The Boomer Legacy ◊ Environment

Environment

The Good Earth Shall Abide Forever /s

We were part of an infinite world. /s

The climate has always changed. There have been countless warm (and cold) periods in the past. Even dinosaurs flourished for millions of years in a world devoid of snow and ice. The Earth has endured massive volcanic eruptions and asteroid impacts, yet life carried on. /s

Despite alarmist propaganda by climate activists and do–gooders, habitats were practically indestructible. Atmospheric cycles forever cleansed our air; Fresh water was inexhaustibly abundant; Our forests and coral reefs always grew back. Ocean algae bloomed and sank into the abyss in an endlessly recurring cycle to replenish our natural fuels. It was perfectly feasible to mine and farm alongside nature, to make a profit, and produce healthy sustenance and the raw materials our growing economy needs. CO₂ was, and forever will be, harmless plant food. /s

So there was nothing to worry about. No really. Generations came and went. We humans were infinite spirits trapped inside bodies which were merely vehicles. What we did or didn't do to the Earth during our custodianship really didn't matter, for the only question that truly mattered was: Where Would We Spend Eternity?… /s

Sample #4034 — Inside the tiger (Jul 2017)

Topic Images

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There are currently 119 photographs in this section.

What mean these stones?

We were at the beginning of a mass extinction, and all we could talk about was money and fairytales of eternal economic growth (Thundberg, 2019)

Iron slag at the Blast Furnace Park in Lithgow [Aug-2012 389KB]

Remarks

Another early Hasselblad image, but one which became the main inspiration for the project. Had always wanted to buy a V–System 6×6 camera, but could only afford to do so in 2004 when they started being dumped onto the second–hand market. Around that time my project was in its preliminary stages and somewhat purposeless. But a visit to Lithgow in 2012 yielded this image, and everything changed

Disregarding our descendants

The town did get a bit salty after dark

Hickson Road, Dawes Point Sydney Cove [Jan-2020 704KB]

Shoulder season

Work commenced to identify and implement the next wave of positive reforms

Backyard firewood at Blackheath NSW [Aug-2019 518KB]

Through an augmented sky

A superabundance of atmospheric particulates ensured a golden hour for everyone

Sunrise over Bourke Street, Melbourne [Apr-2019 71KB]

Remarks

The 135mm TEM (11861) in action again. While on holidays in Melbourne, glanced out the balcony and noticed hot-air balloons being launched at dawn. A few 40mm shots looked okay, but the 135mm pointed into the sun did the trick

Black bird

… singing in the dead of night

Freshly harvested pine logs awaiting export, Dunedin NZ [Dec-2017 377KB]

Structure and psyche

As aficionados of space and creativity, architects don’t merely design – they create environments, inside and out, and spaces that function well; to mediate the dialogue between the boundaries of architecture and design, exterior and interior realms, and bring forth works of singular vision to express joy and form

Remains of the Jonley Australia plastics factory in Meadowbank [Jan-2014 559KB]

Captive audience

Cruise ships, nursing homes, schools and daycare centres provided an ideal way to disseminate contagious disease (Sepkowitz, 2014)

Green Thunder waterslide on the “Carnival Spirit” cruise–ship, berthed at Sydney Overseas Passenger Terminal [Dec-2014 247KB]

Potential harbour views

Uninterrupted vistas for our tax–shelter investments

Harbourside Apartments, McMahons Point. In 2021 the building ceased operation as a hotel and the individual apartments were snapped up by mum & dad investors, many of whom now advertise as short–stay accommodation [Sep-2018 294KB]

Infinity pool

Unlimited growth was questioned many times, but it never let us down

Figure 8 Pool, Royal National Park [Oct-2019 391KB]

Albatross beneath our feet

Rows of apartment blocks where agent-orange once brewed

The decontaminated site of the Union Carbide plant (1949-86), at Rhodes [Jul-2013 309KB]

In a fugue world

There were constant reminders about how neurodivergent/ dependent/ fragile/ isolated/ confused/ befuddled/ bewildered/ betrayed/ vulnerable/ quivering/ hapless/ helpless/ humiliated/ hebephrenic/ invalidated/ dysphoric/ bipolar/ undiagnosed/ defeated/ depressed/ oppressed/ overburdened/ exploited/ anxious/ anguished/ gas–lit/ harassed/ stalked/ victimised/ violated/ dehumanised/ traumatised/ nightmare–addled/ swivel–eyed panic–stricken everyone was

