SOUTH THROUGH LIMMEN

Posted on September 10, 2015 by splashingpaint

Following the road east from Mataranka out to Roper Bar brings you into the top of Limmen National Park. The Northern region of the park is popular with Barramundi fishermen, but heading south along a badly corrugated road towards Cape Crawford brings you to Butterfly Gorge and a number of areas dotted with strange sandstone formations.
Butterfly Gorge (minus waterfall at end of dry season)

This little Azure Kingfisher spent a lot of time patiently watching the ever diminishing waterhole for fish.

Pillars of sculpted rock.

Heading south east, we camped at the Ayrshire Hills. Another spectacularly weathered landscape 70kms out of Winton.
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KAKADU

Posted on September 9, 2015 by splashingpaint

We entered Kakadu National Park from the south, via Pine Creek with a 3 day permit to enter Koolpin Gorge. After collecting keys from the ranger station, we bounced our way down the road towards Gunlom. Crossing the South Alligator River, we turned South East to Koolpin. The road was badly corrugated with some nasty twists and turns.
This poor guy found out the hard way that taking it easy gets you there quicker.

Koolpin Gorge is a string of waterholes linked by waterfalls in the wet season. The three lower pools are the home to salt water crocodiles, but beyond those it is safe to swim.

Walking up through the gorge is spectacular. The track cuts up over the ridge in places with great views of the surrounding country.

From Koolpin we moved on to Red Lily Billabong. There are no facilities there, and the track in is pretty rough at the moment, so not many people head out that way. We had the place to ourselves. A young couple with a tent called in, and seeing the number of crocs there, decided it wasn’t the place for them.

The billabong is a large expanse of water and covered with huge red water lilies. Lots of bird life and numerous large crocodiles.

Sandy Billabong is a favourite spot. The early morning light, rising mist and lurking crocodiles make the twisted old paperbarks look kind of creepy .

Yellow Waters Cruise on Jim Jim Billabong at sunset is one of the highlights of Kakadu. This is the fifth time we have done the cruise and it is always spectacular.

Afternoon fires turned the setting sun into a glowing red ball.

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Kakadu Birds Slide Show Not Working?

We saw a number of small herds of water buffalo scattered through Kakadu. They had almost been eliminated but over the past few years are breeding up again.

This old landcruiser was used to chase down buffalo back when they were in large numbers.

Kapok Flowers

NORTH TO KATHERINE

Posted on September 8, 2015 by splashingpaint

After the Blackall workshops we headed out through Western Queensland and up into the Northern Territory.

Interesting architecture – Kynuna, Western Queensland

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Ancient council caravan, seen better days.

Willie Mar’s Chinese Market Garden – Winton

We found ourselves in Katherine for the annual rodeo. The town was busy, but we were able to stay at the show ground where the rodeo was held, so we got to see all the practice and preparation before the events.

xNT__1566 Abandon swings outside the rodeo grounds

On the morning before the rodeo we were treated to an impressive hour of hard core polo practice.

QLD. WORKSHOPS

Posted on September 7, 2015 by splashingpaint

June, July and August have been busy months with workshops in Cairns, Gladstone and Blackall.

Cairns Art Escape is held annually in “The Tanks” – an amazing venue inside enormous old WW2 oil storage tanks converted to studio and performance spaces.

July we were in Gladstone at Gallery 67 for a 5 day workshop after which we reloaded the truck and headed out to Blackall for the annual artist retreat workshop.

Blackall – Artists Retreat

Local Blackall drover, Stu Benson, kept us entertained with stories of the area and spoiled us with tea and damper.

Old shearing shed at Dunera Station where we were made welcome and enjoyed smoko and an interesting walk around the property.

Louise and Lexie, who drove out from Currumbin for the workshop, took Dianne and I out to the property where Louise grew up. The old homestead is now abandoned and slowly decaying, it was great to look around at some of the relics remaining from when Louise was a little kid.

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Old Homestead

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Blackall Sunset
New Paint

Machinery – Blackall wool scour

We were lucky to be in Blackall for the Camerata of St John’s, Queensland Chamber Orchestra’s performance. It was fantastic – all young, enthusiastic and incredibly well rehearsed players touring through outback regions of Queensland to help raise money for drought relief.

