Resort Entrance

Japanese designers have used sound for centuries, perhaps millennia, to assist one in perceiving the intent of the space.    

Fountains in resort entries create a holiday atmosphere quite admirably, at once triggering a feeling of calm relaxation as one enters, and a desire to seek out some of the "facilities".

Twin Waters Resort

© Sunshine Coast Daily Photo - Australia

WunPalm

But I can count too, no free, or is it for?   I'm guessing wunpalm is pigeon, but there have been a few more planted since it was named.

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Washing

I've never quite got my head around drying swimwear, after all it's only going to get wet again in the afternoon.

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Roadworks

The shortcut to Kenilworth has been out of action for a year or so while the road construction crews reparil the land slip.   For occasional tourists such as we are, this has meant an additional fifty kilometres or so to drive through rather pleasant countryside, but for locals it must have been a pain.

But the road is open albeit with short delays and a couple of detours, and work is continuing, in those relatively rare times in recent months when it's not raining.

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Beyond Nambour

We are just a few kilometres from the ocean, well perhaps thirty or so as the crow flies, but we are miles from anywhere.  Nambour lies just beyond the ridge, but we are still well within the city boundaries.

Obi Obi

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New Year Party

The sign says "new year party here", but I can assure anyone who seeks such assurances, it wasn't just put there for this year.  Despite the lack of signage, I'm guessing this is the Obi Obi School of Arts hall a community hall that's served the Obi Obi population for more than just new years parties over a long period of time!

Obi Obi

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Umm

The steps to the veterinary surgery in Kenilworth (which I mistook for a butcher shop at first glance - oops!) have an interesting puzzle.   I thought I could find the solution by changing the camera angle, and I'm still not convinced that if I walked down the footpath a bit all this wouldn't turn into a cow, but for now, it shall remain a dismembered mystery.

Photographs of the puzzle complete will be welcome!

Kenilworth

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Elizabeth Street

Elizabeth Street is the main street in Kenilworth, and I love it for the hint it gives at what may lie beyond.   It's the sort of street that makes you want to walk to the top of the hill, just to see what's there.

Kenilworth

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Natural Air

There's an old trick to getting air circulation that was employed particularly on commercial buildings and sheds in the old days.   It involves simply leaving out the sheeting on the top bit of the roof, and building a rolled "cap" over the top leaving lots of gaps and the ends open.    The roof sheeting heats the air below, hot air rises and moves out of the cap, bringing in a drift of cool(er) air from the outside.

We ignored these principals for years after the invention of insulation, and air conditioning, but they are making a return.

 © Sunshine Coast Daily Photo - Australia

Queensland

Nothing says "you're in Queensland" more than a wide verandah and a mango tree.

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Cheeses

The Kenilworth cheese factory produces a number of tasty staples, but I can't help but think there's a certain romance that isn't there.

Why is it that when one thinks of making cheese, one thinks of stone cellars and wooden churns.  The reality is all very much a letdown!

Modern health regulations very much mean stainless steel and concrete, and in the absence of a 600 year old stone building, well concrete blocks are the next best thing.

It tastes OK though, and the ice cream is just what the doctor ordered on a hot day.

Kenilworth

© Sunshine Coast Daily Photo - Australia

View from the bakery

No, you work it out, I'm trying to finish my coffee.

Kenilworth

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Red

Pedestrian traffic,

Kenilworth

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Window

 In the old days, metal sunhoods really did a good job of protecting the windows from heat and water, but I have no idea why the glass was "obscure" preventing any view through it.  It was as though the inside was a refuge, hiding all reminders of the world outside.

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Shade

I wonder if the cows get there early to find the shadiest spot.

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Farmhouse

High on stilts, there's plenty of room for a tractor underneath, or for flood waters to flow unimpeded.

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Towards Kenilworth

Heading to the western boundaries of the city, one doesn't have to look very hard to see remnants of what was once a thriving dairy industry.   The industry still exists although I suspect this milking shed is no longer used!

