The Boomer Legacy

Environment

The Good Earth Shall Abide Forever

We were part of an infinite world.

Habitats were practically indestructible; Atmospheric cycles cleansed our air; Fresh water was limitlessly abundant; Forests and coral reefs always grew back. Ocean algae bloomed and sank into the abyss in an endlessly repeating cycle to replenish our natural fuels. It was perfectly possible to farm alongside nature, to make a profit, and produce healthy food.

The climate has always changed. There have been countless warm (and cold) periods in the past. Even dinosaurs flourished for millions of years in a world devoid of frost or snow or ice.

So there was nothing to worry about. Generations came and generations went. We humans were spirits trapped in bodies which were merely vehicles. What we did or didn't do to the Earth during our custodianship really didn't matter, for the question that really mattered was: Where Would We Spend Eternity?…

Sample #4098
This brown and angry land    (Oct 2020)

Topic Images

There are currently 115 photographs in this section.

The albatross beneath our feet

Rows of apartment blocks where agent-orange once brewed

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The decontaminated site of the Union Carbide plant (1949-86), at Rhodes [Jul-2013 451KB]

From the shore to the plateau

All the time we spent together didn't bring us any closer

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Garie North Head, Royal National Park [Jul-2019 753KB]

Outlier Nation

Founded on penal servitude, maintained by the dispossessed, for the benefit of the super-rich

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Sugar cane digester spheres in Waterfront Park, at Jacksons Landing [Jan-2013 833KB]

Looking out from the liens den

The potential for redevelopment was endless

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View from beneath the Western Distributor, at Darling Harbour [Jul-2017 91KB]

Outwardness within

To be alone was regarded as being the worst possible thing

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Sightseeing at The Balconies, Royal National Park NSW [Aug-2019 814KB]

Remarks

The northern part of the Royal National Park tended to be overrun by day-trippers on weekends. Most came to pose for selfies, but occasionally you could also find people who reflected on what they saw

A two-speed world

The landscape was restructured to more accurately reflect our social order

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The remains of Lawrence Hargrave Drive beside the Sea Cliff bridge, near Coalcliff [Dec-2016 951KB]

Remarks

Most people who drive over the Sea Cliff Bridge don't notice the abandoned Lawrence Hargrave Drive below. Before the bridge was built, the drive was decommissioned in Aug 2003 due to numerous rockfalls from the escarpment on its western edge. It still remains open to intrepid walkers though, and the truck-sized boulder which finally closed it still sits in the middle of the road

Hidden externalities

A vivid pile of inclusive spaces to facilitate social cohesion

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Centre Place lane-way, Melbourne [Apr-2019 720KB]

Apogee of despair

A surge of opioids killed an increasing number of people aged 35-44 (CDC, 2022)

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Kent Street pyramid and A4 overpass, Millers Point [Jan-2014 224KB]

Neo-Monogorod

To encourage immediate relaxation, new apartments promoted a sense of calm and well-being

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Melbourne Docklands [Apr-2019 589KB]

Down from the trees and into the meat

It was almost as if we knew the plague was coming

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82nd street apartment entrance, NYC [Oct-2017 561KB]

Here we were

Passing paths that climb halfway into the void (Yes, 1972)

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Royal Coastal Track, near Wattamolla [Aug-2020 1093KB]

Remarks

Roger Dean everywhere, although without the tarns or waterfalls. Instead we have a vista of torched scrub, courtesy of yet another deliberately-lit bushfire

Black bird

… singing in the dead of night

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Freshly harvested pine logs awaiting export, Dunedin NZ [Dec-2017 538KB]

Winter wonderland

Weather presenters grinned while talking about unseasonably warm weather

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Opera House Plaza in February, Zürich CH [Feb-2024 517KB]

Known unknowns

It was almost as if there wasn't an anthropogenic climate change crisis

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Hornby Lighthouse gun emplacement, South Head Sydney [Dec-2014 324KB]

Remarks

South Head turned out to symbolise the end of the line in more ways than expected

