Category Archives: Travel

Ku-ring-gai Chase

Third Saturday… a colleague and her husband took me to one of the national parks around Sydney: Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park.

We had a great day: lots of different wildflowers, great vistas, and last but not least, some examples of ancient rock engravings by the Guringai people.

Illawong Point

Our first stop was at Illawong Point where we had a spectacular view over the Coal and Candle Creek. This creek is a branch of the Cowan Creek, which again is a branch of the Hawkesbury River, which starts at Broken Bay, which we will see at our next stop.

Coal and Candle Creek at Illawong Point
  

As an aside: the word “creek” reminds me of the Dutch word “kreek”… used for streams that are a LOT smaller than the rather impressive waterway in the photo above.

Some Australian birds – not specific for the national park: I’ve seen them elsewhere in Sydney, but I just managed to take a picture of them here:

  • Australian Magpie
  • Australian Brush-Turkey

And true to Australian form – a magpie is lovingly called “maggie”…

West Head Lookout

Next stop: West Head Lookout. Great vistas of Broken Bay, which basically is the estuary of the Hawkesbury River. Supposedly the bay got its name from Captain Cook, who recorded “broken land” north of what is now Sydney Harbour. There is some controversy about where exactly he saw this land, but it could well be at what is now called Broken Bay. The island in the middle of the bay is named Lion Island since its form looks somewhat like a sphinx, or a lying lion – head on the right, tail on the left:

Lion Island, in the middle of the estuary of the Hawksbury River
  

Looking out towards the ocean provides a view of Barrenjoey Head with its lighthouse. This is Sydney’s northernmost point. On the right hand site of the photo a little bit of beach is just visible: Palm Beach.

Barrenjoey Head, with South Pacific Ocean in the background
  

And again – some wildlife. This time two (very different) plants:

  • Flower spikes of grass trees
  • Paper bark

These particular examples of the grass tree are only very small (in a later post I’ll show taller specimens), but the flower spikes are rather impressive nonetheless. The paper bark tree, or melaleuca quinquenervia to give it its formal name, is of the myrtle family. Its bark was used by the Aboriginals for all sorts of things, from wrapping food to providing shelter.

A walk through the bush

On a little walk through the national park we came across many great plants native to Australia. On first sight the bush seems rather brown, and not very interesting. But when taking a proper look there is a lot to discover. The following is only a selection of many photos that I took, but hopefully it gives an impression of the rich flora of the bush around Sydney…

  • Grey spider flower
  • Tea tree
  • Seemingly growing out of just sand…
  • “Scribbles” on eucalypt tree
  • Banksia flower
  • Grevillea speciosa (?)

Doesn’t it look as if the plants just grow out of sand…? And these scribbles on the tree: apparently these are used in certain children’s books as “secret messages”. It is only relatively recently (mid-30s of the last century) that it was found that the larvae of a very small moth created the scribbles.

And then this:

Footprint of a kangaroo
  

Indeed – a footprint of a kangaroo…☺ My closest encounter with this Australian native so far!

Ancient rock engravings

Ku-ring-gai Chase national park has some great examples of ancient rock engravings by the Aboriginal people that used to live around Sydney:

Entrance to the part of the park with rock engravings

The engravings are much larger than I somehow had expected… the photos below show only a part of them:

Not very much is known about the engravings. They are found at many places around Sydney, from the ocean to the Blue Mountains. As the English who arrived in Australia in the 18th century weren’t exactly interested in understanding the culture of the people who lived in the country already, and as many of the Aboriginal people died, not in the least from diseases that were almost certainly brought to them by the new settlers, the meaning of these engravings is not known. The engravings often show fish, humans (top figure), animals (bottom figure shows hopping wallabies), or mythical figures. Based on similar findings from other indigenous groups, it is thought that these sites were important for all sorts of ceremonies, such as to increase a food source, hence the depiction of animals.

What seems better known, is the way the engravings were made. Presumably an outline was made first, and then a series of holes were made along this outline with a pointy material, probably stone. This would be possible, as the rock around Sydney consists of a relatively soft sandstone. As a last step, the holes would be connected by groves resulting in the engravings still seen today. It is thought that the Aboriginal people would probably have retraced the engravings every so often to keep it visible. This practice is certainly done now by the National Park and local Aboriginal communities.

