Odds and Ends
Australia’s Unappreciated Wonders
Wednesday, May 5th, 2010There’s a lot to like about Australia. One aspect which endears me to this land down under is the overlooked and understated nature of so many of its great wonders. You can stumble across features which are worthy of world acclaim, yet remain unknown to most of the world.
To illustrate what I mean, here is a quote from travel writer Bill Bryson. He is referring to the rare tingle and giant karri forests of Western Australia - the 3rd tallest species of trees in the world - and marvelling at how unknown they are:
It struck me in a moment’s idle thinking that this forest was quite an apt metaphor for Australia. It was to the arboreal world what Charles Kingsford Smith was to aviation or the Aborigines were to prehistory - unaccountably overlooked.
It seemed amazing to me, in any case, that there could exist in this one confined area some of the rarest and mightiest broad-leafed trees on earth, forming a forest of consummate and singular beauty, and hardly anyone outside Australia has even heard of them. But that is the thing about Australia, of course - that it is packed with unappreciated wonders.
- from Chapter 18 of “Down Under” by Bill Bryson (also published as “In a Sunburned Country”)
Indeed! Most of the world has been taught about the world’s tallest trees being the redwoods of California. But how many know that the 2nd and 3rd tallest tree types - almost as tall as the redwoods - are both found in Australia? Not even all Australians are aware of that.
Karri trees towering over my car (bottom right)
An advantage of having treasures which are little-known elsewhere is that we get to enjoy them in a more natural and intimate way. No fuss or fanfare, and mostly unspoiled by crowds - they are just there. The “forest of consummate and singular beauty” which so impressed Bill Bryson has some trees taller than most on the planet, but you won’t find them fenced off or signposted. They grow quietly and modestly, just as they’ve done for centuries, and to me that makes coming across them all the more enjoyable.
Bryson also mentions the Australian Aborigines as being unaccountably overlooked, and he has a point. When we think of ancient cultures, most people would think of the Incas, or the Greek, Roman or Egyptian empires, or perhaps even the Neanderthals. Not so many are aware that the oldest surviving culture on earth belongs to the Australian Aborigines.
Yes, our Indigenous people have been here for at least 50000, probably 60000 years - long before Europe or the Americas saw a human footprint. What’s more, their culture still exists today … a miracle of survival, really, but how many outside Australia know of them?
“Unaccountably overlooked” is an apt description. You can visit a well known tourist attraction like Wave Rock and be unaware that just down the road, but with a fraction of the visitors, lie rock paintings thousands of years old. They make the Aztecs look modern, yet most people don’t know they’re there.
You can wander around the Burrup Peninsula expecting only scenery, and find yourself surrounded by the largest collection of ancient rock carvings in the world. Then there is the spectacular Bungle Bungle range (Purnululu National Park), which remained somehow un-noticed by non-Aboriginals until as recently as 1983.
You just never know in Australia when you’re going to stumble across something noteworthy but surprisingly little known - the biggest, oldest, first, longest, wildest, or whatever. It makes travelling here a real journey of discovery. What you find is so often different from, and better than, what you were expecting. That’s one of the things I love about my home country.
Reference:
In a Sunburned Country
(also published under the title “Down Under”)
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Reasons to Avoid January Travel In Australia
Wednesday, March 17th, 2010If you’re thinking of visiting Australia from the northern hemisphere, it might be tempting to visit in January - swapping the cold dark northern winter for the warmth and sunshine of summer down under. While not wanting to discourage anyone, it’s only fair to mention some of the downsides of January travel in Australia.
It may seem odd to emphasise negatives on a website portraying good things about Australia. But while I aim to highlight places overlooked by tourist brochures, highlighting travel challenges overlooked or glossed over by tourist brochures is another way of providing some balance.
Here then are my top reasons why January may not be the best time to visit Australia, and why you’re not likely to find me roaming around at that time:
- Crowds! School holidays run from before Christmas to the end of January (dates vary between states), making it the most crowded time of year. For many Australians it’s the only time they can have a decent break. Peace and quiet can still be found, but you’ll have to look harder for it than at other times of year.
- Accommodation can be booked out well in advance … especially the most desirable or best value places.
- Bargains and discounts are scarce or non-existant. When accommodation can be found, it is nearly always at maximum price.