A machine to make the land pay

(Gilbert, 1905)

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Flinders Road Industry lookout, Port Kembla BlueScope steelworks [Sep-2013 312KB]

Frame your reference

An existence punctuated by crosses & cranes

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Elm tree memorial at Lewisham building site [Sep-2015 163KB]

The moral precedence of humanity

We peered through the bay-windows of our forever-homes, yet couldn't see the yachts for the trees

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Vandalised Moreton Bay fig tree roots on Wunulla Road, Point Piper [Sep-2012 902KB]

Right by conquest

Our rules-based social order continued to function with utmost efficiency

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Poisoned trees at Larkin Street, Waverton [Jul-2017 403KB]

Where even the windows wept

Our villages were filled with and old-school feeling of safety, community and a collective sense of belonging

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Factory windows at Chester Lane, Zetland [Sep-2014 655KB]

Angophora sunset

In some places the weird scribbles of the bush stretched all the way to the harbour

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Angophora Costatas along the Bradleys Head trail [Aug-2023 1101KB]

Disregarding our descendants

The town did get a bit salty after dark

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Hickson Road, Dawes Point Sydney Cove [Jan-2020 1130KB]

Through an augmented sky

All the atmospheric particulates ensured a golden hour for everyone

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Sunrise over Bourke Street, Melbourne [Apr-2019 97KB]

Remarks

The 135mm TEM (11861) in action again. While on holidays in Melbourne, glanced out the balcony at dawn and noticed hot-air balloons being launched. A few 40mm shots looked okay, but the 135mm pointed into the sun did the trick

The hikikomori archipelago

An intricate matrix of domestic ideology to increase the rate of self-incarceration

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“Sirius” public housing at The Rocks, which in 2022 was redeveloped into multimillion dollar condos for mum & dad investors [Sep-2016 315KB]

Crosswalk puzzle

Waiting for the white man with the upraised orange palm

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Pedestrian crossing at 37th and 5th, NYC [Oct-2017 422KB]

Travel in stylllleeee

And what I hate about traditional carbon offset programmes is so many companies are using them, and they are a fig leaf for a CEO to write a cheque, tick a box, or pretend that they've done the right thing for sustainability when they haven't made one wit of difference in the real world (Kirby, 2021)

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Primary school mosaic on the “Giant Sofa”, Sydenham Green [Sep-2012 545KB]

Black poles

Our world was filled with traces of people we lost

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Old Canterbury road, Lewisham [Sep-2015 748KB]

Surf's up

Sandy beaches became problematic in a world of rising oceans

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Fairy Bower rocks, Manly [Jan-2021 992KB]

Epic ruin porn

Jack & Jackie died a long time ago; Camelot became an abandoned car-yard

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Leo Cushieri Quality Used Cars in Blacktown [Dec-2012 334KB]

On track for Soylent Green

2019 → months of raging bushfires
2020-1 → pandemic lockdowns
2020-3 → torrential rain & flooding from three consecutive La Niñas
2023 → stagflation, interest rate hikes and heatwaves from a super El Niño

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SOH Tour group during the 2019 summer bushfires [Jan-2020 451KB]

Remarks

It was amazing how similar the sunshine was to that in the 1973 sci-fi movie. If that wasn't enough, what was an offhand remark about Sydney in Jan 2020 turned out to be an eerie foretaste of what happened three years later in Greece and NYC

Glacial retreat

Since 1850, [Swiss] glaciers have lost 60% of their volume. As they continue to melt, the country risks losing an important reservoir, affecting farming, hydro-power production and transport on Europe's main waterways. (Swissinfo, 2021)

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Glaciers surrounding Goregrat, near Zermatt CH [Feb-2024 309KB]

Golden sunlit uplands

Import alien species to remind you of home, then watch helplessly as they overwhelm the countryside

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The invasive plant species Common Gorse spreads along the Taieri Gorge, NZ [Dec-2017 1005KB]

