Steph and I explored the Powerhouse Museum and Australian National Maritime Museum over the last week. My poor little camera doesn’t have a wide enough aperture to get good photos in dark situations. As a result, there weren’t very many photos at either museum. But I did get a few. This photo is of a steam engine that’s getting close to 200 years old.
The first helicopter to fly around the world.
One of the (if not still the) fastest boats in the world. It was built in a guy’s backyard on a shoestring budget as a hobby.
From an annual beer can regatta contest. Yes, this was the winner for speed.
The museum fleet. It was too nasty of a day to board the vessels so I will have to go back another day to check them out.
The monorail crosses a swing bridge. This contraption allows the bridge to swing open and closed with the monorail track on top. I doubt they open it very often anymore but it is doable.
Yesterday I went with Steph to Cockatoo Island to check out the 17th Biennial of Sydney art installation. There was a free ferry to the island so it made the outing all the better.
As is always required when taking a ferry ride out of Circular Quay, a shot of the Sydney Harbor Bridge.
And the opera house.
The old wharves west of the bridge.
We spy the island rising up out of the harbor.
A tunnel leads under the island.
It has a dog leg in it so you can’t see the other end.
No clue what this is.
An interesting art installation made out of strainers.
Steph and the art.
Steph being eaten by the strainers.
All of the derelict cranes gave the island an eerie feeling.
Sometimes you just have to rectify the situation.
Inside the power house.
There was a birdcage in one corner of the powerhouse that periodically had a big electric discharge play across its wires. Standing close to it, you could feel the static electricity.
Static electricity art.
So many knobs and switches that I wanted to throw!
The Japanese god of thunder chilling out on a pedestal in the middle of the room.
It was so hard to not jump over the barriers and start throwing switches.
When I visited Cockatoo Island, I no clue what these strange contraptions are for. Each was about three or four feet tall. There were a total of eleven of them in a bank on the upper floor of the power house. Since then, I’ve been told that they are probably mercury-arc rectifiers (also known as mercury-arc valves and mercury vapor rectifiers) which would have been used to take AC voltage and change it to DC voltage to run the large motors on the cranes spread around the island. The sign for the powerhouse (several photos below) indicates that, if this is what these strange contraptions are, they were installed in 1930. I plan to return to Cockatoo Island to get more photos of them and poke around a bit more. Considering that these things, if they are in fact mercury-arc rectifiers, would have a tendency to periodically explode, I bet that whole building is contaminated with mercury.
Another one. They all looked identical.
The tunnel leading to the power house.
The power plant chimney. It has started losing bricks.
Funny signs such as this were interspersed throughout the island.
A grand old tree standing watch over the island.
Another tunnel through the island.
Another funny sign.
Fidel Castro on his death bed.
Another funny sign.
Strange art.
No clue what they had behind the door that was radioactive.
This wild exhibit had a series of cars suspended from the roof of a large building.
Back in Sydney we stopped in the Customs House and looked at the 3-D map under the floor. I am standing over Sydney looking down. It felt like I was Godzilla.
A couple of days ago, Wanda and I paid a visit to the Koala Park Sanctuary. Part sanctuary and part petting zoo, the place is a nice way to see the local wildlife without having to tromp through the brush.
A little penguin from Tasmania.
A dingo. They look like normal dogs but howl like wolves.
There were lots of different types of birds in cages scattered throughout the facility.
A cute kangaroo.
The park allowed these particular kangaroos to roam about and take food handouts.
It’s a KANGAROO!
Yes, they are ridiculously cute.
The possum wasn’t coming out to play.
I scored some free food so I could feed one of the kangaroos.
These wallabies were behind a fence. Maybe they’ve tasted human flesh and have to be kept away?
A sleeping wombat.
Some birds wandering around.
The koala hospital where koalas that have been hit by cars or bitten by dogs get treated.
I’m going to guess peacocks aren’t native to Australia.
Poor parrot. It knew how to talk.
Koalas hanging out.
Wanda petting a koala.
I got in on the act as well.
Emus.
A cassowary.
It’s supposed to be the most dangerous bird in the world. They didn’t seem that bad to me.
Baby on board.
This one has a baby nursing, hence the upside-down feet.
Flying foxes.
A koala rest station.
Shearing sheep in Australia. Well, in a tourist park anyway. The guy’s accent is top notch!
