Monthly Archives: August 2009

DARWIN

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Darwin

  • Largest city in the NT
  • Smallest capital city in Australia (121,000)
  • Closer to 5 foreign capitals than to Canberra
  • Main income from mining and tourism
  • Re built after WWII air-raids and after Cyclone Tracy
  • 130kph on open road
  • Smoking still allowed in pubs
  • Weather is either hot and dry or hot and humid

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Parliament House – called the wedding cake – highly decorated on the outside, full of nuts on the inside

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Fanny Bay- great sailing and fishing but not too much swimming – too many crocs and box jellyfish

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Some interesting vessels moored in the harbour, some look like refugee boats from Indonesia.

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Cliffs along Fanny Bay

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Spectacular sunsets – the smoke haze of the dry season gives the sky a warm glow as the sun gets lower

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Enjoying the relaxed, top end lifestyle

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Darwin has a rich Chinese history dating back to the start of the Pine Creek Goldrush. This is the Darwin Chinese Temple where Buddhism, Taoism and Confucianism are practiced simultaneously?

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Doctors Gully, where tourists pay $11 per head to feed bread to fish so the fish will come back and more tourists can pe $11 a head to do the same. The formula has worked for 50 years.

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Weddings, like most things in Darwin, tend to be big – the bigger the better

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At this wedding, the bride arrived in a road train

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…and if you want to buy a gun in Darwin, you may as well make it a big one

SAMA SAJA

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The Darwin Museum has a fantastic display of Indonesian boats sailed to Australia by refugees. This little boat the “Sama Jasa” is only 5 meters long. It sailed across the sea with 6 people on board, landed on Bathurst Island, just off Darwin, in 1986. The crew were detained by customs, taken with the boat to Darwin and held in detention as illegal immigrants. How frustrating, after surviving a trip like that.

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Most of the boat is unpainted timber, the cabin is held together with rusty steel nails. The rigging is made from fencing wire. Below the waterline is coated with bitumen and lime.

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The Australian artist, Ian Fairweather, tells of a similar journey in his autobiography. In Darwin during the war, Fairweather built a raft out of aeroplane fuel tanks and drifted out of Darwin harbour late one night. After drifting for a week or so he washed up on an Indonesian beach where he was arrested by the authorities and sent straight back to Darwin.

WATERCOLOR WINDMILL

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Outside the town of Batchelor, we camped under a huge old Southern Cross windmill. The kind that turn and creak at the slightest breath of wind.

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I started to sketch it but every time I looked up the wind had changed and it looked completely different. I decided to ignore what it looked like from where I sat and draw it square on from in front.

Once it had shifted around a few times I had enough information to disregard perspective and make the drawing flat and mechanical.

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The initial drawing was done with Charcoal pencil, then washes of indigo and Burnt Sienna were put in fairly loosley with a 1″ and 1/4″ flat brush. The windmill was old and coated with rust and grease. I wanted the sketch to give the impression of reliability while indicating the wear and tear of a hard life.

Burnt Sienna ink lines were added then the drawing was broken up slightly with washes and splashes of White  Gouache.

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This detail shows the Burnt Sienna ink lines, some left hard and sharp, others sprayed and softened with a mist of water. You can also see lines of white charcoal pencil adding to the detail and loose splashes of White Gouache.

These mechanical subjects are a lot of fun to paint. You can fill them with atmosphere and character, saying more about their life and function than their actual appearance.

SNAKE IN THE GRASS

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ADELAIDE RIVER

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We decided to camp at the Adelaide River Race Track before heading up to Darwin. The sun was setting and a few whispy clouds were catching the last bit of light.

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I climbed the judges tower to take some photographs. When I climbed down there was a snake  at the foot of the tower, arched up and snapping at me. I jumped back and he dissapeared into the grass. I couldn’t believe it – after hours of carefully picking my way through spinifex and speargrass the day before and not seeing a snake, to be bailed up by one here  was amazing.

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I snapped a blurry shot of him in the fading light with a wide angle lens as he slithered into the grass.

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Four furlong bend from the top of the tower.

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Last light as the sun went down

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Next morning I walked over to the railway yard and couldn’t believe my luck. Someone had parked a yellow steam roller next to a purple railway carriage!

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PUBS – 2

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GROVE HILL HOTEL

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Whipping along the Stuart Highway north of Pine Creek, we saw a sign pointing to Grove Hill Hotel. We figured it must be a pretty impressive pub – the sign said “HISTORICAL” so off we went along a twisting dirt road to Grove Hill.

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At first sight the pub didn’t look that impressive. The garden was struggling, paint peeling and “New Ownership” sign, badly faded, but we went in anyway.

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The foyer was an elegant mixture of art deco and Territorian casual. We made our way through to the bar and ordered some drinks before wandering through the rest of the pub.

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The bar served a variety of beers in either cans or stubbies.

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The dining room – simple and tastefully decorated.

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Each table displayed a magnificent arrangement of artifical flowers.

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The bedrooms were comfortable and inviting.

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Keeping everything running smoothly required some fairly sophisticated, high-tech equipment.

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A piano accordian on the sideboard looked to have provided hours and hours years and years of first rate entertainment.

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Out the back, the matinence shed contained all the necessary tools to keep everything in ship shape condition.

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There was even a ride on mower to keep the grounds immaculate.

The car park is always a good indicator of the quality of a hotel. Looking at Grove Hill’s car park, it appears a lot of patrons arrive, park their car and never leave – and who could blame them.

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So next time you happen to be whipping along the Stuart Highway north of  Pine Creek, take the detour to Grove Hill Hotel.

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They even offer camping and budget accommodation.