Slabtown Stairs

Slabtown, with its mix of residential, commercial, and industrial buildings, has a corresponding diversity of stairs. I'm attracted by their dynamic geometries and historical implications. I'll be posting examples today and the next two days.

Last Day in Perth

April 29: This was our last day in Perth. In the afternoon we flew to Broome, where we'll board a ship tomorrow and sail up the Kimberly Coast for 10 days, disembarking in Darwin. Then we fly to Sydney and on to LAX and PDX. We won't have internet service during this period, so I've scheduled daily postings of my Slabtown photo project.

Here's one last batch of photos from the Art Gallery of Western Australia, the impressive museum that we visited again before we left for the airport.

Slabtown Skies

The skies above Portland have been fairly lively recently, accompanying somewhat indecisive forecasts of rain/drizzle/overcast/etc. Whatever, it's good for black and white photography.

Pinnacles at Sunset

Pinnacles Desert in Nambung National Park, about 200 km north of Perth near the Indian Ocean, is an amazing place. To quote from the park web site "Thousands of huge limestone pillars rise from a stark landscape of yellow sand to form one of Australia’s most intriguing landscapes." The origins of these pillars remains puzzling and controversial. We timed our visit to arrive about an hour before sunset, when light and shadow would be most dramatic. (#10 was taken with the Sunset scene setting on my camera.)

Yanchep National Park

April 27. We arranged a car and driver (Andrew Hyde of Kandu Holidays - excellent) for a day tour out from Perth to Yanchep National Park and Pinnacles National Park. Yanchep in this post, Pinnacles in the next.

Yanchep is a small park whose main attraction is koala viewing for elevated walkways through groves of eucalyptus trees and at a feeding station. It was difficult to get clear photos of the koalas through the eucalyptus leaves, so the feeding station gave better results. These photos show the koalas in their main activity - sleeping about 22 hour a day, since the low nutritional content of their diet doesn't provide much energy.

Yanchep also has some interesting birds and attractive wetlands.

Interesting Structures in Perth

We're finding Perth to be a very enjoyable city - food and drink, climate, culture, and physical environment are all first rate. Here are four images of the built environment: cranes against a deep blue sky, painted steps in the arts complex where people sit and chat in late afternoon, and our small cubist Alex Hotel.

Art Gallery of Western Australia

Right next to our hotel in Perth is an arts and library complex that includes the Art Gallery of Western Australia. The AGWA has an exceptionally broad and interesting collection of paintings from the region, some of which deal powerfully with the relations between Aborigines and white settlers. I don't usually reproduce full paintings in this blog, but these made such an impression that I felt an exception was justified.

Yagan, by Julie Dowling

Nyoongar Dreaming, by Christopher Pease

Home-maker #4, by Sandra Hill

Works using techniques of Renaissance portraiture, by Julie Dowling

Babanyu, by Julie Darling

Kings Park in Perth

Kings Park, which includes the Western Australia Botanic Garden, is on a hillside overlooking Perth. We walked there this morning, and had a fine time exploring the views and the vegetation.

View of northeast Perth from Kings Park

The roots and base of a huge, old fig tree

Banksia Menzies, the most spectacular of the Banksia (test-tube brush plants) that are popular as Australian wildflowers and cultivars.

The lizards are sculpted, but true to life.