OZtralia.tv Blog

The Valley of (soon to be) Giants

By: Phoenix Arrien

I am a parent and have surrendered myself to a roller coaster of emotion and challenges.

However if you ever get the chance, do travel Australia with children. Apart from breaking down barriers, they allow you to see this country differently and usually in very exciting ways. We are just about to go to the snowfields and the boys are jumping around and squealing with enthusiasm. That makes it exciting for me as well.

I remember the pleasure of going out and doing things, especially for the first time. I get reminded that it is refreshing to be in the moment and look at even the most mundane aspects of my life with the eyes of a child.

A Lesson In ‘Strine - The Letter “B”

By: Phoenix Arrien

‘Drier than a dead dingo’s donger’, is not something you hear every day in Australia, though I did hear it the other day and laughed my head off. I wedged it back into position and continued on my merry way.

Here is my first explanation of ‘strine or Aussie slang, an essential part of travelling in Australia.

I bring you the letter ‘B’:

Banana bender: a person from Queensland

Barbie: barbecue (noun)

Barrack: to cheer on (football team etc.)

Bastard: term of endearment

Beyond the Black Stump: a long way away, the back of nowhere

Bloke: man, guy

Bloody: very (bloody hard yakka)

Bloody oath! : That’s certainly true

Bludger: lazy person, layabout, somebody who always relies on other
people to do things or lend him things

Blue: fight (”he was having a blue with his wife”)

Boogie board: a hybrid, half-sized surf board

Built like a Brick shit house: big strong bloke

Brumby: a wild horse

Buckley’s, Buckley’s chance: no chance (”New Zealand stands Buckley’s of beating Australia at football”)

Budgie smugglers: men’s bathing costume

Bull bar: stout bar fixed to the front of a vehicle to protect it against hitting kangaroos (also roo bar)

Bundy: short for Bundaberg, Queensland, and the brand of rum that’s made there

Bush bash: long competitive running or motorcar race through the bush

Bushie: someone who lives in the Bush

Bushranger: highwayman, outlaw

And most important of all - when you see ‘BYO’ you are about to enter an unlicensed restaurant where you have to Bring Your Own grog. This may be true for a party or barbecue where a ‘dry’ visitor may raise eyebrows.

The Great Ocean Road  is AMAZING!

By: Phoenix Arrien

Apart from its stunning views, Seatree is a useful base for visiting the attractions including the region’s new attraction, the Otway Fly. This 600 metre treetop walk, created from steel, snakes its way through moss-covered Myrtle Beech, Blackwood and imposing Mountain Ash. Well worth it, even though there was a distinct lack of wildlife as it is so new they have yet to return to the disturbed forest.

No trip along the Road is complete without a sunset viewing of the Apostles, a group of monument-type cliffs which, losing their grip of the mainland, now stand sentry in a long scattered line in the foaming sea. The enclosing cliffs rise to nearly 70 metres in some places and the highest Apostle is approximately 50 metres from base to tip. They change colour depending on the light, so as the sun sets, the rock catches the warm hues of the fading day while the clouds streak even more colour into the darkening blue sky in competition.

The apostles head a stunning list of natural features along this truly remarkable stretch of coastline. Great names like Pudding Basin Rock, Island Arch, the Razorback, Muttonbird Island, Thunder Cave, the Blowhole, Bakers Oven, London Bridge and the Grotto intrigue and just force you to explore them. Extensive boardwalks and viewing platforms ensure visitors experience sweeping vistas of rugged coastlines.

Activities which offer other angles to viewing this region include hang gliding off the cliffs, horseriding along the beaches and scenic flights buzzing low over the coastline. Good food and wine are dotted around the towns with local chefs making the most of the fresh foods produced in the area, including berries, cheeses, herbs, mustards, vegetables, honey, mussels and crayfish.

It’s a region in which to peer through a window to beautiful scenery, history and adventure as well as peace and quiet, all conspiring to be an ideal drive, one of the best in the world.

Ideal trip length along the GOR is 2-3 days by car. A bus also travels the Road from Geelong.  For more information click here.

Australia’s Southern Road of Wonders

By: Phoenix Arrien

Further along is quieter Apollo Bay, home to fishing boats and a well-attended annual music festival. The crescent shaped beach, ending in a small harbour, shelters marine life from the rougher Southern ocean and I spend a happy hour with a socialable grey seal cavorting by the pier.

Time for a bit of a feed at one of the cafes and a bed at one of the hotels. See you bright and chirpy tomorrow.

It’s not just water we had come to see. The dense, tall-timbered rainforest of the Otway Ranges is a diamond in a region of jewels. Within its massive 88,000 hectares are waterfalls, lakes, glades of massive tree ferns and native animals. Maitland’s rest is a historic little walk taking us through a lush rainforest pocket of ferns and creeks.

