Perth Royal Show

At the beginning of Oct. was the Perth Royal Show, a big deal in these parts; the pics give an idea of why! The show coincides with when the kids start their 2-week spring school holidays, so it's high on the list of things to do to keep the family entertained. It reminded me a bit of the Brandon Fair, and what the Red River Ex used to be like. Greg took a good look at all the new fangled rides, and still concluded matter-of-factly, that the "zipper" at the Morris Stampede continues to be the ride of all time (what with it's bolts shearing off, badass carny operating the thing, and overall fear factor)


Some history, taken from one of the Show's websites:

'The Royal Agricultural Society of Western Australia, established 1831, has held the annual show at the Claremont grounds since 1894. The Show has been named an icon of Western Australia. The primary purpose of the Show was to showcase Western Australia industry, primarily agriculture. It has been the venue for the display of new animal breeds and sports. The first show included equestrian events, sheep dog trials, wood chopping, and prizes for cattle and sheep.' We watched these guys shear the sheep with actual scissors, old school style.

There was also some Canadian influence here: the augers in this pic were made by WheatHeart in Saskatoon, a division of the company that also owns Westfield, and the shafts were actually manufactured in little ol' Rosenort. Pretty small world, eh?!

I have to mention the showbags, because I've never seen such outrageous commercialism so easily eaten up! 'The 'showbag', which became part of Australian shows as an advertising gimmick and souvenir, are now sold at $2 to $65 each and contain a variety of cheap novelty toys, candy, and even complete skateboards. Showbags are sponsored by a specific candy company, television show, brand name (e.g. Coca-Cola)', or even FHM or lingerie for adults. They are a focal point of the Show for EVERYONE! We bought a $6 Cadbury bag, and had enough choc to last 3 weeks. It's like Hallowe'en, except you have to pay for it! I was shocked to see parents hauling around up to 10 bags in each hand, ensuring that the kids will be wired (and diabetic) in short time.

The only ride I dared to go on was the ferris wheel. Greg is getting increasingly frustrated with our Canan A510 camera, which is only a year old, and is now starting to "wash" out all of our photos. Seems to be a similar pattern given what happened to Jer's camera.

Left - Me and the mini-belly in front of the rides.

Our highlight of the show was the sheep-dog exhibit. Fascinating to watch the dogs round up all those sheep so efficiently. In one exhibit, the judge replaced the sheep with ducks, to see how the dog would react. Turned out to be hilarious, cause the dog would make an attempt to move the ducks, but would constantly stop, look back at the sheep, and then desparately at his owner, wondering what in the world was going on, but longing to please.

Araluen Botanic Park

The first time we tried to get to Araluen, we were caught in the longest line of traffic, and decided to turn around. Turned out it was Father's Day, (which is at the end of August here; yes, it's a bit strange) and also the height of their Tulip Festival. Well, seeing as how we got to witness all the tulips in Ottawa last May, we figured we'd wait until a quieter weekend, in September, and go early. Which proved to be a good idea. This place gets nuts! It's bar-b-que madness with plenty of screaming kids! Yahoo!

Araluen Botanical Park is a nature park which was built up in 1929 by the Young Australia League (maybe like the YMCA?). Imagine a remote valley in the hills where the Tuart trees grow especially tall, and the waterfalls and natural pools are surrounded by a winding set of nature paths. Most striking though is the stonework throughout the park, giving the feeling of being amongst Roman ruins. Not surprisingly, the cascading waterfall was almost entirely dried up (another indication of the crazy dry weather here). The park was abandoned for many years, before it got bought up by the current care-takers in the 80's, and is now protected as a historical site. It's a huge attraction for locals and tourists alike. It seems especially to attract young families as well as seniors, and can be a bit of a challenge to those with walking difficulties if they don't stay on the main paths. It is in and up the sides of the valley, so there are lots of little paths that lead to isolated benches and flowers. We took advantage of these and mostly stayed clear of the crowds. Some other walkers pointed out a bilby to us, foraging in the underbrush; we shared our apple with him. (the one we saw had smaller ears, but I couldn't find his picture on the net).

