Laurie M. posted an article on Wilderness Travel: Compulsive Photographer, Camper, ATV - Jun 1, 2011, 2:42 am
When on top of the sand dune near my camp at Andamooka Waterhole in outback South Australia, I noticed another waterhole, a kilometre or so further up Myall Creek, and just had to check it out with a view to getting some good arid region landscape photos. Myall Creek comes from about 25 kilometres t...
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Laurie M. posted an article on Wilderness Travel: Compulsive Photographer, Camper, ATV - Jun 1, 2011, 2:33 am
Dingo Tracks – Andamooka Waterhole – Outback South Australia. Walking in the sand dune near my camp at Andamooka Waterhole this morning, as I dropped down the western side, the side furtherst from my camp, I saw numerous little animal tracks, no doubt left overnight in the damp sand. The tracks ...
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Laurie M. posted an article on Wilderness Travel: Compulsive Photographer, Camper, ATV - May 31, 2011, 6:27 am
Willaroo Lagoon, not far from my camp at Andamooka Waterhole in outback South Australia, is a dry, salt lake, around three kilometres long and a couple of kilometres wide. On the far side, I guess that would be north west, are slate cliffs, would be eight metres high. In times past, the slate has be...
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Laurie M. posted an article on Wilderness Travel: Compulsive Photographer, Camper, ATV - May 30, 2011, 12:35 am
Well, today I went wandering on the nearby sand dune and found evidence of a once florishing Aboriginal community. I’d only just climbed the low dune when I came upon a midden with small bone fragments. Scattered about the midden were stone flakes with the typical characteristics of Aboriginal sto...
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Laurie M. posted an article on Wilderness Travel: Compulsive Photographer, Camper, ATV - May 29, 2011, 2:27 am
In 1858, John Mcdouall Stuart, the great Australian inland explorer, accompanied by George Forster and an unnamed Aboriginal guide, camped at Andamooka Waterhole which in these days is on Andamooka Station in outback South Australia. Andamooka Waterhole was my introduction to John McDouall Stuart, m...
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Laurie M. posted an article on Wilderness Travel: Compulsive Photographer, Camper, ATV - May 29, 2011, 2:19 am
It was quite late in the day by the time I got away from Arcoona Homestead on the quadbike, heading north as part of my outback South Australia photography adventure. With traveling time for the day short, I was pushing the limits a bit in that I saw a good camping spot with some firewood and
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Laurie M. posted an article on Wilderness Travel: Compulsive Photographer, Camper, ATV - May 25, 2011, 5:47 am
Riding the quadbike, I carry the P&S camera down my shirt, hanging by the strap around my neck, of course. The SLR camera is in the box on the rear rack and takes a bit more to get out to use. This set of images is a bit rough, many of them taken while wearing my stack
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Laurie M. posted an article on Wilderness Travel: Compulsive Photographer, Camper, ATV - May 25, 2011, 4:27 am
Here’s a great camp tucker recipe from my wife and refined for outback use by myself. Corn and Tuna Pancake Ingredients: 1 small tin of corn kernals 1 small tin of tuna Half a shake bottle of pancake mix A little extra water Method Shake the dry pancake mix a bit to loosen it up and tip into a sui...
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Laurie M. posted an article on Wilderness Travel: Compulsive Photographer, Camper, ATV - May 24, 2011, 4:53 am
Clean up day today! Yes, clean up me and all my dirty clothes. The day started overcast, but the sun did break through half an hour after sunrise, for a short time and has broken through the increasing cloud several times. No rain since daylight. Well, about mid morning when it was the warmest it’...
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Laurie M. posted an article on Wilderness Travel: Compulsive Photographer, Camper, ATV - May 23, 2011, 11:40 pm
Well, you need to understand that going to the toilet when camping rough in outback Australia is pretty hard for a bloke who likes to sit and contemplate life in general and the world at large. There’s not a tree in sight to the horizon but privacy isn’t an issue with nobody around to hide from
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Laurie M. posted an article on Wilderness Travel: Compulsive Photographer, Camper, ATV - May 23, 2011, 2:51 am
Well, the weather is a bit tough at the moment, camping on a tableland on Arcoona Station in outback South Australia. The wind has been pretty strong and I’ve had varying amounts or rain in the passing squalls. So right now, I’m sitting on my bed under the canopy of the ute, posting to my blog.
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Laurie M. posted an article on Wilderness Travel: Compulsive Photographer, Camper, ATV - May 21, 2011, 6:43 am
Although the light was a bit ordinary this morning, I rode the quadbike down to Lake Torrens on Arcoona station. Well, the light came good a couple of times for a short time, allowing for some great shots of the remains of ancient trees that have finished their life. These trees, some sort of teatre...