Little villages dot the area around the Otways allowing you peace and quiet, the reason Ron Kintscher, a UFO fan loves the area. Living in a pyramid-like structure he built himself (from which he sometimes flashes coloured lights to intrigue passers-by), Ron operates two unique self-contained guest cottages named ‘Seatree’ so named because it is near the sea and he loves trees) in the peaceful little village of Yulong.

He pointed us to neat little secluded beaches you can only get to by foot or boat and the rustic ambience of little places with sweet names like Lavers Hill.

A long soak in one of the Seatree cottage’s spas whilst gazing at the vista of sea, forest and pasture is taking me into blissful relaxation. This is the true escape: beautiful landscapes and luxury surroundings with no doorknocks, phones or faxes squealing their intrusions.

Yawn, final day tomorrow and I will take you to the Apostles for a divine experience.

Australia’s Southern Road of Wonders

By: Phoenix Arrien

Nowhere in Australia does the ‘Irresistible Force’ crash with such spectacular results against the ‘Immovable Object’. Sea, the constant sculpture, and land, the great mass, meet to produce such wild stretches of craggy promontories, sculptured rock and spray and foam that the Great Ocean Road has become Australia’s fourth most visited region for people travelling to Australia or Victoria.

I feel fortunate to have one of the world’s greatest coastal drives at my doorstep - well it begins about 1.5 hours from my doorstep and on a giant continent like Australia that is very close indeed.

I am feeling particularly poignant about the Great Ocean Road because it turns 75 this year.

Carved from rearing cliffs plunging into the wild southern ocean via the sweat of returned servicemen after WWII, it’s a winding motor trail through green forests and along high cliffs with the water never far away.

I read an account of an 88 year old man who visited the returned soldiers when they were working on the Road.

“Men lashed to the trees as they worked…Men working hard like coolies with no machines…hell of a job. Hard and filthy…but they were always well fed.”

Off I go and I am taking you with me. You are gonna love it!

The Great Ocean Road starts at historic Queenscliff perched by the side of Port Phillip Bay and shoots past the slick village of Torquay where surfies blend with the waves pounding off world-famous Bells Beach before diving into blink-and-miss town of Anglesea.

The lighthouse dominates the town, a beacon of hope for the sailing ships which attempted to navigate the treacherous rocky coastline, often fruitlessly. The bones of over 70 ship skeletons dot the area, earning it the name of the Shipwreck Coast.

The place to feel the buzz is Lorne with a vibrant foreshore shopping strip well set up for tourists without losing its holiday feel. I enjoy lattes and seashell shops watching the visitors, locals and the leather-clad bikies (who love grazing the winding road with their knees) mix it together in an eclectic noisy mix. Behind Lorne, away from the centre of town, are clear rivers and waterfalls, walks and lookouts. I explore trails winding through tall trees and walk past caves to skirt around flowing cascades of water.

Staying at the backpacker joint tonight so I can meet some people and ask them what they reckon about the Road. See ya tomorrow.

 PS: The only place, in the world, where you can see full coverage of the Great Ocean Road (in video online) is by visiting: http://www.oztralia.tv/australia-online/australia-video/the-great-ocean-road/

A Look At Australia’s Rough and Tough

By: Phoenix Arrien

A man called Tony Mokbel is back in Australia to face the music as we say here. He is a criminal who was found in Europe and has just been brought back here.

It brings my thoughts to the criminal history of Australia. Britain, who had laid claim to this continent over 200 years ago, ignoring the indigenous population, had a serious over-population problem in its prisons at the time. So they solved it by shipping many of them over here to do hard time trying to create settlements out of a very different land and climate to anything they had previously known.

The criminal-made-good is part of this land now, as many of the convicts did their time and settled here. In the 1800’s and early 1900’s bushrangers roamed the countryside stealing cattle, the odd purse and generally making a name for themselves.

Ned Kelly is the most famous of these bushrangers. He was even portrayed in a few movies, firstly by none other than Mick Jagger and most recently by the newly deceased Australian actor Heath Ledger.

There are many places in Australia that you can travel to see where and what these wild men did. I recently visited the Victorian Highlands where towns such as Glenrowan boast monuments, shops, cafes, hotels and god knows what else, all marking the fact the Ned passed this way, drank at this bar, stepped upon this thresh hold and breathed the same air.

I think of Christopher Skase, a man involved in crime who escaped to Europe and never paid for his misdeeds. He is dead and reviled to this day.

Then there is Alan Bond. He was a hero who financed Australia’s win in 1983’s America’s Cup, got involved in white-collar fraud and ended up in jail. He is out and has been welcomed back into society with warm (if a little wary) arms and a reputation as a bit of a ‘larrikin’.

In true accepting convict fashion: if you do the crime then do the time, then you are all right in this country, mate!