Thoughtfactory: Fleurieuscapes

A personal context  about the  singular place  (topos) in which we find ourselves and where we live, walk and photograph. 

The picture below is from a granite headland and is a  view of the coastline in  South Australia's southern Fleurieu Peninsula   looking west from the top of a headland  towards Kings Head, Newland Heads and  Cape Jervis.  The  granite headland, which was ice-moulded during the Permian glaciation, is known as Rosetta Head (The Bluff)  or Kongkengguwar  for the first nations  Ramindjeri people.  This region is becoming increasingly developed and framed as a tourist experience.  Rosetta Head itself is currently undergoing a major, long-term tourist upgrade by the Victor Harbor Council.  

The walking trail  along the western coastline from Petrel Cove in the foreground is  now known as the Wild Coast Way and it links up with the southern part of the 1200 kilometre Heysen Trail, which starts at Cape Jervis and ends in the Flinders Ranges.    Suzanne  walked the Heysen Trail over 3 years. In spite of its length it is a very popular walk in South Australia.  

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Two seascapes from the winter of 2022. Both of the pictures are of Encounter Bay  from Rosetta Head (Kongkengguwarr) . This is a headland, 97m above sea level

I pretty much stand in the same location  and I'm looking  in the same direction east by south east --- the camera is basically  looking across  Encounter Bay to the coastline  of the Coorong.  

This is  in the late afternoon just before the sun disappeared behind the Mt Lofty Ranges in Waitpinga. 

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During the winter months  I have been  photographing the clouds and sea of Encounter Bay on  the early  morning poodlewalks.  This  photography has generally been before sunrise from the eastern side of Rosetta Head. The clouds usually disappear after sunrise 

An example:

 These are not just cloud studies nor just light studies as  often it is the play of light  on the water that attracts me as well as the clouds. 

 The clouds,  light and colours change rapidly between 15 minutes before sunrise and 15 minutes afterwards. 

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I have been taking advantage of the recent overcast weather conditions  to  photograph in the Spring Mount Conservation Park. The park  is  small (2.79 square kilometres),   consists of  mature stringybarks (both Eucalyptus obliqua and E. baxteri),  and  looks  as if it provides  a good habitat for the yellow tailed black cockatoo  (Calyptorhynchus funereus).  We only see these cockatoos in Encounter Bay when they feed on the pine cones in the  late summer/early autumn. 

The Spring Mount Conservation Park  is on a ridge lying between  the Inman Valley (in the south)  and the Hindmarsh Tiers Valley (in the north).   It  is  in a high rainfall area and  I discovered that it  can be raining there whilst it is sunny on the Victor Harbor coast, which is  just 15- 20 minutes away by car. I have  been mostly photographing on the Inman Valley side of the park,  as well as  walking along the roads along  the edge of the park such as the Mt Alma Rd and the Strangeways Rd. 

The  photo above  was made whilst I was walking along Strangeways Rd with the poodles. This road  runs east from Mt Alma Rd then south dropping down through  farmland in the valley to Sawpit Rd near the Inman Valley Rd.  It's a loop.  We only walked a couple of kilometres along Strangeways Rd. I have yet to explore the rest of this road in the car. Nor have I walked along the trails  within the  park. 

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This picture is  from Mount Alma Rd   looking north across some farmland towards the Spring Mount Conservation Park in the southern Fleurieu Peninsula: 

The  Spring Mount Conservation Park  is situated on a broad ridge that stands between the  Inman Valley and the Hindmarsh Tiers Rds. The trees in the park are mostly mature Brown Stringybark (Eucalyptus baxteri) and Messmate Stringybark (E. obliqua). 

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I have returned to  making some more photos of the coastal architecture at Victor Harbor on the southern Fleurieu Peninsula in South Australia. This is  a break from the daily photos of the bushland and coastal rocks made whilst I am on the morning and afternoon poodlewalks.  

Most of the new coastal architecture is cheaply built holiday houses that would probably last only a generation. They don't even have foundations. The builders  just plonk a series of concrete blocks in 4  corners. There is no concrete slab.  

This particular house is situated on Encounter Lakes is more up market and better built.  Encounter Lakes is a new housing estate built  around a human made saltwater lake situated along Bartel Boulevard at Encounter Bay.The houses are basically  built for retirees: one level and low maintenance. The emphasis is on lifestyle. 

Another version of a retiree house,  this time one along Franklin Parade in Encounter Bay that is  facing the sea. Franklin Parade  is seen as a prime location. 

The cashed up retirees are leaving Adelaide and moving down to live beside the sea  on  the southern coast of the Fleurieu Peninsula. 

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During the transition from summer to autumn this year I started a  study of clouds from the top of Rosetta Head in the southern Fleurieu Peninsula.   I was building on these earlier photos. 

From Rosetta Head I was usually  looking east north east.    

The clouds were above Encounter Bay,  and the photos were  made  in the early morning,  generally  before sunrise. The photo above  is an example. 

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The cloud formations  that move  across Encounter Bay  around Victor Harbor are often quite dramatic.  

The photos  of the clouds are usually made  from on top of Rosetta Head in the early morning:

The  cloud shapes are constantly changing. 

During the school holidays a funfair or amusement park is set up near the causeway to Granite Island. It is a tiny public space for Girder Family Amusements: a space between the holding pens for the horse drawn carriage to the Granite Island Recreation Park and the barbecue area  in the Soldiers Memorial Gardens. 

But a seaside town must have a funfair with its  ferris wheel, dodgem cars,  inflatable double slides etc etc. It is tradition--just like the horse drawn carriage to Granite Island and the Cockle train to Goolwa. There for the family day tourists.

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Below  are some more  images in the ongoing series of  suburban architecture at Victor Harbor in South Australia.  These photos, which   were made just prior to the Covid-19 lockdown whilst I was on an early morning poodlewalk with Kayla. They are part of  photography as placemaking.

This is at a time when the global digital photographic market  is contracting and stagnating,  resulting in  Olympus selling off their camera business (a Micro 4/3 system) to a private equity firm.  Covid-19 has  increased the stagnation as  it  has bought photography to more or less  a standstill since February 2020.  One  consequence is that there will inevitably  be  more consolidation in the camera industry and that  the  emphasis  of  my photography  is  on the local due to national travel restricted  and international travel untenable. There will be more  walking locally.  

This white house is on the western end of The Esplanade. It overlooks the beach, is opposite a caravan park and it is  near the mouth of the ephemeral Inman River. Kayla and I  often walk past it on the return leg of the  walk that we do along the Esplanade beach from Kent Reserve.  

 This house is at the other  end of The Esplanade and it looks out to Granite Island. 

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