Remarks

This shot was taken while hanging out the door of the Taieri Gorge tourist train. Had originally wanted shots of the train taking a curve, but looked around and saw the weed-covered gully and photographed it instead — next time it might be an idea to stay safely inside inside the carriage and just point the camera out the window. There may not be a “next time” however, as the line was closed in 2020 due to COVID related financial pressures, and the reopened line now only runs a limited service to Hindon, well short of where this photo was taken

Cars with grunt

Politicians fought tirelessly to ensure tradies could keep upgrading their utes (SMH, 2019)

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Penrith Station car park [Oct-2019 523KB]

Wildfulness everywhere

At times the bush was so intense that even the signposts wilted

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Illawarra Escarpment Track, above Coalcliff NSW [Oct-2020 786KB]

Appeasing demand

Sawtooth factories rapidly made way for empty apartments

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Zetland redevelopment [Nov-2018 445KB]

Potential harbour views

Uninterrupted vistas for our tax-shelter investments

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Harbourside Apartments, McMahons Point. In 2021 the building ceased operation as a hotel and the individual apartments were sold off to mum & dad investors, many of whom now advertise as short-stay accommodation [Sep-2018 402KB]

Stack trace

International trade agreements led to enormous economic benefits

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The concrete base of the demolished Port Kembla copper stack [Sep-2014 548KB]

Remarks

The Copper Stack became an Illawarra landmark following its construction in 1965. After its closure in 2003, it stood derelict for a decade before being demolished in Feb 2014. This image was taken a few months later by scaling a security fence, along with risking arrest by waiting around for ages for the sun to peek out between clouds

Home! Sweat Home!

An exile from home splendour dazzles in vain
Oh give me my lowly thatched cottage again
The birds singing gaily that came at my call
And gave me the peace of mind dearer than all

(J.H. Payne, 1823)

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Egan Street red-brick flats, Newtown [Nov-2022 1064KB]

PETM reloaded

Nine-month summers, super El Niños, category-six hurricanes, continental bushfires, methane fumaroles, acidified oceans, cubic-kilometres of eutrophication and rivers awash with millions of dead fish. Years of drought followed by months of flooding rain. Millennium events every five years. Every decade and season among the hottest on record. 2023 the hottest year in human history. The sixth mass extinction… Aim low for +1.5°C and congratulate ourselves for overshooting by only 80%

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Truck exhaust pipes at Woolloomooloo, in Sydney's east [Oct-2012 178KB]

Remarks

We lived in a world where roads were filled with 2-3 tonne petrol-guzzling behemoths, racing each other to their demise

Ready-made solutions

Our Developers were given a blank cheque to do whatever they wanted

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Sandbridge pedestrian crossing, Melbourne [Apr-2019 355KB]

Charting success

A million schemes for the world we were going to make

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Parramatta Square construction site [Jan-2018 238KB]

World without winter

An analysis of Penrith Lakes AWS temperature data for the period Sep 2017 — Mar 2024, found there were 64 days when the maximum temperature was more than 10°C above the long term average, and only 8 days when it was 10°C less

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Darling Harbour shops demolition, Sydney [May-2023 264KB]

Ready to enjoy your renovating touches

Deceased Estate — First Time Offered in 37 Years. Lifestyle studio apartments with iconic Oprah House, Bridge and Harbour views

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Misspelled blurb on a real-estate hoarding, Waruda Street Kirribilli [Nov-2020 423KB]

Less is more

A rectangular lattice to corral our inoffensive and risk-adverse lives

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Housing demolition on Gray Street, at Kogarah [Apr-2011 320KB]

Game the system

Those with the best view won

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Friday night on Sydney Harbour [Jan-2019 420KB]

Scenes from Planet B

More than fifty years later, we remained a small warm dot in the cold dark void

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Burning Palms beach before a storm, Royal National Park NSW [Aug-2020 662KB]

For the rest of our lives

Reschedule everything to make retirement a success

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Brisbane Str vehicle tarpaulin covers, Bondi Junction [Dec-2018 514KB]

