2012
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Alice Springs
Alice Springs
2012
Canberra Deep Space Communications Center
Along the road
Canberra DSC
The Canberra Deep Space Communication Complex is a satellite communication station forming part of the Deep Space Network of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. It is located at Tidbinbilla in the Australian Capital Territory. Opened in 1965, the complex was used for tracking the Apollo Lunar Module, and along with its two sister stations at Goldstone, California and Madrid, Spain is now used for tracking and communicating with NASA’s spacecraft, mailny concetrating on interplanetary and deep space missions. It’s antenna was used to provide a tv broadcat link for first lunar landing as it was the only one capable of providing proper vertical synchronisation. It is managed in Australia by the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO).
Tidbinbilla Reserve & Namagdi National Park
Tidbinbilla Nature Reserve is a 54.5 square kilometres protected area, on the fringe of Namadgi National Park. The nature reserve consists of a large valley floor where large herdsof kangaroos can be observed, the Tidbinbilla Mountain and the Gibraltar range. The sides of the valley are steep and relatively undisturbed. The lower slopes of the valley are partly cleared and have a significant history of Aboriginal and European use. Tidbinbilla Mountain is believed to have been used for Aboriginal initiation ceremonies. The word ‘Tidbinbilla’ is Aboriginal in origin and comes from the word Jedbinbilla – a place where boys become men.
2012
Mt Kosciuszko
Lake Hume
Constructed over a 17-year period between 1919 and 1936, the Hume Dam is located approximately 11 kilometres east of the city of Albury on Murray River. The impounded reservoir is called Lake Hume, formerly the Hume Reservoir. It is estimated to hold approximately six times the volume of water in Sydney Harbour. Lake Hume was the furthest upstream of the major reservoirs on the Murray River system, but Dartmouth Dam was built further up Mitta Mitta River to provide improved buffering across prolonged dry years. Hume has the capacity to release water at the fastest rate. Irrigation authorities used the reservoir as the storage of first resort. The reservoir typically falls to less than one-third capacity by March each year, but in normal years refills to at least two-thirds capacity before November, though Australia’s highly unpredictable climatic conditions cause these figures to vary quite significantly from year to year. In 2007 Lake Hume fell to 1% capacity, barely more than the water in the Murray and Mitta Mitta rivers flowing through on their original paths. Between 2010 and April 2013, the lowest storage level was in the range of 500,000 megalitres.
Mt Kosciuszko
Mount Kosciuszko is mainland Australia’s highest mountain, at 2,228 metres above sea level. It is located on the Main Range of the Snowy Mountains in Kosciuszko National Park, part of the Australian Alps National Parks and Reserves, in New South Wales, Australia, and is located west of Crackenback and close to Jindabyne.The mountain was named by the Polish explorer Paweł Strzelecki in 1840, in honour of Polish-Lithuanian freedom fighter General Tadeusz Kościuszko, because of its perceived resemblance to the Kościuszko Mound in Kraków.
An exploration party led by Strzelecki and James Macarthur beside him with Indigenous guides Charlie Tarra and Jackey set off on what is called Strzelecki’s Southern expedition. The approach was made from Geehi Valley. After climbing Hannel’s Spur, the peak now named Mount Townsend was reached. Here Strzelecki used his instruments to make observations. Mt Townsend is Australia’s second highest mountain, adjacent to and almost the same height as Mt Kosciuszko, and Strzlecki saw that the neighbouring peak was slightly higher. In the presence of Macarthur he named the higher summit Mount Kosciusko. As it was late, Macarthur decided to return to camp and Strzelecki alone climbed the Kosciuszko summit.
2012
Great Ocean Road – 12 Apostles and Cape Otway
Port Campbell National Park and Twelve Apostles
The Twelve Apostles is a collection of limestone stacks off the shore of Port Campbell National Park, by the Great Ocean Road in southern Australia. The stacked rocks were formed by erosion. The harsh and extreme weather conditions from the Southern Ocean gradually erode the soft limestone to form caves in the cliffs, which then become arches that eventually collapse, leaving rock stacks up to 50 m high. The stacks are susceptible to further erosion from waves. In July 2005, a 50-metre-tall stack collapsed, leaving only seven standing at the Twelve Apostles viewpoint.
The stacks were originally known as the Pinnacles, and the Sow and Pigs (or Sow and Piglets, with Muttonbird Island being the Sow and the smaller rock stacks being the Piglets), as well as the Twelve Apostles. The formation’s name was made official as the Twelve Apostles, despite only ever having had eight stacks.In 2002, the Port Campbell Professional Fishermens Association attempted to block the creation of the Twelve Apostles Marine National Park at the Twelve Apostles site.
Great Otway National Park
The Great Otway National Park is located in the Barwon South West region of souhern stare of Victoria in Australia. It preserves a diverse range of landscapes and vegetation types and is situated within the Otway Ranges. The park was declared in 2004 when Otway National Park, Angahook-Lorne State Park, Carlisle State Park, Melba Gully State Park, areas of the Otway State Forest and a number of Crown Land reserves were combined into one park.
