truk

Sydney, Australia
August 2001 -

Kath and truk moved to Sydney, Australia, at the end of August, 2001. This page details the trip in progress, including movies and text descriptions of the various adventures that have ensued.

September 2001 - Peyton's Baptism [2nd] | Apartment [9th] | Cliffwalk [18th] | Footy Final [23rd]
October 2001 - Koori Knockout [1st] | Vigoro [20th] | North Sydney Beaches [30th]
November 2001 - Sports Awards [9th]
December 2001 - Tasmania - Cataract Gorge [30th] | Tasmania - Cradle Mountain [30th] | Tasmania - West and South [31]
January 2002 - Tasmania - Port Arthur [1st] | Tasmania - East Coast [2nd]
April 2002 - Queensland [1st to 15th]
June 2002 - Sydney Opera House [11th] | Broken Hill [15th] | Southern Australia [20th] | Western Australia [26th]
July 2002 - Darwin, Litchfield, Katherine Gorge [16th] | Arnhem Land [19th] | Kakadu [24th]

Note: To view the video footage, you must have the QuickTime Viewer application installed on your computer and the QuickTime plug-in properly installed with your web browser. To download QuickTime, go to http://www.apple.com/quicktime/download.

More than a World Heritage Area, Kakadu is a living record of ancient human inhabitation of Australia, complete with scenery as beautiful as any on Earth. Just make sure you can swim before you go. And fast. Because of the saltwater crocodiles.

Click here to take it all in.

You need permission from the local Aboriginal people and an official permit to visit. Almost no tourists can get in, and the area is largely empty and left alone by the outside world. So, of course, we had to visit Arnhem Land.

Journey to the heart of Aboriginal land here.

kath and truk have landed in the Top End of Australia. Follow them as they see the sights around Darwin, trek down the Katherine River, and explore a national park during the Dry Season.

Click here to view the photos and read all about it.

Perth is the most isolated major city on Earth. After the marathon train journey to get there, it takes on the complexion of an oasis by the sea.

Click here to see the highlights.

This place is really dry. But, as truk discovers, there is much more to South Australia than the bottom of a beer schooner.

Fill up on the whole story here.

Follow truk as he takes the Indian Pacific out of Sydney, heading West into the wild outback mining town of Broken Hill.

Click here to see the wonderful emptiness for yourself.

Ever been bored and have a digital camera to play with? Ever wished to bore others with your photography? Click on to see the Sydney Opera House.

Get all you can just about stand about the Sydney Opera House here.

After an academic conference on the Gold Coast, we drove Clyde the Wonder Van up the entire Queensland coast, all the way to where the paved road ends at Cape Tribulation.

Read all about it here, or go directly to the movie [25.9 MB; 17:12].

On the way back to Launceston to meet the plane that would deliver us to Sydney, we spent the night at a working farm north of St. Marys, on the eastern coast of Tasmania.

View the pics and text here, or go load the movie [3.3 MB; 2:43] directly.

If you were bad in the early-19th century England, you had to go to jail. And Port Arthur was the worst place they could send you in Australia.

Jump on the pics and text, or start the film [6.3 MB; 5:16].

The last day of 2001 opened ominously, as we trekked down to the opening of Macquarie Harbour to the Southern Ocean and got a little taste of what Spring must be like in Antarctica.

Blow away in the wild west here, or fire up the movie [5.0 MB; 4:09].

On our way west from Launceston to Strahan, on Tasmania's wild west coast, we stopped to walk though a tiny bit of the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area called the Cradle Mountain - Lake St. Clair National Park.

Take in the pics and get some background here, or check out the movie [5.0 MB; 4:02].

After arriving in Georgetown, Tasmania, on the Devil Cat (jet-powered catamaran ferry) from Melbourne (a 6 hour trip), we bused down to the northern city of Launceston. About a 15 minute walk from downtown Launceston is an amazing place called Cataract Gorge.

View the pics before the movie here, or plow directly into the adventure of the movie [5.6 MB; 4:35].

The National Sports Awards event is a biannual opportunity to recognize and celebrate indigenous achievement in sports. Nominees come from local and national athletic circles for sports as diverse as dart throwing, running, wrestling, boxing, and rugby.

It is Kath's first movie! View the pics before the movie here, or go directly into viewing the film [6.3 MB; 5:12].

Wondering what the beaches were like on the north side of town, I threw some gear in Clyde (our van) and took the tunnel under Sydney harbor, ending up in Manly.

Surf's up! View the page with the still shots here, or move straight to the flick [5.2 MB; 4:22].

Katherine has been playing a game called Vigoro almost every weekend since we arrived in Australia.

Yet another sport-related video. Forgive me. Click here to view the pics. Or crank up the bandwidth and view the film [3.1 MB; 2:30].

After winning the Grand final the previous weekend, most of the La Perouse footy team returned to play other Aboriginal teams in the annual Koori Knockout, featuring the best Koori teams from about New South Wales.

Bored with footy videos already? Well, just click here to go straight to the photos and info about the game. Or, skip straight to the flick [6.0 MB; 5:02].

The La Perouse football team played Moore Park for the 2001 Grand Final trophy. This game featured some outstanding play on both sides of the field, including a try by Bunda that put La Pa in the driver's seat with only minutes on the clock.

Click here to see some action photos taken during the game. Or, watch the highlights reel [5.8 MB; 4:52] with some basic narration.

Exhausted and stressed out one day, I went for down to the beach for a walk. About a kilometer away from the apartment, I came across some glorious cliffs being relentlessly pounded by the sea.

Click here to view still shots of the cliffwalk. Or, view the video [5.2 MB] right away.

Kath and I have moved into a one-bedroom apartment in Malabar, NSW, a suburb about 10 miles south of the Sydney city center.

Click here to read about apartment and view a movie featuring it. Or, go straight to the video [4.9 MB].

As the first major event we attended after moving to Australia, Peyton Draskovic's baptism served as an introduction to, or a reunion with, many members of the local Koori (Aboriginal) community.

Click here to view still shots of the ceremony and reception, or put your bandwidth to the test and skip ahead to the super-compressed video [10.9MB; 11:31].