James Denyer - Travel Gallery

Australia

1st September 2002 - 27th September 2002

Click on the thumbnail for the larger image. None of the images are larger than 640x480. Sorry :(

Sydney to Alice Springs
Having arrived in Sydney and sat around struggling with jet lag for the first time in my life, Julia and I decided we needed to jump on a tour bus and do something. Disappointingly, I managed to take no decent photos of Sydney in the five days that we were there. The images that follow kind of document our journey from Sydney to Alice Springs via Canberra, Melbourne and Adelaide. Looking back, I'm really narked that I only took this range of photos in 640x480 resolution. This is because I was concerned about using up my camera memory whilst being nowhere near an Internet cafe. Three years later, my mobile phone takes higher res images and has nearly as much memory! Oh, and it has video with sound.

	So, we jumped on the next Oz Experience bus out of Sydney. As I recall, the first stop was at this lookout over Wollongong, just south of Sydney. Marvellous.

	Murramarang National Park is at the most southern point of New South Wales. These were the first kangaroos we saw. We'd soon get sick of them, but at this stage they were a novelty. I guess the joeys were cute, though. Ahhh, look at this one everyone.

	The Aboriginal Tent Embassy in Canberra was first erected in 1972 following a federal ruling that rejected Aboriginal land rights. The site is on the lawn opposite the old Australian Parliament. It is still not recognised as an official embassy by the Australian Government. I still haven't made up my mind about the whole Aborigine situation in Australia. Unfortunately, whilst there are some positive Aboriginal community projects, most of my aboriginal experiences were negative, which possibly explains the stance taken by many white Australians.

	This giant fob watch was quite an attraction. On the hour, the interior of the watch would gradually lower whilst playing 'Waltzing Matilda' and putting on a clockwork display. Just behind this is the historic Shot Tower. It is a protected building, so when Melbourne Central Shopping Centre was built they simply built around it and created a huge glass dome over it. Shot towers were built to create lead shot. By releasing small drops of molten lead from the top into a cooling vat of water at the bottom they solidified into perfect spheres and were then sold as bullets.

	It's Neighbours Night at the Elephant & Wheelbarrow Pub in St Kilda, Melbourne and this is us with Lyn Scully. We were very, very drunk. Actually, we don't look as drunk as we really were. But you ask Lyn Scully's actress, she'll tell you that we were drunk.

	Ditto Karl Kennedy. Ditto Karl Kennedy's actor, ditto.

	You get the idea, though I reckon we'd had more sleep than him. He's Darcy Tyler by the way.

	The following day was Julia's birthday and what a treat it was! We joined a trip to 'Ramsey Street' the home of 'Neighbours'. It's actually a real cul-de-sac where Victorians (not the sort with top hats and sideburns from the 19th century, but people from the state of Victoria) live. They have a night security guard and earn some extra cash by allowing filming to take place in the street. No filming takes place inside these houses. Anyway, we caught a snippet of live action between Harold and Lou and some lady with white hair (I don't know, I don't really watch it any more). Harold, being a proper gentleman, popped to let us take photos with him between takes. Julia even got a birthday kiss. Hooray! Lou didn't even come over. Boooooo!

	More coming soon...