Busy Hallway

This was the busy hallway in the home we recently moved out of.

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It is taken looking toward where the next following picture was taken from...

Not-so-busy-hallway Panorama

This is a view of the hallway in our old home, once we had removed all furnishings and fixtures for the move. You can appreciate the height of the ceiling by comparing it to the standard doors leading off the hall. The patterns formed by the lights were something I only noticed once I saw this picture. Shows what you can miss despite it being right in front of you for over five years!

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The picture is a composite, stitched together of two photos. It is the first vertical stitching job I've done. The room where we had gathered all our stuff before moving it (see below) is just visible to the left in the foreground.

Moving - Panoramic Stuff

This picture is of our stuff collecting in the front room of our California Street home just prior to our shifting it all to our present abode. We had about this much again outside, all our furniture, and a hundred and twenty eight boxes of books. All in all it was a massive undertaking, and one of which you will no doubt see various pictures about over the coming weeks.

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This picture was actually composed of four 'portrait' photos of the room, 'stitched' together with some panorama software I have. I am getting better at doing this, and like the effect.

This is a 'landscape' single frame shot of the same room, just to give you an idea of the value of panorama work in conveying an impression.

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Brisbane River

This is the first/last photo I'll put up from my trip to Brisbane 3 months ago. It was taken on a Saturday morning when I went for an expedition up river on Brisbane public transport. Believe it or not, these leisure craft, mangroves and cliffs are all visible from central city, which makes it pretty unique in my limited experience. The day was beautiful, the river obvulessly a source of recreation as well as commerce for many Queenslanders.

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To see more photos from my trip, keep looking below. If you look far enough, you'll be able to see a reverse order, intermittent series of posts that document my few days in Brisbane.

Brisbane River Citicat

The Citicat fleet is a bunch of fast catamarans which go up and down the Brisbane River, stopping at the numerous wharves and piers to service the riverside suburbs with a quick, pleasant and affordable mode of public transport. My $2.50 ticket got me almost to the sea, and would have got me back to the city had I wanted it within an hour.

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This is a photo of the arse-end of a citicat as it pulls away from one of two (?) piers that service the Uni/Parliament peninsula caught in a great looping bend of the river.

Brisbane Riverside views

After the Citicat has cruised around the bend in the Brisbane River that surrounds QUT and Parliament with its banks of mangrove and cliff, you start getting some amazing city views.

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Here's the city looming over the mangroves...

As you can see, lots of pleasure craft...

Brisbane Big Bridge

This huge bridge spans the Brisbane River just a little to the seaside of the city centre. It is visible from a long way away and, ironically, conveys its size much more from further away rather than close up.

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Brisbane River Views

The following two views are from the farside of what I call the Kingston Bridge (see above). In the first, you can see the bridge to the right, as the Citicat powers away down the river.\

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This view is from significantly further downstream, getting closer to Bulima and Thomsons Ferry. It would be pretty spectacular at night I imagine.

Brisbane Paddle Steamer

The Brisbane River loops right around three sides of the city centre. On the sea side are moored a number of paddle boats, presently servicing the function/tourist trade. They were a welcome relief from the bustling modernity of the riverfrontage.

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Brisbane River Tugboat

The Brisbane River is used for heavy commercial traffic right into the city centre. There's a fleet of tugs that service it. Here's one heading out towards the sea, tending one of the large 'Oil Bunker' ships that lay in wait along the river for the big cargo vessels.

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Bulima Ferry

The Brisbane River divides the city. Besides a few large bridges and the citicat, another way to cross is on one of a number of ferries that have regular crossings at various points. This one is Bulima Ferry, getting close to the sea. Your two hour public transport ticket will get you on it.

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Bulima suburbia

Bulima is the second last Citicat stop (before Thomson's Ferry) on the Brisbane River's way to the sea. I got off for a bit of a stroll before going on to the terminus and, ultimately, by taxi to the airport. This is a fairly typical house for the area.

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This is the streetscape. The taxi driver reckoned that each block + house here goes for closer to two million dollars than one. I find that ridiculous, but that's what happens when you have a city growing at over a thousand people a week. You could by four of our old California Street homes in Adelaide for that price, a quarter of the distance to the respective city centre. I know which I'd prefer.

Brisbane Sky

I got a few strange looks taking these photos of the Queensland sky on a busy Saturday morning in the city. But you don't see anything like this in Adelaide!

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Admittedly I've mucked around a bit on the processing, but I think it's pretty spectacular!

Brisbane Railway Station

This view of Brisbane Railway Station istaken from across the tracks to the main entrance, as one enters Roma Parklands from the 'main' (car park) entrance.

Waterfall Background

I nearly discarded this photo of a waterfall as you leave the flower section of Brisbane's Roma Parklands because it is a bit blurry. But, it's a beautiful view, and actually makes a great desktop background.

Brisbane - Flower Girl

Again, from Roma Street Parkland.

