More Easter Break (Part 4 of 5)

Cam & I spent a day in Wyalla. There was a huge boat that got rid of mines during WWII. The ship has been landed for some time now. Cam posed next to this key for the keys.




Wyalla was the port that all the iron ore from the Iron Triangle passed through. We saw a great large boat docking. The view from this hill was spectacular and just off the image to the left is a steelworks and coking plant.

They built a battery that overlooked the harbor and helped to protect the steelworks, built during WWII.



Many of the houses were typical company ones, two rooms, one chimney, all in a row. This photo has a "stubby pole" dead center. Since there are so few large trees, electrical lines are made from two old RR ties bound together by cement. They are set to slightly taper towards the sky. VERY South Australian.



We went on a large walk around a manufactured wetland just south of Port Augusta. The birds were a plenty including a family of black swans. Cam thought this pose was funny of me.



We wrapped up another day watching a sunset on these red cliffs. They were in an arid natural preserve, which we revisited before heading back to Adelaide. The sunset was gorgeous.

 

Mines Mines everywhere (3/5)

What holiday would not include a self-portrait image with me squinting!?! Cam & my trip centered on mining communities or former mines in SA that we haven't seen. We headed to an area know as The Iron Triangle that included Iron Knob. Here's a view of me squinting & an iron hillside in the far background.



The piles of waste excavated to get out the iron ore are very red because of the high iron content. Picture rusting rocks that leech into the surrounding soil. This was what is left of the once large iron knob, now just a red/black pile of dirt.



The town was right next door, and this house was not occupied, but reminded me of so many company built houses. Two rooms, one door, facing away from the mine but never escaping it.


We stayed in Port Augusta, which is at the tip of a waterway. The shipping in this town was really important & Cam and I went on a walk around the area that was a wharf. The old timbers and rail lines still run parallel to the shoreline.


We came across a sunken barge, that helped to reduce erosion to the shoreline. Finding it in the moonlight was very mysterious! Dad & all the other fishermen out there reading this, a family was fishing for something right next to this, but as far as I could tell, they didn't catch a thing.



Thee will be 2 more posts about this trip. I'll try to get to them soon, but off to read a paper before meeting up with friends this evening. LATERS YO!

Easter take 2

Easter wouldn't be complete without some eggs! We tried to boil them in our hotel room, but alas, they were very cold & cracked spewing out their white parts into the water. It was super gross, lets be honest.

Cam built a "tower of heat" alternating coffee cups with saucers and wrapping the whole thing in a towel. It worked, a bit. At least they were really pretty. Cam tried to eat one & luckily held it over a trash can as it was barely cooked.


We were in Woomera, a rocket testing facility with a 1950s community. The outdoor park was pretty wicked. This photo had me surrounded by about 15 rockets.


The rocket behind us is what is left from a joint project between the US, Britain, and Australia. It crashed landed after a successful launch.

Cam is super awesome at taking shots like this one, it was a rocket that launched the first satellite from down under.




I thought that Woomera was an amazing town, built in the 1950s and generally fantastic. My favorite part were the bus stops.

Cam was on TV!

I was very lucky to recently join a team doing an archaeological survey on Kangaroo Island for burials related to the Loch Sloy shipwreck of 1899. Hard work but a beautiful place.

 

The ABC thought it was interesting enough to follow us around for a day for a story on 7:30 SA. It came out well - beautiful photography. I provide some wisdom on an excavation we undertook - you'll have to watch to see what we found.

 

6 1/2 mins long - Enjoy!

 

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-04-23/tales-emerge-of-tragic-loch-sloy-sinking/3966856?section=sa

 

Cameron

Easter...mining style Part 1 of 5

Cam & I went on a 4.5 day road trip up north in South Australia to a bunch of different single mining communities. We began the trip to Andamooka, opal mine country.

There were dugouts built by the miners into the side of hills from local timber and mud. Well furnished and dirt floors, these places were like nothing I've ever seen. Nice and cool, which is important that far up north.


There were a row of 5 of these all built in the 1920s and 1930s. All not occupied for the last 30 years, but quite amazing.

Andamooka also is home to the beer hive room: a round room made completely from beer bottles. The light showing through and giving the glow really was special.


We pawed around in the mines that had been abandoned. Lots of quartz, some sandstone but alas, no opal. We even went "noodling" next to Andamooka's playground.


We went to the Arid Recovery Land outside of Olympic Dam. BHP has paid to reintroduce both fauna and flora into a fenced off area. The fence has a floppy top so when a cat or fox climbs up, they get afraid and fall off before getting inside. It works, trust me! Stay tuned for more shots of our Easter vacation.

Flinders Dig at Mallala

On Friday we exercised our archaeological brains with Flinders University field school. They were investigating a former pub located at the intersection of 7 roads. The remains of the pub have been plowed over for decades and most of the stone was removed.

The students flagged each artifact and then were gathering the spacial information of their location. Each one was bagged and labeled with the point data to plot back in the lab.


I surveyed a bit outside of the area plowed up recently to see how far the scatter went across the field. A beautiful working environment.


Back in MI we saw a track of a small animal in the snow & out in this field, the tire tracks reminded us of that shot. Ahh, the serenity.


The sun was setting & the pub was calling us to discussions over the historic pub we were recording for the day. One last recording before everyone packed up.

Swimming Trials @ Marion

Cam & I went to the Australian Swimming Championships the week of March 20th and really had a fantastic time watching all the swimming. This is the qualifying race for the London 2012 Olympics.

Check out the two Beefeaters down in the lower left of this photo. Two guys in red coats with the tall black hats. Adelaide's version of guards for the royals weren't as stiff as those in London, but they were entertaining & they danced.


Lots of finishes were extremely close like this one. I really love the butterfly, people powering through the water only raising forth to look ahead every few strokes. Its really powerful (my version, not so much). The guy that is two from the top has already won this race and is lifting his head as the guy second from the bottom just reaches the wall.


This is Libby Trickett, who has returned from retirement to enter her 4th Olympics. She just made the team when I took this shot & she was elated. Not only an amazing athlete, but also a spectacular role model. Keep an eye out for her in London everyone.


Cam snapped this "best shot" of the night - the start of a women's backstroke, I think. I hope the woman at the bottom closes her mouth soon.


Of course there was lots of competition, but also quite a bit of camaraderie. These two have been training together for years and they placed right next to each other. A healthy rivalry if I ever saw one.


My favorite moment over the course of both nights was this victory. I can't remember the whole story, but she has just found out that she won the race & I think she managed to beat her personal best record. When they interviewed her, she was so happy, she couldn't talk.

Neither Cam nor I are really much into following swimming as a sport, but these trials were really exciting. We rode our bikes to the pool & had a great couple of evenings. The scent of chlorine with a dash of Beefeaters and lots of splashing has set the stage for us for the Olympics.