Domain car parking station [Jul-2018 277KB]

Known unknowns

When the smoke finally cleared, it was almost as if there wasn’t any anthropogenic climate change

Hornby Lighthouse gun emplacement, South Head Sydney [Dec-2014 216KB]

Remarks

South Head turned out to symbolise the end of the line in more ways than expected

Memories we created

We knew exactly how the future would remember us

Tree growing in the old Fosters brewery wall (since demolished), at Chippendale in Sydney [Apr-2014 525KB]

Remarks

Had already photographed the tree a few months earlier, but got lucky this time when a couple of pigeons inserted themselves into the shot. A year later the wall (and tree) was demolished when the Central Park development neared completion

Epic ruin porn

Jack & Jackie & Henry Luce died a long time ago; Camelot became an abandoned used–car yard

Leo Cushieri Quality Used Cars in Blacktown [Dec-2012 243KB]

Architects sketch

Mies, Le Corbusier, Saarinen, Niemeyer, Gropius, Wright, Khan, Breuer. Nem értem miért csinálnak szenteket ezek az emberekből

Oxley Building, Crows Nest [Aug-2024 318KB]

Memories of what’s to come

The last thing we wanted to do was extirpate all the large vertebrates (WWF, 2018)

Deceased sulfur-crested cockatoo, Warrimoo [Dec-2017 180KB]

Remarks

The cockatoo — which had died overnight — was lying on a neighbour’s front lawn, with ants starting to explore its carcass. Used the 100mm APO (11352) to get in close and bring out the details, and yes the Salvador Dali [1] & [2] and Citizen Kane references were deliberate

Inside the tiger

Every rabbit was chased down every hole

Coal Loader tunnel, Waverton [Jul-2017 483KB]

Glacial retreat

Since 1850, [Swiss] glaciers have lost 60% of their volume. As they continue to melt, the country risks losing an important reservoir, affecting farming, hydro–power production and transport on Europe’s main waterways. (Swissinfo, 2021)

Glaciers surrounding Goregrat, near Zermatt CH [Feb-2024 222KB]

Right by conquest

Our rules–based order continued to function with utmost efficiency

Poisoned trees at Larkin Street, Waverton [Jul-2017 281KB]

Multilevel regression

Cityscapes were continually redesigned to uplift our spirits

Liberty Place, Castlereagh Street Sydney [Jan-2019 297KB]

Hikikomori archipelago

An intricate matrix of ideology to increase the rate of self–incarceration

“Sirius” public housing at The Rocks, which was sold to developers in 2022 and turned into multimillion dollar condos for savvy flippers (SMH, 2024) [Sep-2016 200KB]

Golden sunlit uplands

Import alien species to remind you of home, then watch helplessly as they overrun the countryside

Invasive plant species Common Gorse spreads along the Taieri Gorge, NZ [Dec-2017 689KB]

Remarks

This was taken while precariously hanging out the door of the Taieri Gorge tourist train. Had originally wanted shots of the train taking a curve, but looked around and saw the weed–covered gully and photographed it instead — next time it might be an idea to stay safely inside the carriage and just point the camera out the window. There may not be a “next time” however, as the line was closed due to COVID related financial pressures in 2020, and the reopened service only runs to Hindon, well short of this location

Channelling Sierra Leone

Dodge the PolAir through Chippendale, run the lights on Enmore road, swerve left at the servo and pull–up across the road from the burned–out BMW

Enmore smash repairs [May-2023 377KB]

Remarks

Purchased a Sony SEL-1655G lens in Dec 2019 to use for school functions. Was reluctant to use it for personal work due to its substantial barrel distortion at wider angles. It took until May 2023 to figure out how to fully correct it, mainly due to Capture One Pro’s inadequate support for non–native DNGs

Cars with grunt

Politicians fought tirelessly to ensure tradies could keep upgrading their dual–cab utes (SMH, 2019)

Penrith Station car park [Oct-2019 380KB]

Siri versus wild

Here’s one of me tweeting that I uploaded a TikTok™ of myself taking a selfie while on holidays somewhere

Viewing platform of the Scenic Railway at Katoomba [Nov-2011 581KB]