Brisbane - Tiger Lillies

These two photos from Brisbane's Roma Parklands are macros of, I think, Tiger Lillies. The first is a nicer flower, but in the shade.

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This photo is better lit, but is a little more raggedy as a flower...

These three photos are also from Roma Parklands in Brisbane. This was an attempt to take a macro photo in a patch of overexposed poinsettias.

... Although not a great photo, I like the Kangaroo Tail type plants in the foreground...

These interleaved poles and Figs form a colonade in the centre of the parklands...

Brisbane - Street Sculpture

Just down the road from the corner restaraunt of the Carlton Crest was this sculpted vignette of an earlier time. They are cast in aluminium, and are one of the few survivors of the Brisbane Expo back in the eighties. They presently stand in front of the Department of Primary Industry building.

... Detail ...

Brisbane - Carlton Crest

Those of you who have been blogging me awhile will know that I went to Brisbane earlier this year and took a few photos. I have the feeling that I'll be posting a few more of them in the near future.

This is the Carlton Crest Hotel, where the Conference I attended was held. On the Thursday night we had tea in the restaraunt in the shaded corner to bottom left. This isn't a great photo, but gives you an idea of the cosmopolitan overpriced surroundings in which conferences are held the world over for the intelligentsia to congratulate themselves. Just kidding, I met lots of nice people.

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California Street Dawn

This was the view from our backyard at dawn, 28 July.

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Almost the same view, except the following picture is the result of 'stitching' together two photos, taken at roughly double the zoom of the first picture (which was between '1' and '2').

It was quite a light show!

For more backyard dawn photos, click here for a foggy view of the central tree in the above photo, here for the neighbor's jacaranda, and here for a rainbow on the morning after the Socceroo's worldcup loss to Italy. Click here and here for some shots from Gawler. Compare these with the most 'dawny' view I managed to snap at Brisbane in May by clicking here.

Galahs and Grass Parrots

When I took this photo I thought I'd caught two galahs (the pink and grey birds) and two grass parrots. When I looked closer, I realised that I'd caught two pairs of grass parrots. I knew galahs paired for life, it appears that grass parrots also do this. Since I took this photo, every bright male grass parrot I've seen has been accompanied by his (usually almost invisible) mate.

... I took this on a Sunday morning, near 'Luther Square' in Gawler.

Gawler - Luther Square

On a recent weekend visit to the nearby town of Gawler, I went for walk one morning through the Old quarter. Burried away is a square surrounded by old buildings, one of which is the Lutheran church you can see at the end of this street approaching what I called Luther Square.

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Old Gawler Home

This is a fairly classic look house in 'old gawler', near 'Luther Square'.

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Backyard Swing

Just across the road from the above cottage was a magnificently purple swing, just waiting for some young child to come and make the most of it.

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Gawler - colonial architecture

Gawler used to be a railroad town. Both of the cottages in this post overlook the railway line on its way to Gawler Central station. This one is a fairly simple example of old colonial housing - solid and functional:

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This is a rear view of a cottage facing King Street. There's a stop sign just in front of it, and to its left is the bridge over the line as it pulls into Gawler Central. I like it because it shows some of the ideosyncratic design features that lie behind the stolid exteriors of most colonial architecture.

King Street, Gawler.

King Street starts (or, ends) at the stop sign just to the right as you go up the hill past the cottage by the Bridge near Gawler Central train station. Near the other end lies Eagle Foundry, where we spent a couple nights a fortnight ago. This is the view looking towards the railroad end of King Street, from the driveway into Eagle Foundry:

... The unusual road marking in the bottom right of the road was caused the night before the photo by a car which took out a roadsign (you can still see the 'stump') and then, having managed to impale itself, drive around the block grinding the roads down with the impaled pole.

King Street housing

Here's a pair of King Street Cottages up the railroad end, near the corner.

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This one had the classic 'Gawler' look:

King Street's most stately home.

Every street has one

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And, like many such, you find that ...

It's mainly in the detail ...

The iron lace is fairly intricate and well maintained:

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The place is surrounded by (composed of) ornate flourishes that keep the eye happy without overwhelming it. For example, these under roof pinnings:

Here's a view to help put the above two details in perspective...

Opposite Eagle Foundry ...

... lies this old home. It has a very comfortable aura, and a lived-in look. Pity it doesn't have the old iron fencework which features on most of the other King Street homes.

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Here's a detail of the entrance. Could be made to look imposing:

Cottage at the bottom of King Street ...

Gawler Books

Round the corner from King Street, over the river and next to the Willaston Post Office, lies Gawler Books - a most excellent discovery on a Sunday morning at 10! There is a good selection of good books, new and preloved, reasonably priced. What makes it special as a bookshop, however, is that the whole building is dedicated to being a shop, each room in the holding different collections in 6 1/2 foot bookcases.

Well worth dropping in for a visit if, like me, you like books or old buildings.

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The bookseller had a broadband modem which I took as a hopeful postmodern sign, considering the surroundings.