No post last week(s), as I’ve been rather busy with work and planning the next holidays… So let’s continue where we left off: bank holiday weekend. On Saturday I visited the Australia Museum and the botanic gardens, including Mrs Macquarie’s Chair. And on Monday I went to Manly… A lot to cover in this post!

Australia Museum

This was the last day the train was running from “my” station before it was closed for updates to the railway system, and all trains were replaced by busses… would take several months, so here is a historic photo:

I first went to see some of the exhibits at the Australia Museum.

They had many Australian animals – all stuffed, though, so wait for pictures of the live versions. What I mainly came to see, was the exhibit on the aboriginal people of Australia:

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Impressive… the number of different tribal/language groups in Australia before the Europeans came and took over a lot of the land, and basically killed a lot of them.

Different from how I thought all canoes are made (well, except the modern ones, obviously), these are made from the bark of trees that has been bent and assembled to form a boat. Why did I always think they took the stem of a tree (or at least a part of it), hollowed it out, and there was the boat…? They even used these boats to get across the sea to trade with Indonesia!

Wisdom – handed down from Old Man (on top), to his son, to Old Man’s grandson (bottom)… But wisdom also grows through the stages of life: from boy to man to Old Man. A nice symbolic way to show the cycle of teaching.

And finally – the tutini. At the burial ceremony of certain tribes these grave posts were put around the grave. The design represents the live of the deceased, and the number of tutini signifies their status.

At the roof top restaurant I enjoyed a nice lunch (proper Aussie burger… with beetroot…), whilst enjoying some grand views of Sydney:

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Mrs Macquarie’s Chair

After lunch I went in search of Mrs Macquarie’s Chair – yes, she is the wife of the famous Major General Lachlan Macquarie, governor of Sydney 1810-1821. On the way there, I came past what is known in our family as a “trumpet plant”:

See the flowers? Don’t they look like trumpets? Granddad used to love them… he had many plants in the garden, but they were nowhere near as large as this tree!

And of course… Sydney Harbour Bridge and Sydney Opera House are never far away… A peek through on my way to Mrs Macquarie’s Chair:

And finally then – Mrs Macquarie’s Chair: doesn’t it look extremely comfortable…?

Governor Macquarie got his workmen to carve this seat out of the rocks for his wife Elizabeth. The road leading to this rock-seat is still called Mrs Macquarie Road, and was created purely for her entertainment. She is said to love sitting here and admire the view over the harbour. Of course, no harbour bridge was there yet, nor buildings like the opera house…

Botanic gardens

From Mrs. Macquarie’s Chair I walked back through the botanic gardens. As Sydney has nice weather basically year round, it is not difficult to imagine that the botanic gardens are beautiful! Here is an impression of the many plants, trees and flowers on display:

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Guess what number 2 is called? A “bottle brush” (or “tuitenrager” for the Dutch readers) – and doesn’t it look like one indeed!? Lovely azaleas (number 7), and look – there are white clivias too (number 8)…

Number 9 is a Ficus Macrophylla, native to Lord Howe Island, a small island off the east coast of Australia. It is a very interesting tree in that it doesn’t just have one trunk, but many – easily 10 or more, each arisen from an areal root. In 1882, it was recorded that one of the oldest trees on the island covered an area as large as 1 hectare!

Then number 11 – a Wollemi pine. Apparently as rare as a dinosaur… Until 1994 only fossils of the plant were known, but then a bush walker found a stand of them in Wollemi National Park. There are now still only 3 stands of these plants known in the wild.

Earlier I mentioned a grass tree… number 13 is a much larger example. The grass basically grows out of the top of a small stem. And finally – number 14 is a bush of bamboo. There was a fair bit of wind that day, and all that bamboo close to each other makes a lovely sound when it moves in the wind.

I really liked the cactus garden – many interesting varieties of cactuses (cacti…?):

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Over to some animals then:

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A Laughing Kookaburra (family of the Kingfishers) does indeed make a funny laughing sound.

They are quite common in Sydney: I heard them often around where I lived.

And what about some history… Again, governor Macquarie is behind all of this. He built a wall to separate the government domain from the town (left). And on the right the a bridge over the Macquarie Culvert: a drain to channel the water from the Botanic Waters Creek under the road.

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And what about these views of Sydney… Central Business District (left) and – you must have guessed already what’s on the right hand site… yep, Sydney Harbour Bridge and Sydney Opera House… again…

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And finally – the ferry back home… A nice way to end a nice day!

Bank Holiday Monday – Manly

On Monday a friend and I went to Manly.

Manly is reached by ferry from Circular Quay. At Circular Quay there are often street performers entertaining people. This time there were two (presumably) Aboriginal Australians playing the didgeridoo – a wind instrument developed by indigenous Australians:

It makes a very low, humming sound – I don’t find it particularly pleasant.

The boat ride to Manly, of course brings us via the Harbour Bridge and the Opera House, before arriving at Manly:

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We spent a nice and relaxing afternoon at Manly – fish and chips (although that was less relaxing, as the tourists kept feeding the sea gulls, which then rather aggressively snatched food out of our hands…) and ice cream… wading (pootjebaden for the Dutch readers) in the water along the beach:

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Thankfully, I don’t think these jellyfish were poisonous (also, this particular one was dead), but it is one of the hazards in Australia apparently… The photo on the right shows the rock pool at Manly. Apparently built in 1929 when bathing in salty sea water became fashionable – a rock pool provides for that without the issues of currents that could pull you out to the ocean and potentially harmful animals.

So far the botanic gardens, Mrs Macquarie’s Chair and Manly… Next week: Featherdale – finally some Australian animals in real life, albeit in captivity…