Waratah

On our way to lunch, we had an excited cry from the back seat to stop the car, as waratahs were sighted…

Waratah in the bush
  

The waratah is the floral emblem of New South Wales, the state of which Sydney is the capital. And a nice flower it is:

Waratah
  

Beaches

Finally – on our way back home, they took me past some of the northern beaches. Where we saw firstly a few more beautiful birds:

  • Wattlebird
  • Galahs

And then – beaches:

Long Reef beach (? I think…?)

Note in the photo above how there is also water “behind” the beach: this is a so-called “lagoon”. These lagoons near the coast are not very deep, have salt water and are often separated by a shallow bank of sand or something like that. This barrier can be easily broken, and a lagoon therefore can empty into the ocean and be re-filled at high tide.

Freshwater Beach
  

Just about visible in the photo above, is the rock pool at Freshwater Beach: at the top-middle of the photo. There are many rock pools in Sydney, offering swimming in ocean water without the risk on being taken away into the ocean by currents… or sharks…

And that was the end of a very interesting day!

Weekly Shop

Several people have asked me about whether there are any differences in shops (supermarkets etc) between Australia and “home” – whatever “home” means in this case: Netherlands, or UK. I’ve just done my weekly shop this morning, and this time I didn’t forget my phone (I forgot it last week, so couldn’t take any photos then), so here is an impression.

Supermarket

There are several supermarkets in Australia. Most well known probably are Coles and Woolworths… the latter being the supermarket I tend to go to. It is colloquially known as “Woolies”. That reminds me of a funny habit the Australian have… adding something like “y” or “o” at the end of a word… or so my Australian colleague tells me. The shop where (bottles of) wine, beer and spirits can be purchased, is known as a “bottle-o”; a “servo” is a service station or garage; a “barbie” is not a kind of doll, but a barbecue. And back to the supermarket: “lollies” are more than the sticky sugar lumps on a stick – basically all sweets are called by that name. Oh, and the colder variety: “ice blocks”… they are basically our ice lollies.

I must say that the supermarkets are generally rather international. There is even a section with Dutch food in the Woolies close to where I live:

Ok, it is not all Dutch, it is kind of a combination of all sorts of European foods – Dutch, but also German and English. However, I don’t think I would be able to find any of these in a supermarket in the UK…

And then the fruit and vegetable section – this is how it looks like in the supermarket:

Fruit & veg in Woolies
  

It is huge! And the variety…! But I tend to go to a different shop for my fruit and veggies… Also – there is a bakery…!

Fruit, Vegetables and Bread

How about this variety of fruit and vegetables… I don’t cook here, but if I did, there would be plenty to choose from:

What an explosion of colourful health! Loving it… And how about this for a little bakery?

My local bakery
  

Their bread is lovely. And very nice treats as well… cakes, including some sort of “krentenbrood” (would really like to try that one day – looks very yummy).

Right – that’s it for now: if I stop now, that’s two posts on one day… So: an impression of where I do my food shopping in Sydney. And you know what – if I really have to choose one single thing to take back to the UK with me, that would be that great fruit & veg shop!

University of Sydney

On Friday in my third week a colleague and I went to a talk at the University of Sydney. This was where I had my first experience of anything to do with the original inhabitants of Australia – Aboriginals and Torres Straight Islanders. On the way back, my colleague drove me to a few nice spots in Sydney with views of… uhm… well, let’s say: Sydney…

University of Sydney

A talk, related to work, brought me to the University of Sydney:

Coat of arms of University of Sydney
  

Founded in 1850, it is the first university of Australia. One of the people who were material to its foundation – William Wentworth – studied at Cambridge University… is that where the idea for the buildings came from? The sandstone buildings look very familiar to me:

Main Quadrangle of University of Sydney
  

And indeed – it is also known as “Oxbridge”… ☺

Sadly, the jacaranda tree that used to be in the Main Quadrangle has died. But full in bloom were the azaleas and clivias, no, not in Mum’s “vensterbank”, but in the borders, outside:

Lovely display of azaleas and clivias at the University of Sydney
  

Then it was time to go in for the talk. I won’t bore you with the contents of the talk (which I enjoyed very much, don’t get me wrong), but there was something that caught my attention.

