In the Blue Mountains west of Sydney last weekend: at the Three Sisters, panorama. At Echo Point: panorama. At Narrow Neck: panorama.
Three Sisters, Katoomba
February 23rd, 2012New Years Eve 2011
January 10th, 2012
Berrara Beach
December 17th, 2011
I was on the South Coast last week, at Berrara — about 150km south of Sydney. The beach at sunset … panorama.
Sculpture by the Sea 2011
November 12th, 2011
Springtime
October 31st, 2011
Occupy Sydney protest - Martin Place
October 23rd, 2011
Carbon tax protest
October 7th, 2011
A Tea Party style protest outside the Prime Minister’s Kirribilli residence in Sydney today. The carbon tax bill starts going through Parliament next week. Panorama.
Sydney’s newest skyscraper
September 17th, 2011
Vivid Festival 2011 — Opera House projections
June 4th, 2011
The Vivid Festival this year is confined to Sydney Cove rather than being spread through the city and this seems to have created much more of a festival buzz. There were sizable crowds looking at the projections and installations when we finally had some nice weather on Friday night. Panorama.
Mardi Gras 2011
March 5th, 2011
A very green restaurant …
February 16th, 2011
This temporary eco-restaurant (Greenhouse by Joost) has materialized in a prime spot in Sydney Cove near the bridge. Panorama. The exterior is covered with pot plants — culinary herbs of some sort — giving the structure a somewhat strange leafy texture. Panorama. The wharf nearby is Campbells Wharf, and the old sandstone buildings nearby are Campbells Stores. Here is an early (1842) view of the locale.
The revolt in Egypt — Sydney protest
January 29th, 2011
Brisbane floods
January 13th, 2011
Brisbane has had massive floods this week. This is the main street of the South Bank, an entertainment precinct just across the river from the CBD. Panorama. Another panorama from a little further down this street. And some of the flooding by the riverside freeways on the other side of the river. Panorama. (Brisbane, like Sydney, likes to build giant freeways between its citizens and its scenic assets). Here, near the Suncorp stadium, the police are telling off some youths for paddling in the flood waters. Panorama. A canoeist visiting a sodden McDonalds. Panorama. And a view of the river itself, in full spate, just a few hours after the flood peak. Panorama.
Mirazozo — walkthrough rainbows.
January 8th, 2011
NYE2010
January 2nd, 2011
Protest for Julian Assange/Wikileaks
December 10th, 2010
In the city yesterday, outside the Town Hall, a sizable crowd demonstrated in favour of Wikileaks and its founder, Australian Julian Assange. Panorama. The Government has condemned Assange and seems anxious that he ends up in the hands of the US as soon as possible – but in polls most Australians are opposed to this and want him to be given consular support.
Flooding at Wagga
December 7th, 2010
Much of inland NSW has been inundated the last couple of weeks (after many years of drought). Here are some emergency workers being driven from Wagga CBD (300km SW of Sydney} to the evacuated suburb of North Wagga . Panorama. The centre of town is unaffected as yet - being protected by a very high levee. Panorama.
Emergency drill on a monster ship
November 28th, 2010
If a cruise ship is too large to go under the Harbour Bridge to berth in Darling Harbour they tie up here in Sydney Cove, dwarfing the entire neighbourhood. A surreal scene here on the weekend I thought with the passengers assembled, obediently still and in silence, waiting for the Captain’s orders, in the compulsory emergency drill before their departure later in the evening. Panorama.
Thrill seekers on the AMP Building
October 24th, 2010
These abseilers were being sponsored for their derring-do for some homeless youth charity. The statue “Amicus Certus” (reliable pal) is by wellknown Australian sculptor Tom Bass for the AMP insurance company - whose building this is. The statue features a beneficent goddess figure (Tycho, maybe, the goddess of good luck — see) with a youth and mother and child - representing Australia. The lucky trio have a cornucopia doing its thing between them. Normally there would be a sheep or two as well but no doubt there were design constraints. Maybe the subtle sculptor has engineered the sheep-like shadows you see beneath the assemblage. Panorama.
