Seoraksan National Park

Seoraksan was the first National Park to be declared in South Korea. It’s situated up in the far northeast corner of the country, only a short distance below the border with North Korea. It has…

Dancheong – Korean decorative painting

Almost all of the historic palaces, Buddhist temples and monasteries in Korea are in excellent repair due to careful preservation or painstaking restoration. And it is no wonder – because they are stunningly beautiful! It…

Fancy dress at Gyeongbokgung Palace

"we became very interested in the cultural phenomenon of people visiting historic sites (like temples, palaces etc) and dressing up in replica clothing from ancient times."

Bulbine lilies

I've been along to a couple of the regular working bees at the Southern Tablelands Ecosystems Park ('STEP') a.k.a. Forest 20 at the National Arboretum Canberra.

Proboscis monkey

The Proboscis monkey (Nasalis larvatus) got its name because…. well it’s obvious really. They are large monkeys, and the males in particular have impressively prominent noses. They are colloquially referred to as ‘Monyet Belanda‘ (Dutch…

Mahakam bike boy

Along the rivers of Kalimantan, huge areas are under water for much of the year, including of course during the wet season. Villages in these area will often have all of the houses and roads…

Alstonia angustiloba (Pohon punai)

Long time no post… After seven years without a functioning printer, we recently acquired one*. Since then I’ve been having fun: trawling through photos from our years in Indonesia (mostly Kalimantan), selecting, re-editing, printing and…

Birds of North Sulawesi

It’s more than six months ago that we were in North Sulawesi/Sulawesi Utara (Indonesia), so well past time that I posted some pictures of birds that we encountered there. These pictures, from Tangkoko and the…

Private W.B. Macdonald NX 84656

I’m still wandering through old family photographs and documents, piecing together images and information, trying to form some coherent narrative of my father’s life. My father Bruce Macdonald enlisted in the Australian Army in January…

My father the jackaroo

Looking through some old family photos and documents. This from 80 years ago… In 1939, my father Bruce Macdonald applied by letter for work as a jackaroo at Newinga Station, Talwood Queensland. He was 17…

Birds of Halmahera

We had the great pleasure of travelling to the island of Halmahera (North Maluku, Indonesia) back in late March – early April this year. We only got to see a small part of this big…

Mare pottery

Mare (pronounced “Marr-ay”) is a small island, just 3 km long and 2km wide. It’s located to the south of the bigger island of Tidore, in the chain of active and inactive volcanoes that make…

Halmahera mudcakes

Did you ever ‘bake’ mudcakes as a child? I don’t know whether Australian kids still do it – perhaps they have too many other less messy things to do. However, in at least one a…

Wallace’s standardwing

There is nothing ‘standard’ about the bird known as “Wallace‘s standardwing” (Semioptera wallacii). Actually it gets its name because the wings of the male bird are anything but ‘standard’. It has two long white plumes…

Coconut harvesting

Next time you open a can of coconut milk (or sip on coconut water or perhaps enjoy a lamington crusted with crumbs of desiccated coconut), spare a thought for the people who harvest the coconuts.…