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[steventureau]

"Daniel Solander

Cape Solander is named after Swedish botanist Daniel Solander (1733-1782), who accompanied naturalist and botanist Joseph Banks on HMB Endeavour from 1768-1771.

A Gifted Student

Solander studied under famous botanist, Carl Linnaeus, at Sweden's Uppsala University. Before Solander completed his studies, Linnaeus sent him to London as his representative to work at the British Museum cataloguing the natural history collections, and to promote the Linnaean classification system. This system became the internation standard for the classification of all species and is still used today.

Unfinished Business

In 1768, Joseph Banks invited Solander to join in the scientific staff on HMB Endeavour on its voyage to the South Pacific. Together, Banks and Solander collected approximately 30,000 specimens including around 1,300 species new to Western science. The number of species they collected demonstrated the need for a classification system that could cope with Earth's biodiversity.

On his return to England, Solander became Joseph Bank's secretary and librarian and went on numerous collecting expeditions including to the Isle of Wight, the western highlands of Scotland, Iceland and Wales. He was also appointed keeper of natural history at the British Museum.

Solander died of a stroke in 1782 aged only 49, leaving much of his work incomplete, unpublished or waiting on contributions from others.

A Significant Legacy

Solander made important contributions to botany through his discoveries and his meticulous categorising of the specimens he and Banks collected around the world.

As early proponents of Linnaeus's systematic biology, Bank's and Solander's work here led to Kamay Botany Bay National Park being nominated as a UNESCO World Heritage Area. The national park is important both culturally and scientifically in 'The Rise of Systematic Biology' - the study of biological diversity and its origin.

This includes a taxonomic classification system for categorising organisms into related groups."

[steventureau]

'Strickland Falls Track

1.7km loop, 40 minutes return

Medium grade, some steep sections and steps

This track was proudly completed by the "Friends of Strickland" in 2003.

Follow the signs from Banksia Picnic Area to experience spectacular cliffs, mossy rocks, ferns pals, wildflowers, tall eucalypts and lush rainforest.

The Gymea Lily is a feature of the walk.'

[steventureau]

"Girrakool -place of waters

Brisbane Water National Park was originally established in 1959 when an area of 6,000 hectares was dedicated for public recreation, the park is now more than 12,000ha in size.

Girrakool picnic area was established soon after the appointment of the first ranger, Mr Jack Higgs, in 1961.

The establishment of a picnic area and development of walking trails at Girrakool was carefully planned to provide access to the beautiful waterfalls and abundant native flora. Girrakool was officially opened on 11 September 1965.

This beautiful reserve takes its name from nearby Brisbane Water which can be seen from a number of places within the park. The park is a combination of rugged bushland, beautiful wildflowers and spectacular waterfalls and creeks.

Aboriginal people have used the area for centuries and there are Aboriginal engravings on many of the sandstone outcrops.

The importance of the area for Aboriginal people is reflected in the two Aboriginal places in the park, Bulgandry Art Site Aboriginal Place and Kariong Sacred Land Aboriginal Place."

[steventureau]

"People and the Lakes

The Dharawal and Gundungurra have lived around Thirlmere lakes for many thousands of years, leaving grinding grooves, rock engravings, artwork, and other evidence of occupation.

The local Aboriginal people were some of the first to feel the impact of European settlement, suffering from new diseases, violence and occupation of their lands. 

They called the area Couridjah, which is believed to mean honey and refer to the nectar of the abundant banksia flowers.

Europeans officially found the lakes in 1798, and they have been popular with visitors since at least the 1860's.

In 1867 a pumphouse, which still stand beside Lake Couridjah, was built to supply water to steam engines plying the new southern railway.

Today the park is a significant conservation reserve ideal for quiet public enjoyment."

[steventureau]

Steventure is my Hiking and Travel blog also functioning as a semi journal, told with my own style of self deprecation and geeky fandom attitude.

My idea for the logo was based on photos of myself on hiking adventures, but also with a major Legend of Zelda influence from the original video games artwork with Link looking at Dueling Peaks (which inspired an image still in Breath of the Wild). Showing my friend Stuart these images he set out to create the logo for me.

[steventureau]

Prior to the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, my Wife and I had a trip to Japan booked. Tickets bought. An overseas holiday after years. Of course, covid brought that crashing down. 

Once the pandemic lifted, the thought of booking our trip returned. However, it was at this point when I got my Leukemia diagnosis. After receiving treatment, and having a successful Stem Cell Transplant, I reached the 2 year post cancer, with my chance of recurrence dropping from 20% to 2%.

We once more resumed talks of overseas travel. However, with receiving lung damage from the stem cell transplant (or the chemo), I was worried still about catching Covid. So, my Wife had a thought about it, and as Japan is densely populated, we were worried that it would be too risky to travel there, so she threw out another suggestion of a country we were interested in: Iceland.

