Australia Day

When we realized that Australia Day, January 26, this year fell on a Thursday, and many people turn it into a 4 day weekend by taking Friday off, we set about changing my plane ticket home so that we could have a 4 day weekend together before I trundled off home into the Californian winter. And because Woodside had purchased a flexible ticket for my ride back, it worked out beautifully.

So what's Australia Day? Chris asked around at work to find out. Everyone knew it was Australia's national holiday, but no one remembered exactly what it was commemorating and why it was on January 26.

So to you all you have forgotten, or never knew (thank you Wikipedia): "Australia Day commemorates the arrival of the English Fleet at Sydney Cove in 1788 and the proclamation at that time of British sovereignty over the eastern seaboard of New Holland." The arrival and founding of Australia, however, was just as messy and full of fits and starts as today. So the choice of January 26, 1787 as the "real date of arrival" is not a trivial decision. I really enjoyed the detailed account of arrival dates in Wikipedia which I've recapped here:    

1. Between January 18 and 20, 1788, Captain Arthur Phillip commanded a fleet of 11 ships to establish a penal colony at Botany Bay (reported to be a suitable site 18 years earlier by James Cook). But it wasn't suitable, so the arrival day at Botany Bay was not so good for "the arrival date."
2. Between January 21 and 23, Captain Phillip scouted out a site 12 km to the north that was suitable and named it Sydney Cove. But since the fleet was not with him, that could hardly be called the arrival date.
3. On January 23rd, Capt Phillip goes back to Botany Bay and gives orders to move to Sydney Cove on the 24th, which would have been the arrival day, except that there was a huge gale. So he said, OK lets try for the 25th. (You can see what this is leading up to.....)
4. On the 25th it was still blowing. Only the HMS Supply, with Capt Phillip and hi sload of marines and convicts was able to make it out and they anchored in Sydney Cove, but did not go ashore. So not the 25th....
5. And then on the 26th, Capt Phillips went ashore AND the remaining ships joined him in Sydney Cove. It's not clear if this would have been "the arrival date," if the remaining ships had not been able to join him, and they almost didn't. For you see, all hell had broken loose back in Botany Bay with remaining ships trying the get out of the Bay under gale force winds, apparently all at the same time. Here are some of my favorite lines from the Wikipedia version:

 "The Sirius successfully cleared Botany Bay....the Charlotte was blown dangerously close to rocks; the Friendship and the Prince of Wales became entangled....; the Charlotte and the Friendship actually collided; and the Lady Penrhyn nearly ran aground."

Poor Lady Penrhyn. It was a mad house! But the last ship anchored in Sydney Cove about 3 pm. And THAT was the founding of a New South Whales.

  

"Although taken years later, this early photograph

of Botany Bay (c.1869) gives a flavour of what

the first fleeters first set eyes on. (PRONI

Ref: D24/12/D/1)." From http://www.proni.gov.uk/

 

That's Sydney at the top and Botany Bay in the middle
From http://tides.mobilegeographics.com/locations/682.html



And of course, none of this would have happened if it hadn't been for those damn rebellious colonies in the Americas. The settlement in New South Wales was only seen as necessary because England had just lost 13 colonies in North America. So all those convicts probably would have ended up over here.

And if Botany Bay HAD been suitable, or the gale force winds had decided NOT to kick up on the 24th and 25th, then 234 years later, Claudia Luke would not have changed her plane ticket and would not have had a lovely four more days of vacation with her husband Chris Halle in Cottesloe.  

Moving Weekend: From CBD to Cottesloe

On January 21, we packed up our gear at the Mounts Bay Waters, loaded up the rental car, and drove out to the apartment in Cottesloe. Without all the furniture and other usual paraphenalia, it was the simplest move we've ever made. A few suitcases, a few bags of groceries, and we were done.

Here's a video of the view from the livingroom looking out on the tennis courts. The beach is one block away on the other side of the tennis courts.

One of our first visitors was Ned, Harry's son's family dog. This impromptu visit (he let himself in) was a very good thing because I was by now in terrible dog deficit. Ned is a "good dog."

New fan purchased to ease our plight

One of the challenges of the Cottesloe apartment is that it doesn't have air conditioning....yet. The first time we looked at the apartment, we told Georgia that our only concern was that there was no air conditioning and we were concerned that Chris wouldn't be able to sleep in the heat. Harry and Robin were already thinking of installing air conditioning, so they quickly arranged for an installation. The earliest the AC company could come was February 14. And, unfortunately for us, the following weekend a 40 year record-breaking heatwave hit the coast.