Multilevel regression with post-stratification

Cityscapes were continually redesigned to uplift our spirits

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Liberty Place, Castlereagh Street Sydney [Jan-2019 418KB]

Sunset industry

The party had to end sometime

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Construction cranes at Barangaroo, Sydney [Jan-2020 174KB]

Boom without end

Sprawl was right, sprawl worked. Sprawl clarified, cut through, and captured the essence of the evolutionary spirit

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Diamond Bay cliffs at Dover Heights, in Sydney [Feb-2014 681KB]

After Nature

A brand new Pliocene, with polybutadiene gastropods in a concrete sea

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The front yard of an abandoned spare-parts dealer at Tempe in Sydney [Sep-2012 347KB]

From lives to livelihoods

Consumption for symbolic, signalling and cultural reasons

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New apartments from old flour mills, Lewisham [Sep-2015 294KB]

This brown and angry land

Urbanites had a lot of trouble adjusting to the chaos of the bush

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Scribbly gum moth trails, Illawarra Escarpment track [Oct-2020 539KB]

Captive audience

Cruise ships, nursing homes, schools and daycare centres provided an ideal way to disseminate contagious disease (Sepkowitz, 2014)

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Green Thunder waterslide on the “Carnival Spirit” cruise-ship, berthed at Sydney Overseas Passenger Terminal [Dec-2014 325KB]

Late for the sky

The air was eaten, promise crammed

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The final blast-furnace at BlueScope Steel, in Port Kembla [Sep-2014 159KB]

Remarks

“Scheduled Trackwork” meant having to catch replacement buses between Wollongong and Port Kembla. Unfortunately they were infrequent and unpredictable, so caught a suburban service instead, which went along every side-street before grudgingly arriving at the final destination. Meanwhile, during the ludicrously indirect journey, the weather clouded over and completely trashed the light. Yet after such a l-o-n-g trip you may as well walk out to the location anyway. And then, as if on cue, the clouds parted and steam started billowing from the blast furnace chimney…

My variegated village

Machines of extraction between funds and their intended recipients

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UTS construction site, Broadway [Jul-2018 527KB]

Neptune's Navy

Broadsides for peace on the wide ocean blue

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Sea Shepherd cruiser, Australian National Maritime Museum [Apr-2014 289KB]

Under the waning gibbous moon

The goal was to squeeze as much from the status quo as possible before it collapsed

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Re-enacting Quartermass and the Pit at Parramatta [Nov-2017 1074KB]

The memories we created

We knew exactly how the future would remember us

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Tree growing in the old Fosters brewery wall (since demolished), at Chippendale in Sydney [Apr-2014 801KB]

Remarks

Had photographed the small tree a few times earlier, but got lucky here when a couple of pigeons inserted themselves into the shot. A few months later the wall (and tree) was demolished when the Central Park development neared completion

Reinforced bulwark

The oceans were an ideal place to dump all our unwanted stuff

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Concrete erosion blocks, South Wollongong beach [Sep-2014 666KB]

The curated home

Redesign your nest with hygge cosiness

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Sutherland Crescent, Darling point [Jan-2017 315KB]

Channelling Sierra Leone

Follow PolAir through Chippendale, run the lights on Enmore road, swerve left at the servo and pull-up across the road from the burnt-out BMW

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Enmore smash repairs [May-2023 549KB]

Remarks

Purchased a Sony SEL-1655G lens in Dec 2019 to use for school functions. Was reluctant to use it for personal work however because of its substantial barrel distortion at wider angles. It took until May 2023 to figure out how to correct for this when shooting RAW, mainly due to Capture One Pro's defective support for non-native DNGs

Peak skiing

With lower resorts closed due to the lack of snow, skiers all rushed to the mountain tops

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The start of the ski run at Gornegrat (3100m elevation), near Zermatt CH [Feb-2024 481KB]

Situation normal

Everything was fine, until it wasn't

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Lawsons Auctions car-park, Moore Street Annandale [Sep-2015 410KB]

Remarks

Walk the suburbs for hours and sometimes you will be rewarded with the most surreal experience

It was fun while it lasted

82M barrels a day (YCharts, 2023) — the greatest achievement of our generation was to make the deserts bloom

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Nike Savvas installation at the Art Gallery of NSW [Apr-2014 533KB]

Hedge city

O beautiful for spacious skies, to park our excess wealth

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Central Park apartments, Broadway [Jul-2018 539KB]

Out in the open

A few growing pains were a small price to pay to ensure our city remained truly global

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Brocks lane construction appraisal, Macdonaldtown [Dec-2022 354KB]

What mean these stones?