From the shore to the plateau

All the time we spent together didn’t bring us any closer

Garie North Head, Royal National Park [Jul-2019 494KB]

The curated home

Redesign your nest with hygge cosiness

Sutherland Crescent, Darling point [Jan-2017 221KB]

Build a better fish

So I went down to the Ganges to rinse my dentures, and haven’t been the same since

Storm–water grating at McCauley Lane in Alexandria [Mar-2018 432KB]

PETM reloaded

Nine–month summers, super El Niños, category–six hurricanes, continental bushfires, methane fumaroles, acidified oceans, cubic–kilometres of eutrophication and rivers awash with millions of dead fish. Years of drought followed by months of flooding rain. Millennium events every five years. Every month since May 2023 among the hottest on record. The sixth mass extinction… Aim low for +1.5°C and congratulate ourselves for only overshooting by 80%

Truck exhaust pipes at Woolloomooloo, in Sydney’s east [Oct-2012 137KB]

Remarks

We lived in a world filled with 2–3 tonne petrol–guzzling behemoths and their dickhead drivers

Isolated opportunity

Many embraced the lockdowns because it freed them to do the things they always wanted

Waruda Street apartment stairwell, Kirribilli [Nov-2020 56KB]

Smoke on the Water

When the sun came out, you could almost forget it was the middle of winter

Day trippers at Lake Geneva, Montreux CH, around the corner from where the Casino fire happened in December 1971 [Feb-2024 231KB]

User funnelling

To paraphrase Lewis Mumford: the apotheosis of cities was to channel people from one checkout to the next

M4 Western Distributor at Darling Harbour in Sydney [Jul-2012 126KB]

Bright shining billions

The Great Architect stood with his hands on his hips and proclaimed: You too shall have a bone–yard

Oculus Transportation Hub atrium, NYC [Oct-2017 240KB]

Made by we

[In December 2019…] Bushfire smoke pushed Sydney’s air quality index rating to 2,552. That’s 11 times higher than the level considered hazardous. And it’s well below air quality index readings in cities in China, India, and other places known as hotbeds of air pollution. (Gizmodo, 2019)

Weeks of bushfire smoke in Sydney. Four years later it was New York’s turn [Jan-2020 197KB]

Wish the sun to stand still

For a while it was still possible to spend all day in the sunshine

Sunbathing on the sea–wall steps at Nielsen Park’s Shark Beach, Vaucluse (subsequently demolished in 2022) [Dec-1990 474KB]

Black poles

Everywhere you looked there were reminders of people we lost, haunted by ghosts of those we loved decades ago

Old Canterbury road, Lewisham [Sep-2015 532KB]

Boom without end

Sprawl was right, sprawl worked. Sprawl clarified, cut through, and captured the essence of the evolutionary spirit

Diamond Bay cliffs at Dover Heights, in Sydney [Feb-2014 474KB]

For the rest of our lives

Make retirement a success by rescheduling everything

Brisbane Str vehicle tarpaulin covers, Bondi Junction [Dec-2018 351KB]

Controlled flight into terrain

There was never quite enough time for the Eagle to land

Looking south from Garie Head North, Royal National Park NSW [Aug-2020 430KB]

Tranquillity Bantustan

The charred tree–trunks, the ferns and weeds, the rutted track which never seemed to end

Forest Trail, Illawarra Escarpment near Wollongong [Oct-2020 749KB]

It was fun while it lasted

82M barrels a day (YCharts, 2023) — the greatest achievement of our generation was to make the deserts bloom

Nike Savvas installation at the Art Gallery of NSW [Apr-2014 401KB]

111 false dawns

Waiting for the pandemic to recede for long enough to celebrate another birthday

Sunrise over the Bourke Street Mall, Melbourne [Apr-2019 125KB]

Appeasing demand

Sawtooth factories rapidly made way for empty apartments

Zetland redevelopment [Nov-2018 299KB]

The signs were all there

The pressure kept building, but everything was still within safe limits

Steam relief chimney, Dey Street NYC [Oct-2017 207KB]

Men in the high castle

The benefits of fifty years of neoliberalism were there for all to see

BP Site bund wall, Waverton [Jul-2017 455KB]

Home! Sweat Home!

