Category: Western Australia

Looking down (#50: on a handsome but shy “omnivorous scavenger”)

Published June 3, 2026 by Pelidoug

Looking down (#50: on a handsome but shy “omnivorous scavenger”)

This post’s hero inhabits the well-vegetated edges of wetlands – both natural and man-made – right across Australasia, Oceania, and as far north as the Philippines.

Gallirallus philippensis – the buff-banded rail – is neither rare nor endangered, but it is very secretive.

Almost every living adult Australian human would have been within close proximity of one, more than once.

However, most people have either never seen a buff-banded rail, or have never enjoyed an unobstructed, full view of one.

Looking down (#43 in series: on a Sicklefin lemon shark)

Published May 1, 2026 by Pelidoug

Looking down (#43 in series: on a Sicklefin lemon shark)

In March 2016 my beloved and I were in northwest Western Australia, “sailing” on a motorised yacht from Broome to Wyndham.

(with many “tinny” side-trips to islands, tidal creeks, beaches, waterfalls, etc)

We were “exploring” the Kimberley Coast – the world’s greatest tropical coastal “wilderness”.

Around 7am on the fourth day of March, we were just a few kilometres distant from Horizontal Falls – this coastline’s most celebrated “attraction”.

By Grand Canyon standards, visitor numbers were infinitesimal.

However, by “way-out-of-any-town” Kimberley standards, we were in severely tourist-infested waters.

Accordingly, some local sharks have learned that a boat may provide a “free feed”; we were far from the first tourists to observe a very relaxed shark, so “amazingly close” to “their” boat.

To my knowledge, “our” boat did not feed the shark.

Nonetheless, the image immediately above does show a mutually beneficial relationship between a “client” (the shark) and some “service providers”..

Looking down (#37 in series: on a Wandoo woodland’s floor)

Published April 1, 2026 by Pelidoug

Looking down (#37 in series: on a Wandoo woodland’s floor)

If you wish to experience an incredibly diverse array of extraordinary flowering plants – most especially, species that naturally occur in only one part of the world – you’d be best-advised to avoid places with “good” soil and abundant, “reliable” rainfall.

The “winning” combination: “poor” soil, unreliable rainfall and a very high evaporation rate!

Arguably, the world’s best natural “flower gardens” are in the southwestern “corners” of Africa and Australia; there, “looking down” is almost always rewarding, but most especially so in Spring.

I took the photo on 30 October 2023, circa 100 kilometres southeast of Perth.

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Looking down (#22 in series) at a Perth footpath, in winter

Published February 24, 2026 by Pelidoug

Looking down (#22 in series) at a Perth footpath, in winter

The West Australian Perth is enormously bigger, much hotter, and very much sunnier than the Scottish Perth.

”Surprisingly”, the Australian city’s average annual rainfall is only moderately lower, although its rain falls on (mostly, straight through) nutrient-poor sand rather than fertile, moisture-retaining Scottish soil.

The Australian Perth is also one of the world’s windiest cities, and almost all of its rain falls quickly, in winter.

In summer a Perth (WA) pedestrian who looks straight down at a footpath will usually see only “lifeless” sealed/paved surfaces, edged with bare sand.

In a “proper” winter, however….

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Looking down (#20 in series) on a Banksia

Published February 20, 2026 by Pelidoug

Looking down (#20 in series) on a Banksia

Membership of the genus is hotly debated – should Dryandras be included, or not? – but, however defined, Banksias are extraordinary plants.

These members of the Protea family are unique to Australia.

The overwhelming majority naturally occur only in certain parts of Western Australia’s southwest.

Depending on when one encounters it, a banksia’s flower spike can be prodigiously shaggy, “untidy”, and drab…. or a glorious example of perfect symmetry, Fibonacci sequences, and subtle colouration.

Each flowering “spike”/“cone” bears many – sometimes, several thousand – individual flowers.

I particularly love the appearance of some banksia flower spikes when viewed from directly above.

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Looking down (#19 in series) on winter-flowering WA orchids)

Published February 17, 2026 by Pelidoug

Looking down (#19 in series) on winter-flowering WA orchids)

Generally, with flowers, the best strategy is as per the generally-best approach to photographing people and most other living subjects….

1: try to be in (or very near to) the same horizontal plane as your subject.

2: point the lens straight at its eye/s or “face”.

3: ideally, do this when the sun is low, and behind you – nicely illuminating the subject rather than turning it into a black silhouette or a mere scatteration of light.

Sometimes, however, the better plan – or at least, something worth trying – is to flout some or all such rules.

This post’s image looks straight down at the top of its subject, in “poor” light, in the middle of a winter day.

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Looking down (#12 in series…on Australia Day)

Published February 2, 2026 by Pelidoug

Looking down (#12 in series…on Australia Day)

As you probably know, on Australia Day 2026 circa 2,500 people took part in an entirely peaceful “Invasion Day” rally/protest in Perth’s Forrest Place.

Adjacent to Forrest Place, and overlooking it, is Forrest Chase’s elevated walkway – from which an IED (improvised explosive device) was hurled.

Had it worked as intended, the probable consequence would have been multiple injuries…perhaps, fatalities too.

By virtue of the bomb-throwing occurring in Perth, rather than in Sydney or Melbourne – and the bomb’s failure to detonate – Australia’s Sydney-centric, so-called “national” media were regrettably but predictably slow to grasp the seriousness of this profoundly disturbing incident.

Meanwhile, that afternoon, my beloved and I were blissfully ignorant of what had happened, as we enjoyed a long walk along the Rocky Bay cliff line, above the Swan River.

The waters immediately below the North Fremantle cliffs (where river and ocean are separate, but very close to each other) were thronged with Australia Day revellers, and many millions of dollars worth of boats.

Goodwill abounded.

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Seasonal Greetings, with appropriate “decorations”

Published December 21, 2025 by Pelidoug

Seasonal Greetings, with appropriate “decorations”

Pelican Yoga wishes you all a happy and safe festive season.

You may imagine that the pictured “decorations” involve snow and ice, either directly or as inspiration source, and that they express nostalgia for – or romantic notions about – the “properly Christmassy” Decembers of Santa’s homeland, deep in the northern hemisphere.

If so, you would be wrong on all counts!

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Signage & Signification: (#1 in series: “Thou shalt not..”)

Published October 31, 2025 by Pelidoug

Signage & Signification: (#1 in series: “Thou shalt not..”)

Typically, signs of the “Do not…”/Strictly prohibited…” kind are dull and stern.

Rarely does one encounter even a failed attempt at humour.

So hats off to Transperth – the Perth (Western Australia) public transport authority – and to whomever won the advertising contract for the “no vaping on trains, buses, ferries and their stations” campaign!

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Spring 2025 in Perth ( final in series: late afternoon delight)

Published October 30, 2025 by Pelidoug

Spring 2025 in Perth ( final in series: late afternoon delight)

For wildflowers – most especially if one is photographing them – intensely bright sunshine is definitely NOT the “best” kind of light.

In the middle of the day, a lightly overcast sky is likely to prove a much better friend to a wildflower photographer – or to your naked eyes – than an intensely bright blue sky.

Generally, if you wish to capture a wildflower’s full natural beauty, the ideal circumstance is soft, late afternoon light.

This post’s hero was photographed with a longish (400 mm) lens in just such light, on 29 September 2025, in Perth’s Karrakatta Cemetery.

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