Vaucluse House - Sydney

With a long weekend planned in Sydney to attend the Opera on the Harbour, I felt it was necessary for Mum and I to incorporate a few historical houses into our trip.
When last in Melbourne we'd done Ripponlea and Como House and I was hoping for at least one equivalent in Sydney.
I found two that were open at suitable times. Elizabeth Bay House, just around the corner from where we were staying, and Vaucluse House.

West Australian Wildflowers - Wireless Hill

Dad was the one who discovered that the native orchids were in bloom at Wireless Hill, and it being Father's Day, he decided that that was the perfect place to spend the morning. 

C.Y.O'Connor Beach

Off South Beach

Being located on the water, Fremantle is a port after all, one of the things I like to do while house sitting in the area is to head down to C.Y.O'Connor Beach to explore the wrecks and memorial, and watch the setting sun.

My first venture down,several years ago now, had been purely accidental; arriving at South Beach an hour before sunset, I didn't feel like hanging around and so rode south, past the cattle slip lanes before climbing over the sand dues and onto the beach. There, about 50 metres off the coast, partially submerged in the waves, is a statue of a man on a horse. It is the memorial to C.Y.O'Connor who committed suicide off this beach in 1902.

O'Connor is one of this state's great engineers. He is responsible for the transformation of Fremantle Harbour into the commercial success it is today and for the pipeline that transported water from the Perth hills to Kalgoorlie to support the growing gold rush.

The Porongurups and Drive Home

As we were 'in the area' and had an afternoon at our fingertips we headed towards the Porongurups. 

Researching Lower Kalgan

Common Forest Heath

Having heard of our reason for visiting Albany, our host Jim suggested that we talk to one of his friends Don, a historian of the area.
Discovering that the property in my novel would likely have been an orchard, he suggested we head out in the direction of Lower Kalgan to check out the scenery.

By today's standards Lower Kalgan is about 20 minutes north east of Albany town centre, but 100 years ago, it is likely that it would have taken closer to an hour to make the journey, particularly as it is possible the route was a little less direct than the one we took.

Dawn on the Princess Royal Harbour

I'm not really a dawn person.
I much prefer staying up late into the night reading or writing and then spending the morning curled up in a warm bed, maybe with a purring hot water bottle.

However, with it being the middle of winter and the sun rising after 7 am, and being on holidays, and being surrounded by beautiful scenery and being in Albany to see the scenery, I declared that I wanted to see the sun rise one of the mornings we were in Albany.

Albany Wind Farm

The final stop of our day in the Torndirrup National Park was the Albany Wind Farm. 

However before the hugging and the singing, we decided we needed afternoon tea. 

Torndirrup National Park - Stony Peak

Next stop on our sun drenched tour of the Torndirrup National Park was Stony Peak. 

A location, during the war, for a signal lookout, now it is the perfect place to sit whale spotting or just soak in the beauty of the surrounding landscape. 

In the foreground is an iron nail, remnant from the rock's use as a signal lookout.

Torndirrup National Park - Salmon Holes and the Blowholes

I think I'll let the photos of Salmon Holes do all the talking.

Torndirrup National Park - Frenchman's Bay

I'd planned to spend Saturday in the town of Albany checking out the historical buildings, visiting a few museums and house museums..
However when we woke to blue skies and sunshine, Claire suggested that we make the most of the weather and spend the day in the National Park instead.
Couldn't have asked for a more excellent suggestion.

William Bay National Park

Our extensive research on the internet led us to add Green's Pool and Elephant Rocks to our list. They were a stones throw from each other within William Bay National Park on our route towards Albany.

And we were pleased as punch with this decision.

Valley of the Giants

Our first official stop on Friday's journey from Bridgetown to Albany (after breakfast) was the Valley of the Giants,

Located just out of Walpole, this allows you to wander through the canopy and undergrowth of a Red Tingle forest.
Turning off the hwy, we were delighted by the sunlight streaming in and hitting the straight slender trunks of the trees that lined the road.

Bridgetown and Beyond

Many of my childhood holidays were spent in the South West of this state, and yet sadly, I have barely any memories of my time there. All right, I was about 5 years old then, maybe 7, but the few snippets of memory I do have of those holidays cannot be placed in the landscape.

I remember walking around a caravan park early in the morning in wet duck-bill slippers. I couldn't tell you it was Albany. 

I remember playing on a boat in a park which was lower than the road. Don't ask me where. 

I remember the interior of Granddad's car as we drove down to Albany for a holiday. I don't remember the holiday though.
I remember the carpark of the place we stayed in Albany when we were on our way to Esperence. I remember the carpark of the Albany YHA. That, it would seem, is my only memory of Albany?

So... As I have no memory of being down in this neck of the woods, yet knowing I've been here, and having set part of my novel in Albany, I thought it was about time I visited it. 

The landscape needed confirming, the angle of the sunlight at 16:00 within one of the buildings, the view down York St. Additionally, there were historical buildings I'd discovered that needed visiting.
Just don't get me started on the location of the Albany Library.

Cape Naturaliste

Bunker Beach

The beauty of the South-West is something of which I am always aware, and yet I find myself undertaking very few opportunities to actually head down and enjoy it.