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Laurie M. posted an article on Wilderness Travel: Compulsive Photographer, Camper, ATV - May 21, 2011, 2:29 am
So, where’s Woomera? Where do I find Andamooka? What kind of a lake is Lake Torrens and where is it? What about Arcoona and Andamooka stations? Where are they? Well, find me right now and you’ll soon find these outback places. View May 2011 Trip – Arcoona and Andamooka in a larger map Right no...
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Laurie M. posted an article on Wilderness Travel: Compulsive Photographer, Camper, ATV - May 20, 2011, 7:03 am
Riding around Red Lake on Arcoona station I came across many stone flakes, discarded by a once flourishing Aboriginal community in this area of outback South Australia. I even found one rock that looked like the one from which flakes had been chiped. There really were hundreds of these Aboriginal ar...
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Laurie M. posted an article on Wilderness Travel: Compulsive Photographer, Camper, ATV - May 20, 2011, 6:45 am
All kitted out for safety on the quadbike, ATV (all terrain vehicle). Helmet, goggles, ear plugs, gloves, sturdy boots. I also carry a first aid kit, spare water and fuel, a come-along winch and pegs, satellite phone, GPS, paper maps, compas, spark plugs, puncture repair, tools and more incidentals...
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Laurie M. posted an article on Wilderness Travel: Compulsive Photographer, Camper, ATV - May 20, 2011, 6:19 am
Well, it may look a bit rough to you but you can be sure it went down well after an afternoon on the bike in some pretty rough country. Three courses and a couple of cups of black tea.
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Laurie M. posted an article on Wilderness Travel: Compulsive Photographer, Camper, ATV - May 20, 2011, 5:55 am
Well, I’ve got reasonably well set up overlooking Lake Richardson on Arcoona station in outback South Australia. I put a flag on the external antanna pole in the hope it might make my camp easier to find from a distance, but the wind was moving the pole around quite a bit so I removed the
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Laurie M. posted an article on Wilderness Travel: Compulsive Photographer, Camper, ATV - May 19, 2011, 8:51 pm
Set up the camera on the dash of the ute and pressed the button at what I hoped would be the right time. The Sturt Highway runs west through NSW and South Australia from the Hume Highway in the east to Euston in the west, where it heads south west to Adelaide. Now, I don’t want
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Laurie M. posted an article on Wilderness Travel: Compulsive Photographer, Camper, ATV - May 19, 2011, 6:54 am
Well, yes, I arrived at Lake Richardson about an hour before dark after shopping for fresh veggies at Woomera. Ya gotta eat well! Sure enough I found the area I wanted to camp, pretty much as I’d seen it on Google earth. I’m camped on a rough track about 200 metres off the station road that
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Laurie M. posted an article on Wilderness Travel: Compulsive Photographer, Camper, ATV - May 18, 2011, 8:47 pm
First night on the road I pulled onto a track with a sign that said “River”. This is the Murrumbidgee River, quite a different site to the Murrumbidgee that I know from up Cooma way on the Monaro where it’s a pristine, clean, mountain stream, bumbling over the rocks, and supporting trout.
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Laurie M. posted an article on Wilderness Travel: Compulsive Photographer, Camper, ATV - May 18, 2011, 8:00 pm
I camped the night at Baroota Rodeo Grounds between Port Pirrie and Port Augusta on the Stuart Highway in South Australia. Quite mild overnight and dry, now that I’ve entered the arid region. For ten bucks you don’t expect too much. I’ve camped rougher but it’s always cost me nothing. I slep...
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Laurie M. posted an article on Wilderness Travel: Compulsive Photographer, Camper, ATV - May 17, 2011, 5:54 am
Well, ya wanna believe I’m doing it pretty tough here, between Nerrandra and Hay, about half a km off the Sturt Highway in NSW. I stopped about three hours short of my goal for the day, a bit tired. Got my camp set up and a fire going in daylight. But typing up a blog in the
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Laurie M. posted an article on Wilderness Travel: Compulsive Photographer, Camper, ATV - Jan 6, 2011, 4:19 am
When my dad died, a little over a year ago, I came by some paperwork that allowed me to follow up on some of my heritage. So, accompanied by my grandson, Nicky, I found the grave of my Grandfather, Colin McArthur, a returned WW1 veteran. Colin McArthur was the grandfather whom I never knew, never me...
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Laurie M. posted an article on Wilderness Travel: Compulsive Photographer, Camper, ATV - Dec 25, 2010, 5:10 pm
Well, for years our family has been spread around Australia from the east to the west coast, four and a half thousand kilometres separating our most distant family members. But this Christmas we’re all together and the twins stayed the night of Christmas eve with us making for a great Christmas mo...