We began looking into it, deciding to do 'Icelandic Full Circle at Leisure' through Nordic visitor, which organised our car rental, accommodation, and airports transfers as well as giving us a lot of itinerary options of things to see and do along our road trip to Iceland so we could plan a lot before we went over. We also decided to have a stopover in Denmark, staying in Copenhagen on our way to Iceland, and upon our return home.

[steventureau]

Merrigong Environmental Sculpture - The Six Daughters of the West Wind

"The west wind, Oolaboolawoo lived on top of Merrigong (Illawarra Range) and had six daughters, Mimosa, Wilga, Lilli Pilli, Wattle, Clemantis and Geera. Mimosa would scratch and fight when the girls were playing and to punish her, the west wind blew her and the rock she sat on out so sea. She landed away from the land and became an island, which none of her sisters could swim to. Mimosa's fate should have been a lesson to her sisters, who were also cast out to sea by their father.

Because Oolaboolawoo way always bust out west, the last sister Gerra sat lonely on the escarpment looking out at her sisters, the Five Islands, eventually allowing the animals and trees to grow on her.

She turned to stone and became the mountain known as Mt Keira (Geera)."

[steventureau]

"Although just 7 kilometres from the city, Bondi was described in 1842 as 'a place of peculiar loneliness... a shining sandy beach unmarked by human foot'. However, rocking carvings alone are clear reminders that many Aboriginal feet have walked these sands long before those of European settlers.

Early Bondi Locals

'Nosey Rob', or Robert 'the Gentleman Hangman' Howard lived a lonely life in the cottage in the top right of this photo. A former horse drawn cab driver, he worked for almost 30 years as the state hangman after being shunned by society following a horribly disfiguring accident, in which his nose was destroyed. This, and his reputation as a decent fellow, who carried out his job with respectability, gave rise to his nicknames. 

The Rise of Beach Culture

As surf bathing became more and more popular, changing sheds for 750 men and 250 women were opened in 1911. The foundation stone for a new Bondi Pavillion, which included Turkish baths, a ballroom and a dressing room for 12,000 people was laid in 1928. The excitement and competition of surf carnivals attracted thousands of spectators to Bondi. Hessian screens were put up to keep people off the beach and to charge admission."

[steventureau]

[steventureau]

"In 1830 the plan was to open up a route from the lush pastures in the Southern Highlands to Kiama Harbour, to enable a faster route for produce to be shipped to Sydney and to avoid the slow overland journey. Robert Hoddle was the surveyor who was set this task. Hoddle set off in the July of that year, starting at Wingecarribee Swamp and surveyed the Illawarra Escarpment in an attempt to find a way to Saddleback Mountain and down to Kiama.

Hoddle wrote in his diary that the rainforest of the escarpment was "the most formidable brush". Hoddle had a team of 20 convict men, pack horses, bullock teams and drays. The path that Hoddle created went throught sub-tropical jungle and was described as rough for both man and beast and only suitable for pack horses. You can walk part of Hoddle’s track today. It is sign posted from the western end of the car park on Saddleback Mountain and will take you to Barren Grounds. The track will take around 4hours return. The views from the forested Norrinan Mountain to Kiama and the Illawarra coastline are worth the rough, steep trek.

The surveyor was of immense importance in the new colony, expanding topographical knowledge, and planning roads, towns and property boundaries. From the 1920’s no land could be leased or owned unless it had been surveyed first. Robert Hoddle was an experienced surveyor and draughtman and was also an explorer and artist, whose paintings document the area around Kiama as well as many other parts of NSW and Victoria before white settlement.

Hoddle completed the survey of Sydney after he arrived in 1823, and then went on to be the Surveyor-General of the new colony of Victoria in 1851. In addition to the work around Kiama and the Illawarra Escarpment, Hoddle surveyed and explored the Southern Highlands, Shoalhaven River region, and south coast down to Moruya, was possibly the first white man to climb both Pigeon House and Mt Budawang. Hoddle also surveyed the area around Canberra, as well as Bathurst, Liverpool and Berrima marked the northern route through the Blue Mountains."

[steventureau]

I went for a walk yesterday along a farm. I watched a Fox stalk an Eagle. The Eagle noticed and flew away. I sat and watched the Fox creep around the area a bit before I continued walking, coming across a field with a derelict structure.

[steventureau]

"The barque 'Rangoon' was wrecked on Stack Island at the mouth of the Minnamurra River on 22nd March, 1870. The anchor is situated outside the Ocean Beach Hotel at Shellharbour on land formerly owned by Captain William Wilson. Wilson assisted in the rescue of the ship-wrecked crew of the 'Rangoon'."

[steventureau]

"There was a constant flow of wind howling through, and I had to use a hand to stop my hat from blowing off my head. My phone began to creep out of my side pocket from the awkward squatting position and my Dad told me I wouldn't want to lose it down the small crack that ran along the tunnel floor.

As the light grew brighter and we were again able to stand and walk out the cave, we got our first view of the open ocean and the side of the beautiful cliff faces on our left."