Category: Photography

Yarralumla Brickworks

I wish I had more photos for you. The day before these were taken I took myself along a little dirt road which ran lengthways along the Brickworks building (I found out later this was ‘not allowed’). All along the road I was just awestruck at the size of this industrial infrastructure. Nothing computerised, everything just massive and manual. Chutes coming from and leading to nowhere in particular. I could not comprehend how men would have worked here, the machinery seemed immense to my very inexperienced eyes. And how the building stood up was another matter, everything appeared to be made out of corrugated iron, rather dilapidated and very exposed. There were tunnels many feet above the ground, just hanging there.

Granted the building is 100 years old, built in 1913. It was apparently one of Canberras first buildings and many of the older buildings (which are slowly being demolished, although my Nonna still lives in an original specimen) are made of the stuff. The iconic red bricks this Brickworks produced can be recycled and are sold for $1/brick, and they are rather beautiful to my mind.

The tall chimney, which can be seen from around Canberra proved difficult to get to, the whole site being closed off excepting the workers of Thors Hammer. You can get in to buy wood from these guys. For now they are the caretakers and I am glad such a worthwhile business has their hand in it.

The building stopped functioning as a brickworks in 1976 and has had a few attempts at a new life since then. When I looked at it I saw a potential vibrant community of craftspeople entrenched in history. It is a perfect venue for a craftspersons marketplace, a music venue, gallery, even perhaps a recording studio and artists space. The kind of things that should happen here ought to reflect the building itself and in a way hearken back to the days when most things were done by hand and by people with real skill. Bootmakers, woodturners, painters, glassmakers, weavers, spinners, food producers and makers, musicians. I would love to see something like this installed in this beautiful old building and if, one day, I had the money I would invest it heavily into this place, it is worth restoring for the preservation of Canberras history and ought to belong to all and be freely accessible, and not as it is now, locked behind fences with security signs strung up.

Here’s a photo from wikipedia. I don’t often include these pictures, but the Brickworks is a very sentimental building to me. My childhood was spent very much under its gaze in the surrounding suburb of Yarralumla and its beautiful pine & oak forests. The chimney is worth showing off.

This is the back of the Brickworks, I kept my walk to the other side where there are piles of discarded bricks embedded into the side of the hill and the old quarry where the red clay was mined can be clearly seen.

This is the entrance to the brickworks, I remember going under the front part of this building while it was still neglected and there were no fences to keep anyone out. We saw the smaller kilns and invented spooky stories for the vast, darkened interiors. There used to be market days here, held in the outer area.

The road leading to the Brickworks passes Yarralumlas beautiful pine forests and antique houses, the Brickworks are hidden at the back of this suburb.

June 1, 2013
Chinamans Dam

Chinamans Dam in Young, NSW is a quietly glowing sapphire on the Southern outskirts of the town. It is very close to where we are living at the moment.

As hubby is back in Canberra for the weekend the kids and I took a lazy Saturday morning picnic at the dam, fed the ducks, took some photos and paddled in the water.

This lion bears scars wrought by young Henry. That lower tooth is a falsie. I’m not sure how but somehow young Henry destroyed the original…!

Over the bridge into the heart of the garden is where the real magic happens. Bridges, waterfalls, boulders, they even managed a Japanesey type balancing rock structure in the middle of their little pond.

Winding paths lead to many intricate surprises. The garden is compact, but cleverly laid out, some leading to the tops of small waterfalls, others right to the waters edge, there are stone seats all along the way, and Miss Imp and Master Dashing were constantly delighted.

I really appreciated the layering of a variety of textures of leaf, bark, berries. Garden design is very similar to interior design (though, not so trendy), colour, texture, layout, it all plays a part.

Here’s a picture of a man with a mo to keep you happy.

And the girl with imp eyes.

xo

April 20, 2013
Birthday Party

Just before moving out I managed to squeeze in a birthday party for Sophia. I don’t know if I was slightly crazy to do this. It sure was busy!

Pictures tell many words and my brain is only halfway functional, so here’s the story:

And a false start to filming Sophias end of term dance. This picture actually gives a very good impression of what this performance was like. My parents and I were crying with quiet laughter. Sophia got way into it. Good for her.

