Stromatolites, Dugongs, Quokkas, Kookaburras, and Cockatoos

Stromatolites, Dugongs, Quokkas, Kookaburras, and Cockatoos

For anyone who hasn’t guessed, add koalas and kangaroos! We are heading home from six weeks off, spent mostly in Western Australia, after 10d in Malaysia, and now six days between Sydney and Newcastle before taking the nonstop home (only 14hrs!).

To be honest, we’ve had a mixed experience.

WA is huge, ~1/3rd of the country, with only 10% of its population, 75% of them in Perth, and most of the rest scattered along the very long coastline, from which we never got further inland than ~100km. Perth is the world’s most isolated city of its size (~1.5 million), and actually seems like a great place to live with sunny weather, and long bike paths paralleling endless beaches (smoking prohibited!- as it is on Sydney’s beaches [as an aside for anyone who doesn’t know Vancouver’s park/beach smoking ban is now in effect! My next target is secondhand smoke in multi-unit dwellings-a bad personal problem for us currently, this link is to a recent Globe and Mail article by a contact of mine on the issue] ), and the very large King’s Park between downtown and the Swan River. The River ends at the picturesque and historic port de-facto suburb of Fremantle, with an excellent maritime museum including shipwrecks (which play a prominent role in WA history), the Australia-2 yacht which broke USAs 100+ yr hold on America’s cup, and a guided tour of a submarine which we enjoyed.

The highlight of the trip is by far the wildlife. We have seen about 80 live kangaroos (and unfortunately another ~30 as roadkill, identifying which becomes an inevitable pastime on the long drives), mostly in farmer’s fields and and on a golf course, several koalas in a conservation area, Dugongs (like manatees) on a catamaran tour (also saw 2 seasnakes, stingrays, and briefly sharks) of the seagrass in Shark Bay, lots of dolphins on several occasions, including once only feet offshore only seconds after I had gotten out of the water after a jellyfish sting while snorkeling (several less than amazing experiences), and another at the wild-in-name-only Monkey Mia, where a large group voluntarily comes up to the feet of many standing tourists knowing that they will be fed fish about 20min later by the park rangers. Also at Shark Bay is one of only 2 surviving colonies of Stromatolites- ancient rock-forming colonies of bacteria that first put oxygen into the atmosphere ~3 billion yrs ago, paving the way for those of us who tend to like it!

Birds have included Emus, Cockatoos, cormorants, a kookaburra, Black Swans, Purple Swamp Hens, Pink-Grey Galahs, Rosella parrots and tons of Ringneck Parrots, Magpies, and Ravens (who have a wailing Aaw-Aaw cry in place of the haunting Caaw-Caaw, with which we are all familiar). Saw humpback whales in the distance from the shore in southwest WA. On mostly idyllic Rottnest island (45min ferry from Perth), we saw dozens of Quokkas, something like a cross between a kangaroo, and a large rodent, very nice out in the car-free, beach- and cove-lined countryside where we first spotted them, but more like pests looking for food back at the small settlement waiting for the ferry back. In Sydney’s Royal Botanic Gardens a colony of hundreds of flying foxes (bats), hang from a handful of trees. Also have seen lots of lizards, spiders, and snakes (far more than we’ve seen anywhere else). Unfortunately, the Darwinian champions of Australia are by far the flies (we were slightly too late for wildflower season, too early for crayfish season, but right on time for the fly season!), which, alternating with strong winds, made it hard to find a relaxing beach experience, despite the easily found isolation. (In Malaysia we saw an impressive display of riverside fireflies, which pulsate in synchrony at dusk, making for a river of christmas-like flashing trees (100s/tree).)

Other highlights have included climbing the ~60m high Gloucester and Diamond fire-watch Karri trees via winding metal spokes with only a flimsy wire cage behind, and nothing beneath!, meeting Princess Shirley in Australia’s other country- The Principality of Hutt River Province (Google it for more info- it is quite a story!), kayaking on the Margaret River, and Canoeing on the Franklin, a ferry ride in Sydney (which is really more of a cross btw Hong Kong and London/NYC, than anything comparable to Perth/Vancouver) harbour out to South Head (with the other non-Asian member of JC’s family), and swimming the large ocean baths of surprisingly relaxing Newcastle.

A couple of other surprising points about Australia. We were expecting a universal laid back personality in the country of “No Worries” (which they are incapable of ending a conversation without saying, regardless of appropriateness), Dr. Tom Elliott, and “Aussie Rules”(referring to the lack of any, in pick-up sports games back home). While there was no shortage of very friendly sorts, there also were a recurring minority of people (in the tourism industry no less!) who ranged from unfriendly to downright combative in the absence of any provocation beyond trying to ask them for information. The country is also very highly regulated (some of which I liked- ie smoke free hotels/ restaurants/beaches), at times to the point of silliness- a room with 3 beds can’t be shared by 3 adults (JC’s friend had joined us for a day), taking home leftovers is against the law, and terrible intersection rules for both motorists, and pedestrians (I’d often see 4 directions of cars, and 4 of pedestrians- all waiting for the lights to change!), restaurant bills paid in advance (pay again if you later decide you want dessert or tea), hotels that take a $100. bond in addition to room charge at check-in, then refund it at check-out (as we passed thru Perth 3 times, I will have nine charges on my visa from one hotel), which is always 10am (yes, this was a problem for me!) among many others. The food is fair and expensive (the Aus $ has risen tremendously-including 15% since we started planning the trip, due to a WA mining boom and high interest rates, now worth more than CAD and USD) (tho the wine was cheap and good!). On the other hand, our last dinner (in cosmopolitan Sydney) just consisted of our first ever exposures to Uighur cuisine- excellent!

Until next time,

Stu