At first glance it looks like any other shopping mall. Except for one thing. There’s cops everywhere. They’re outside shops. Inside shops. Fully uniformed gun toting laser gun loaded cops. They stand there all day but won’t speak to you. But you get the real feeling your every move is being watched. I reckon they got the idea from those guards outside the gates of Buckingham Palace. The ones with those huge big black fluffy ...…[read more]
Blog Posts
There’s two ways to take over a country. You can invade it. Or do what Australia does. Sell it off piece by piece. It all started fifty years ago. They built a railway line 300km long through some of the harshest land in the country. It connects the iron ore mine in Tom Price to the port at Dampier near Karratha. It’s an impressive and massive operation. In the middle of no where, huge two ...…[read more]
It was a Friday evening. Within an hour of sending an email, I had replies coming back faster than I had expected. I had heard a rumour that excess bed linen from mining camps here in outback Pilbara was about to be discarded. The list of charities in need of this linen was growing with every email coming back. Long story short. With the generous support of the local mining and transport industry an initial ...…[read more]
If you could imagine a quaint little European village settled against snow capped mountains, people meandering and pausing to chat along it’s little cobble stone roads that are lined with vibrant little shops. Strange it may seem, but that’s what this small outback town reminded me of. It wasn’t because of the rugged red mountains instead of snow backed mountains. Or snow flakes replaced with red dust that infiltrates everywhere. No quaint cobblestone roads but ...…[read more]
Exmouth, Tue 26 July 2016. A visit to Ningaloo Reef between Coral Bay and Exmouth, 1200km north of Perth has been a long awaited must do. The highlight was a day’s scuba diving trip out of Exmouth with son Travis. While the sandy moonscape like seabed lacked any colourful coral, there was the sea life to make up for it. “At one” with all the abundance of sea life is one of the very enjoyable ...…[read more]
It’s a big country. Up here you can travel all day, watch the sun rise, watch it set and you still haven’t arrived at your destination. It’s no wonder overnight pop up villages are scattered all along the endless highways of the outback. Populated from the thousands of caravanning Grey Nomads, it’s a phenomena that’s almost reached plague proportions. During the day long impassable chains of endless white objects crawl along the highways. The only ...…[read more]
It was the start of a new chapter. I was about to shut the door for the last time. I looked back. A silhouette of the city spread across the windows in the pre dawn light. A nice farewell gesture I thought. Meanwhile a soft glow filled the now bare room. How symbolic I reflected. So many memorable times we shared with you, our family, friends and visitors. The sadness and tears we shared together. ...…[read more]