Great Australian Walks

The varied and spectacular terrain of Australia is a bushwalkers’ paradise. From the mountains to the Red Centre, from the coast to the forest, this issue features four popular walking tracks for hikers.

This maxicard set features:

(1) National Pass in the Greater Blue Mountains World Heritage Area of NSW.

The National Pass in the Greater Blue Mountains World Heritage Area of New South Wales is a six-kilometre long walk .  The Pass lies 100 kilometres from Sydney.  The trail was built with picks, shovels, crowbars and dynamite between 1906 and 1907 and was officially opened in 1908.

(2) The Cape to Cape Track in WA

The Cape to Cape Track runs for 135 kilometres along the Western Australia coast between Cape Naturaliste in the north and Cape Leeuwin in the south.  The entire walk is challenging, taking five to seven days; however there are easier sections that take from half a day to a day to walk.  The track was officially opened in 2001.

(3) The Larapinta Trail in the NT.

The Larapinta Trail in the Northern Territory follows the West MacDonnell Ranges for 223 kilometres between Alice Springs and Mount Sonder.  The walk includes sites sacred to the Arrernte people who have permitted tourists to visit.

(4) The Overland Track in TAS.

The Overland Track winds for 65 kilometres between Cradle Mountain and Lake St Clair in the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area.

Source: Stamp Bulletin July-August 2015 Australia Post

100 years of the management of lighthouses by the Commonwealth of Australia

Cape Byron Lighthouse

This set of 4 maxicards commemorates 100 years of the management of lighthouses by the Commonwealth of Australia. It was on 1 July 1915 that the Commonwealth accepted responsibility for all Australian landfall and coastal lights from the state governments. Today the Australian Maritime Safety Authority is responsible for 388 sites around the 59,735 kilometres of coastline.

The four lighthouses on the maxicards are:

(1) Cape Byron lighthouse (1901) is situated on the mainland’s most easterly point and is the most visited Australian lighthouse. Cape Byron is in the Australian state of New South Wales.



Cape Leeuwin Lighthouse



(2) Cape Leeuwin lighthouse (1896) is located on Australia’s most south-west point and is Western Austrlia’s tallest traditional lighthouse.

North Reef Lighthouse

(3) North Reef lighthouse (1878) was built on a reef in the Capricorn Group off the Queensland coast.  Over the years, sand has accumulated around the structure, forming a small island.



Tasman Island Lighthouse

(4) Australia’s most dramatic lighthouse location is Tasman Island, Tasmania. The cast-iron lighthouse (1906) was prefabricated in England and hauled piece-by-piece up the precipitous 250-metre-high cliffs before being assembled.

The Aurora Australis or Southern Lights

The Aurora Australis or Southern Lights are mesmerizing, dynamic displays of light that appear in the Antarctic skies in winter.  It is also possible to see the Southern Lights from Tasmania, Australia. These four postcards from Australia Post show the Southern Lights seen from various locations in Tasmania.

Southern Lights from Browns River, Kingston Beach, Tasmania

What is the Aurora Australis?

Aurora is the collective name given to the photons (light) emitted by atoms, molecules and ions that have been excited by energetic charged particles (principally electrons) travelling along magnetic field lines into the Earth’s upper atmosphere. Aurora results from the interaction of the solar wind with the Earth’s magnetic field.

Southern Lights from Goats Bluff, South Arm Peninsula, Tasmania

The amazing colour displays and formations are produced by the solar wind — a stream of electrons and protons coming from the sun — as it collides with gases in the upper atmosphere. These collisions produce electrical discharges which energise atoms of oxygen and nitrogen causing the release of various colours of light. Earth’s magnetic field channels these discharges toward the poles. Variations in sunspot activity or the occurrence of so-called ‘coronal holes’ can often considerably enhance the auroral discharge adding to the intensity and duration of the displays.

Southern Lights from Dru Point, Margate, Tasmania

What are the Colours of the Aurora?

Auroral displays appear in many colours with pale green and pink the most common. However, different shades of red, yellow, green, blue, and violet have all been observed. The brightest auroral colour is generally a green light emitted by excited oxygen atoms. A red diffuse glow results from another oxygen atom transition. A purple colour results from a transition in a Nitrogen molecular ion. The mixture of the major green, red and purple emissions may combine to give aurora a general ‘whitish’ appearance. The colour variations are a product of the altitude of the storm and the density and composition of the ions at that altitude. The folding effect results from the electric field induced on either side of the auroral curtain by the electrons.