We were at the beginning of a mass extinction, and all we could talk about was money and fairytales of eternal economic growth (Thundberg, 2019)

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Iron slag at the Blast Furnace Park in Lithgow [Aug-2012 594KB]

Remarks

Another early Hasselblad 120 image, but one which became the main inspiration for this project. Had always wanted to buy a V-System 6×6 camera, but could only afford to do so in 2004 when they were being dumped onto the second-hand market. Around that time my project was in its preliminary stages and somewhat aimless. Then a trip to Lithgow in 2012 yielded this image, and everything changed

A wound that would not heal

O2 + (UV) → 2 O•
O2 + O• → O3
O3 + (UV) → O2 + O•
CCl2F2 + (UV) → CClF2• + Cl•
Cl• + O3 → ClO• + O2
ClO• + O• → O2 + Cl•
2 ClO• + (UV) → O2 + 2 Cl•

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Sunburst above the Wollongong Sewage Works [Feb-2011 183KB]

Foundations of a globalist millennium

Ceaseless construction underpinned our faith in productivity and internationalism

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Parammatta Square construction site [Jul-2018 198KB]

Well-hidden symmetries

What to most was a frenetic mess, was to some a landscape filled with intricate patterns and connections

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Southbank lighting store, Melbourne [Apr-2019 884KB]

This tun of treasure

We are all interested in the future, for that is where you and I are going to spend the rest of our lives (Criswell, 1959)

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The Green Square Waste garbage facility (since demolished) at O'Riordan Street (Daily Telegraph, 2014) [Aug-2014 594KB]

Rising above

Endless views to match our ambitions

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Eureka sky-deck café patrons, Melbourne [Apr-2019 437KB]

Permissive Occupancy

We, the legatees of adverse possession, hereupon swear to lobby and plead and flatter and appeal and threaten and randomly proclaim “significant heritage values” in order to enjoy our rightful seaside retreats deep inside a public national park

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RNP shack at Little Garie, NSW [Jul-2019 658KB]

Troglodyte world

Going underground to evade the consequences

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Underground escalators at Macquarie University railway station, Sydney [Feb-2016 513KB]

How green was my valley

The greatest accomplishment of my generation was the systematic destruction everyone's childhood

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Winter valley below Mürren CH [Feb-2024 832KB]

Remarks

Taken on 16 Feb 2024 at an altitude of 1630m. It was the middle of an alpine winter, yet in the valley it was +15°C. It should have typically been −6°C, with everything from the mountain peaks to the Lauterbrunnen valley floor covered in deep snow. To everyone's relief there was a huge dump of snow a fortnight later, and everything looked normal again…

User funnelling

To paraphrase Lewis Mumford: the apotheosis of cities was to channel people from one checkout to the next

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The M4 Western Distributor at Darling Harbour in Sydney [Jul-2012 188KB]

Untapped potential

It was a time when sustainable development opportunities could be found in every direction

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Florabella Pass walking track, Blue Mountains [May-2019 986KB]

Memories of what's to come

The last thing we wanted to do was extirpate all the large vertebrates (WWF, 2018)

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Deceased sulfur-crested cockatoo, Warrimoo [Dec-2017 255KB]

Remarks

The cockatoo — which had died overnight — was lying on a neighbour's front lawn, with ants starting to explore the corpse. Used the 100mm APO (11352) to get in close and bring out the details, and yes the Dali references [1] & [2] were deliberate