The flowers were really beautiful, and I especially liked all the pansies. There were many colours to enjoy. They always make me think of the movie Fantasia, when the flowers come alive and dance around; you can see their little faces beside me in the picture!

Rotto

Rottnest Island (called Rotto by the locals) is a little slice of paradise just off the mainland. It's about a 30 minute high-speed ferry ride from Fremantle, and we caught the early ferry so we could spend a good chunk of our day there. When we went last year, we caught a later ferry and felt rushed the entire day, so this time we were much more relaxed and carefree. Rotto is the simple life, not much for expectations other than leisurely riding bikes all over the whole island and hanging out on some of the mediterranean-style beaches.

The island is an A-class reserve allowing only motorized service vehicles, and so mostly everyone gets around on rental bikes. Fantastic to have all these winding roads along unspoiled beaches, and never have to look over your shoulders for cars.


We put our bikes down at Little Parakeet Bay for some fun in the sun, and Greg went exploring in the rocks. He found some creatures that looked like trilobites stuck to the rocks, as well as some small crabs hanging out in the crevaces. Of course they were hiding when I tried to look at them. For at least an hour, we had this hidden piece of paradise all to ourselves. And even then, a small group of girls only came down to take a quick swim and cool off, then continued on their bikes again.

Greg found some cuttle bone on the beach and we had to take a picture to show Lynds and Dave. Cuttle bone is a big favorite of the family cockatiel, Buddy, and we figured he needed to know where it comes from. At certain times of the year there are hundreds of these 'bones' washed up on the beach, and we were thinking of bringing a suitcase-full home just for Bud to sharpen his beak on; or not...

Rottnest is only 14 km's long at it's widest point, but has very diverse surroundings. There are many large hills, loads of isolated beaches, some scrubland, salty inland lakes, and the most western reaches of the island turn to rocks and cliffs. The really neat thing about heading to the western edge, is that after that, there's no more land until Madagascar. The Indian Ocean stretches as far as our eyes and imaginations can see. No dolphins playing in the surf this time though. Because it's just that much farther out in the ocean, the surf is bigger and Rotto attracts some of the more dare-devil surfers. It's not uncommon to hear the dudes at Scarborough beach saying 'imagine what it's like at Rotto', with an edge of awe in their voice. Unfortunately, it's not cheap to take a day trip to the island, so most leave it to special occasions. Or maybe that's fortunately for the creatures that make this island their home; this is one of the only places in the world that you can find the marsupial quokka, which are considered vulnerable.

Liftoff Delayed

According the arianespace.com, the liftoff has delayed by a day. New time should be Friday afternoon in Canada, when the launch window appears to open at 3:56 pm Winnipeg time. I'm still not sure if there is going to be a live webcast starting just prior to liftoff though.

Radar Love

One of my old thesis partners from the University of Manitoba did a great job of putting together a compact little website that details our final research efforts from the insane final year of Engineering. This little self-enclosed radar box was designed, constructed, and tested all for less than around $2000. Using mostly free samples, and a lot of theory, we came up with a device that was able to detect human beings through a 1" thick wall. Before you think it's strange, consider the benefits to search and rescue under fallen buildings, smoke engulfed rooms, or even police entry. We went on to present our work at an IEEE design competition in Rochester, New York, and were voted the "Best Presentation" by representatives from many of the top Universities in the US. I don't think that all of the links work on the site, but there are some cool photo's of the PCBs I designed. The full .pdf report used to be available, but I think you've got to send an email now. Anyhow, great to see this site up, I still can't believe all the work.

On another note, there is another liftoff coming up sometime Thursday afternoon/evening in Canada, which should be viewable on the net. Keep posted for the exact time, or just check out the website. Launch site is in Kourou, French Guiana, and the Ariane rocket payload actually has 3 separate spacecraft stacked on top of each other in the nose cone. Should be a heavy lift.