An exile from home splendour dazzles in vain
Oh give me my lowly thatched cottage again
The birds singing gaily that came at my call
And gave me the peace of mind dearer than all
(J.H. Payne, 1823)

Egan Street red–brick flats, Newtown [Nov-2022 684KB]

Urban ornithology

It was impressive to see how well some feathered organisms could adapt to living on the sixteenth floor

Rainbow lorikeets at the kitchen window at dinnertime, Harbourside Apartments [Jan-2019 187KB]

On track for Soylent Green

2019–20 → months of raging bushfires
2020–21 → pandemic lockdowns
2020–23 → torrential rain & flooding from three consecutive La Niñas
2023–24 → stagflation, interest rate hikes and global heatwaves from a super El Niño

SOH Tour group during the 2019–20 summer bushfires [Jan-2020 321KB]

Remarks

It was amazing how similar the light was that day to the strangled sunshine in the 1973 sci–fi movie. If that wasn’t enough, what was an offhand remark about Sydney in Jan 2020, turned out to be an precursor of what happened in Greece and NYC three years later

Jobs not trees

Planning proposals went out of their way to respect or enhance the existing local character of the area

Bowden Street construction site, Alexandria [Jul-2023 319KB]

Outwardness within

Solitude was regarded as being an anathema

Sightseeing at The Balconies, Royal National Park NSW [Aug-2019 572KB]

Remarks

The northern part of the Royal National Park tended to get overrun on weekends by day–trippers. Most came to pose for selfies, but occasionally you could also see people reflecting on what they saw

Permissive Occupancy

We, the legatees of adverse possession, hereupon swear to lobby and plead and flatter and appeal and threaten and randomly proclaim “significant heritage, cultural & architectural values” in order to enjoy our rightful seaside retreats deep inside a public national park

RNP shack at Little Garie, NSW [Jul-2019 441KB]

The secret to perfectly fluffy pancakes

One by one the old Keynesians died and were replaced by Freedmanites. Then ~~Globalists~~ Trade Liberalisers took over and used their influence to offshore everything, except their own well–remunerated jobs. Merchant banks were given a blank cheque, the economy was financialised and everyone was convinced that the only activity worth a damn was property speculation

Sandbridge pedestrian crossing, Melbourne [Apr-2019 259KB]

Seasons will pass you by

The fruits of positive climate reform

Blue mountains seasons [Dec-2019 513KB]

Day–tripping

The greater our impact on nature, the more we wanted to see what little remained

Waterrun, Royal National Park NSW [Aug-2019 411KB]

Remarks

Many people would travel for hours to take photographs of themselves. In the background you can see one of the perilous cliffs mentioned earlier

Two–speed world

We had a choice in the 1980’s as to which direction we wanted to go

The remains of Lawrence Hargrave Drive beside the Sea Cliff bridge, near Coalcliff [Dec-2016 616KB]

Remarks

Those who drove over the Sea Cliff Bridge rarely noticed the abandoned Lawrence Hargrave Drive below. Prior to the bridge being built, the drive was decommissioned in Aug 2003 due to numerous rockfalls from the escarpment on its western edge. Yet it still remained open to intrepid walkers, and the cabin–sized boulder which finally closed it still sits in the middle of the road

Peak skiing

With most valley resorts closed due to the lack of snow, skiers all rushed to the mountain tops

The start of the ski run at Gornegrat (3100m elevation), near Zermatt CH [Feb-2024 352KB]

Hedge city

O beautiful for spacious skies, to park our excess wealth

Central Park apartments, Broadway [Jul-2018 392KB]

Here we were

Passing paths that climb halfway into the void (Yes, 1972)

Royal Coastal Track, near Wattamolla [Aug-2020 732KB]

Remarks

Roger Dean everywhere, although without the pretty tarns and waterfalls

After Nature

A brand new Pliocene, with polybutadiene gastropods in a concrete sea

Front yard of an abandoned spare–parts dealer at Tempe in Sydney [Sep-2012 242KB]

Create your own future

Swans enjoyed paddling around on a lake filled with pleasantly warm water

A swan grazing in February, Lake Lucerne CH [Feb-2024 340KB]

