I sold my home in Brisbane last year and I’ve now decided to live in a part of Australia known as The Blue Mountains.
According to Wikipedia the mountains are not as the name suggests, a range of mountains, “but rather a series of cliffs surrounding a plateau with rugged eroded gorges of up to 760 metres depth”.
This view over Jamison’s Valley is a short walk from my new home
The town of Katoomba, where I live, is surrounded by national park or conservation reserve and I’m enjoying the great diversity of birdlife in my garden.
Gang-Gang Cockatoo, Katoomba, January 31, 2008
Satin Bower Bird, Katoomba, January 27, 2008
And along with the new house and garden, I’ve got a new hair cut and hair colour. The glasses are old, but I usually take them off for photographs!
Jennifer with new hair colour, Katoomba, January 31, 2008
Jennifer Marohasy BSc PhD is a critical thinker with expertise in the scientific method.
Oh nooo! AGW is true – Jen has headed for the hills! Sea rise is imminent!
Kidding 🙂
Looks Fantastic! Can you send me Gang-Gang Cockatoo? I’ve rather taken to these creatures since they sat on my shoulder in Spain!
Nice male gang-gang photo. A gang-gang in Spain? Were they an ex-pat or on holiday? Keep an eye out for lots of interesting reptiles and inverts up there.
Not actually a Gang-Gang in Spain, but various parrots/cockatoo used in a show.
Hi Paul,
The Gang-Gang has a distribution that extends south to King Island in Bass Strait so it may not be too cold in the UK.
As pets they are apparently prone to boredom: http://www.centralpets.com/animals/birds/parrots/prt799.html
Not a good idea to try and smuggle them out of Australia: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/5187326.stm
You may be able to get one here: http://www.ckcbirds.co.uk/australian_cockatoos.htm
The most common bird about Katoomba is probably the sulfur-crested cockatoo.
Jen Ahem….one does not live in the mountains,one lives on the mountains! .By the way don’t invite a sulphur crested cockatoo around he’ll bring his mates and they will trash your joint starting with balcony railings and window sills. Party animals!!
Wow! What a brave new Jennifer. I hope you are not prone to sleep walking.
Running away from the rising sea levels are you Jen?
Gore has struck again.
I was living in a flood prone part of Brisbane – the location was convenient while my daughter was growing up as the house was close to schools, railway station etcetera. And yes, it will flood again – it went under 4 metres in the 1974 flood and the predicted maximum (with the Wivenhoe Dam) is now just 2 metres.
I won’t know for a few more years whether I sold at the right time or not in terms of overall trends – house prices in the area are apparently still going up and despite widespread flooding in Queensland, the southeast still has water restrictions and Chelmer hasn’t flooded yet.
But, I think I sold at the right time for me.
And, yes, now living about 1,000 metres above sealevel on the edge of a cliff I am not worrying at all about being flooded out. 😉
You are now officially a cockroach Jen.
and the new disguise wont help you a bit if you try to come north again….he he.
Hope the move went well. It’s a nice spot a bit cold from time to time.
John,
Doesn’t that depend on which side I barrack for in the state of origin?
My father was a big Brisbane Lion’s fan – and then his nephew’s son started playing for the Sydney Swans and wasn’t he conflicted …particularly given Ed’s first game was against the Lions ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ed_Barlow )!
Living on a cliff Jennifer….
…you could ask Luke to drop by
Jennifer
It’s a beautiful part of the world I’m sure you’ll love it there.
rog,
I like to spend a bit of time walking down in those valleys. Watching out for falling rocks is one thing but falling Lukes will be just too much.
Well, Jen, you may not get flooded by rising sea levels up there, but you are going to get wet.
There is a great little disused motor racing track in Catalina park. In the 16, or 18 times I raced there, there were only 2 meetings when we did not get rained on, sometime over the weekend.
I can remember another meeting when the spectators started getting a bit upest. The fog was so thick, that it was only after the third race that they could see the track. It was a bit “hairy” racing, that day, too.
Ultimately the spectators, & some of the drivers, got sick of getting wet, stopped comming, & the track closed.
This track was like Bathurst, in the old days, when the slightest mistake ment you hit something, & I loved it.
I know they still have car shows there, & I believe the track is still there. If so, have a look at it, & imagine comming down into the dip, from the high point, at 150 MPH plus, in a Brabham Repco F1. The racing was anticlockwise.
Sorry Teach,
I over reach myself, as a Queensland immigrant of 1974 vintage I will humbly reverse your Queensland status.
As for conflict, a life time maggie, I was not conflicted until the maggies created the lions and my Mate had free corporate box seats. Maggie 1 and Maggie 2 So it’s only a couple of games a year and so far a few finals of dual supporter syndrome.
I’d say you are a lot safer from 70 foot seas now than you were though.
All good, got onto Queensland immigration you dont need a 457, just present an empty tinnie of fourex or your autographed picture of Vossie in Budgie smugglers and they will wave you thru.
Jen, why are you frowning in the pic ( have they been added?). RE flood, Is it the uncertainty of not knowing whether you have made a good decision that might have a bad outcome or the opposite. Or is it a case that once you have made your decision you feel more confident that you were ‘right’. ( even tho the data has not changed, research shows this to be the case generally) Anyway did you think from just a climate perspective that the flood frequencies in Brisbane at your old block have got worse, better, or unsure.
Hasbeen, anti-clockwise (counter-clockwise) is how auto races should be. Also, they should be measured in miles. Don’t you watch NASCAR?
Jennifer, great pictures. However, as Al Gore keeps discovering that global warming is worse than he originally predicted, then you might be sitting on some good beach property. I’ll have to look it up later, but I’d be interested in the geology and formation of those mountains.
In our area we have Providence Canyon that was formed in just a few decades because of erosion from bad farming techniques in the 1800’s. If we want a canyon, we don’t have to wait a few million years. Almost instant gratification. http://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/nge/Article.jsp?id=h-943
Great photos, hope you enjoy your new home 🙂
Bazza,
The frown is because I am worried about elevated levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide. 😉
As regards flooding, south eastern Queensland has gone through a relatively dry period, I suspect we might be at the beginning of another wet phase and thus increased risk of flooding.