Doing Stuff....

Greg and I enjoy some educational-type outings now and then. We've seen lots of commercials on TV about the importance of water conservation, so we went to visit a dam and weir to assess for ourselves how dire the situation really is. These areas are natural reserves as well, so it's more likely we'll see the black cockatoos, which are threatened in this state. It's a good opportunity for the cockatoo conservation groups to get in touch with the general public as well. We did see/hear a flock fly nearby while at the Victoria Dam.

The water levels do appear to be low, as you can see by the banks of the dam behind me, and this is supposed to be the end of the "rainy" season. The walls of the Victoria dam are to the right of me, not pictured. They've set up some really nice walking trails to encourage people to come down and explore the area. Likely popular with school groups, I would imagine. (Notice my bottle of water; apparently the amount of bottled water consumed in this country is astronomical). They're currently building a monster desalination plan in Perth to keep up with water demands...

There is also a serious relationship between bush fires and the water reserves; when the fires burn out of control, the risk of contamination to the water sources by run-off is quite high. They have started controlled burns now to try and prevent the summer rampage of the bush fires. (Our friends in BC can relate).
I'm standing in front of Mundaring Weir here, a very large dam that was completed in 1903, and is the start of the water pipeline that pumps water to agricultural areas and the Kalgoorlie goldfields, some 700km in all. Of course it has since been updated and made high-tech, but there are plaques all along the path to describe the camp where the workers lived over a hundred years ago, mainly immigrants trying to make a go. There is also a museum at the base that gives a good idea of the history. The thing that strikes me most, is that this reservoir would be considered tiny in comparison to the 1000's of fresh water lakes we've often driven by in the Whiteshell.

Town and Country

Last summer we had a chance to go to an outdoor movie in a wooded grove of the University of Western Australia (that was in March; their summer). This time of year is cooler, so no movies,
but we did still walk around the campus and came upon this amazing reflection pool. The architecture makes it look like we're in ancient times! Many of the buildings are listed in the Australian National Register, and the campus is home to over 55 species of birds. Greg likes to imagine what it would have been like to go to uni here rather than at UofM... for sure the sound of laughing kookaburras around the grounds would have created a different atmosphere!

Another visit to King's Park, where there are always some sort of flowers blooming. These are Bird's of Paradise, which are also grown in Canada. The gardens at the Park try to showcase flowers that are native to WA, but also feature those that will provide visual appeal all year round, with lots of succulents, including cacti. I'm not sure where these ones are originally from.



Greg and I went on a little road tour up north a couple of hours, stopping and seeing different sites along the way. The mandarin orange groves were still producing fruit, which was really pretty to see, but the other fruit trees were still sleeping. We also got to see an unbelievably huge 'road train', essentially one truck pulling 2-3 trailers behind. We later came across a truck pulling what looked like machine destined for the mines in the Kimberleys - the truck was wider then the entire road. One of the tires on the thing being transported was bigger than our car! We were relieved to get past it...

We were headed for the town of New Norcia, a community that had been established by Spanish monks back in the 1800's. They still operate the town in a similar fashion, with sheep, olive oil production, a mill, a famous bakery, and their own port wine.


We spent the afternoon walking around the town. We walked through a field full of bleating sheep; they can make quite a noise! At one point we got off track and strayed into unchartered territory, and this was where we discovered the viscious dive-bombing abilities of the magpies. We didn't even know they were attacking until they were practically on top of us, swooping at our heads! Apparently this is common, and if needed, a bucket worn on the head with eyes painted on the back may be good enough protection! RIGHT! The locals have mentioned that it is not uncommon for people to go to the hospital with beaks stuck in their heads. So there we were, retreating through this farmers field waving sticks in the air, me looking forward, and Greg watching our backs. The whole reason we lost our way was because the creek had washed over the footbridge, and so we ended up having to take off our shoes and wade across. It was a bit cold, but nothing to it! At least the crocs are further north.