Random photos of mine

[The Bigfella]

Here's another one that's a technical disaster.... but it's got a story to tell.

This is typical "passenger amenity" aboard an Asian ferry - in this case in Timor-Leste on the Dili to Atauro Island ferry. It's Saturdays only... leaves Dili at 9, gets there at 12, leaves for Dili at 3.... don't miss it, or you'll be putting your feet up for a while. Popular with the backpackers and dive set.

[The Bigfella]

I thought I'd do one of my Orangutan photos, but I got sidetracked whilst looking for them.

Here's a couple of the onion boats that ply the waters between Sumatra and northern Malaysia. They were dreadful photos - over-exposed, but I've partially rescued them.

IIRC, my bike went over on the Golden Lestari. The ships are about 100' LOA

[The Bigfella]

Comedy hour.

I just found this shot from 40 years ago give or take one year. I'm guessing it's '78.

We are out the back, demolishing the tree-house and it was in with a box of my favourite old magazines.

The termites had turned it into a solid block... but this was still there.



(OK, my brother took it, not me)

[The Bigfella]

I was considering whether I should post a photo from seven years ago and decided it was worth posting, with the full story.

It starts here... with a photo taken from the internet



That's the Catholic Church in Suai, a fairly remote town of just under 10,000 people, about 90 miles southwest of Dili, the capital of Timor-Leste. It was the scene of one of the worst massacres during the independence struggles after the vote to secede from Indonesia. At a guess, the photo was taken in 2000. The massacre happened over a few days around 6 September 1999 - and in this shot, a rough and ready roof has been thrown on. Around 50 were killed in the church, including the three priests. Around 150 more were killed in other buildings, including the cathedral that was under construction nearby. 30 women are reported to have been taken as sex slaves across the border.

The cathedral still hadn't been finished when we were there - so we wandered through



Many of the victims are reported to have been thrown from those upper landings

Some background. Dutch Timor (now the Indonesian province of West Timor) and Portuguese Timor (now Timor-Leste, aka East Timor) were the scene of some pretty nasty stuff during WW2. A combined Dutch, Australian and British force along with some Portuguese volunteers (Portugal was neutral) of 3,050 men resisted a Japanese invasion force of 12,000. 300 Dutch, 151 Australian, 75 Portuguese and 5 British soldiers died, along with 4,000 Japanese.

It was the civilian population that really suffered. The population of Portuguese Timor was 472,221 in 1930. It had fallen below that by 38,809 some 17 years later. James Dunn in 'Timor, A People Betrayed' 1983, claims this shows a population loss due to Japanese reprisals for assisting Allied troops of up to 60,000. I think his maths stinks.

Using net population growth rates of 1.5% and 2.0%, the population loss is between 130,000 and 165,000 - or 23% to 28% of the pre-invasion population in 1942. (the average population growth rate for 1960 to 1974 inclusive was 2.01%, with the lowest figure being 1.69%.

So - a quarter of the population died.

Then, in 1975, Indonesia invaded and were there for 25 years. Again, a lot of people died. Estimates of deaths are again woolly - 100,000 to 200,000 - let's call it 10% to 20% of the population (now 1.25 million... and growing rapidly) - albeit in a country that ranks 166 in the world for life expectancy. We were told by an Australian doctor and nurse that if we were sick or injured to NOT go to a hospital there "they'll kill you".

Fast forward 12 years from the massacre, and there we were. We were trying to get into Indonesia at the "west of Suai" border crossing - although we could find no evidence of it on the printed maps, in the literature or on the web. We found it on a painted map on a restaurant wall and decided to give it a go.

The evidence of the struggles was prolific - empty burned out houses, etc. Wiki describes the events of 1999 thus: The majority of the country's infrastructure, including homes, irrigation systems, water supply systems, and schools, and nearly 100% of the country's electrical grid were destroyed.

We noticed that in many of the remoter villages - in the mountains in particular, there weren't many men. The country has done it hard over the last 75 years.

Back to Suai. We got there and found there was no accommodation - the UN were in town and they had the one motel booked out. We knocked on the door of the Catholic Church and were given a room... in the girl's boarding school. None of the nuns spoke English, but they were good to us and they had the girls lug some water (many buckets full) into the bathroom for us. They watched us like hawks - I'm willing to bet someone stayed on watch all night, but we posed no danger. Doing the obligatory showing of passports, filling in documentation, we noted that it'd been a month since anyone else had stayed (someone from the Kiwi embassy).