© Sunshine Coast Daily Photo - Australia

Fabric

There is lots to observe in the windows of a stranger's house, but I particularly like the way the shadow from the overlapping louvre blades makes a pattern on the fabric.

I'm sure it would cost a fortune to buy it like that.

 © Sunshine Coast Daily Photo - Australia

Moth

 A Moth of unknown species, but large enough to carry paying passengers, finds a handy spot in the shade of the poor timber cutter's hat.

© Sunshine Coast Daily Photo - Australia

Terminator

 Sadly, vandalism has left Eumundi's monument to the woodcutting industry looking more like a monument to Terminator Two.

I'm sure some brave person got an enormous thrill from flogging a one armed inanimate object until it fell apart.   Hopefully one day someone will return the favour.

© Sunshine Coast Daily Photo - Australia

Historical

I'm not sure if the clock on the Eumundi and District Historical Association's wall is stopped in remembrance of some important event, or whether it's just always tantalisingly close to Beer O'Clock.

Photographed at ten a.m.

© Sunshine Coast Daily Photo - Australia

Empty Markets

The empty market stalls cast rather pleasing shadow patterns on the paving.

Midweek at Eumundi

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More verandahs

More verandahs in Eumundi

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Empty

I never ever see Eumundi like this.  That's because usually I go on a Wednesday or a Saturday when the place is transformed into a bustling market town.   It looks positively deserted in between times.

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Joe's Waterhole

 No prizes for guessing what one goes to the Waterhole for.    Here's a clue: it's not to drink water.

Eumundi

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Shadows

Following yesterday's post, it has to be said that light and shade are elements of extremes. There's no subtle play here, it's either sunlight, or it's not.

Shadows

Eumundi

© Sunshine Coast Daily Photo - Australia

Shaded Verandahs

Living in this part of the world, we take shade for granted, if it's not in the sun, it's shadow.  Buildings traditionally have coverings over the footpaths to keep us out of the sun, and as a bonus out of the rain!

Eumundi

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CWAQ

The Country Women's Association was once a mainstay for women living outside the cities.   Anyone who is over forty will know at least one CWA cake recipe off by heart.

On another note, when electricity came to town, no one mucked around being discreet about it, the switchboard just got bunged up beside the front door and to heck with the consequences!

CWA Hall
Eumundi

© Sunshine Coast Daily Photo - Australia

Time Travelling

As you read this, I am actually spending some time in France, so the question you may rightly ask is : Is the 2CV a time machine that we've used to commute between hemispheres, or is there something wierd going on with the alignment of the planets?

© Sunshine Coast Daily Photo - Australia

Public Buildings

The public buildings originally took a similar form to the houses.  Post Offices often had a verandah which was put to good use providing shelter for the boxes.

© Sunshine Coast Daily Photo - Australia

Queenslander

Historically our houses were made of light weight timber, held off the ground on timber stumps with a verandah at the front (in suburbia where space was at a premium) or on all four sides.

This one was a typical plan form, a corridor up the middle, and two rooms on each side of it.  After World War 2 the population boom saw most enclose their verandahs with glass or asbestos cement louvres to create "sleep-outs" or sleeping verandahs.    

Landscaping in most back yards was confined to grass, with a vegetable patch and a "chook" run (where the laying hens resided).

There is a bit of a myth about how cleverly built for climate these places were, but with no cross ventilation or insulation rest assured they didn't provide the respite from the extremes that legend has would have us believe.

Eumundi
© Sunshine Coast Daily Photo - Australia

Camouflage

...when suddenly the library drove by, disguised as a tree.

© Sunshine Coast Daily Photo - Australia

Bunyas

A small plantation of Bunya Pines farewells us from the Wappa Dam enclosure.  Not really pines, they are a Queensland Native (Araucaria bidwillii) with a timber which is similar in appearance to a North American pine, but with a much richer honey colour.

© Sunshine Coast Daily Photo - Australia

Spillway

The spillway at Wappa Dam isn't always spilling, but it was in February when I visited it.

Waterways like this are all too rare in Australia, particularly the running over the top kind!