Across the roaring forties

Just one summer in western Sydney: 43.5°C (2017–12–14), 44.1°C (2017–12–19), 43.6°C (2017–12–20), 42.1°C (2017–12–24), 40.4°C (2017–12–29), 42.3°C (2018–01–06), 47.3°C (2018–01–07), 42.5°C (2018–01–08), 40.5°C (2018–01–19), 40.2°C (2018–01–20), 40.3°C (2018–01–21), 43.2°C (2018–01–22), 40.0°C (2018–02–14), 40.0°C (2018–02–24) (Aust BOM, 2018)

117°F in the shade, the hottest Sydney temperature since 1939 (ABC News, 2018). The following summer there was a new record of 48.9°C on 2019–01–04. In July 2023 it was the northern hemisphere’s turn [Jan-2018 91KB]

Neo–Monogorod

To encourage immediate relaxation, new apartments promoted a sense of calm and well–being

Melbourne Docklands [Apr-2019 420KB]

Less is more

A rectangular lattice to corral our inoffensive and risk–adverse lives

Housing demolition on Gray Street, at Kogarah [Apr-2011 214KB]

Untapped potential

It was a time when sustainable development opportunities could be found in every direction

Florabella Pass walking track, Blue Mountains [May-2019 661KB]

Scenes from Planet 3

More than fifty years later, we were still a small warm dot in the cold dark void

Burning Palms beach before a storm, Royal National Park NSW [Aug-2020 465KB]

Dam the Franklin

Environmental activism to prevent the construction of dams in one of the most remote and inaccessible parts of the planet

Franklin Dam protesters in Tasmania [Feb-1983 371KB]

Volunteer sacrifice

According to former fire chiefs, relying on large numbers of volunteers to fight bushfires was not necessarily a sign of inadequate funding, but possibly the best way to do it (SBS, 2019)

Waterfall Bushfire Volunteers Memorial, commemorating the death of five volunteers in Nov 1980 [Sep-2020 713KB]

A prudent investment

Foliage to remind us where we came from

Urban tree–scapes, Newtown & Wynyard [Jun-2024 571KB]

This brown and angry land

Urbanites had a lot of trouble adjusting to the chaos of the bush

Scribbly gum moth trails, Illawarra Escarpment track [Oct-2020 397KB]

From the liens den

The potential for redevelopment was endless

View from beneath the Western Distributor, at Darling Harbour [Jul-2017 69KB]

Under a waning gibbous moon

The goal was to squeeze as much from the status quo as possible

Re-enacting Quatermass and the Pit at Parramatta [Nov-2017 710KB]

The wound that would not heal

O₂ + (UV) → 2 O•
O₂ + O• → O₃
O₃ + (UV) → O₂ + O•
CCl₂F₂ + (UV) → CClF₂• + Cl•
Cl• + O₃ → ClO• + O₂
ClO• + O• → O₂ + Cl•
2 ClO• + (UV) → O₂ + 2 Cl•

Sunburst above the Wollongong Sewage Works [Feb-2011 135KB]

Neptune’s Navy

Decades of recreational activism drew attention away from accelerating environmental decline

Sea Shepherd cruiser, Australian National Maritime Museum [Apr-2014 212KB]

Crosswalk puzzle

Waiting for the white man with the upraised orange palm

Pedestrian crossing at 37th and 5th, NYC [Oct-2017 301KB]

Charting success

A million schemes for the world we were going to make

Parramatta Square construction site [Jan-2018 164KB]

Non curamus

I direct council to amend its draft planning–scheme to remove any assumption about a theoretical projected sea level rise due to climate change (Seeney, 2014)

Rock ledge at The Waterrun, Royal National Park NSW [Aug-2019 543KB]

A domain of wreaths

Ideally, we should live as free people. Sensibly, we must live under guard (Daily Telegraph, 2018)

Papered–over window display in Henry Str Lewisham [Sep-2015 163KB]

Buckley’s chance

Going nowhere was better than going backwards

Coastal track upgrading works at the Royal National Park, NSW [Jul-2019 534KB]

Force majeure

Politicians kept getting elected on a platform of climate change denial, until they weren’t

Post–election garbage bins at Copeland Ave, Macdonaldtown [May-2022 495KB]

Travel in stylllleeee

And what I hate about traditional carbon offset programmes is so many companies are using them, and they are a fig leaf for a CEO to write a cheque, tick a box, or pretend that they’ve done the right thing for sustainability when they haven’t made one wit of difference in the real world (Kirby, 2021)

Primary school mosaic on the “Giant Sofa”, Sydenham Green [Sep-2012 364KB]