Southern Lights from Coles Bay, Tasmania

Source: Antarctic Connections

AU- 403743 Sydney Opera House

The Sydney Opera House is a multi-venue performing arts centre in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. The facility is adjacent to the Sydney central business district and the Royal Botanic Gardens.  It opened (finally) in October 1973 and was designed by Danish architect Jørn Utzon.  A website had jokingly noted that “in the time it took to build the Opera House, the Vietnam war had come and gone, the Civil Rights Movement was over, and JFK had been assassinated. It took less time to put a man on the moon, than to build an opera house in Sydney.”

Though its name suggests a single venue, the Sydney Opera House comprises multiple performance venues which together are among the busiest performing arts centres in the world — hosting over 1,500 performances each year attended by some 1.2 million people.

The Sydney Opera House is an icon of Australia and is identified as one of the 20th century's most distinctive buildings and one of the most famous performing arts centres in the world. The website mentioned above said that it looks like “turtles humping” (lol)

This aerial view postcard came from Lindy (13 February 2015) Postcrossing.

The Ballads of “Banjo” Paterson

Andrew Barton "Banjo" Paterson (1864 – 1941) was an Australian bush poet, journalist and author. He wrote many ballads and poems about Australian life, focusing particularly on the rural and outback areas, including the district around Binalong, New South Wales, where he spent much of his childhood.

100 years after the words were penned, Australians still find pleasure in the verses.  A survey revealed this list of the top 10 most iconic "Banjo" Paterson ballads.

Australian Post in 2014 published a set of 4 maxicards depicting the ballads of “Banjo” Paterson.

1. Waltzing Matilda, 1903

To many, this is the unofficial Aussie anthem, but the intended meaning of this ballad that describes the suicide of an itinerant sheep-stealing swagman to avoid capture, is debated to this day. Some say it was a political comment on the violent shearers' strikes happening at the time, while a recent book ‘Waltzing Matilda: the true story’ argues it may have been about a love triangle happening in Paterson's life when he wrote it.

Whichever the case, according to the National Film and Sound Archive it has been recorded over 600 times in just about every possible musical style. In 1983 the late country-and-western singer Slim Dusty's rendition became the first song to be broadcast to Earth by astronauts.

Parts have been sung at six Olympic Games ceremonies dating back to 1956. The Seekers recorded it three times, and Slim played it at the closing ceremony of the Sydney 2000 Olympics. More recently, in 2008 world-famous Dutch violinist Andre Rieu played the tune to a singing Melbourne audience of more than 38,000 people.

2. Clancy of The Overflow, 1889

Published in 1889 in the Australian news magazine, The Bulletin, ‘Clancy of The Overflow’ is a story about a city-dweller who meets a drover and proceeds to romanticise his outback life. It's based on a letter Paterson received from Thomas Gerald Clancy which he replied to, only to receive the reply: "Clancy's gone to Queensland droving and we don't know where he are".

3. The man from Snowy River, 1890

Clancy would feature briefly in Paterson's poem, ‘The man from Snowy River’, which was published by The Bulletin the next year. It follows a mountainous horseback pursuit to recapture the colt of a prize-winning racehorse living with brumbies. One of the riders is depicted galloping across the current Australian $10 note next to a picture of Paterson.

4. The man from Ironbark, 1892

This poem tells of a man who reacts badly to a practical joke sprung on him by a Sydney barber.

5. Mulga Bill's bicycle, 1896

The tongue-in-cheek story of Mulga Bill, a man who claimed he was an excellent cyclist only to crash, was published by The Sydney Mail. Mulga Bill was based on a man of the name of William Henry Lewis, who knew Paterson around Bourke, NSW, and who had bought a bicycle because it was an easier form of transport than his horse in a time of drought.

6. The Story of Mongrel Grey, 1896

This tale tells of a rickety old horse that learned how to swim. During an inland flash flood, he saves his master's son. It was published in 1896 in the Australasian Pastoralists' Review (1913-1977) and also in Paterson's book Saltbush Bill, J.P. and Other Verses.

7. A bush christening, 1893

Banjo published this mischievous tale of a young lad who doesn't want to be christened and ends up being named after a whisky in The Bulletin in 1893.

8. In the droving days, 1891

This sentimental work about a drover selling his faithful horse and reminiscing about their days on the land still speaks to people as mechanised transport and the cost of maintaining stock routes sees the very last of the drovers disappearing.