Bright shining billions

The Great Architect stood with his hands on his hips and proclaimed: You too shall have a bone-yard

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The Westfield World Trade Center atrium, NYC [Oct-2017 307KB]

Aquatic dysphoria

The hydrosphere was loaded with enough heavy-metals and micro-plastics to make our marine-life indestructible

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Storm-water grating at McCauley Lane in Alexandria [Mar-2018 615KB]

Urban ornithology

It was amazing how well feathered organisms could adapt to living on the sixteenth floor

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Rainbow lorikeets at the kitchen window at dinnertime, Harbourside Apartments [Jan-2019 252KB]

Jobs not trees

Planning proposals had to respect or enhance the existing local character of the area

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Bowden Street construction site, Alexandria [Jul-2023 486KB]

Shoulder season

Work commenced to identify and implement the next wave of positive reforms

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Backyard firewood at Blackheath NSW [Aug-2019 736KB]

Re-imagining urban life

Our prosperity was measured in traffic and cranes

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Construction cranes at Australian Technology Park [Mar-2018 507KB]

Day-tripping

The greater our impact on nature, the more we wanted to see it

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The Waterrun, Royal National Park NSW [Aug-2019 682KB]

Remarks

Many people liked to travel for hours to take photographs of themselves. In the background you can see one of the cliffs mentioned earlier

Siri versus wild

Here's one of me tweeting that I uploaded a TikTok of myself taking a selfie while on holidays somewhere

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The viewing platform of the Scenic Railway at Katoomba [Nov-2011 904KB]

Buckley's chance

Going nowhere was better than going backwards

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Coastal track upgrading works at the Royal National Park, NSW [Jul-2019 762KB]

Infinity pool

Unlimited growth was questioned many times, but it never let us down

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Figure 8 Pool, Royal National Park [Oct-2019 576KB]

Non curamus

I direct council to amend its draft planning-scheme to remove any assumption about a theoretical projected sea level rise due to climate change (Seeney, 2014)

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Rock ledge at The Waterrun, Royal National Park NSW [Aug-2019 804KB]

Create your own future

Swans enjoyed paddling around on a lake filled with pleasantly warm water

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A swan grazing in February, Lake Lucerne CH [Feb-2024 439KB]

Across the roaring forties

Just one summer in western Sydney: 43.5°C (2017-12-14), 44.1°C (2017-12-19), 43.6°C (2017-12-20), 42.1°C (2017-12-24), 40.4°C (2017-12-29), 42.3°C (2018-01-06), 47.3°C (2018-01-07), 42.5°C (2018-01-08), 40.5°C (2018-01-19), 40.2°C (2018-01-20), 40.3°C (2018-01-21), 43.2°C (2018-01-22), 40.0°C (2018-02-14), 40.0°C (2018-02-24)   (Aust BOM, 2018)

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117°F in the shade, the hottest Sydney temperature since 1939 (ABC News, 2018). The following summer there was a new record of 48.9°C on 2019-01-04. In July 2023 it was the northern hemisphere's turn [Jan-2018 123KB]

Damnatio futuri

A study has shown that our children were on course to become the richest generation in history

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Olympian Rock walkway after a deliberately lit bushfire, Leura [Oct-2011 690KB]

A domain of wreaths

Ideally, we should live as free people. Sensibly, we must live under guard (Daily Telegraph, 2018)

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Papered-over window display in Henry Str Lewisham [Sep-2015 229KB]

This fatal shore

A remote and hostile land where the unwanted were sent to be forgotten

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The boulder-strewn shoreline on the way to Figure 8 Pool, Royal National Park [Oct-2019 485KB]

Magnificent isolation

Many embraced the lockdowns because it freed them to do the things they always wanted

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Waruda Street apartment stairwell, Kirribilli [Nov-2020 71KB]

The problem with problems

There were constant reminders about how neurodivergent/ dependent/ fragile/ isolated/ confused/ befuddled/ bewildered/ undiagnosed/ powerless/ hapless/ helpless/ humiliated/ defeated/ depressed/ oppressed/ anxious/ anguished/ harassed/ stalked/ victimised/ violated/ dehumanised/ traumatised/ wild-eyed panic-stricken everyone was