April 15, 2013
The expression a woman wears on her face is more important than the clothes she wears on her back.— Dale Carnegie

March 15, 2013
Park Time

These days I am not so scared of blurry images, in fact sometimes I prefer them, there is a sense of movement and conveys so much of the energy and happiness of childhood.

March 12, 2013
Yarrangobilly

Yarrangobilly hides a surprising and rich past. Our family has made this our semi-annual holiday destination for the past five years with good reason. It was once (in the early 20th Century) a premier holiday destination in NSW. I guess that was when people believed thermal pools to hold healing properties and before swimming in the ocean became more mainstream. There have been a variety of owners in this area including a farmer who lived near the river. I really don’t know how he got his cattle in and out of this valley, it’s quite challenging terrain even for a vehicle. The farm is long gone and was superseded by holiday goers who spent time in the still present historic Caves House. It sounds like it was a fun place to come to and was well set up for day visitors, who most likely stayed in the then nearby Yarrangobilly Village, as well as the live-in visitors. There is an old bus shelter with a bell placed in the nearby cliff which summoned people for the trip by cart down the mountain to the pool, a short but slightly taxing journey which must be walked these days. The cord is still able to be pulled and the bell rung, which only adds to the charm of this delightful enclave. Tennis courts were built, now vanished, and the old caves house where we stayed was set up for a communal kind of living arrangement with shared bathrooms and a dining hall, obviously people did not come for privacy!

On a tour around the recently restored two storey section (you can see the scaffolding around that in the picture below), the manager of National Parks was telling us that it is in fact quite a miracle that this historic home wasn’t knocked down like the majority of the houses and villages in the area. When ‘Parks’ took over in the 70s they took the liberty of removing as much trace of man as they could in this wilderness area. And so, driving around the Snowy Mountains, you do in fact pass many places of former settlement: Long Plains, Yarrangobilly Village, Kiandra, they are gone and all but forgotten. Those monuments to times past, which would have enriched this whole landscape with their ode to history (white settlement), have been bulldozed into the dirt, and are now covered by lush alpine vegetation, with nothing but brass plaques to speak for them.

This area is (so far) one of my most favourite places in Australia. There is something about the mountains, their proximity to the clouds, the underground formations they hide, the spectacular wilderness, their particular flora and fauna-including brumbies (who couldn’t love that?). The towns around here are some of my favourites: Talbingo & Tumut being two where I have spent a bit of time. It excites the imagination to imagine this area overrun with immigrant families working on the great Snowy Mountains Hydro-Electric Scheme from 1949-1974, a great ‘discovery centre‘ for which is in Cooma. The area in fact has a slight European feel to it, and this, surely, is why. I am greatly looking forward to seeing a similar scheme in northern WA, the Ord River Irrigation Scheme.

For the third time we visited the caves and there is no way we are bored of these yet. It is an awe inspiring place, rather damp and refrigerator cold – just the way I like it! – the best way to escape the awful Summer heat.

‘Us girls’ went on a few walks together, even making it twice (two ways) to the lookout which overlooked our house. It seemed impossible to get up there but was actually surprisingly easy & a lovely walk. I will not forget that feeling of being entirely surrounded by the elegant and mysterious Australian Alpine bush for as far as the eye can see. It ought to be normal to be surrounded so by trees, that most necessary, wonderful & supremely useful of creations. It is probably my love of trees that has, in fact, pushed me into studying Sustainable Development.

Then of course there is the pool. A 1.4km walk from the house, down a steep incline and you are faced with an impossibly beautiful turquoise pool. It is fed by a thermal spring so is a constant 27C. We came here every day and so our holiday was full of nature and walking and swimming and board games, good food & laughter.

January 29, 2013
Corinbank 2012

A photo blog post of the Corinbank 2012 festival held in the beautiful Brindabellas near Canberra.

This was one of the best festivals I have been to. I tried to make the best of it, dragging the kids around from the wee small hours to the early night hours, but kids move slowly and they do not tolerate too many and varied adult type activities, so…? What can you do.

