Category Archives: Qld

Reflections

Australia, AWC, Bowra, Bowra, Charnley River - Artesian Range, Kimberley, lakes, landscape, Landscape, Mornington, Mornington, Newhaven, Qld

While on The Kimberley Trip the Doc was working on some work broadly called Reflections, enjoy:

Cadjeput Waterhole
Port of Broome

ODO Update #Final

Australia, AWC, NSW, Qld

This Kimberley/Pilbara Trip has finished. The final Odometer milestones were:

  • Grafton, NSW, 80,000kms (estimate as The Doc is relaxing in Ballina, NSW)
  • Augathella, Central Queensland, 79,000kms
  • Boulia (home of the Min Min Light), Outback Queensland, 78,000kms
  • AWC’s Newhaven Sanctuary, Northern Territory, 77,000kms.

Pilbara RAW 2015 - 0258_stitch

Kangaroo Karnage

Australia, Qld

CARNAGE, CARNAGE, CARNAGE. In an earlier post The Doc commented “The first 5 kilometres out of Barcaldine was like a kangaroo slaughter house.” Barcaldine (pronounced Bar-cool-den) is on the way to Longreach, the birthplace of QANTAS in Outback Queensland.

The Doc made the return trip yesterday. Kangaroo and wallaby carcasses were littered everywhere: grey ones, red ones, young ones, old ones, small ones, big ones, all dead. To give some idea of the scale of the carnage, the road is 110km long, there is a carcass every 5 meters, giving a total of over 22,000 carcasses. If someone said The Doc was wrong, the real figure is 50,000 carcasses The Doc would not argue the point.

One grey nomad commented over the UHF radio: “I have never seen so many dead roos”. Even the truck drivers were discussing the body count.

The area is gripped by a severe drought drawing the roos to the roadside and their deaths. The least number of carcasses is now on that first 5 kilometres out of Barcaldine!

GRR Return 2015 - 0086

The Cape – Australia’s far north – the final day

Australia, AWC, Brooklyn, Cape York, Landscape, landscape, Piccaninny Plains, Qld, river/creeks, trees, Wildlife

The final day of the trip from Weipa to Port Douglas, via Piccaninny Plains, Oyala Thumotang National Park, Archer & Coen Rivers, Coen, Lakefield National Park, AWC’s Brooklyn Sanctuary and its luxurious mountain rainforests of this World Heritage Listed area.Report and photos here. Enjoy.

 

Cape York – tricks used

Australia, Cape York, Landscape, mountains, Qld

There are a few challenges spending 4 days shooting from a helicopter. A few tricks The Doc used:

  • he fitted a 24-70mm lense. This gave enough range to take different landscape shots from the helicopter. This Canon lense is very sharp. Because you are further away from the subject in a helicopter you, can shoot at F8, rather than F11 or higher. However you cannot zoom close in, the reason why the helicopter got close to the first crocodile. You could have 2 cameras, but that becomes hard to handle – The Doc tried and gave up after the first session;
  • focus one third down the frame. So The Doc moved the focus point to the bottom of the frame for many, but not all photos;
  • be conscious of the horizon. In a helicopter it is changed all the time, tilting left, than right or up and down. Be conscious of the camera being level when shooting. Exceptions can be made, for example, when the horizon is not in the shot;
  • take several shots, you have fewer keepers. Extra memory cards are much cheaper than hiring the helicopter again;
  • constant autofocus was used, not one shot mode as the helicopter is moving most of the time;
  • use the camera which has the best autofocus, one that can lock focus quickly;
  • the closer your focus point is to the helicopter, the more likely the photo will be blurred. Pointing sharply downwards needs a higher shutter speed, than looking straight out the door. More blurry pictures resulted from this than all other causes added together on the Trip.
  • There is harsh light around the Cape, so early on The Doc attached a Singh Ray Circular Polarising Filter (CPF), perhaps the best choice he made. The CPF reduced significantly, but did not eliminate, the harsh reflections. The CPF needs to be readjusted occasionally.

Cape York HeliTrip Day 1 - 0141

Cape York – Day 3

Australia, Cape York, coastal, lakes, Landscape, Qld, reptiles, river/creeks

Probably the shortest day of the trip in the air, from The Tip to Weipa. The geography is not was varied on the west coast of the Cape, but plenty of rivers and lakes. Report and pictures here.

Cape York – the magic continues

Australia, Cape York, coastal, Landscape, ocean, plains, Qld, reptiles, river/creeks, sand dunes, seascape, Wildlife

The magic continues, Day 2 of the Cape York Helicopter Trip. Report and photos are here.

The croc in the tannin coloured water is a 14 foot long!

Cape York HeliTrip Day 2 - 0076

Or a WWII Bell P-39 Aircobra, recently discovered after going down over 70 years ago.

Cape York HeliTrip Day 2 - 0234

Picca in the wet season

Australia, AWC, Cape York, Landscape, Piccaninny Plains, Qld, Wildlife

Last year The Doc visited Piccaninny Plains on Cape York, an AWC event. That visit inspired the helicopter Cape York trip this year.

Bungie, who The Doc met at the Piccaninny event, was the pilot who flew him all over The Cape. This time we flew over Picca (its nickname) on Day 4. We were going to land but a late start due to rain meant we could not. The Doc took some wet season photos and the Report and photos are here.