The debilitating effects of heatwaves





Chris Posing As An Australian at the Kings Park Boab

Winery Tour Up the Swan River

Bus ride out of Perth

Surprise! Chris bought us tickets for a day-long wine tasting trip in the Swan River wine county on Jan 14th. The itinerary was:

Get on bus in Perth
Taste wine at stop 1
Taste wine at stop 2
Taste wine and eat lunch at stop 3
Taste chocolate at stop 4
Taste wine at stop 5
Get on boat and go back to Perth along river

What We Learned About the Swan Wine Region

The region, which is just 30 miles inland of Perth on the alluvial plain of the Swan, began producing wine around the same time as our northern California vinyards in the 1800s. What we learned on the trip (though no one was so crass as to point this out to us) is that the wine region may be the oldest wine region in Western Australia, but it doesn't produce the best wines, unless you're fond of dry dry dry wines. Growers here have to harvest their grapes in early or mid summer before the grape juice boils on the vine. So there's not much sugar in the grapes...at all. We can now read between the lines on the websites when they say things like:

•  "The Swan Valley is especially known for its fortified wines, produced with help from the hot Perth Summer."
• "The region is of great historical significance to the development of the Australian wine industry."

but then don't say anything about the wines.

The region is of great historical significance because it led to a wine industry elsewhere that did produce great wines. The Margaret River is about 250 miles south of Perth and doesn't have Perth's hot summers. So they are able to harvest in the Fall when there is some sugar in the grapes.

Needless to say, the Swan River wineries only judge their wines against other Swan River wineries. So now we know what it means to be an award winning Swan River wine. Of all the wines, our favorite was a port which was quite tastey and unusual since it was so dry. "The Swan Valley is especially known for its fortified wines, produced with help from the hot Perth Summer."

What We Learned About Ourselves

Perky Chris in hat

At the first winery we are perky. Chris and his jaunty hat appear in this photo of a patio at the oldest operating cellar in the Swan River region. (Don't ask the name, I can't remember). The winery was built from the traditional limestone which is still commonly used for higher end new construction.

We tasted all of the wines that they offered and ended up buying the chili flavored olive oil at the olive oil bar.

At the second winery we are happy. It is a smaller family operation. Four more wines to taste and back on the bus.



At the third winery we are intimidated by the thought of more wine. The winery is Houghtons, one of the best known and oldest wineries in the Swan River region. We are encouraged to taste the wines and decide which one we want to have with lunch. Lunch is served at a long table in the cellar which is wonderfully cool (it ws a HOT day). The food is great, and oddly my choice of white wine (Houghtons Classic White) is much more enjoyable with lunch than Chris's bolder red wine. I can't even remember what his wine was...a mixture of something. They often mix a Swan River and Margaret River grapes to bring some depth to the wine.  

A still happy Chris


After a brief chocolate factory tasting (3 kinds of chocolate: dark, milk and white) and a free chocolate truffel, we go to the fourth winery. Chris is starting to get angry at the whole idea of wine tasting. What the hell are they thinking? How can they expect anyone to continue to enjoy this? Don't they know this can't be good for you? I put my head down and taste most of the wines anyway. Not that we can really taste anything. I have a sneaking suspicion that this is the best winery we've been to yet, but there is no way to figure that out.

We stumble onto a boat headed back to Perth. Here are some visible side effects of our trip:

This may look mild to you, but the next couple days were really a bear. Slow, dragging, headachy. This wine tasting stuff is best left to the professionals.

Karaoke singing boat crew entertained us all the way home. We were happy to see the CBD. 

Heirisson or Heirrison? Kangaroos!

I feel like it's lying to blog about a trip after returning home. Right around Jan 19th we moved into the new apartment in Cottesloe which did not have internet, and it became harder to post. So since there's a big gap in our story and I have some nice pictures to post, I've decided to add a few more until I return to Australia (early June) to "do more stuff worthy of a blog."

We had heard that there were kangaroos in Perth living on an island in the Swan River. Since we still hadn't seen any kangaroos since arriving in Australia, we decided one evening to drive the couple of miles from the Mounts Bay Waters apartment to the island. The place is nothing to write home about (she said, writing home about it) - sor of a non-descript flat sandy island rimmed by marsh lands. The Stirling Highway crosses the Swan Riverin two jumps, landing in the middle of the river on Heirisson Island.



Sign to left of gate

We parked the car on the north bank of the River in the Park;s parking lot and paid the $4 parking fee. The bike/pedestrian pathway takes you onto the Stirling Highway bridge and then dumps you onto a dirt path on the south side of the island. We followed the path until we reached a gate in a long stretch of chain link fence. A sign on the right side of the gate providing the correct spelling of Heirrison Island and a sign on the left side of the gate providing the correct spelling of Heirisson Island.  

Sign to Right of Gate

 
















Chris fleeing mosquitos



Passing through the gate, we found the island was open and its edges are marshy. We peered hopefully around for large hopping marsupials the size of small cows. First all we got was a face full of mosquitos. Especially Chris, who is a mosquito magnet (magnate?). I have several pictures of our walk with Chris in them. In each, he is way ahead of me trying to move faster than the mosquitos.



You wouldn't think that kangaroos would be hard to find on an open flat island. And we did eventually. Here are three for you to discover like we did.

Three kangaroos

And then later we got to see a couple up close and personal like. Now that's more like it!

A Vegemite Sandwich

The pictures say it all.....