Acknowledgement of Country

Before the invited professor began his presentation, he was introduced and welcomed. Nothing new here – I had witnessed that many a time. But part of the general welcome was along the following lines:

Before we begin the proceedings, I would like to acknowledge and pay respect to the traditional owners of the land on which we meet; the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation. It is upon their ancestral lands that the University of Sydney is built.

As we share our own knowledge, teaching, learning and research practices within this university may we also pay respect to the knowledge embedded forever within the Aboriginal Custodianship of Country.

Acknowledgement of Country by University of Sydney

Perhaps naive of me, but I had never heard of such a thing before… This was nothing to do with the invited professor – he was from a different country altogether. Initially I thought that a group of “Gadigal people of the Eora Nation” had been invited as well, or something like that. But a bit of googling told me that this is “an opportunity to acknowledge, and pay respect, to the Traditional Owners and ongoing custodians of the land – the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people“.

Before the Europeans arrived in Australia to settle there, it was inhabited by the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. They were organised in many different tribes, or clans, each living in a particular area. Whilst the boundaries were not officially set, visitors from other tribes had to ask permission and needed to be “welcomed to the land” by the tribe living in the “country” he/she visited. This ceremony included an elder of the visited tribe asking the spirits of their ancestors and spirits of the land to watch over them and keep the visitors safe… An example is on the Wikipedia page about “Welcome to Country”.

Relatively recently this custom has been widely taken over in Australia, mainly in an attempt to improve relationships between the Aboriginals and Torres Strait Islanders on the one hand, and the “new” Australians on the other. This has resulted in many formal events – including the ceremonial opening of the parliament of Australia – beginning with a “welcome to the country” by an elder of the local tribe that used to live at the place the meeting is held. If no local “elder” is available, as was the case at the meeting that I attended, an “acknowledgement of country” is done. There are different views of this now country wide performed custom – as an outsider to Australia I don’t feel equipped to discuss this matter properly, so take a look for yourself: there is a lot of information on the internet. The only thing I will add as a Christian, is that I’m sad to see that what is / used to be part of a Christian nation has no issues with “asking the spirits of ancestors and of the land to keep people safe”…

Viewing Sydney From The North Shore

After the talk, my colleague drove me to a couple of places on the north shore in Sydney. To begin with, Milsons Point, which gave a great view on the Sydney Harbour Bridge and the Opera House (warning: there are many more photos to follow of both landmarks in further posts to come…).

View on Sydney Harbour Bridge and Sydney Opera House from Milsons Point
  

We then drove a little further along the north shore towards the west, where we had another great viewpoint of Sydney, yes, again the Harbour Bridge and Opera House, as well as central Sydney on the right hand site of the photo.

View on Sydney from north shore
  

So far Friday. I have been considering if I would add Saturday to this post as well, as I went out with the same colleague and her husband. However, it is probably better to keep it to “a day at a time” – otherwise the posts may become rather long.

Sydney – Week Two

After the rainy and cold first week – I needed my umbrella and an extra blanket on bed: Australian houses are not insulated – the sun came out during the second week. On Saturday it was even warm: about 30° Celsius. A good day for further sightseeing in Sydney and going out onto the Pacific Ocean to see the whales…

More Historic Sydney

The first spot I visited this time was Sydney Town Hall. Apparently, the steps in front of the building are a famous meeting place… but when I was there, either everyone must have found each other already and got on with their day, or I managed to scare (nearly) all people away: the steps were almost empty…

Sydney Town Hall
  

It was opened in 1869. Apparently, the original architect, as well as several of his successors, died during the time that the Town Hall was built. Some people say that this is the reason why it turned out to be such a nice building: every next architect wanted to do an even better job than the previous.