Our accommodation was opposite the scene of the massacre - still in use then (2011)

[The Bigfella]

As it turned out, we'd arrived in Suai on a Saturday and we were told the border was closed until Monday. We attended Sunday Mass - sort of. The church was full... and we watched from afar. The number of widows and orphans was stunning



... and that's the photo I was going to post, but I figured I'd better post some background to it.



I've seen other photos on the web purporting to be this cathedral, that clearly weren't it. It's now been finished though...



Oh... and another one that's worth posting. School starts on Monday morning with a sweeping of the play areas. Try getting kids in the western world to do this

[The Bigfella]

Strewth, I don't want to seem to maudlin, but I stumbled across a few photos today, while looking for something specific, that are a bit different. They aren't very good from a technical perspective, in fact, they are quite flawed. However....

A guy doing something semi-positive at the Killing Fields - one of the death camp sites in Cambodia



He was up the palm tree, tapping it for sap - to make home brew spirits

I've been there twice. It's an evil place.... but one that I make a point of visiting when I go through Phnom Penh, if I can.

The walking path I was on has bones and clothing that rise to the surface, so very many people were buried here.



Yeah, a thigh bone, appearing through the footprints.

Finally, one from the site of the home of the murderous bastard who led this. The wall in the background is the remains of Pol Pot's house - well off the beaten track. The house was burnt down, but I've got a piece of a granite floor tile on the wall above my desk. This deformed hand, almost certainly due to Agent Orange, was one of the soldiers who saw us searching for the house and followed us into the jungle



Next photo - I'll find something cheery

[The Bigfella]

Everyday Sydney. A late afternoon shot of a Sydney ferry... in front of the Prime Minister's Sydney residence (although our current bloke owns a harbourside mansion anyhow, so doesn't use this one)



Same afternoon, a couple of kilometres to the west.

[The Bigfella]

Heavily cropped (and grainy) phone pic from this evening. Army chopper coming over - not as low as earlier, when three went north quite low and fast. The ex said they were very low over her workplace today

[The Bigfella]

Another phone pic. The property, up in the Blue Mountains, west of Sydney, where I went to interview a guy for a consultancy I'm doing. There's about a dozen kangaroos in this shot... with many dozens more just out of shot.

[The Bigfella]

Was saying goodbye to some friends out the front today and spotted these cockatoos in the Christmas Bush across the road. Bit hard to capture it properly (sun was behind the bush). At least ten Sulphur Crested Cockatoos and two or three Galahs in the bush.

[The Bigfella]

I just put together a couple of panorama shots from a couple of years back.

This Il-76 was landed in the UAE, apparently against orders for it to not land... and it's still there. Operated by the guy, Viktor Bout, who the Nicholas Cage movie was modeled on - the Lord of War. Bout was sentenced to 25 years gaol in 2012.

[The Bigfella]

I snapped a couple of shots of a meteorite owned by a friend of mine. Just phone pics, but they show it up OK.

[The Bigfella]

Another phone pic

[The Bigfella]

Enough of dodgy phone pics for a while.

How about a Valentine's Day sunset across the Mekong, from the drone. That's Thailand over there. Photo taken from above Laos. Smoky season.

[The Bigfella]

Same place as the last shot... but with the telephoto this time. Would have been nice to have a tripod, but such is life



... and, for some variety



Just what everyone needs in their back yard, eh?



Damn things are everywhere

[The Bigfella]

I'm staying in an Airbnb up near The Entrance... about 50 metres from Tuggerah Lake. I took a 10 minute walk after arriving (the girlfriend hit the bed... lazy sod).

So, who says the dinosaurs are dead. Local Pterodactyl




Egret - this one might look OK cropped down when I get back to a desktop. I turned the motordrive on too... might have som GIFs that show it feeding at some stage... but I've a busy few days ahead of me.







Masked Lapwing... or, as it was when I was growing up Spur-winged Plover. These buggers, like most Australian wildlife, will attack you



One more of the Pterodactyl - which is actually an Australasian Darter - They are closely related to the American Anhinga... and we used to call them Anhinga when we were kids. This one is a female. Big birds... weigh 5lbs and about a yard long.

[The Bigfella]

White-faced Heron

[The Bigfella]

A couple of random shots from 2011.

Sydney Harbour



and in B&W



Wolgan Valley (a bit over an hour inland from home, which is half an hour from the harbour shot)

[The Bigfella]

Helmeted Drop Bear, doing the splits in a tree with a very big drop to the ocean.

