Currumbin Swell Festival 2016

Bad weather = good parking. Beach art 2016 from Gold Coast. First the oversized turtle and deck chairs:

Then my favourites, this one for the little story that went with it:

Patricia Hoffie & David Sawtell - "Kyoto Protocol Revenant"

These bikes worked as a windmill with 4 little passengers:

Village Bike - "Wind in the Wheelos"

A lot of work went into welding these chains into masks, they are smooth to touch:

Mike Van Dam - "Life is a Masquerade"

Scrap metal pigeons with the inflatable turtle in the background:

Dave Hickson - "Pigeons for Peace"

 My favourite, it makes you want to touch it (I did - it was pleasant):

Ben Carroll - "Nothing But Time"

Dock Dogs 2014 Australia

Today we watched, for the second time, Australian Dock Dogs competitions.

The event was taking place on the Bond University campus in beautiful Varsity Lakes, Gold Coast.

It was quite entertaining. A new Australian record was set today in the Extreme Vertical category.

Big Air category - after landing.

The new Extreme Vertical champion.

Currumbin Swell Sculpture Festival 2014

Another year, another Swell in Currumbin beach front. These are the pieces I found most interesting.

A giant green octopus?

AK-47 made of car parts.
[Daniel Clemmett]

AK-47 detail.

Manta rays made of plastic bags.
[Lauren Grey]

Detail of the manta ray.

Make your own postcard.

A cold tree.
[Vanessa Anseline]

An awesome wolf made of chicken wire.
[Ivan Lovatt]

The eye of the awesome wolf.

A funny creature from Mad Max?
[Christopher Trotter]

The real driver.

Stone pods of soft eggs. A pleasure to look at and very touchable.
[Glenn  Manning and Kathy Daly]

Swell Sculpture Festival 2013

Swell Sculpture Festival at Currumbin Beach, Gold Coast, 13-22 September 2013.

My favourites:

Bloodlines by Allen Horstmanshof

The Sirens by Falcini & Gottgens

The Sirens seen from the back.

City Farming by Karl de Wall

Blue Dancers. Prelude and Quintet. By Rainer Schlüter.

And because Currumbin is such a picturesque location:

There were several forest fires going on in the hinterland that day. The clouds on the left are smoke.

Surfers Paradise

The Kokoda Challenge 2013

My daughter took part yesterday in the Jim Stillman Cup of the Gold Coast Kokoda Challenge. The Kokoda Challenge is a uniquely Australian event. It is a walk to commemorate WWII battles in Papua. The full length Stan Bisset Cup is 96 km long. It is open to students who are at least 15 years old. The Jim Stillman Cup is half the distance and is open to students at least 13 years old. There are shorter Kokoda Challenge walks in Brisbane and Melbourne.

185 school teams of 4 students and an adult and 190 other teams got to the finish line in Nerang Velodrome yesterday and today. This is a gruelling event. The participants walk and run for 28 or 14 hours on average, day and night in difficult terrain, and most of them make it to the finish line.

A big thank you to the support teams and all teachers!

Jim Stillman Cup start in Numinbah Valley.

The full 96 km track.

Gold Coast - Burleigh Head, Binna Burra, Labrador

I am still smitten by the beauty of Gold Coast beaches and hinterland. Here are a few interesting pictures from the last few weeks.


A view from Burleigh Head National Park towards Surfers Paradise:

A view from Burleigh Head National Park towards Coolangatta with Tallebudgera Creek in front:

On a track in Burleigh Head National Park:

A view from the mouth of the Tallebudgera Creek inland:

A view from the mouth of the Tallebudgera Creek towards the ocean:

Lower Beechmont towards Nerang lake:

Binna Burra Lodge in Lamington National Park:

A skink in Binna Burra:

On a track in Binna Burra:

A plaque to honour Romeo W. Lahey:

A colourful bug in Labrador. There was also a red one and a hundred of blue ones in a cluster, but it was an evening and the pictures were not good quality:

A little blue crab in Labrador:

Beach erosion after recent storms. It is being fixed currently by the Gold Coast City Council. A view towards Surfers Paradise:

Labrador doesn't have access to the open ocean. Instead, it has access to Broadwater which separates mainland from islands and peninsulas of the open ocean. A view from Labrador towards Southport.

Australian Sand Sculpting Championships - in 2013 the theme was Sand Safari:

 Penguins of Madagascar: