61 posts tagged “australia”
When I get a chance I have been scanning my old negatives and slides. It is fun as I find things I have forgotten and often find photos that are better than they were printed. I found these a while ago and don't remember taking them but I do like them. Also I haven't posted any train photos for a while!
One of my favourite American cars of the 60's and 70's was the Pontiac GTO. This one is a regular visitor to the Oakville Car Show.
Some, OK most, custom car owners are never happy with their car. So they are always making changes. Last year there was no silver sides.
In the comments on my last post I mentioned the Ford XC Cobra. One of the most under-rated and one of my favourite Aussie cars. Supposedly produced to clear the last of the two door coupe body shells Ford had. Not an out and out performance "racer for the road" like the earlier GTs more a luxurious high performance cruiser. The 5.8 (or 351 in cubic inches) gave effortless performance and like the whole XC range it felt smaller than it was. In Ford tradition you get any colour you wanted as long as it was white and blue. It was a limited edition and all cars carried a number on the dash. There are a few fakes, I mean "replicas" around.
I dug out these shots I took nearly a year ago so those not familiar with it can see what we were talking about.
it is still a stunning machine. The Ford GT40 is one of those mythical machines. If you see one there is a one in a 1000 chance it is real. This one is a replica, it even has a Holden engine!
The office -
At the other end of the scale in terms of size is the Lincoln Continental Mark IV
I posted a photo of a Lloyd Hartnett the other day. This was taped to the window.
There was a time a few years ago when it was common for modified cars to have extensive graphics. It is not so common to see them now. They were rare though on standard cars. Here is a Volkswagen Beetle Turbo which is almost standard apart from the paint.
For something a little different here is a Lloyd Hartnett. It was made in Australian based on a German design.
While there has been plenty of reporting on the bushfire emergency in Victoria it has been almost forgotten that much of northern Australia is flooded. Many residents have been flooded out of their homes and needed support. Fortunately there has not been the same loss of life that accompanied the bushfires.
One of the biggest industries in northern Australia is cattle. There have been substantial stock losses in that area. The result of this is that the longer term economic cost of the floods may be as high as the bushfires.
I know I haven't been around here recently. Actually it is quite a while. Things have been a bit busy. Nothing major just normal things piling up a bit which meant I didn't have much time for taking photographs or blogging. Once you get out of the habit it is not so easy to get going again.
I have visited from time to time just to see what is happening here so I haven't been a complete stranger.
Took this photo earlier in summer during a quick trip through the mountains west of Sydney.
Yesterday I visited the city for the first time in quite a while. It reminded me why I avoid trips there, too noisy and busy. While I was there I had a walk through the park on Observatory Hill which has always been one of my favourite places. I noted how the view towards the harbour wouldn't have changed much in the 76 years since the bridge was built. It is quite different on the other side on the harbour with the office buildings on North Sydney dominating the view. Dawes Point and the Rocks area between the camera and the bridge is the oldest part of Sydney and fortunately was protected from development during the Green ban period of the '70s.
For those unfamiliar with the size of the bridge the second view shows a train passing through the pylon closest to the camera.
A few days ago I posted some photos of the bridge over the Hawkesbury River. Near where I took the photos there was a post sticking out of the shallows near the bank. It was nothing unusual accept for the fact that it was encased with a sheet of copper. Most people would not realise what it was if they were not familiar with the history of the area.
Before the bridge I showed there was a low level timber bridge that served those living on the western side of the river. It was removed when the current bridge was built about 1905. However if you look carefully there is a fair bit of the original bridge remaining. The post is part of this bridge so it must be at least 150 years old, quite old for Australia.