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George McGregor Park in western Newcastle is host to several native vegetation communities. One of those communities is dominated by Smooth-barked Apple (Angophora costata), Red Bloodwood (Corymbia gummifera), along with some mahogany and stringybark eucalypts. The very large Angophora (also called Sydney Red Gum) in this panorama is an old tree and has a distinct lean. Angophoras are renowned limb-droppers, as evidenced by the many large branches on the ground surrounding the tree. When trees like this drop limbs, hollows are formed in the host tree and they are referred to as "hollow bearing". Hollows provide important nesting sites for a variety of fauna including Powerful Owls which are known to nest in this forest.
There are no kangaroos in Austria. We're talking about Australia, the world's smallest continent. That being cleared up, let's dive right in! Australia is a sovereign state under the Commonwealth of Nations, which is in turn overseen by Queen Elizabeth the Second, by the Grace of God, Queen of Australia and Her other Realms and Territories, Head of the Commonwealth. The continent was first sighted and charted by the Dutch in 1606. Captain James Cook of Britain came along in the next century to claim it for Britain and name it "New South Wales." Shortly thereafter it was declared to be a penal colony full of nothing but criminals and convicts, giving it the crap reputation you may have heard at your last cocktail party. This rumor ignores 40,000 years of pre-European human history, especially the Aboriginal concept of Dreamtime, an interesting explanation of physical and spiritual reality. The two biggest cities in Australia are Sydney and Melbourne. Sydney is more for business, Melbourne for arts. But that's painting in very broad strokes. Take a whirl around the panoramas to see for yourself! Text by Steve Smith.