Rising above

Endless views to match our ambitions

Eureka sky–deck café patrons, Melbourne [Apr-2019 300KB]

Ready to enjoy your renovating touches

Deceased Estate — First Time Offered in 37 Years. Lifestyle studio apartments with iconic Oprah House, Bridge and Harbour views

Misspelled blurb on a real–estate hoarding, Waruda Street Kirribilli [Nov-2020 301KB]

Camouflaged externalities

A vivid matrix of inclusive spaces to facilitate social cohesion

Centre Place lane, Melbourne [Apr-2019 509KB]

Markers of social progress

Signposts to reinforce things we already knew

Abandoned used–car dealership sign, Church Str Parramatta [Jul-2017 144KB]

A machine to make the land pay

(Gilbert, 1905)

Flinders Road Industry lookout, Port Kembla BlueScope steelworks [Sep-2013 222KB]

Game the system

Those with the best view won

Friday night on Sydney Harbour [Jan-2019 301KB]

Wildfulness everywhere

At times the bush was so intense that even the signposts flinched

Illawarra Escarpment Track, above Coalcliff NSW [Oct-2020 541KB]

Frame your reference

An existence punctuated by crosses & cranes

Elm tree memorial at Lewisham building site [Sep-2015 113KB]

This fatal shore

A remote and hostile land where the unwanted were sent to be forgotten

The boulder–strewn shoreline on the way to Figure 8 Pool, Royal National Park [Oct-2019 365KB]

World without autumn or winter

May 2023 was a climate turning point as global temperatures for every month thereafter were the hottest on record. Furthermore, analysis of Penrith Lakes AWS temperature data for the period Sep 2017 — Sep 2024, found there were 65 days when the maximum temperature exceeded 10°C above the long term average, with only 8 days when it was 10°C below

Darling Harbour demolition, Sydney [May-2023 190KB]

From lives to livelihoods

Consumption for symbolic, signalling and cultural reasons

New apartments from old flour mills, Lewisham [Sep-2015 199KB]

Foundations of a trade liberalised millennium

Ceaseless construction underpinned our faith in productivity and internationalism

Parammatta Square construction site [Jul-2018 150KB]

Snafu City

Liberal democracies are today confronted with a wave of popular distrust in their ability to serve the majority of their citizens and solve the multiple crises that threaten our future […] This distrust is not only, but to a large extent, driven by the widely shared experience of a real or perceived loss of control over one’s own livelihood and the trajectory of societal changes […] Decades of poorly managed globalization, overconfidence in the self–regulation of markets and austerity have hollowed out the ability of governments to respond to such crises effectively (Berlin Summit, 2024)

Apartment towers surrounding Chatswood railway station [Feb-2016 305KB]

Sunset industry

The party had to end sometime

Construction cranes at Barangaroo, Sydney [Jan-2020 120KB]

Finding somewhere to hide

It must be beautiful, if you cannot read (GBS)

Asbestos contaminated mulch beneath trees at Victoria Park, Sydney. No one was surprised when a billionaire property developer was charged in Dec 2024 for causing the contamination [Apr-2024 683KB]

Out in the open

Growing pains were a small price to pay to ensure our city remained truly global

Brocks lane construction appraisal, Macdonaldtown [Dec-2022 261KB]

Isle of the dread

Sandy beaches became problematic in a world of rising oceans

Fairy Bower rocks, Manly [Jan-2021 669KB]

Wealth of future generations

He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people, and eat out their substance (Declaration of Independence, 1766)

6th Avenue office buildings, NYC [Oct-2017 439KB]

Fine structure constant

What to most was a frenetic and incomprehensible mess, was to some a world filled with intricate patterns and symmetries

Southbank lighting store, Melbourne [Apr-2019 614KB]

Stack trace

International trade agreements led to enormous economic benefits

The concrete base of the demolished Port Kembla copper stack [Sep-2014 371KB]

Remarks

The Copper Stack became an landmark after its construction in 1965. Following its closure in 2003, it stood derelict for a decade before being demolished in Feb 2014. This photo was taken a few months later by scaling a security fence, along with risking arrest by waiting around for the sun to peek out between clouds

Outlier Nation

Founded on penal servitude, maintained by the dispossessed, for the benefit of the super-rich

