flowers may sit on the sand, literally.
If you look carefully at the featured image you will notice that the nearer, otherwise-strikingly-red flowers are sand-flecked.
Leave a CommentYes, the beach really is that white, and the ocean shallows’ shades of blue are also “true”.
(the various blues’ intensity is in large part thanks to the sand’s whiteness, acting in concert with the sun, high in a clear sky)
The featured image looks down (and east, over Yokinup Bay, to Mt Arid) from Belinup Hill in Cape Arid National Park; visible, “naked” sand occupies a small portion of the photo, but millions of tons of “hidden” sand are invisibly-present through most of its field of view.
Southern WA has some of the world’s poorest soils, but what grows in and “hides” those very sands is (arguably) “our” planet’s greatest natural wildflower “show”.
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This post’s featured image shows two young Australians, having a lovely time on Australia Day.
It is reasonable to assume that they had zero awareness of – let alone ardent opinions about – the “rights” and “wrongs” of national flags, what we “should” or “should not” celebrate on Australia Day, and “appropriate” v “inappropriate” dates.
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For most of the 20th century, the buying, flying and waving of flags was not really a mainstream Australian “thing”.
Big crowds flocked to see and greet “Liz & Phil”, but most hands were empty, or waving streamers rather than national flags.
In photos, flag-wavers “stood out” precisely because they were the exception…and because flag-wavers liked to be at the front of the pack.
(click here for a raft of illustrative images)
In 2025-vintage Australia, “the royals” no longer loom large in our collective consciousness, but Australian flags – albeit, UK-accented ones, still – have never been “bigger”.
All photos were taken yesterday, as brightly-flat Australia Day sunshine illuminated a veritable “orgy” of flag-flying.
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The featured image illustrates what just a little elevation can do to one’s view…if one is in a magnificently wild location, the sun is high in a perfect Spring sky, and sand, sky, rock, vegetation and water are basking in clear, clean air.
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