Other South West Rocks Galleries
South West Rocks, NSW
Trial Bay Gaol, South West Rocks, NSW
This spectacular sunset was shot on a cold July evening in 2006 from the timber lookout at The Pass looking west over Byron Bay.
The air was thick with smoke from the annual sugar cane burns.
Surprisingly,only a few hardy backpackers braved the cold to take in the wonderful scene.
The colour became more intense as the sunset rolled on so the more spectacular photos are toward the middle of this album.
Windyridge is noted for its colour but it also has a beautifully conceived and landscaped rainforest grotto at the bottom of the property with a magnificently tranquil lagoon that provides wonderful opportunities for enthusiastic photographers interested in waterfalls and reflections.
MORE AUTUMN COLOUR GALLERIES.
Bebear Pond Reflections gallery.
OFICIAL WINDYRIDGE WEBSITE
Singapore Botanic Gardens
Click HERE to Download a high Resolution image of this map
This was one of the nights McNaughts Comet could be seen over Byron Bay.McNaughts is reported as being the brightest comet in 45 years,even brighter than Haleys Comet.Unfortunately I did not have the equipment necessary to photograph the comet but it was quite clearly visible with its long tail in the south western sky over Byron Bay.Unfortunately the lights from a local football field affected the clarity.We later had a different and slightly clearer view at the water Tower Hill above the north end of Tallow Beach.
Mainly images of Norfolk Island endemic plants taken in Norfolk Botanic Gardens and Norfolk National Park (Mt Pitt, Palm Glen, Captain Cook Lookout)
The gallery will also some images taken at various other places around the island, some of which are exotics.
For more detailed information see my Norfolk Island Plants Gallery on Flickr.
Note -Some photos in this set were taken during our independent exploration of the island and not on Rick's Tour.
Rick Kleiner of Rick's Personal Island Tours showed us around Norfolk Island on our 2nd afternoon, imparting a wealth of knowledge of the Islands fascinating geography, ecology and history.
We were fortunate to enjoy some time in Rick's company with some of the locals after the tour ended.
Meeting local people always adds significantly to any tourism experience and we enjoyed a number of such opportunities during our stay on Norfolk Island, including attending a local fund raising James Bond movie premiere. The movie was called Skyfall.
The Norfolk Island Lighterage Service operates both here at Cascade Pier and also at Kingston Pier, on the southern side of the island, depending on sea conditions and weather,
The Norfolk Guardian visits Norfolk Island roughly every 3 weeks and as there is no boat harbour on the island transfer of goods from ship to shore is done by use of lighter boats (ex whaling boats) which are then towed to the pier by powerful motor boats.
At times the transfer of goods from the cargo ship, the Norfolk Guardian, which is anchored just offshore, to the pier can indeed be a perilous process both in getting the goods via the lighters to the pier and also because unloading at the pier in heavy swells can be both unpredictable and depending on sea conditions, very hazardous.
Rough sea conditions can cause the lighter boat loads to become unbalanced and many a load has gone overboard, including large vehicles which may need to be transported by lashing 2 lighter boats together. Once the goods arrive at Cascade Pier a crane lifts them onto the pier for distribution around Norfolk Island.
Read more about how cargo is shifted by Lighters to shore on Norfolk Island HERE
A walk through Kingston Cemetery located at the back of Cemetery Beach gives one a strong sense of the the sometimes harsh and colourful history of Norfolk Island.
Originally settled by East Polynesians many hundreds of years previously, Norfolk Island was colonized by Great Britain within months of the First Fleet's arrival in Sydney Harbour in 1788.
The Island served as a convict penal settlement from 1788 until May 1855, except for an 11-year hiatus between 1814 and 1825, when it was abandoned.
In 1856 permanent civilian residence on the island began when it was settled by descendants of Fletcher Christian's Bounty Mutineers from Pitcairn Island.