Across the road in the Customs House forecourt there was this cylindrical structure made of recycled cardboard tubes (for an architectural festival). Green is the new black. The three-wheeled scooter the guy is on was one of Time Magazine’s “coolest inventions of 2002.” Panorama.
Melbourne scenes ..
October 17th, 2010
I was in Melbourne on the weekend and here are a couple of scenes — first, in one its famous laneways in the CBD. Panorama. Note the authentic-looking ambience of old paving stones, layered posters and graffiti - and unrenovated buildings. Melbourne’s notoriously changeable weather has left some of the crowd in heavy coats and there are others in shirtsleeves. They are watching an impromptu performance by a sort of “flash mob” art group.
Just across the river a little earlier there was this scene near the Shrine of Remembrance. Panorama. They love their war memorials in Melbourne! In the panorama they have just unveiled a plaque commemorating some aspect of Australia’s involvement in the Boer War (1899-1902). Most of the trees you see in the panorama are memorials - with plaques beneath them. The fountain is a memorial. The statue is a memorial. And, up the hill in the park but just out of sight, is the Shrine of Remembrance itself, a gigantic bunker-like structure usually thronging with tour groups.
Queen Victoria - dressed up statues
October 5th, 2010
Queen Victoria statue QVB George St Sydney
Statues in the CBD are dressed up at the moment (for an art project). Here panorama is Queen Victoria (with buskers in the foreground) in George St on the weekend. This statue, ex Dublin, was a gift of the Irish people to the people of Sydney. It has had a checkered past but it works I think as an excellent landmark and looks good except for the vaguely postmodern looking plinth. Plinths are flavour of the month.
Biennale party — 2010
May 20th, 2010
This year’s Biennale Artists and Supporters Party at Cockatoo Island — panorama — featured a large installation of “exploding” cars hanging from the roof — by famous Chinese artist Cao Gu0-Quiang.
Stephen Wiltshire in Sydney
April 28th, 2010
Stephen Wiltshire is an autistic savant artist with phenomenal drawing/memory skills … he is in Sydney at the moment … panorama.
New Year’s Eve 2009
January 1st, 2010
Harbour Bridge picnic
October 25th, 2009
On the “Steve Irwin” (Whale Wars) in Sydney Cove
October 6th, 2009
One of the Sea Shepherds’ fleet — the “Steve Irwin” – is in Sydney at the moment as part of a short tour of Australian cities before they head towards Antarctica for another summer foray with the Japanese whaling fleet. On the bridge –panorama. In the galley — panorama. Here is a view on the bow — panorama. You can see last year’s actions on the ”Whale Wars” show.
Tatzu Nishi’s “rooms”
October 2nd, 2009
Japanese artist Tatzu Nishi turns civic monuments into weird interior features of temporary “rooms”. In Sydney currently he has created rooms over two large equestrian statues that stand outside the state Art Gallery — you can go up ramps to view the rooms. Here is one of the rooms — panorama, and here is the other — panorama. Here is what this latter statue looks like normally.
Defqon 1 — “hardstyle” dance festival
September 20th, 2009
City to Surf 2009 marathon
August 9th, 2009
“World’s biggest running event” the official website says — about this mass run this morning from the city to Bondi Beach. You can see about a quarter perhaps of the 75,000 runners — waiting to start — in this panorama. The race starts quite early in the day and it is often chilly — whence the tops you can see discarded on the hedges in the panorama.
In the forest primeval — the Landslide
June 25th, 2009
In the Blue Mountains to the west of the city the townships keep to the central plateau and north and south there are enormous thickly forested valleys with sheer cliffs … panorama. Being a landscape of ancient tropical seabeds there are coal seams here and small scale mining went on until the 1930s. Mining is blamed for the landslide you see here — where a large hunk of cliff tumbled into the valley in the middle of the night in early 1932. For a year crowds gathered at a large crack in the cliff top hoping to see some action but in the end it fell unwatched.