As I didn’t have much time to loiter – after all, I wanted to go and see the whales in the afternoon – therefore, I behaved like a proper tourist: took my picture, didn’t look any further, and quickly moved on to the next building:

St Andrew’s Cathedral, Sydney
  

This is Sydney’s oldest cathedral. Its design was inspired by York Minster in England. According to my guide book, there are “memorials to Sydney pioneers, a 1539 Bible and beads made from olive seeds, collected in the Holy Land” inside… Sadly, the cathedral wasn’t open to visitors, as I would have been interested to take a look.

Next stop was Hyde Park. Indeed – many names in Australia in general, and in Sydney in particular are the same as in the UK. As is Hyde Park: named after its London equivalent by Governor Macquarie. Initially, the park served as exercise field for the garrison troops, but there is only a rather small park left of this. At the far south side of the park is the Anzac Memorial, which commemorates Australians who have died for their country:

Anzac Monument, Hyde Park, Sydney
  

At the far north side of the park, I found myself face to face with the following gentleman:

Major General Lachlan Macquarie, governor of Sydney 1810-1821
  

Well… face to face… he was towering over everyone. It was only the first statue that I saw of him – several others would follow… He clearly was a man who is remembered for having made a significant impact on modern-day Sydney.

From Hyde Park I continued my way along Macquarie Street. The street was originally a ceremonial thoroughfare from the harbour to Hyde Park. It has some of the oldest and finest buildings of Sydney. Firstly, the Barracks. Built during the time of governor Macquarie (yes, him again…) to house the convicts. Before that time, so between 1788 when the first fleet landed, and 1819 when the Barracks were finished, the convicts had to find their own lodgings – without much material, and whilst still having to work for their food, so these years must have been rather grim.

Barracks, Macquarie Street, Sydney
  

Another very nice building along Macquarie Street, is the Mint:

The Mint, Sydney
  

The Mint was established in the mid 19th century to turn the newly found gold in Australia into currency. It was the first branch of the Royal Mint to be opened outside of London.

The last part of the historical tour of Sydney for this day is just a flag. Planted at the “location at which the first ceremony of saluting the flag by captain Arthur Phillip R.N. and his company took place to mark the foundation of Australia on 26th January, 1788″, according to the plaque at the bottom of the flag mast:

Flag, marking the spot where the first settlers landed on Sydney’s shore
  

So far my historical tour of Sydney – next time I’ll write more about a very different part of Australian history: the people who lived there before the Europeans arrived…

Botanic Garden

The plan was to then walk through the Botanic Garden to Sydney Opera House, and then back to Circular Quay. But as time was moving on and I needed to be at Circular Quay on time to catch the whale watching boat (not to mention the fact that I really was looking forward to some lunch and a bottle of water – had I mentioned yet that it was warm that day?), I only managed to get as far as the outskirts of the Botanic Garden. That was already promising, so will certainly need to go back:

Recognise some plants? Yes, back home, Mum has them in the window sill: clivias, cyclamens… Here they grow outside.

Whale Watching

Finally then, whale watching… On the way out to the ocean I got this promised picture of Sydney Opera House and Sydney Harbour Bridge in nice weather.

Sydney Opera House & Sydney Harbour Bridge
  

Once out on the ocean, the whale watching was fabulous! We saw quite a few whales – sometimes even 2 at a time:

Two whales, playing around the boat
  

Every time the whales went back to swim under water for a bit, it was a game of “spot the whale” (the light green-ish spot in the top left photo), then the whale would get to the surface, open its blowhole and exhale air (top right). The whales would often be so close, that we could hear this explosive exhaling very clearly! Diving under again, the back (middle photos) and finally the tail (bottom left) would come out of the water:

A fantastic experience! Very majestic animals… creation is impressive!

And God created great whales, and every living creature that moveth, which the waters brought forth abundantly, after their kind, and every winged fowl after his kind: and God saw that it was good.

Gen 1:21 (KJV)

Next time (or perhaps the one after next…) I’ll also have much more on the fantastic flora and fauna of Australia!

Sydney – Some Random Other Things

Continuing from my previous post, here are some random other things that I thought I’d share…

Starting With “Food”

Well… food… ok: more like treats, snacks, sweets, chocolate. Meals have been rather normal: porridge with banana for breakfast, main meal at work (they do good food for not much money at the canteen!) and some light and easy-to-prepare food for dinner (read: salad-out-of-a-bag). This worked best for me, as I have several meetings in the (early) evenings with colleagues back in the UK, and even in the US. One thing about porridge: what are called “porridge oats” in the UK, are called “quick oats” here. “Rolled oats” – which I thought was the correct ingredient – will take hours to cook and prepare. Any ideas what to do with the remaining 750 grams of them…?

Back to the chocolate… The first thing my colleagues got me, was a “caramello koala”.

Caramello Koala
  

Basically: chocolate with caramel in the centre in the shape of a koala… And very nice it is. People in UK will probably recognise the branding: yep, Cadbury (Cadbury Australia to be precise). And as far as I can taste, it’s the same chocolate. Apparently this is the so-called “giant” size, mainly used for fund raising, which is exactly why they were in the office.

And then the Tim Tam… Again, at work (no fund raising involved this time – just very nice colleagues):

Tim Tam’s – double coat version (and no – I didn’t eat all of them…)
  

And they are very nice indeed. Apparently, a very Ozzie thing to do, is a so-called “Tim Tam Slam“: basically, bite off two diagonally opposite corners of a Tim Tam, and suck a warm beverage through it. As soon as it becomes saturated with the liquid, “slam” it into your mouth. The trick is to wait just the right amount of time before “slamming” – it should be all nice and warm and sloppy, but shouldn’t fall apart into your drink. After some convincing, I got one of my colleagues to show it to me – shame I didn’t have a camera to hand to let you all enjoy the experience with me…

Pedestrian Crossing

Another thing that caught my attention, are the differences in Australian traffic signs from those in the Netherlands and UK – in particular the following one:

Australian sign for pedestrian crossing
  

What is going in here? Where is the rest of the body? Is this pedestrian crossing not meant for a complete human being?

Flora And Fauna

Last but not least… Australia’s flora and fauna: very different from “home”. Well known are the spiders and snakes, but apart from the spider that I showed in my previous post, I have no further tales to tell about these animals. The following birds are as common in Australia as sparrows and blackbirds in the Netherlands and the UK:

Indian Myna
  
Noisy Miner
  

One of the (many!) quirks of the English language: Miner and Myna are pronounced the same… makes sense, right? Or rather: could be expected. Imagine my confusion when a colleague, during lunch outside, pointed out: “Look – a Noisy Miner, and there is an Indian Myna as well!” I thought she was talking about miners – the people going into mines to distract some useful material – either being noisy or from India…

Right, back to the birds themselves. The Indian (or Common) Myna is an immigrant to Australian soil. By invitation… In the 1880s there was a locust plague in the cane fields in Queensland. The birds were introduced to combat the locusts… apparently that didn’t work out, and instead, the birds are now regarded as a pest themselves by many in Australia: aggressively fighting for nesting sites, thereby evicting native birds from their nests and eating from fruit from fruit trees so the harvest is spoiled…

The Noisy Miner, on the other hand, is native to Australia. Its name is rather applicable: it is very noisy indeed! And aggressive – in Sydney I saw two Noisy Miners attack a Yellow-Crested Cockatoo:

Two Noisy Miners attacking a Yellow-Crested Cockatoo
  

I mean, that Cockatoo was rather dramatic as well: flying to a lamp post to perch, it was putting up a massive show, nearly falling off (well, not really – just doing “as if”), making a lot of noise, much wing-flapping… But then the Noisy Miners turned up, and really viciously attacked the poor “clown”.

Then – take a look at the next bird:

Australian White Ibis
  

That looks rather exotic, right? When I got to the office the next working day, I was quickly told that this bird is commonly known as a “Bin Chicken”… guess that says it all. It is a bird native to Australia, but apparently, there were no Ibises in Sydney until Taronga Zoo started breeding them and let them roam free in the zoo… The birds seem to like Sydney, so there are now a lot of them about. And indeed, they love to turn over bins in search of food. But also, they rather aggressively hang around cafes and there are even stories that they run up to little children and snatch their food out of their hands.

Finally then – trees:

Gum (?) trees shedding their bark
  

I mean, I have seen trees back home where the bark has been eaten off by animals, but generally the bark above the reach of these animals would still be on the tree. Here it seems to be the other way around: no bark up high, just a little left around the “feet”. Apparently, these trees shed their bark regularly to keep healthy: with the bark, it also sheds parasites, fungi etc that may live on the bark.

As I’m writing this much later, I could probably add several other things to this category, but have decided to keep it somewhat in chronological order. Therefore:

THE END

Sydney – First Week

After 2 flights, totalling about 24 hours of travel, finally: arriving at Sydney’s Kingsford Smith airport. It felt like months ago that I left London Heathrow…

The first weekend I spent at my friends’ house. Where I saw my first spider… Very helpfully (and encouragingly?) I was told that it wasn’t that big. But surely: any spider I had seen so far was certainly smaller than that one! Judge for yourself:

My first spider in Australia…
 

The rest of the weekend was much better, I haste to add. My jetlag hasn’t been too severe, so could enjoy most of the church services. It is so nice to travel to the “ends of the earth” and meet fellow Christians, some of whom I knew already from when they lived in or visited the UK, but I also met many new friends.

House, Car, Phone…

On Monday I picked up my rental car, got myself an Ozzie SIM card and settled in my apartment where I would live in for the next 8 weeks. About that car… why are the wipers on the left handle (with which any normal car controls lights and signals), and the signals on the right one!? The number of times that I – completely unnecessarily – started wiping my windscreen instead of what I intended to do: communicate my intention to change direction to fellow road users…!

And people who know me well, know that I absolutely don’t like using a satnav. I must admit that I used it for the first few days to get to and from work and church, however, that didn’t last long (and I blame that short period of weakness on my jetlag…). Already on the third day to work I just forgot to put my destination into Google Maps before leaving. Upon realising, I decided I would just see how far I would get: and with having to turn around only once as I missed a left-turn, I got to the office. The route to church I’ve only done once with satnav – ever after I ignored it or didn’t even turn it on. So I’m happily back to my normal way of driving: look up beforehand where to go, and rather turn around once or twice than having to blindly follow a satnav and not knowing where I am…

First Visit To Sydney City Centre

My first visit to Sydney City Centre was on a cold, grey, drizzly Saturday, just over a week after I’d arrived. Actually, the weather had been like that for most of my first week – at least it made me feel very much at home: just like autumn in the UK or the Netherlands. The visit was rather short, partly because of the weather, but also because I needed to get myself an Opal card. For Londoners – that’s something like an Oyster card. The only trouble is that for some reason Opal cards are not usually sold at train stations…

So, once I had found out where to acquire this piece of plastic from, I travelled (in a nice, modern and comfortable train!) to the city centre to see the tourist hotspots:

Sydney Opera House
 
Sydney Harbour Bridge
 

Two important boxes ticked… although I may come back to take pictures in more Ozzie-like weather. I then walked round “The Rocks”: the place where the first British settlers – convicts and soldiers – step ashore in 1788, commemorated with a plaque near Circular Quay:

Plaque near Circular Quay, commemorating the arrival of the first British settlers in 1788
 

The initial buildings were made of very poor materials, and weren’t much more than huts. In heavy rain or wind they would collapse. The oldest building still standing is Cadman’s Cottage, built in 1816:

Cadman’s cottage, oldest surviving house in “The Rocks”, built in 1816
 

Sadly, many of the original buildings were demolished in the first half of the 20th century, and the main street, George Street, is now a large, very touristy, market. But after walking round somewhat further, there is still history to be found:

The Rocks, Sydney
 

Lachlan Macquarie, Sydney’s governor during 1810-1821, wanted to develop Sydney from a penal colony into a city, using the trading of wool and whaling and sealing to get wealth to the city. By the 1840s the convict transportation had stopped, and “The Rocks” became a fashionable area for merchants, of which the houses in the photo above are an example.

So far my impressions of the first week… there are a couple more things I wanted to share, but will do so another time.