Norfolk Island became an external territory of the Commonwealth of Australia in 1901 which it has remained until this day.
Harrington is a popular coastal holiday destination at the northern of the two entrances to the Manning River.
This former fishing village has with the recent development of urban subdivisions like Harrington Waters become a popular retirement location. With Taree approximately 15 minutes away and Port Macquarie less than 40 it is certain to grow rapidly.
Six kilometres down the road through the Crowdy Bay National Park is Crowdy Head, a fishing port with a lighthouse commanding panoramic views to Middle Brother Mountain in the west and up the coast to Dunbogan.
See more images of Crowdy Head - HERE
A spectacular endemic subspecies of Ficus Macrophylla(Morton Bay Fig) Columnaris grows to 20 metres tall and is found growing all over Lord Howe but particularply in the more sheltered lowland rainforest gullies to around 500 metres.Its massive spreading crown is supported by large root systems that hang from the extended branches and become new trunks giving support to the futher extension of the branch and of the canopy.
Rubyvale and Sapphire are rich Sapphire and Topaz mining areas in Central Queensland just west of Emerald.
We were able to go down a Sapphire mine and see how the Sapphires were located and mined.
In Sapphire we saw an interesting sculpture in front of what looked to be a private residence.
Miners are required to remove everything from the site if they vacate the lease area.
Tallwoods is a rural 18 hole residental golf course originally conceived in the early 1990's as a rural acreage subdivision located surrounding an 18 hole golf course.
With initial sales being slow in the 1990's it was realised that a different model was necessary and approval was given to break up the acreages into house blocks, with many more medium density blocks approved.
Gradually the village of Tallwoods has developed and is now a rapidly growing community with attractive residential blocks, many with panoramic views to Forster and Cape Hawke. Tallwoods is just a few kilometres from beautiful Black Head, Red Head and Diamond Beaches and with its first class class golf course and easy access to Forster Tuncurry and Taree, those who live there say its a great place to call home.
On the 18th January 2010 we had made our way from O'Reillys in the Brisbane Hinterland to Victoria Point on Brisbane's Moreton Bay where we were met by friends. After leaving our car on the street we were transported by dinghy to their yacht moored just off shore. The intention was to spend a few days on Morton Bay cruising down to the Gold Coast Broadwater.
After spending an enjoyable first night relaxing aboard the boat and visiting Coochiemudlo Island we headed south under sail with the aim of negotiating the narrow channel between Russell Island and Stradbroke Island. As we neared the channel the sails were hauled down and we started to motor along the narrow channel.
Not long into the channel and with a strong north easterly cross wind blowing the motor unexpectedly cut out and we quickly began drifting toward shallow water. A passing Queensland Marine Parks vessel refused to assist saying it was against their policy.
Frantic attempts to start the motor were unsuccessful and the Marine Parks officers recommended hoisting the sails with the objective of heeling the boat over enough in order to clear the mud flats and drift into a deeper channel on the other side.
Following this advice from the Marine Parks Officers the sails were hoisted with the boat heeling over immediately with the strong wind in the sails.
Unfortuately with the tide dropping faster than we had hoped we soon found ourselves grounded.
We spent an uncomfortable afternoon and night negotiating around the boat and trying to sleep at 60 degrees tilt as the boat rose and fell with the tide. Attempts to winch the yacht off on the midnight tide failed as did similar attempts on the high tide at mid-day the next day.
Fortunately a big cruiser responded to our call for assistance just as the tide started to drop and was able to drag us off to deeper water in the nick of time.
Certainly an eventful 2 days of considerable discomfort, stress, and not without great potential for serious injury. We can only be grateful we all managed to avoid any serious accidents in all the frantic tooing and froing of those two days.
The boat owners were 35 year sailing veterans with several long trips across the Pacific to the US and back under their belt. The circumstances of strong winds and a dropping tide together with the motor cutting out at a critical point made it impossible to avoid drifting onto the mudflats.