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Laurie M. posted an article on Wilderness Travel: Compulsive Photographer, Camper, ATV - Oct 26, 2010, 7:11 am
I’ve camped in Yeltacowie Homestead a couple of times. My first visit to Yeltacowie coincided with a visit by two great old timers, Ernie Ash and John Barber. Watching the Fire in the Metters Stove You see, Yeltacowie homestead has been abandoned for several years and these two mates were making ...
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Laurie M. posted an article on Wilderness Travel: Compulsive Photographer, Camper, ATV - Oct 23, 2010, 7:28 am
Heading east across the Nullarbor Plain and then north through Central Australia? Or maybe in the reverse direction? Google Map of the Short Cut from Ceduna to Glendambo via Kingoonya View Directions to Glendambo, South Australia in a larger map Well, you can cut off a lot of kilometres and see some...
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Laurie M. posted an article on Wilderness Travel: Compulsive Photographer, Camper, ATV - Oct 22, 2010, 3:25 am
An ancient volcanic plug, it’s covering of softer rock eroded away, stands watch over the rocky bay at Aragunnu in Mimosa Rocks National Park, NSW, New South Wales, Australia. View Aragunnu Beach in a larger map
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Laurie M. posted an article on Wilderness Travel: Compulsive Photographer, Camper, ATV - Oct 19, 2010, 6:25 pm
Lesley and I visited Menindee Lakes in outback NSW, Australia, on our recent photography trip. Here is an album of images, mostly dead trees with a few wildflowers thrown in. Claire has made some comments, below, and has kindly sent this great macro shot of a bee foraging on the Patterson’s Curse,...
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Laurie M. posted an article on Wilderness Travel: Compulsive Photographer, Camper, ATV - Oct 18, 2010, 2:54 am
On our recent trip the western part of New South Wales, Australia, we encountered these wildflowers way out near White Cliffs. It’s outback Australia, alright, though not so far off the beaten track to be thought of as being dangerously isolated.
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Laurie M. posted an article on Wilderness Travel: Compulsive Photographer, Camper, ATV - Oct 16, 2010, 5:57 pm
Well, it’s ages since I last did a portrait session but since a few photographer friends were getting together for a barbie, show and tell and model shoot, I went along with it. After photographing in the studio for a while, we went outside where it was rather overcast, most of the time, cold and ...
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Laurie M. posted an article on Wilderness Travel: Compulsive Photographer, Camper, ATV - Sep 22, 2010, 6:52 pm
The Walls of China is one of the main draw cards at Lake Mungo in Willandra Lakes National Park in western NSW (New South Wales), Australia.
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Laurie M. posted an article on Wilderness Travel: Compulsive Photographer, Camper, ATV - Sep 12, 2010, 5:41 am
With flood waters flowing down the Darling River from Queensland, Lake Pamamaroo is filling and the water is flowing on through Copi Hollow to Lake Menindee and Lake Cawndilla. Black box trees of Lake Pamamaroo, killed by the water levels of the enhanced capacity of these natural lakes, make for a s...
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Laurie M. posted an article on Wilderness Travel: Compulsive Photographer, Camper, ATV - Sep 11, 2010, 6:26 am
Lake Menindee is part of the Menindee Lakes system in western New South Wales, (NSW). The lake is accessed fairly easily from the dirt roads that follow large distances of the lake’s perimeter. Driving a few kilometres out along the road toward Kinchega National Park, we pulled up on top of the sa...
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Laurie M. posted an article on Wilderness Travel: Compulsive Photographer, Camper, ATV - Sep 7, 2010, 4:29 am
Not far from White Cliffs in western New South Wales (NSW), heading for Wilcannia and Broken Hill, we came across Ken with his camel, Mazan and camel wagon. Ken had been on the road for three months, traveling from the Murray River country, east of Adelaide in South Australia (SA). Mazan had worn hi...
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Laurie M. posted an article on Wilderness Travel: Compulsive Photographer, Camper, ATV - Sep 6, 2010, 6:39 am
About 30 kilometres north of Wilcannia we came upon a large area of Sturt’s Desert Peas. What a great photographic opportunity! In pristine condition, the rain and wind of recent days hadn’t knocked them around and they were at their peak. Some pods could be seen and new blooms, just ope...
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Laurie M. posted an article on Wilderness Travel: Compulsive Photographer, Camper, ATV - Sep 5, 2010, 7:37 am
As Lesley and I looked around Wilcannia, a decaying, former great inland port,we came upon this delapidated old building which hass become a graffiti art gallery. The gallery below contains images of the graffiti adorning the walls and the deterioration and destruction of a one time, grand building....