2012
Melbourne – Ballarat
Melbourne and ACDC Lane
Melbourne is the capital and most-populous city of the Australian state of Victoria. Its usually refers to an urban agglomeration of 9,993 km2 comprising a metropolitan area with 31 municipalities. The city occupies much of the coastline of Port Phillip bay and spreads into the Hinterland towards the Dandenong and Macedon ranges, Mornington Peninsula and Yarra Valley. It has a population of 5 million. This region has been a home to Indigenous Australians for over 40,000 years, the Melbourne area served as a popular meeting place for local Kulin nation clans. A short-lived penal settlement was built at Port Phillip, then part of the British colony of New South Wales, in 1803, but it was not until 1835, with the arrival of free settlers from Van Diemen’s Land (modern-day Tasmania), that Melbourne was founded. It was incorporated as a Crown settlement in 1837, and named after the then British Prime Minister, William Lamb, 2nd Viscount Melbourne. In 1851, four years after Queen Victoria declared it a city, Melbourne became the capital of the new colony of Victoria. During the 1850s Victorian gold rush, the city entered a lengthy boom period that, by the late 1880s, had transformed it into one of the world’s largest and wealthiest metropolises.
Of note are couple of lanes, which display amazing number of grafitti – protected as art under municipal law. Most of that grafitti is located on AC/DC Lane is a laneway in the central business district. It is a short and narrow street running off Flinders Lane, between Exhibition Street and Russell Street. Formerly named Corporation Lane it was officially renamed on 1 October 2004 as a tribute to Australian rock band AC/DC the lane was . The renaming was permitted by a unanimous vote of the Melbourne City Council. Melbourne’s Lord Mayor John So launched AC/DC Lane with the words, “As the song says, there is a highway to hell, but this is a laneway to heaven. Let us rock.” Bagpipers then played “It’s a Long Way to the Top (If You Wanna Rock ‘n’ Roll).”
Sovereign Hill
Sovereign Hill is an open-air museum in Golden Point, a suburb of Ballarat, Victoria, Australia. Sovereign Hill depicts Ballarat’s first ten years after the discovery of gold there in 1851. The second-largest gold nugget in the world was found in Ballarat in the Red Hill Mine which is recreated in Sovereign Hill. The Welcome Nugget weighed 69 kg and comprised 99.2% pure gold, valued at about 10,596 pounds when found, and worth over US$3 million in gold now, or far more as a specimen.
The idea of Sovereign Hill was floated in Ballarat in the 1960s, as a way to preserve historic buildings and to recreate the gold diggings that made the city. The complex was officially opened to the public on 29 November 1970. Main street is a loose reconstruction of Main Street, Ballarat East which was once the settlement’s main street, consisting of timber buildings. It was consumed in a large fire during the 1860s and a more substantial town centre planned around Sturt and Lydiard Street in Ballarat West. It was officially opened on 29 November 1970 and has become a nationally acclaimed tourist attraction.
Set in the Australian 1850s, the complex is located on a 25-hectare site that is linked to the richest alluvial gold rush in the world. The site comprises over 60 historically recreated buildings, with costumed staff and volunteers, who are able to answer questions and will pose for photos. The recreation is completed with antiques, artwork, books and papers, machinery, livestock and animals, carriages, and devices all appropriate to the era.
2012
Melbourne
Queen’s or Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria in Melbourne
Melbourne Gardens was founded in 1846 when land was reserved on the slopes of south side of the Yarra River for a new botanic garden. It extends across 38 hectares planted with trees, garden beds, lakes and lawns. It displays almost 50,000 individual plants representing 8,500 different species, which are displayed in 30 living plant collections.
Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria is home to the State Botanical Collection, which is housed in the National Herbarium of Victoria. The collection, which includes 1.5 million preserved plants, algae and fungi, represents the largest herbarium collection in Australia and wider Oceania. It also includes Australia’s most comprehensive botanical library.
Within garden grounds stands Melbourne Observatory – a great reminder that ours is a visit to observe solar eclipse in few weeks.
Melbourne Observatory
Observatory was founded in 1862 to serve as a scientific research institution for the rapidly growing city of Melbourne. It was tasked by the Victorian government with maintaining an accurate time reference for the colony through observations of stars using a transit telescope. Shortly after founding a 48-inch (120 cm) telescope was installed at the observatory for astronomical research and for a while it was the largest fully steerable telescope in the world. This instrument was referred to as the “Great Melbourne Telescope”.
In 1874 the observatory took part in the worldwide effort to observe the Transit of Venus in order to better determine the distance of Earth to the Sun.
Halloween at Federation Square
Later that day we stumble upon crowds celebrating Halloween at Federation Square.