Sugar cane digester spheres in Waterfront Park, at Jacksons Landing [Jan-2013 513KB]

How green was my valley

The greatest accomplishment of my generation was the systematic destruction everyone’s childhood

Winter valley below Mürren CH [Feb-2024 525KB]

Remarks

Taken at an altitude of 1630m on 16 Feb 2024. It was the middle of a Swiss alpine winter, yet in the Lauterbrunnen valley the daily maximums had been averaging 10°C for a month. It should have typically been −6°C, with everything covered in deep snow

Situation normal

Everything was fine, until it wasn’t

Lawsons Auctions car–park, Moore Street Annandale [Sep-2015 312KB]

Remarks

The cars that ate Sydney… Walk the suburbs for hours and sometimes you will be rewarded with the most surreal experience

Moral precedence of humanity

We peered through the bay–windows of our lavishly renovated homes, yet couldn’t see the yachts for the trees

Vandalised Moreton Bay fig tree roots on Wunulla Road, Point Piper [Sep-2012 578KB]

Reinforced bulwark

Oceans were an ideal place to dump all our unwanted stuff

Concrete erosion blocks, South Wollongong beach [Sep-2014 444KB]

My variegated village

Machines of extraction between students and their prospective futures

UTS faculties, Broadway [Oct-2024 260KB]

More days at the beach

Sunbathe to your heart’s content and wear your black havis all year round

Miniature snowman at Blackheath Oval [Aug-2019 472KB]

Late for the sky

The air was eaten, promise crammed

The final blast–furnace at BlueScope Steel, in Port Kembla [Sep-2014 123KB]

Remarks

“Scheduled Trackwork” meant replacement buses between Wollongong and Port Kembla. Unfortunately they were so infrequent that I had to catch a regular bus service instead. Instead of going directly, it languidly meandered down every side–street for what seamed like hours before finally, grudgingly, arriving at the destination. Which meant there was more than enough time for the sky to cloud over and completely ruin the light. Yet after such a tortuous journey, you may as well check out the location you took so incredibly long to reach. So I walked out and then, as if on cue, the clouds parted and steam began to billow from the blast furnace chimney…

Angophora sunset

In some places the weird scribbles of the bush extended all the way down to the harbour

Angophora Costatas along the Bradleys Head trail [Aug-2023 764KB]

Re–imagining urban life

Our prosperity was measured in traffic and cranes

Construction cranes at Australian Technology Park [Mar-2018 337KB]

Troglodyte world

Going underground to evade the consequences

Underground escalators at Macquarie University railway station, Sydney [Feb-2016 343KB]

Flygskam

One cheap long–haul flight produced more CO₂ per passenger than driving an SUV for months (The Guardian, 2019)

Runway approach lights, Sydney International Airport [May-2019 91KB]

Damnatio futuri

A study has found that our grandchildren were on course to become the richest generation in history

Olympian Rock walkway after a deliberately lit bushfire, Leura [Oct-2011 425KB]

Peeling an onion without tears

Everyone believed in the infallibility of market forces

Collaroy beach–house for sale, in an area almost destroyed by ocean storms in 2016 & 2020 (SMH, 2022) [Mar-2024 230KB]

The needle and the damage done

We believed that Pain was the Fifth Vital Sign; We believed in the Sackler Family’s birthright to enjoy windfall profits; We believed Perdue Pharma was entitled to traffic OxyContin via the Medical–industrial Complex; We believed the ½ million who died from opioid abuse did so due to their own personal failings; We believed that law was a shield to protect the righteous

Kent Street pyramid and A4 overpass, Millers Point [Jan-2014 151KB]

Where even the windows wept

Our villages were filled with safety, community and a collective sense of belonging

Factory windows at Chester Lane, Zetland [Sep-2014 436KB]

This tun of treasure

We are all interested in the future, for that is where you and I are going to spend the rest of our lives (Criswell, 1959)

Green Square Waste garbage facility (since demolished) at O’Riordan Street (Daily Telegraph, 2014) [Aug-2014 415KB]

Winter wonderland

Weather presenters grinned and chuckled while reporting yet more unseasonably warm weather

Opera House Plaza in February, Zürich CH [Feb-2024 347KB]

Down from the trees and into the meat

It was almost as if we knew the plague was coming

82nd street apartment entrance, NYC [Oct-2017 385KB]