IMG20180311134859.jpg

[The Bigfella]

One to strike fear into the heart of a wooden boat owner. This petrified wood is on display in a dinosaur museum in outback Queensland

[Stiletto]

One to strike fear into the heart of a wooden boat owner. This petrified wood is on display in a dinosaur museum in outback Queensland

I'd be petrified if those were in my wood!

[The Bigfella]

For a change... two photos, well, six really, as it's one photo, twice and a four shot GIF.... of me.

This first one, was a photo that I started a new album in Smugmug with, and it was automatically used as the header pic for the album. The original wasn't cropped... but I reckon the cropped version is much nicer. I haven't cropped it quite as much here - as I wanted to include the heads of some of the grasstrees... but - thoughts?







No - I haven't colour-shifted that - there really is that much dust all over the vegetation. My girlfriend washed that KLIM jacket yesterday, twice.... and complained that it's still dirty. It's red-stained from that dust. It'll never come out.

[mmd]

Why did you drive thru the water when there was a perfectly good bridge nearby? Trying to wash off a bit of dust?

[The Bigfella]

Why did you drive thru the water when there was a perfectly good bridge nearby? Trying to wash off a bit of dust?

Well, to tell the truth, we didn't. We used the bridge, then went back and used the ford - just for a bit of fun. I think we needed a break from the heavy dust... and it gave us a chance to have a breather.



River crossings are par for the course on Cape York, which, incidentally, is the size of Great Britain.... but with a population of only 18,000.

We were on the Cape for 10 days, covering 3,000 km, and had wet feet the whole time. There's just so many rivers and streams to ford... very few of which have a bridge - and once the boots get wet, they stay that way.

Here's another one that Smugmug cropped for a header shot... and, again, I prefer the cropped version to the original. What do you think, Michael?

[The Bigfella]

A few more from my I Hate Photobucket activities... I just finished page 1 (of 60)... recreating albums that are about to disappear. These are a few evening shots from Dili, Timor Leste





My favourite is this one. All shot with a point and shoot camera, I think

[Paul Pless]

i was half expecting a quokka selfie

[mmd]

Sorry to be late to reply, Ian. Re: the cropped photo - I like it better than the un-cropped one. Fewer distractions from the main subject.

[The Bigfella]

i was half expecting a quokka selfie

How about a smiling female crocodile.... and yes, I had to get pretty close for this shot... like about 2' away. She's about 8' long



But I suppose this Rufous Betong is more closely related to the Quokka

[The Bigfella]

A few point and shoot portraits from Timor Leste

[purri]

Like punting quokkas as so many self referees have done?

Enquiring minds y'know...

i was half expecting a quokka selfie

[The Bigfella]

Like punting quokkas as so many self referees have done?

Enquiring minds y'know...

I'm sorry. I didn't quite get your meaning.

Let me guess, you don't come here for the photos.?

[The Bigfella]

I hadn't stitched this 4 shot panorama together until now. I like the way the direction of the coastline meeting the ocean horizon gives something of a fisheye lens effect.

It's a view back to Dili, in Timor Leste, from the statue of Jesus. One of the Poms I was with counted the number of steps up, something over 650 IIRC - and there was mention of the phrase 'only mad dogs and Englishmen go out in the midday sun'.



A view back to where the bikes were parked



and a view of the 27 metre high statue... built at one metre for each of the (then) 27 provinces of Indonesia - back during the years of Indonesian rule of the country

[purri]

That's right. I lived in hope to see something new but for the most part I see repeated images that I imagine feed your persona AND POST COUNT.

I'm sorry. I didn't quite get your meaning.

Let me guess, you don't come here for the photos.?

[The Bigfella]

That's right. I lived in hope to see something new but for the most part I see repeated images that I imagine feed your persona AND POST COUNT.

Ha Ha, don't give up your day job. Between the gnome and I, we've deleted well over 20,000 posts of mine. I suspect you might be projecting a bit, old mate.

Here's another one, just for you. It's seen thousands, just like you

IMG20180305112057.jpg

[The Bigfella]

A thousand pardons if I've posted it before (I can't see it in my Fotofkit files)... but something reminded me of the dog as I was going through my ride report thread, updating photos



Oh, and on the other subject.... did I ever get around to posting the story of those chairs? They are in Australia's National Gallery... as an example of Walter and Marion Griffin's work. Walter Burley Griffin was an American architect, who worked for Frank Lloyd Wright for five or six years, before establishing his own firm. He's known for designing Canberra. He and his wife designed these chairs for the Australia Cafe in Melbourne. Built in 1916 by H Goldman Manufacturing Co. of Blackwood (Acacia melanoxylon), plywood and leather.