Category Archives: Animals

OUTBACK WORKSHOP 1

Posted on by
17

DARWIN, KAKADU, KATHERINE

IMG_4703

We arrived back in Darwin, put our vehicle into storage and met Amanda and Gordon, our tour guides, at the Mindil Beach Markets. After wandering  around and watching the sun set into the ocean, we all headed back into the city for dinner.

IMGP6447

Monday, the 26 people that form our group got to know each other over drinks on the balmy veranda of the Holiday Inn.

IMGP6459

Tuesday, our first painting day,  we headed down to Government House , spread ourselves out on the rolling lawns opposite, and filled in the morning painting under the shade of a banyan tree.

IMGP6460

The afternoon was hot, so we found a shady spot opposite our hotel and painted the fringe of vegetation between us and the Arafura Sea

IMGP6480

Off to Kakadu and three days at Cooinda Lodge, Our coach driver had a tremendous knowledge of the aboriginal people of the area, having lived and worked with them over the years, He took us around Nourlangie and filled us in on many of the aboriginal customs and beliefs.

IMGP6510

Nourlangie

IMGP6539

Whistling Ducks – Yellow Waters. Except for the fact that these guys are walking around, they are the most artificial looking animal I have ever seen. They don’t  like getting wet either, happy just to stand beside the water.

IMGP6551

We watched this Croc cruise past our boat accompanied by a large Barramundi with a death wish.

IMGP6588

Red Lillys – It may not look like it, but every bit is edible!

IMGP6597

Pair of Jabiru (Male with dark eye)

IMGP6505

Cruising Black Cockatoo – they fly slowly in formation like a flock of B52’s on a mission.

IMGP6618

Wetland Waterlilies

IMGP6893

In the afternoon heat, an old Akubra in front of our lodge was a more comfortable option for a painting subject. Just so things didn’t become too comfortable, we limited ourselves to just two colours.

IMGP6622

Home Billabong at Cooinda Lodge was dotted with shady clearings looking across the water – great places to paint.

IMGP6894

Home Billabong – Cooinda

IMGP6757

If this little fellow hadn’t hopped, we would never have seen him

IMGP6733

South Alligator River, meandering across the wetlands

IMGP6680

Arnhemland Escarpment

IMGP6703

Ranger Uranium Mine

IMGP6890

South to Katherine

IMGP6883

Gold rush architecture, Pine Creek NT

IMGP6896

Another shady Banyan tree, this time in Katherine

IMGP8312

Some transparent watercolor washes and a lot of pale Ultramarine Gouache made this demo a lot of fun.

IMGP8312-1

Splashes of Alizarin, ink marks, charcoal pencil lines and fine rigger strokes suggest a lot of complicated detail without being too descriptive.

STRANGE ANIMALS

Posted on by
4

frog1

Small green frog – thinks he’s a handsome prince

hairy chook

Weird hairy chicken

IMGP6038

Turkey with over decorated head

IMGP6089

Small green frog – happy just to be a small green frog.

fishbone

Fishbones from Darwin Museum

IMGP3304

Scrub Turkey with moderately decorated head.

IMGP6070

Children’s Python – not because they eat them, because they play with them

IMGP4329

Brahman Bull profile

IMGP5048-1

Quiet Wallaby – confused by sound of flowing water

IMGP4832

Apostle Birds – because they hang around in groups of twelve

IMGP5007

Fluro Blue Butterfly

IMGP7747

Blue Faced Fig Bird with bad haircut

IMGP8475

Poor old camp dog –  may have been bitten by a snake at some stage. The cure was to cut off the tips of the ears and tail to bleed out the poison! Or maybe he’s just the victim of too many camp fights.

IMGP6462-1

Big Pig

KAKADU POSTCARDS

Posted on by
26

kakadu map

Random shots of Kakadu National Park taken with Pentax K20D

IMGP5746

Rock art – Nourlangie

IMGP5776

Kakadu Burn Off – Sigma 10-20mm lens

IMGP5807

Under the picturesque backdrop of the Kakadu Escarpment is Ranger Uranium Mine – carefully placed in the middle of a World Heritage National Park

IMGP5849

Ranger Uranium Mine –

all very safe, where nothing can go rong wronge ronge wrong

IMGP5855x

Great Egret – 500mm mirror lens

IMGP5870

Nankeen Night Heron – 500mm mirror lens

IMGP5935

Jabiru – 18-250 pentax lens

IMGP5950

Hovering Egret – 500mm mirror lens

IMGP5951

Same Hovering Egret – 500mm mirror lens

IMGP5976

White Bellied Sea Eagle full of Barramundi – 18-250 Pentax lens

IMGP5989

Cruising Croc  18-250 Pentax Lens

IMGP5997

Watching Croc 18-250 Pentax lens

IMGP5873

Waiting Croc – 10mm super wide angle just kidding – 500mm mirror Lens

IMGP6017

Yellow Waters sunset

IMGP6025

Same Yellow Waters Sunset.

MUDGINBERRI

Posted on by
Reply

IMGP5725

MEATWORKS SUNRISE

This, now defunct, little abattoir within Kakadu National Park was the catalyst for a huge change in the Australian Union movement. In 1985, the Australasian Meat Industry Employees Union were forced to pay 1.5 million dollars to the owners of  Mudginberri Meatworks to compensate  for costs and lost earnings due to Union picket lines halting production.

This led the ACTU to call three National strikes. The press turned the  AMIEU into public enemy number one. Ian Mclachlan, (president of the National Farmers Federation) said at the time that Mudginberri  “changed the nature of industrial relations in Australia”

The Barrister acting for Mudginberri at the time was Peter Costello.

So, this little slaughterhouse was the beginning of the end of union power in Australia. It’s demise was brought about by the refusal of meat inspectors to cross the picket line. In a sense, the meatworks became the sacrificial lamb to cripple  union power

IMGP5722

IMGP5733

Feral water buffalo entered through a door at one end of this room and exited frozen and packed in small cardboard boxes at the other end.

IMGP5737

The Buffalo would enter through the door, lower right and be dispatched by the slaughter-man. The white steel petition would be lifted and the carcass hoisted from the grate beyond, to be conveyed through the processing room

IMGP5740

IMGP5741

25 years after the demise of Mudginberri, a pile of buffalo horns lie beaten and bleaching in the sun where a picket line once stood.

SNAKE IN THE GRASS

Posted on by
2

ADELAIDE RIVER

map adel riv

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.

IMGP5306

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.

IMGP5314

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

IMGP5313

Four furlong bend from the top of the tower.

.

.

IMGP5317

Last light as the sun went down

.

.IMGP5319

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!

IMGP5318