The link below is to an article reporting on the largest known colony of Eastern Horseshoe Bats in Australia located in the Ourimbah State Forest in New South Wales.
For more visit:
http://www.dpi.nsw.gov.au/aboutus/news/all/2013/monitoring-eastern-horseshoe-bats
The link below is to an article that reports on the world’s largest wind farm located in the Thames estuary.
For more visit:
http://inhabitat.com/worlds-largest-offshore-wind-farm-opens-in-thames-estuary/
The link below is to an article on Macquarie Island, which is located to the south of the Australian mainland (Macquarie Island – not the article). The article provides a good case study of problems associated with introduced species.
For more visit:
http://www.mentalfloss.com/blogs/archives/121598
Massive New National Park Declared in the Northern Territory
The article below reports on the establishment of a new national park in the Northern Territory. Limmen National Park is located on the Gulf of Carpentaria and covers a massive area. When coupled with the Limmen Bight Marine Park, the area protected is a staggering 10 000 square kilometres.
For more, visit:
http://www.australiangeographic.com.au/journal/massive-new-national-park-declared-in-northern-territory.htm
One of the great multi-day walks in New South Wales has been improved with the addition of additional interpretative signage. The Great North Walk is a 250km walking trail between Newcastle and Sydney. The new signs are located in Palm Grove Nature Reserve on the Central Coast.
For more info visit:
http://www.environment.nsw.gov.au/media/DecMedia12012402.htm
The historic Mountain Maid Goldmine in the Copeland Tops State Conservation Area has reopened to the public. The historic site near Gloucester has been extensively redeveloped and reopened on Friday the 15/10/2010. Free tours are available on Sunday as part of an open day. For more information on the mine that is located near Gloucester and the Barrington Tops National Park, contact NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service.
The Smithsonian Institute is an important research center located in the United States. It consists of 19 museums, 9 research centres and the national zoo of the United States. It is extremely important in the international cause of conservation.
For more visit the website at:
It is now day 5 of the road trip and I have already covered almost 3000km. As you can appreciate covering that amount of territory in 5 days doesn’t leave a lot of time to Blog, especially when I have been trying to keep the website updated as well.
See the NSW Road Trip 2010 website at:
http://www.kevinswilderness.com/NSW/nswRoadTrip2010.html
What I thought I might do in this Blog is just pass on a few thoughts that have come to me while I have been driving around this great state of Australia – New South Wales. Let’s call this post, ‘A Few Thoughts From the Road.’
I have often thought that the governments of this country are wasting a great opportunity in promoting tourism in Australia. With such great distances to travel in Australia, wouldn’t it be great if the governments came up with an action plan to improve the rest areas throughout the country. Certainly some of them have been upgraded to a wonderful state – but then there is a lack of maintenance.
Many of the rest areas I have stopped at in the last few days have no facilities at all. Often they are nothing more than an overloaded garbage bin on the side of a road, with limited space in which to park.
To cut a long story short, I think Australia’s tourism industry would get a great shot in the arm if rest areas were improved across the country. It would also be good if hey could be located somewhere with a good view, an attraction, a small park for families, etc.
To go a step further (and this is perhaps pie in the sky), wouldn’t it also be great for the many Australians that drive throughout the country on camping/caravan holidays, if a percentage of these rest areas had some limited facilities for tents and caravans as well?
Perhaps a lot more people would travel around the country if such improved rest areas were created. There would also need to be some plan to keep the maintenance of these areas up to scratch also.
Another thing that militates against the travelling tourism that is fairly popular in Australia (it could be far greater), is the condition of many of the caravan parks across the country. To be sure, there are some excellent parks – but there are also a large number of parks that charge top dollar for run down facilities and grubby grounds. These poor operators need to lift their games to provide good facilities for their customers or they won’t get the return business that caravan parks depend upon. They need to spend a bit of money in order to make money.
I won’t return to a caravan park in which I had a bad experience – whether it be top dollar for run down facilities, poor service, poor attitudes of operators, etc. Some of these places just have no idea how to run a successful caravan park.
More thoughts to come – these will do for today.
Kevin's Walk on the Wild Side 