- Vehicle hire is also harder to book, and more expensive. An example is the campervan I hired in Tasmania for $50 per day in winter - it’s $125 per day in summer, if you can get one.
- The bad side of human behaviour is more apparent - things like noise and drunken antisocial behaviour. Of course people who behave inconsiderately can turn up anywhere, at any time, and Australia is probably no worse than anywhere else … but more of them hit the Australian roads in January than any other month.
- Flies and mosquitoes are out in full force. Although these pests vary a lot in their numbers and timing from place to place, they peak in the hotter months.
- Heat can be excessive away from the southern coasts and mountains. Warm weather might sound appealing if you live somewhere cold, but the novelty can quicky wear off when it stays too hot for too long.
- It is possibly the worst time of year for hiking and camping - a shame when so many of Australia’s attractions are nature based. This is due to the discomfort and dehydrating effects of heat, plus the peak in the abundance of snakes and annoying insects, not to mention a scarcity of drinking water in many places, and the bushfire risk. Exceptions are the alpine areas and Tasmania, though some would argue even these areas are better in spring or autumn.
- Wet season in the tropics means excessive humidity combining with heat to create maximum discomfort. Also tropical cyclones (hurricanes) can cause damage, flooding and road closures.
This beach may look nice ... but the flies could be unbearable, and the sand too hot to walk on with bare feet
Some of these negatives - relating to accommodation, costs and crowds - can be substantially offset by delaying travel until February when school holidays have finished. The other environmental “challenges” still apply then, but can be largely avoided by travelling in spring (Sep-Nov) or autumn (Mar-May) when conditions are more friendly.
Having said all that, plenty of people manage to have enjoyable holidays in Australia in January. It just helps if you have some more realistic expectations than those presented by the travel industry.
More information:
Bureau of Meteorology climate information
- How hot is hot? With a bit of hunting from this page you can get detailed climate information for just about any weather station in Australia.
School Holiday Dates
- This page has links for all the school holiday and public holiday dates for each Australian state
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Internet Access In Country WA
Thursday, September 10th, 2009
Finding internet access is easy enough in cities and popular tourist spots, but what if you need to check your e-mail in less-visited country areas, where tourist facilities may be scarce? In Western Australia, telecentres are a useful solution.
The WA state government provides telecentres so that rural folk can have access to educational computer facilities and high speed internet like their city cousins do. They are often the access points for government services like Centrelink or TAFE, and also offer services like printing, photocopying, fax and videoconferencing.
Although originally intended for residents, travellers are welcome to use them too. The benefit for travellers is that a large number of widely scattered small towns - many of which don’t have mobile phone coverage - have somewhere that internet can be accessed for prices comparable to city internet cafes. Some, particularly in towns more popular with tourists, also allow copying of digital photos to CD.
The telecentre at Mukinbudin
Opening hours vary widely, because the telecentres are often incorporated into a visitors centre, library, school, or some other government agency whice may have its own restricted hours. For example, late opening, early closing and lunchtime closures may be encountered, and some may not open every day - the smaller and more isolated the town, the less likely long hours will be. If your need for internet is important and your time in a town is limited, it could pay to ring ahead and check availability.
Details of WA’s telecenters are available from www.telecentres.wa.gov.au. At the time of writing, a location map and a list of addresses and phone numbers could be downloaded - a useful addition to the travel kit of anyone touring the back roads of Western Australia.
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About Maps, And Update Frequency
Wednesday, August 12th, 2009This is just a quick explanatory note about a couple of aspects of this website.
Maps
I like to include basic maps showing the locations of places I write about on this website. Not for navigation - anyone touring the area can get free detailed maps from visitors’ centres - but to provide context and indicate the general area.
So far I’ve used Google maps. With the ability to zoom in, scroll around and switch to aerial photos, it seemed the ideal solution for a website.
Unfortunately, creating Google maps has become painfully slow and troublesome. Components either don’t load, don’t work, or else they take an extremely long time, or numerous attempts. The time I’ve wasted following Google’s troubleshooting tips has been fruitless, therefore I’ve given up on Google maps. I simply don’t have the time to waste on their fault-ridden product - the time would be better spent writing content.
I’m looking at alternatives that don’t take all day, and actually work. In the meantime, I apologise for any lack of maps.
Update Frequency
I began this website with the aim of adding to it twice per week if possible, but was happy with an average of once per week. Things have dropped off a lot recently!
