28 December - Across the Nullarbor!!

28 December 2016 – 201 776

Across the Nullarbor!!

This morning we were up and away early – and heading east!  Today we drove 775km, by far our biggest driving day so far, and we were still stopped and set up well before dark.  We stopped at every service station and lookout along the way, but there isn’t much to stop and see along the way.  The lookouts provided magnificent views over the coastal plains and the cliffs of the Great Australian Bight.  The Nullarbor Plain is very aptly named indeed, there is not a single tree visible to the horizon.   There are at least four RFDS Emergency Airstrip sections on the Eyre Highway, so best to keep watch for incoming planes.  We have stopped for the night at Nundroo East Rest Area, a beautiful spot.

https://www.australia.com/en/trips-and-itineraries/perth-and-surrounds/crossing-the-nullarbor.html

https://www.australiasgoldenoutback.com/business/attractions/nullarbor-plain#:~:text=The%20Nullarbor%20Plain%20stretches%20between,short%20detour%20from%20the%20highway.

https://parksaustralia.gov.au/marine/parks/south-west/great-australian-bight/

https://directory.fullrangecamping.com.au/item/nundroo-east-rest-area-fc/

10 August - NT Parliament House, RFDS and Bombing of Darwin Exhibit

10 August 2016 – 182 196

NT Parliament House, RFDS and Bombing of Darwin Exhibit

This morning we did a tour of the Northern Territory Parliament House. https://parliament.nt.gov.au/about/tours-of-parliament-house

It is a beautiful building designed to cope with cyclones and using natural light very extensively with lots of small windows and highly reflective walls and floors.  They have also used road base compressed and highly polished to be like a brown granite – it is amazing what they have achieved with this, you would never guess it was road base.  The outdoor area has the most amazing views of the harbour and is beautiful. The State Library is in Parliament House, it has a beautiful quilt made from patches signed by individuals who were in Darwin during WW2, who returned for the 50th anniversary. https://dtc.nt.gov.au/arts-and-museums/northern-territory-library/a-territory-story-exhibition/darwin-commemorative-wall-quilt

We then walked back to the car via the Wave Pool – for those living on the Sunshine Coast this looks pretty ordinary, you can’t ride the waves, just bop up and down in them – but given there is no swimmable surf beach for a very great distance I can see its appeal to locals.  After a picnic lunch, we visited the Royal Flying Doctors Tourist Centre and Bombing of Darwin Exhibit. https://www.rfdsdarwin.com.au/  This was a true multi-media experience.  As well as the Royal Flying Doctors aircraft to look through, there were various holograms with touch screens to tell you about their role in the RFDS. 

There were also two holographic movies that lasted about 20 minutes each, one on the foundation of the RFDS and one on the Bombing of Darwin from a US naval officers perspective.  There was a large open area with rails that showed a short presentation of the bombing of Darwin with an aerial map inside the rails and a land based view of the harbour on a screen.  The coolest part though was a virtual reality headset experience of the bombing of Darwin – this included sound, 360 degree vision, and the seat shaking and vibrating etc.  Very realistic!  This took Hayden several goes to manage as the reality of the visual movement tended to create motion sickness. I think after the last few days he understands that war is not glorious, that while men do very courageous things during war, the destruction, terror and loss of life that goes with it are devastating.  Another evening listening to planes take off and land as part of Exercise Pitch Black. https://news.defence.gov.au/media/media-releases/exercise-pitch-black-2016-aircraft-arrivals

Cosmos Centre - Day and Night, Weather Station Tour and Graham Andrews Parklands (Natural Sciences Loop)

Monday 4 April 2016 – 167 243 – 36 °C

"Thing" that releases the weather balloon

Weather balloon on its way up with the sensor hanging below

We began the day with a trip to the Bureau of Meteorology.  We watched the meteorologist record the daily observations – evaporation, minimum and maximum temperatures, rainfall, soil temperatures at 10cm, 20cm and 50cm.  We also got to watch the weather balloon go up.  It rises at 300m/s to height of 32km or more and has a GPS tracker that allows information to be sent back from up to 12km.  This information is used for weather forecasting.

Observing the sun

Photo taken down the eyepiece of the telescope

Meteorites

Next for the day was the Cosmos Centre – to view the Sun! Using a specialised telescope, we could look at the Sun – we could see two areas of solar flares and a sunspot.  We found out all sorts of cool facts about the Sun and Solar System! We then had a tour of the Meteorites at the Cosmos Centre, where they explained the different types of meteorites. “Jack” is about 15cm long and less then 10cm in diameter, and yet is 1.7kg – extremely dense.

https://www.cosmoscentre.com/

Stop 3 for the day was the Graham Andrews Parklands.  We had a picnic lunch and then followed the “Outback Native Timber Walk”.  This displayed various species of native tree with information panels explaining the indigenous and non-indigenous uses for the plants.

https://www.murweh.qld.gov.au/graham-andrews-parklands

Stop 4 was the Royal Flying Doctor Service Visitor Centre.  This had some great displays, including sample calls we could listen to and a current version of the RFDS chest that is at stations for use in conjunction with advice from RFDS staff.

https://www.queensland.com › Consumer › Attraction

After dinner, we headed back to the Cosmos Centre for Aboriginal Night Sky Stories.  This was presented by Shelley, a local aboriginal lady.  She was quite nervous at speaking initially but warmed up and did very well. Shelley explained that aboriginal people look at the black spaces between the stars when interpreting the sky, rather than using the stars in a dot-to-dot fashion.  She also explained how to see the emu in the sky, warrior in the sky and the crocodile in the northern sky.  Shelley also told us the Barramundi dreamtime story about two young lovers who ran away from the girls arranged marriage.  Really enjoyed this session!!

https://www.cosmoscentre.com/