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Domain car parking station [Jul-2018 374KB]

Structure and psyche

As aficionados of space and creativity, architects don't merely design – they create environments, inside and out, and spaces that function well; to mediate the dialogue between the boundaries of architecture and design, exterior and interior realms, and bring forth works of singular vision to express joy and form

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The remains of the Jonley Australia plastics factory in Meadowbank [Jan-2014 774KB]

The signs were all there

The pressure kept increasing, but everything was still within safe limits

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Steam relief chimney, Dey Street NYC [Oct-2017 256KB]

Flygskam

One cheap long-haul flight produced more CO2 per passenger than driving an SUV for months

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Runway approach lights, Sydney International Airport [May-2019 119KB]

Inside the tiger

Every rabbit was chased down every hole

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Coal Loader tunnel, Waverton [Jul-2017 652KB]

Controlled flight into terrain

There was never quite enough time for the Eagle to land

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Looking south from Garie Head North, Royal National Park NSW [Aug-2020 546KB]

Smoke on the water

When the sun came out, you could almost forget it was the middle of winter

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Day trippers at Lake Geneva, Montreux CH [Feb-2024 350KB]

More days at the beach

Sunbathe to your heart's content and wear your black havis all year round

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Miniature snowman at Blackheath Oval [Aug-2019 719KB]

The wealth of future generations

He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people, and eat out their substance (Declaration of Independence, 1766)

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6th Avenue office buildings, NYC [Oct-2017 654KB]

Made by We

The four seasons of positive climate reform

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Blue mountains seasons [Dec-2019 728KB]

The men in the high castle

The benefits of fifty years of neoliberalism were there for all to see

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BP Site bund wall, Waverton [Jul-2017 638KB]

111 false dawns

Waiting for the pandemic to recede for long enough to celebrate another birthday

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Sunrise over the Bourke Street Mall, Melbourne [Apr-2019 165KB]

Snafu City

A patchwork of failed-states, ruled over by unaccountable leaders, where distrust, stagnation, corruption and absence of social cohesion were systematically ignored

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Apartment towers surrounding Chatswood railway station [Feb-2016 429KB]

The big smoke

[In December 2019…] Bushfire smoke pushed Sydney's air quality index rating to 2,552. That's 11 times higher than the level considered hazardous. And it's well below air quality index readings in cities in China, India, and other places known as hotbeds of air pollution. (Gizmodo, 2019)

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Weeks of bushfire smoke in Sydney. Four years later it was New York's turn [Jan-2020 259KB]

Force majeure

Politicians kept getting elected on a platform of climate change denial, until they weren't

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Post-election garbage bins at Copeland Ave, Macdonaldtown [May-2022 702KB]

Wish the sun to stand still

For a short while it remained possible to spend all day outside

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Sunbathing on the sea-wall steps at Nielsen Park's Shark Beach, Vaucluse (since demolished) [Dec-1990 709KB]

Volunteer sacrifice

According to former fire chiefs, relying on large numbers of volunteers to fight bushfires was not necessarily a sign of inadequate funding, but possibly the best way to do it (SBS, 2019)

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Waterfall Bushfire Volunteers Memorial, commemorating the death of five volunteers in Nov 1980 [Sep-2020 1037KB]

Tranquillity Bantustan

The charred tree-trunks, the ferns and weeds, the rutted track which never seemed to end

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Forest Trail, Illawarra Escarpment near Wollongong [Oct-2020 1075KB]

Markers of social progress

Signposts to reinforce things we already knew

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Abandoned used-car dealership sign, Church Str Parramatta [Jul-2017 220KB]

Dam the Franklin

Environmental activism to prevent the construction of dams in one of the most remote and inaccessible parts of the Earth

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Protesting the building of dams on the Franklin River in Tasmania [Feb-1983 566KB]

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