The reason - I’ve been juggling a demanding combination of work and study which has consumed nearly all my free time. It won’t always be that way, but there may often be periods when busyness precludes regular writing. Also there will be times when I’m travelling and therefore offline.
My desire to build this website into a large and useful resource remains, however it is a long term goal (ie many years). In the short term, don’t be surprised if my writing is sometimes irregular.
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Travel Tip - Seek Out The Least Promoted Areas
Saturday, April 25th, 2009When researching a holiday, you might notice that some areas are far more heavily promoted and visited than others. Usually it is because these places are worth visiting - but that doesn’t mean that the less popular and less advertised places have nothing to offer. On the contrary, if you have the flexibility to choose your own route, you might uncover hidden gems if you:
Identify the areas least promoted in tourist literature - then go there.
While it’s true that lack of appeal to visitors can be one reason for a lack of promotion, other common reasons include:
- The area may lack the accommodation, roads and other facilities required to support large numbers of visitors. Tour companies may bypass the area for this reason alone.
- There may not be enough businesses or commercial attractions in the area to fund the sort of advertising that can compete with the big tourist areas.
- The area may be “geographically inconvenient” and not fit easily into typical touring routes. While not preventing visitors, this may inhibit their numbers.
- The residents may not want the sort of growth that mass-market tourism brings.
The road past Great Lake is no tourist hot-spot, but it leads to some fine sights
Lack of promotion to tourists doesn’t necessarily mean there is nothing to see. If you make the effort to explore a less promoted region, any attractions you find can be enjoyed with fewer crowds, a more relaxed atmosphere, and the accommodation will probably be cheaper thanks to less demand.
The Maniototo region of New Zealand is a fine example. While this area does promote itself, such promotion is minuscule compared to that of the more popular areas, and it is not on the mainstream tourist itineraries. Because of this, I went there - and found a gorgeous region made more beautiful, in my mind, by the absence of mass tourism.
Another example is the central plateau of Tasmania around Great Lake and Arthur’s Lake, which doesn’t conveniently fit into the traditional tourist loop of Tasmania. With no significant tourist sites and limited accommodation, one travel guide described it as a bleak area with poor roads, of interest only to hardy trout fishermen. This only encouraged me to go there and see what others are missing - a landscape that is unique in Australia, with a subtle beauty defying the superficial bleakness. And because of the lack of publicity, I was able to enjoy it all without crowds.
If you’re fortunate enough to be planning a holiday, why not check a map and work out which areas are least promoted or not part of the popular touring routes. You never know what unexploited treasures may be hidden there.
Maniototo - not promoted much, but not crowded and not without charm
Note: this post has been adapted from one which first appeared on my other website
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Delightful Place Names Of Tasmania
Friday, December 12th, 2008Australia has some weird and wonderful place names, and investigating colourfully-named locations can be a great excuse for wandering off the main roads. I’ve done this in Tasmania, which has its fair share of odd and quaint labels.
Names like Fern Tree or Flowery Gully are straightforward, as they describe what you’ll find there. I didn’t spot the hollow tree which I assume Hollow Tree was named after, but I did see a penguin at the town of Penguin.
Near Paradise, Tasmania
Some names are alluring, almost begging to be visited. Are the localities of Paradise, Plenty and Promised Land as attractive as they sound? They looked pretty good to me, as they obviously did for those who named them. Is Adventure Bay as much fun as the name suggests? How would you feel in Snug? I did feel snug in the town of Snug, but haven’t yet made it to Adventure Bay.
Other names may arouse curiosity. What have the people at Detention Point been up to? How much suffering really goes on at Cramps Bay? Some names have historical explanations - Eggs and Bacon Bay might be where Lady Jane Franklin (18th century governor’s wife) once either ordered or was served eggs and bacon. But how Nowhere Else got its name is something I’ve yet to learn.
My favourite place name belongs to Flowerpot, a rural community on the coast south of Hobart. I love the quaintness of the name, and find it amusing to think that some people are able to say “I live in Flowerpot”. The drive through the area was very enjoyable, but gave no obvious reason for the name. Perhaps I’ll stop and ask someone about it on my next trip … as well as satisfying my curiosity about Adventure Bay and Nowhere Else.
Eggs and Bacon Bay, Tasmania
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