© Sunshine Coast Daily Photo - Australia

Nice Spot

I thought I'd go inland to get away from all those water photos, and then I came across Wappa Dam.

Half way between Nambour and Yandina, there is just a smattering of housing hidden in the bush.

Not a bad place to be I think.

© Sunshine Coast Daily Photo - Australia

Tadpoles

I'm hoping they aren't cane toads.   Whatever they are they'll be out and about before we know it.  I couldn't work out if the majority were hovering in the crack to try to stay in the cooler water, as far from the sun as they can, or if that's where the last of the algae is in the pond.

© Sunshine Coast Daily Photo - Australia

Palm

Just a palm frond in the bush near Nambour

© Sunshine Coast Daily Photo - Australia

Solar Farm

The Nambour hospital solar array is used to preheat water for the boilers.  The reflectors magically track the sun's movement during the course of the day to keep all the heat concentrated on the pipe.

Terrific, sensible stuff!  I wonder if it's an economic proposition though?

 © Sunshine Coast Daily Photo - Australia

One in Three

A staggering statistic, but none the less it makes me wonder what the other two use.

© Sunshine Coast Daily Photo - Australia

Near Nambour Hospital

The empty carpark says it all.  This building lies new and vacant as it has done for a year.

It is the best of times, yet the worst of times in some industries.

Hard to know why really.

© Sunshine Coast Daily Photo - Australia

Nambour Hospital 3 of 3

Concrete etching up close.  Oh dear I think I said it was a banksia yesterday, today it could be a callistemon!

It's very subtle, and rather nice.

 © Sunshine Coast Daily Photo - Australia

Nambour Hospital 2 of 3

There's a trend in modern architecture to introduce multiple textures and colours, it's almost as if there's a prize for the most bits one can fit in a given area.   Sometimes the result is quite abominable, but this seems to work for me.    I rather like all those smudges on the concrete which are actually photographically etched banksia leaves and flowers, and they should start to develop stronger contrasts as the concrete gathers dirt and mildew.  (Detail tomorrow)

© Sunshine Coast Daily Photo - Australia

Nambour Hospital 1 of 3

Believe it or not, I detoured through Nambour just to take a few photos of the new hospital building.  I rather like it graphically, although the vertical sun blades don't actually do much at this time of day, and if the maintenance budget is the same as for the rest of the complex I don't give it a lot of hope for retaining it's freshness into the distant future.

© Sunshine Coast Daily Photo - Australia

Ahhh... back in Nambour

Every time I visit Nambour, I get a thousand comments accusing me of showing it in an unflattering way, so I'll keep this visit brief.

See the gardens near the railway line?

That proves I'm looking for the good bits.   (Yes, OK Nambour, I AM joking.....)

© Sunshine Coast Daily Photo - Australia

Dog Friendly

La Balsa park provides one of the largest off-leash areas for dogs around the coast, and there are no shortage of four legged critters on the pathways most afternoons.

© Sunshine Coast Daily Photo - Australia

Why they have channel markers

Somewhere between our friend in the hat and all those boats is a deepish bit that allows safe passage.  It also is rumoured to provide something of a haven for resident bull sharks, and I'm not sure that I'd be standing out there calling my dog!

© Sunshine Coast Daily Photo - Australia

Coming up

It's a pleasant interlude, the bit between the water and the carpark.

Buddina

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Late Afternoon

Late afternoon, Buddina.


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The last wave

One last wave before we head off for a month or so of buildings and things, surely we all need a break from the beach by now!

© Sunshine Coast Daily Photo - Australia

CommunicationMaking the mailbox redundant.

There's a planner out there somewhere feeling immensely smug about the way we can hardly see the water tank any more.

Really all this communication stuff is making our mailboxes more and more redundant, so this is a timely reminder to send someone a postcard today while you still can.

Point Cartwright

Today's City Daily Photo theme is "Mailbox" if you feel cheated by my photo, there are plenty more for your enjoyment.Click here to view thumbnails for all participants

© Sunshine Coast Daily Photo - Australia