9. The last parade, 1902

Paterson wrote this sad ballad about war-weary horses after working as a correspondent during the Boer War in South Africa. It appeared in Paterson's collection Rio Grande's Last Race and Other Verses after his return home.

10. The Geebung Polo Club, 1893

This ballad is a favourite for the comparison of the rough and ready Geebung Polo Club members and their wealthy city competitors 'The Cuff and Collar Team'.

A 2,700 million year old wave frozen in time

Wave Rock is located about 3 km (2 mi) east of the small town of Hyden in Western Australia and 296 km (184 mi) east-southeast of Perth, the capital of the state of Western Australia.  It is a natural rock formation that is shaped like a tall breaking ocean wave and is believed to be 2,700 million years old.

The "wave" is about 14 m (46 ft) high and around 110 m (360 ft) long. It forms the north side of a solitary hill, which is known as "Hyden Rock." This hill is a granite inselberg. The colours of the Wave are caused by the rain washing chemical deposits (carbonates and iron hydroxide) down the face, forming vertical stripes of greys reds and yellows.

Wave Rock is a spectacular example of what geomorphologists call a "flared slope". A flared slope is a concave-upward or -inward bedrock surface that is typically found around the base of inselbergs, bornhardts, and granitic boulders.

More than 140,000 tourists visit Wave Rock every year.

Personal note:  We were there some years back on our drive around the Wheatbelt of Western Australia.

The Ghan - Darwin to Adelaide, Australia

The Ghan offers an unsurpassed view of Australia - North to South or vice versa over three days through the very centre of Australia.  The train is named after the Afghan cameleers who once traversed this route.  A journey on The Ghan is one way to see the two jewels of Australia's Northern Territory – the Red Centre (see my postcard of Uluru) and the tropical Top End.

The Ghan takes 54 hours to travel the 2,979 kilometres from Darwin to Adelaide with a four-hour stopover in Alice Springs.

It is operated by Great Southern Rail and the train is formed of between 16 and 26 carriages.  Haulage is provided by a Pacific National NR class locomotive.

 

Uluru (Ayers Rock), Northern Territory, Australia

Uluru also known as Ayers Rock is a large sandstone rock formation in the southern part of the Northern Territory in central Australia. It lies 335 km south west of the nearest large town, Alice Springs, 450 km by road.

Uluru is sacred to the Anangu, the Aboriginal people of the area. The area around the formation is home to a plethora of springs, waterholes, rock caves, and ancient paintings. Uluru is one of Australia's most recognisable natural landmarks. The sandstone formation stands 348 m high, rising 863 m above sea level, with most of its bulk lying underground, and has a total circumference of 9.4 km.  Uluru is notable for appearing to change colour at different times of the day and year, most notably glowing red at dawn and sunset.

 

Uluru is an inselberg, literally "island mountain". An inselberg is a prominent isolated residual knob or hill that rises abruptly from and is surrounded by extensive and relatively flat erosion lowlands in a hot, dry region. Uluru is also often referred to as a monolith, although this is a somewhat ambiguous term that is generally avoided by geologists.

The trams of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

The Melbourne tramway network is a major form of public transport in Melbourne.  As of June 2011, the network consisted of 250 km of track, 487 trams, 30 routes, and 1,763 tram stops.  It is the largest urban tramway network in the world.  Trams have operated continuously in Melbourne since 1884.

Beautiful clean strike of "Reservoir North" CDS

The trams of Melbourne are truly an icon of this city.  We enjoyed riding on them during our 2013 visit.  This postcard was sent by Bibiana.
  

The Black Swan - an icon of Western Australia

I like this postcard because the Black Swan is an icon of Western Australia.  The Black Swan is featured on the flag, and is both the state and bird emblem, of Western Australia. It also appears in the Coat of Arms and other iconography of the state's institutions.

The Black Swan (Cygnus atratus) is a large waterbird, a species of swan, which breeds mainly in the southeast and southwest regions of Australia. The species was hunted to extinction in New Zealand, but later reintroduced. Within Australia they are nomadic, with erratic migration patterns dependent upon climatic conditions. Black Swans are large birds with mostly black plumage and red bills. They are monogamous breeders that share incubation duties and cygnet rearing between the sexes. Black Swans can be found singly, or in loose companies numbering into the hundreds or even thousands.