Things I didn’t manage to photograph:

Nudist in the nudie hot tub

Swimming in a secluded (freezing!) bush pool early in the morning

Swagging it

Getting henna tattoos

In the chai tent, where we spent a bit of time each day! (This was the best chai most of us had ever tasted, by the way.)

The smells

The sounds

December 10, 2012
Home Grown

It is sadly, satisfyingly novel to cook from your own garden. Sadly because, really, it should be the norm to gather our own food rather than pay for it. Satisfying because there is a real sense of acheivement (though one does so little!) in watching a seed that you have planted grow into a tiny sprout, into a bigger plant and finally fruit to make its way to your dinner plate.

A few days ago I harvested Broad Beans, Garlic bulbs and Garlic flowers and Thyme to make a Broad Bean Casserole. (I will not include the recipe as I’m not a particularly fussy eater, and though I enjoyed it immensely, others may not, and really you would probably have the same results if you just played around with your ingredients as I did!) The total list of ingredients were: Broad beans (pre-boiled), green beans, one garlic bulb, a few garlic flowers (with stems), sprigs of thyme, onions, mushrooms vege stock, cornflour. Short & simple. Everything could collected from the garden, it’s all in the timing. In fact I have all of these things in my garden a times

Speaking of garlic flowers, have you ever tried them? The first time I ever ate one was in New Zealand whilst being hosted on the property of a woman who had the most incredible permaculture style garden I had then yet seen. They are…sublime! The flowers are unbelievable exactly like a very young garlic bulb, without the dirt, a lovely subtle flavour.

Growing veges is easy peasy, I would encougage anyone to try it. Sometimes all you need to do is push a few seeds under the earth, water them a few times a week, and wait and watch.

Glorious.

Garlic Flower Head

Dandelion Head among Rocket Flowers (I like to grow Dandelion in my vege ‘patch’, they are edible and good for the soil, they aren’t given enough of a chance. Great for the liver!)

Broad Beans above.

Leek Flower Heads

An Onion Flower Head

All from my garden Garlic Cloves, Thyme, Garlic Flower Heads

The assembled dish! Don’t you just love my orange counter top!

December 7, 2012
By the Creek

This is a snippet of Sutton Country Living that I’d like to remember: our dapples in the creek. There are some stunning waterholes around this little village. This is a favourite one as it’s so close to our house. The day I took this we were ‘fishing’ (with sticks) in this little pool & Soph tried very hard to go swimming in it, but resisted as I urged her to think about how cold it was – and it was that day. It’s so pleasing to see ones child use their brains and set their own limits, limits that vary from, though are not so very far from your own, and I’m happy with that. I’d rather she use her own head than do exactly as I say.

October 22, 2012
Camping

Our mindset is adapting to a nomadic lifestyle we will be taking up in April/May next year. We are preparing ourselves to ‘rough it’, albeit in a Solar Powered Motorhome complete with kitchen, toilet, shower and beds, glorious beds! I feel like last weekend was our first taste of what this will be like, as, though we’ve camped out before, this time we undertook it with the full understanding that this lifestyle was coming upon us very quickly.

It was glorious, truly, glorious, to cook by our campfire, by gas lamplight, to put the kids to sleep in their car bed (a brainwave, as one of our swags was unusable), to wake up from my dozing by Henry shooing of the biggest fox he’d ever seen, who left reluctantly, to eat some chocolate together by the campfire under the stars while the kids slept and finally to wake in the cold in the middle of our patch of temperate rainforest. It was such a refreshment to me, as I have been struggling with our morning routine at home for a while. It brought me back to the reality of family life, love, life experience, exploring through my childrens eyes while being able to show them new things about the world.

I do just love, deeply, intrinsically, the natural world and I can not imagine living without access to the great natural regions of our planet. Regions that have thankfully been saved by conscientious governments and those fringe & passionate greenie groups. We stopped off at the Franklin-Gordon Wild Rivers National Park in Tasmania on our honeymoon, and I am grateful for the effort of those initial Greens for their persistence in saving such a beautiful natural sanctuary. I wish there was more of such landscape and less of our offensive modern edifices and contrivances.

October 2, 2012