CARNARVON GORGE / BLACKALL

Posted on August 7, 2014 by splashingpaint

A workshop in Blackall provided a great excuse to head off a couple of weeks early and spend some time in the Carnarvon Gorge / Salvator Rosa area of central Queensland before settling in for the workshop.

Carnarvon Gorge is a spectacular collection of sheer sandstone cliffs, narrow side gorges and pockets of rainforest.

Light spills briefly into one of the damp, narrow side gorges.

Palms and ferns grow in the protected pockets of the main gorge.

Strangler figs engulf anything in their path.

The surrounding country side is in the grip of drought, but permanent springs keep the creeks and waterholes in the gorge full of water.

Strange textured fungus.

After a few days exploring Carnarvon Gorge we looped around to the North and came back into the western end of the Carnarvon Ranges at Salvator Rosa. The access roads quickly become impassable as soon as rain falls. With no prediction of rain we were confused heading into this looming black sky. It turned out to be a mixture of suspended dust and smoke from nearby fires. It made for an amazing orange light as the sun set.

Exploring some of the tracks around Salvator Rosa was hard peddling in the sand and bulldust, but a lot of fun.

The fine bulldust mixed with coarse sand make this kangaroo’s footprint so detailed you can even see the texture of the pads on his foot.

We left Salvator Rosa and headed via Tambo to Blackall where we stayed in the Living Arts Centre for the workshop.

The Living Arts Centre was formerly a hostel for school students from the outlying stations. Students now attend boarding schools in the city, so the premises has been converted to accommodation and studios.

The studios are spacious and filled with light. Our painting was punctuated by excursions to numerous places of interest around Blackall. We visited “Alice Downs” where Jacky Howe broke the record for blade shearing – 321 sheep in 7 hours and 20 minutes back in 1892. The record still stands today. We enjoyed great meals supplied by the “Marmaladies” from Blackall and also dined at a number of restaurants around the town, including a memorable feast, slow cooked in a wood stove at the wool scour.

Another local hero was Roy Dunne, who jumped his goat, Nugget, over a 3’6″ bar in 1905 – another world record feat.

Mustering cattle for the Thursday cattle sale in Blackall.

Long neglected fuel pump.

Stu Benson first drove cattle at the age of 12 and has been a proud Blackall resident all his life. His stories of the town and knowledge of the area are captivating.

Hypnotic local goats.

Blackall wool scour – amazing steam driven chaos brought back to life.
Many thanks to Sally Campbell and her enthusiastic helpers for a fantastic workshop in Blackall.

BACK FROM TASMANIA

Posted on March 31, 2014 by splashingpaint

Our last week in Tasmania was spent along the north coast. We camped on the beach a few kilometres east of Stanley. What an amazing sight early in the morning as the sun came up.

We met Gus in Bothwell. He is from Bend in Oregon where we have conducted a couple of workshops with Art in The Mountains.

Gus came to Australia, got himself a 1956 Landrover and is in the process of taking it to all the extremities of the country. Cape Byron, Mt Kosciusko and the Southern tip of Tasmania have been ticked off the list so far. When he leaves Tassie, he’s off to Cape York via Shark Bay, WA. Good luck Gus!

This outdoor kitchen seems to have escaped all the workplace health and safety restrictions. They did save a lot of space by installing it the electricity metre box.

Oatlands cricket nets

Sunrise Reeds

Tasmanian Lawnmower

Camped by the river in Ross

No matter how hard we looked, we couldn’t find a Thylacine, but we did stumble across these little critters in our search.

Shooting things is popular in some areas of Tasmania – maybe thats why we had such trouble finding a thylacine.

Back across Bass Straight, we spent a few days in Melbourne before heading home via the Hay Plains, One Tree Hotel and Bourke.

The weather turned foul north of One Tree. Pulling off the road quickly bogged us down to the axle. A shovel, frantic digging and a lot of encouragement and advice from the passenger window, soon saw us on our way

The further east we travelled the more saturated the country became. From Brewarrina home all unsealed roads were closed so it was a quick trip back along the bitumen.

TASMANIA

Posted on March 16, 2014 by splashingpaint

Two weeks in Tasmania and not a sign of rain! The workshop was great and all the foul weather plans were unnecessary – talk about lucky. After we all said goodbye in Launceston, Dianne and I found our truck in the car park of Launceston Airport and headed south to explore some more of Tasmania.