Natural splendour, real musics, wines, wordpower
Wednesday July 13 2022 was (yet another) glorious, bright winter’s day in the non-Scottish Perth.
A walk around the local lake was irresistible, even though mid-winter there usually proves unrewarding, bird-wise.
I almost decided to leave the camera at home…
One CommentToo many Perth residents have never visited Herdsman Lake, nor given any thought to it.
Sir David Attenborough, who described Herdsman as “the Great Fen of Perth”, is keenly aware that Perth is one of very few cities to have such a substantial, internationally significant, RAMSAR-listed wetland within 10 kilometres of its GPO.
Far from pristine, and more “wetland” than “lake”, Herdsman is, nonetheless, a very special place.
As you can see, this year’s shortest day was not at all “wintry”.
One CommentPerth’s Elizabeth Quay is a still-unfolding, allegedly “transformative” development.
(you may be unsurprised to know that it is impossible to find any reliable, properly inclusive figure on expenditure to date, let alone of the eventual total. Suffice that its likely-tallest tower component – which involves just two of many edifices – is estimated at more than one billion Australian dollars)
It is probably our final instance of an Australian megaproject, named after “our” Queen.
According to DevelopmentWA, This landmark waterfront development reconnects Perth city with the Swan River to create a dynamic new entertainment and leisure precinct, set around a stunning 2.7ha inlet.
According to one recent Singaporean visitor, Nothing much to see here,…Boring walk from Elizabeth Quay to Barrack Jetty as well. Your best bet would be to take the Transperth ferry to South Perth for better views of the city.
Comments closedUnsurprisingly, a deal of Perth’s abundant street art celebrates Western Australia’s own extraordinary flora and fauna.
Thanks to sculptors and muralists, you can see kangaroos in the CBD’s main thoroughfare, endangered cockatoos vividly adorn more than a few walls and fences, and oversized orchids, kangaroo paws and banksias “bloom” on others.
Near to the South Perth foreshore’s colossal frill-necked lizard and numbat, proudly stands a singular, much more elaborate metal sculpture.
It was made in the WA wheatbelt, but depicts – anatomically correctly – an “iconic” African animal.
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Australia has six black cockatoo species.
All are intelligent, sociable, spectacularly agile, and have very powerful beaks.
The world’s only two white-tailed black cockatoo species – both endangered – are endemic to southwest Western Australia.
My beloved and I are lucky enough to see and hear one of them – Carnaby’s Black Cockatoo – on hundreds of occasions, every year.
The featured image shows behaviour which is very familiar to us.
The other photos show something “new”, at least to us.
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Photographically speaking, Pelican Yoga – whether at home or interstate/abroad – generally inclines to wild places and/or to plants and animals that naturally occur in the relevant locations.
This post is an exception.
Its photos were taken over the last several years in assorted, “not especially remarkable” locations within the Perth metropolitan area.
In every case, I was standing on a paved or “sealed” surface.
All key species pictured are “strangers”, present only via humans having introduced them to southwest Western Australia, post-1829.
One CommentThis is a sequel to yesterday’s post.
Meanwile, on the other side of the very same tree…and then over the road, into the adjoining park…
Comments closedHere in Perth, Western Australia, it is – notionally – Winter, still.
But, as tomorrow’s sequel to this post will illustrate, Spring was already evident on Friday 21 August, 2020.
Comments closedIf the featured image’s swan had nested at this location a couple of decades earlier, he/she (black swans share nesting/parenting duties) would have almost been “living next door to Alan”.
Alan Bond – criminal/America’s Cup “hero” – is no more, but “his” Victoria Avenue mansion recently sold for multiple millions, and is part of the featured image’s “millionaire’s row”.
This post is best read after first seeing the immediately preceding one.
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