Christine, Wondering

Random Musings of a Human Becoming

Monday, June 4, 2007

Some Photos

This afternoon I went for a bit of a nature ramble around the half-bush village-suburb I live in (it was once a village in the bush outside Perth, now it's been somewhat suburbanised in the centre but it's still scruffy around the edges and it's still cut off from the neighbouring also-former-village-suburbs by tracts of bush).

The spot I went to is one that I visited many times as a child with my family. It's only a short distance on the map from the house where I grew up, but it's separated from that street by a steep gravel track that drops a significant distance (at a guess, 100m) down to the valley floor. The valley contains a winter creek (not running yet, we haven't had enough rain), an old granite quarry, and the remains of a tiny gravel-crushing plant (mostly just concrete and bits of old iron, and a small old reservoir and associated water channel). It’s a beautiful spot, rarely interfered with and with a sweet rustic charm to the interferences (half-rotted fence-posts etc) that are there.


Here's some photos for your enjoyment . . .


The upper paddock of someone's hobby farm, at the end of the road which becomes the track through the valley. You can't see my parents' house, but it's on the crest of the hill in the background. Behind where I was standing is the gravel track leading up to the home of my childhood.


A typical excerpt of the Perth Hills bush landscape: jarrah and marri trees, "blackboys" (aka the politically correct 'grass trees' . . . xanthorrhoea preissi anyway!) and various scrub and undergrowth plants. The track is the underlying red gravel, known technically as laterite pebbles, but coloquially as “rolly-stones” (they roll under your feet, you see). The white bits are chunks of natural quartz.


There aren't many wildflowers around at this time of year (ie the first days of winter) but you can always rely on Hibbertias for that glint of gold, no matter what season it is. The tree trunks around it are fire-blackened; bushfires are a regular occurence in the area. 


A hillside further up the creek - note (if you can see them) the massive granite boulders just emerging from the surface of the hillside. The hills are composed of granite and laterite, and they're high in iron - you can't rely on a compass up here!


I was rather pleased with this picture, artistically speaking, although the dead tree itself is a bit sad as it wasn't all that old when it died.


Here is the same tree reflected in the rainwater that has collected in the old gravel plant reservoir. My brother and I used to bring toy boats with us on walks and sail them here, wading in as far as we could in gumboots (usually when it was fuller!). We called it the "billabong", although it really isn't one. 



Here, also, is a little video (1 minute long) I took while standing next to the "billabong". There isn't much sound - just the roaring of the wind (it was windy) and the sound of small rocks being moved by my feet. But it does give you the 360° bush experience!

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