The Red Pilbara, Karijini NP in WA

North of the 26th Parallel on the Sunset side of Australia, the most southern place in Aus where the sun can sit directly overhead and the Gateway to the Greater North West, is a world like no other. This circle of latitude also defines our State Borders. That between the southern cities and commercial mammoths, and the wilder northern frontiers.

The southern edge of the Pilbara sits snugly just above this parallel. It is an ancient landscape with some of the worlds oldest regions still sitting above water, area’s rich in iron ores which were born when the world was rusting.

Ningaloo Reef, Western Australia

It’s winter across Aus’ and for my international readers… winter does not alway mean cold, but more chill nights and shorter days in so many places in Australia.  The east coast is shivering under a cold front which has moved in… to say it is chill on the east side now is an understatement. But here on the west side, the sunset side of the Aus’ continent, we have our winter warmth. The Man and I are currently camped up above the Tropic of Capricorn and the only thing chill is the wind. When the wind is quiet, the days are perfect, with blue skies, vast horizons and the delightful warm winter sun.

Principality of Hutt River, WA

Near 600klm north of Perth in WA, in a quiet valley, sits Australia’s only Principality. The  75sq klm, former sheep station and wheat farm of Hutt River, sits just off the coastline of SW WA and is Australia’s only Independent Sovereign State and micro-nation. In a  secession from the Government of Aus’ in 1970 the Principality was born in the controversy of a new Province. The secession was inspired because of wheat quota’s, unfairly distributed by the WA Government of the day, that would have proven a great hardship for the station, destroying the livelihood of a collection of Aussie families. Appeals against the fractional wheat quota were unsuccessful, so Prince Leonard seceded, and in doing so he created an independent province to survive. Survive he did, and what was to become the only Principality or micro nation within the borders of Australia. The Province, now a Principality was born.

Lost Worlds – Aboriginal Australia

One of the greatest farces of Australian History is that commonly the history taught to our children only takes into account the last 200 years or so of cultural development. It is almost as though our centres of Education, chose not to acknowledge that our history is over 50,000 years and more of continual cultural development. Culture is about us all… and the many facets of a land, facets which make the gem, that is Aus’, dance in the light. Our culture, in all its facets, is the longest continuing culture in the world. It is that which is still within our reach to preserve, given the tools available to us… writing and the building of record, this to share down through the ages. It is not only a farce that we ignore what is a real treasure in our own time, but a tragedy that we should be so ignorant.

Research is a large part of my writing, the stories I scribe and the tales I tell. Recently I came across a remarkable Doco’ … Did I mention that I love YouTube as a resource amongst other assets of the Internet… Well I came across a wonderful piece of work and I wanted to share it with you. Its a Doco… largely presenting the culture of Arnhem Land and its a treasure, well worth the hour to watch.

Penguin Island and the Swan Plain Karst, WA

Back in the Jurassic, in the time when the dinosaurs of Gondwana roamed along the Western Australian shores, the foundation was laid down on the floor of the ocean for the subterranean caves that dive deep into the limestone beds found around Perth. This in part is the Swan Plain Karst, a broad shore of Limestone that has been carved and fashioned by the subterranean rivers that flow beneath our feet, and in land movement over the ages.

Crystal Cave – Yanchep National Park WA

Fresh from our journey through the Oondiri Caves and not far from our discovery of the Mole Creek Caves (upcoming in the free on-line mag’ RV Daily), our mind is still focused and fascinated with the Limestone Karsts of Aus’. As such, knowing that Western Australia’s SW region has large Limestone Karsts in their own right, the Leeuwin-Naturaliste Karst and the Swan Coastal Plain in particular, we started to take a good look around Perth where we are now stationed for a month or two.

Tasmania and Travellers Rest Area’s

Having just returned from our adventures in Tasmania we are growing once more accustomed to the life of the traveller as we move up through the eastern seaboard. We are at the present preparing to cross the Oondiri Plain once more and spend the winter months in WA but more about that later.