Photos of the Top End from the top – 417

The other day, on 1 May I grabbed my camera, jumped in my plane and flew around the outskirts of Darwin. I’ve done this many times before. This time for some strange reason I elected to take a selfie somewhere over the Howard River on my way to Gunn Point.

I then shared that photograph on Facebook. After receiving a number of comments and likes I thought it would be useful to post the album of that day showing some of the things that I see on my flight. Although I may fly over the same path many times during a year there is always a transition in place. Something is being built, suburbs are expanding, seasons change the landscape from green to brown and occasionally something different is spotted.

It might be a car on fire in Howard Springs with people desperately trying to put out the fire with garden hoses. It might be a fishing boat stranded on a mud flat doomed to wait many hours for the next tide. Or it might be a vehicle bogged on the beach wishing that the tide did NOT rise. The inevitable consequence turns into a rusting hulk serving as a reminder to those who choose to push the envelope in their terrestrial vehicles.

To look down on magnificent birds like the Jabiru or Pelican in flight from above rather than below offers another perspective to the eye.

I fly, I see and I photograph. Now I’d like to share.

Meow Gallery: The gallery is empty.

So if you take a look at the album the first photograph is taken looking at Virginia in the foreground, Zuccoli next with Bellamack behind that suburb and Inpex followed by the ConocoPhillips gas plant. When you see a photograph like this you can appreciate the closeness of the rural area to the suburbs. Which is why some people refer to Virginia as Palmerston South.

The next two photographs are of Bees Creek primary school with Fred’s pass in the background. Then a photograph of equestrian activities at Fred’s pass. Many times when I fly over I will see other sports such as soccer being played by young children.

The following 11 photographs are of the new Coolalinga shopping centre which has just opened. I remember in 1976 when there was just a petrol station and a small store where we could buy a cold soft drink.

The next photo appears uninteresting but it is the newly remodelled intersection leading into Virginia Road or as I know it the 17 mile.

Actually with all of this talk about Australian citizenship tests, we could easily create a number of similar tests for those aspiring to become Territorians. There could be the Berrimah Line test for those people living north of Adelaide River. However given the suggested exodus of people from the Northern Territory we might need to make sure the questions aren’t too difficult.

The next photograph is similar to the first with the exception that in the background we have Darwin city followed by the port of Darwin and then some of the more established suburbs of Palmerston. In the foreground we have a blurring of Palmerston, Virginia and Howard Springs. The following photograph is a wider shot of the same location trying to encompass the gas plants to the south and Darwin city to the north.

The next shot looks towards the Inpex workers village with Howard Springs rural blocks in the foreground.

The following eight shots are of the new white water tower that is nearing completion in Palmerston. As most people don’t get to see what it looks like from the top this is why I’ve made the effort to take more than one photograph. The next four photographs are of Palmerston suburbs that border the Stuart Highway.

The following four photographs are of the Palmerston Hospital or Litchfield Hospital depending on how you look at things. It is good to see that the construction of the hospital has progressed rapidly and who knows my niece who is currently studying to be a doctor could end up working there.

The following six photographs are various shots of the goat farm with Palmerston and Inpex in the background. In the last photograph I’ve tried to incorporate Darwin in the background as well.

Between the last photograph of the goat farm and the next photograph which is Shoal Bay at very high tide is where I took the selfie. So Kezia gets the prize for being the closest.

Shoal Bay, tree point and Gunn Point are favourite flying destinations because I get to see the contrasting colours of the water, a great beach and wildlife.

The photographs after the close-up of the Pelican may hold interest for Humpty Doo folk but they’re taken for personal reasons. There are pictures that include McMinn’s Lagoon, finally with a substantial amount of water. There are three similar shots that have a road heading to the top of the picture. That road is Pioneer Drive. Two photographs where water appears to be across a dirt road is actually the old Power Road where I believe the authorities have been trying to block access for many years by digging ditches and placing boulders.

Just like the dirt continuation of Bees Creek Road which leads to Elizabeth River there seems to be no rhyme or reason as to why either of those roads can’t be bitumised and cut travel times.

There are two photographs of the industrial area at Humpty Doo with the recycling and refuse plant in the foreground.

The final shot is of MKT airfield, the home for my aircraft and for most of the recreational pilots in the top end.

I prepared this post by looking at the album that I had uploaded into Flickr and narrating into Dragon naturally speaking which is a software program that allows me to narrate my story. Even though I do need to clean up some of the mistakes that the transcription software makes, I have to say it makes the writing of a story much easier. I don’t really have the time to do the full multimedia slideshow presentation and I’m guessing that folks will read through and if there is a photograph described that they’re interested in they will more or less know where to look at it in the album.

Let me know if this is of interest and I will post more… for my friends beyond Darwin the names and places will mean nothing and I apologise for that – we have our own shared stories and we don’t need FaceBook for that…

On a totally different subject, I prepared a blog post about an event that occurred at the Royal Easter show hoping that it would be posted to Facebook. Then somehow the fibre cable connecting the Internet to the Northern Territory was cut right when I was writing the story. For some reason I was able to post the blog item but it didn’t end up on Facebook. So if you get a chance and because I put a considerable amount of effort into writing the story and putting the pictures in I’d appreciate it if you would go and have a look at this semi-humorous story that combines a little bit of truth and a little bit of fiction.

Now because it’s a dry season I have to go and water the garden.