Illuminated Rabbits of the South Perth foreshore

I first saw the rabbits in London, in and around Royal Festival Hall. One of them lay outside the door lazily ignoring the stream of people entering the hall. The others were indoors (out of the rain) wedged into the foyer between the pillars and cantilevered upper levels.
Though they had space, they still managed to look cramped and somewhat bored.

Recently, and somewhat appropriately,  they migrated to Perth and are spending this week on Sir James Mitchell Park enjoying the fresh air and views of the city. Managed by a number of staff, they are open to the elements and to the visitors who swarm all around them and crawl between their front legs.

Dissecting Documents

Starting a new life halfway around the world, in a time before the internet and digital files, you would have had to make sure you took all the necessary documents with you; Job references, proof of education, proof of identity, birth certificates, death certificates...

Many of these documents were indeed brought out by my grandfather. There are wads of job references, not just for himself but surprisingly, also for his late father. Documents documenting his mother's places of residence since her marriage to Joseph. Certificates of education, later translated from the original French into English in my grandfather's florid hand.

Documents that don't appear as yet to have made it to Fremantle include my Grandfather's birth certificate.

Another set of documents that did make it though, neatly bundled together, was the marriage certificate of his parents Joseph Armarego and Assunta Morello,

also, the death certificate of Joseph Armarego.

and a couple of documents that identify Assunta as the sole executor and beneficiary of her husband's estate.

This in itself seems a little strange. Why were these documents seemingly more valuable that they were brought to Australia but copies of the boys' birth certificates were not?

The answer is actually present in an accompanying letter, written by Assunta's son Oswald to the Department of Social Services.

Being a British subject by birth herself and widow of a British subject by birth, Assunta was eligible for a Widow's Pension, not just in the British colony of Alexandria, but also once they landed in Australia.

This collection of documents was necessary to prove her eligibility with the Australian Department of Social Services.

I don't know whether her application was successful, I never knew the circumstances at a time when I could ask.
I would assume she did, not only because they seem to have been a determined family (see the correspondence of the journey out), but because I've only heard stories of my grandfather supporting her financially for the first few years after their arrival here. It was this  later fact that stopped Oswald and Violet from marrying the moment Oswald arrived, but were instead forced to wait a few years. 

Writing Away - Yallingup

Writing a novel, in fact doing writing of any kind becomes exceedingly difficult when there is the internet within your grasp. Particularly when it brings with it the opportunity to continually learn.
So when Claire offered an opportunity to accompany her on a weekend retreat to Yallingup I jumped at the offer.

20 Minutes Out (Whistlepipe Gully)

Family friends are disappearing off to Germany for a sabbatical and so last weekend they dragged us on a bushwalk to Whistlepipe gully. Located this side of the hills, barely 20 minutes out of Perth, Mundy Regional Park/Whistlepipe Gully with the requisite water course for J (the 9 year old), rocks to ramble over for those who eschew the beaten track, and native flowers for the photographers.

Despite the reaction of the garden to this beautiful weather, we naturally assumed that the native flowers would not yet be out. So imagine our delight to be able to point out a collection to rival those in Mum's back yard.
Thankful that I had brought my camera, I quickly trailed behind the others (including J who was in search of water and a lunch spot), but was glad to catch the quirkiness of the native flowers in the sunshine.

Crawling up an embankment to photograph a pseudo Scottish thistle (this one not a Dryandra I'm told)...

... and the view back down the valley...

I stumbled upon an outcrop of Donkey Orchids which I think sent a cry of delight though our group and directed our eyes towards finding more for the duration of the day. 

While this spot had the water J was after, it  was scarcely two minutes from the car, and so did not qualify as a suitable lunch spot. 

Following the gully upstream we often had the roar of a waterfall or gurgle of the stream, or on one particular occasion the joy of being five billy goats gruff tramping over the bridge of a J troll ready to hurl mud pies at each and every one of us. 

Wandering off the beaten track and away from the onslaught of waves of dogs, we discovered more wonders, many of which I was visually familiar with, even if I had no clue as to the plant's name or family.
Often, the raw and striking beauty and sharp colour, a flash in an otherwise dusky landscape, were enough to catch my interest.

Something that almost looks like an edelwiess orchid with every petal covered in a downy white fur.

Something cool and alien-like

More donkey orchids though these looked bigger and slightly different from the ones we had encountered earlier.

A kangaroo paw (or relative) illuminated in the sunlight.

A colour combination I always refer to as Eggs & Bacon, but possibly a different plant. 

A Hovea (known simply because Mum kept pointing it out)

Something delicate

As is typical of the Australian bush, there were fallen trees and branches throughout the scrub, some big, some small, some beautifully decorated by nature, the presence of termites being the only thing keeping us from contemplating carrying it home.

In other places the scars of an old forest fire still remained. 

A sea of green and gold the spiky wattle carpeting a small corner of the valley.

A miniature world on the side of logs, along the length of cracks, or dipping down the side of granite boulders.

Looking down onto the Perth plain with the city in the distance.

I forget we have such beautiful places on out doorstep.