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Laurie M. posted an article on Wilderness Travel: Compulsive Photographer, Camper, ATV - Sep 2, 2010, 5:08 pm
Well, we got away to a late start and spent the first night at Boorawa, a good bit short of our target, Orange, on the Central Highlands. Got to Nygnan in time to set up and get dinner on the barbie before it got too dark. The word was that a fella was booked to sing in
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Laurie M. posted an article on Wilderness Travel: Compulsive Photographer, Camper, ATV - Aug 27, 2010, 5:40 am
Nicky and I made the shearer’s quarters at Gum Woolshed on Pernatty Station, our base for a couple weeks of our April 2010 outback photography trip. Les French and Col Greenfield – Former and New Owners of Pernatty Station As it happened, Pernatty had been sold and the official handover ...
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Laurie M. posted an article on Wilderness Travel: Compulsive Photographer, Camper, ATV - Jul 25, 2010, 5:47 am
This is a guest post by Lesley McArthur We waited a long time, years, for the rains to come, and come they did. This is a photo of the river at Frogs Hollow, taken in between storms and showers, with my Mamiya RB67 Medium Format Camera. Everywhere was wet, with puddles and fast moving water, so had ...
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Laurie M. posted an article on Wilderness Travel: Compulsive Photographer, Camper, ATV - Jun 20, 2010, 4:25 pm
The moment I saw this image of the River Queen, I felt ripped. So sad! The death of the River Queen. It’s a photo by Lesley, taken a couple of days ago in the early morning light. The River Queen is Bill Abram’s boat. It has been moored at Mogareeka on the Bega River for many years.
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Laurie M. posted an article on Wilderness Travel: Compulsive Photographer, Camper, ATV - May 10, 2010, 11:52 pm
Well, I’ve published photo stories before about baking bread in the Australian outback. Generally, I use the camp oven (dutch oven), which is a cast iron pot with a cast iron lid, but this time I used a large aluminium pot. The reason? On this trip I took prepackaged bread mix that comes in 60...
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Laurie M. posted an article on Wilderness Travel: Compulsive Photographer, Camper, ATV - Apr 27, 2010, 7:16 am
Well, I’ve gotta tell ya that Nicky, my grandson, was the best outback camping adventure mate you would hope for. He hooked into the jobs such as setting up camp, getting the beds ready, collecting fire wood, packing up to move on in the morning, and he’s a pretty good one match fire li...
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Laurie M. posted an article on Wilderness Travel: Compulsive Photographer, Camper, ATV - Mar 25, 2010, 6:49 pm
Well, I’ve got a few spare wheels and tyres ready for the coming outback Australia trip on the motorbikes: my Kawasaki Bayou KLF300B and Nicky’s Suzuki JR80. Two spare wheels for the ute and one for the big trailer. On my last trip I did a tyre on the ute on a rock on the road in
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Laurie M. posted an article on Wilderness Travel: Compulsive Photographer, Camper, ATV - Mar 23, 2010, 4:06 am
We’re leaving in a week for our outback adventure trip. That is, my grandson Nicky will accompany me this time on his Suzuki JR80. With good preparation, the things that may go wrong are kept to a minimum. A few new tools will give us good security. A new tyre pump has made a difference alread...
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Laurie M. posted an article on Wilderness Travel: Compulsive Photographer, Camper, ATV - Mar 22, 2010, 11:52 pm
Well, I’ve always been a bit worried about the ramps slipping during loading the ATV with just a small bit of timber screwed to the top underside to hold them in place. So I did a rebuild; fairly common, huh! Now I have a good, solid, non slip lip that won’t let me (or the quadbike) down...
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Laurie M. posted an article on Wilderness Travel: Compulsive Photographer, Camper, ATV - Feb 17, 2010, 1:13 am
Well, we’ll find out on Friday if the judge at the Bega show thinks Lesley’s raspberry jam is a winner. I reckon, right now, it’s a winner! Over a number of years, Lesley has won prizes for her raspberry jam in the local agricultural shows, often winning champion jam as well as fir...
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Laurie M. posted an article on Wilderness Travel: Compulsive Photographer, Camper, ATV - Feb 17, 2010, 1:13 am
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Laurie M. posted an article on Wilderness Travel: Compulsive Photographer, Camper, ATV - Feb 9, 2010, 7:17 pm
Bega, lying in a horseshoe of the Bega River and opposite the junction with the Brogo River, is a town built around the river and river flats. Bega, built on the undulating hills that overlook the fertile dairy farming and cropping land, which to a great extent fuels the Bega economy. Bega, on the ...
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Laurie M. posted an article on Wilderness Travel: Compulsive Photographer, Camper, ATV - Feb 9, 2010, 7:17 pm
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Laurie M. posted an article on Wilderness Travel: Compulsive Photographer, Camper, ATV - Jan 31, 2010, 10:19 pm
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