The Uriarra and the Murrumbidgee River

G'day mates!
Last Sunday afternoon I waited at Union Court on campus to be picked up for a hike in the Uriarra. Union Court is like Sproul Plaza at UC Berkeley but not quite so expansive, yet usually filled with students and trinket or clothes sellers. Since national elections are coming up, election rhetoric is in high gear here in Australia. A rally in support of effective Climate Change policy was in progress. The students, mostly undergraduate, were being whipped up by a band and speeches, before heading off for a march into city centre. 

If anything I have found politics to be a bit tamer than in the US, and rather issue-focused, even though complaints on TV news has it that all the parties aren't terribly different in their approaches to these issues, so the politicians have nothing better to do than be negative. As that may be, I have found the news programs that surround the election greatly informative, issue laden, meaningful and full of energy and passion.

Last night I saw a particularly interesting debate on population growth and control. Every body who had been somebody in government seemed to be participating. Viewer's opinions, twittered in, flowed across the bottom of the TV screen. Members of the audience commented as much as the 20 some professionals on the sound stage. The conversation opened with a documentary on the impact of climate change on Australian life. The conversation went on for a couple of hours, people respected each other, were allowed to talk and say their piece. I found the whole thing quite informative and fair sided. It seemed mostly a a profound understanding of the issues, with many insightful considerations.

Two  colleagues on my research team, Fiona and Angelika, picked me up at 1, accompanied by Angelika's friend, Karl (Charlie), and Fiona's friend, Bianca. We then picked up Sudha and drove about 15 miles outside town to the Murrumbidgee watershed for a walk around the Uriarra hills. The area is somewhat northwest of the city.

This area also was devastated by the 2003 fires and is in regrowth. The hillsides are nearly barren, where they were overgrown with trees and shrubs before the fires.

Rain poured down Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday this past week with a letup Thursday leading to glorious sun today, Friday. I spent much of the time indoors out of the rain. Here is a picture of the river that flows through campus taken last week when the sun was out, and next to it a picture of the same river after the first day of rain. I'd say nearly flood stage, wouldn't you?

Work for me has now started. I have much to read and study before I am up to speed with everything needed in order to make a contribution. we are starting out with a new type of semi-conductor junction, to see how that might help with the design of more efficient solar cells.

Cheers!

Deep Space and the Tidbinbilla

Saturday, August 7, 2010 – Deep Space and the Tidbinbilla Nature Reserve

The temperatures have been near freezing at night all this week, but rise to the high 50's, giving the days a seasonably warm feel, but with a bite of fresh breeze to keep the chill on. I run around with only a fleece and am quite comfortable.

Katie and Phil show up about 1 PM ready to ride out to the Deep Space Complex and to the Tidbinbilla Nature Reserve to see Kangaroo, Koala, and Platypus. Katie is a friend of Nicole, with whom I worked at The Marin School. She found the house where I am staying and was friendly enough to invite me out for a tour of the park area west of Canberra.

 The Deep Space Complex has been essential to the world's space program because Australia can hear signals from sections of space that the northern hemisphere can't, simply because of the geometry of a sphere and the way the Earth moves about the sun. Many Americans know about the Parkes observatory, a considerable distance from here, since it played prominently in the the movie "The Dish", but few know that "The Dish" got it wrong in one way, which, I suspect, gives Canberrans a certain bit of pride. When the first pictures from space arrived from the moon in the US, they were upside down on the TV because the Parkes technicians had failed to flip an important switch to "invert" the signal. So the US switched to the Canberran signal, which was fortunately upright, though a bit weaker. Once the Parkes astronomers got their act together, their signal was used. But Canberra actually sent the first moon-walk signals to the US for the world to see that day.

The complex, no more than a 45 minutes drive outside of Canberra, is a beautiful place, surrounded by sheep ranches and low-lying hills. The valley protects it from stray radio signals. The exhibits were wonderfully explained and demonstrated. I need to return for another look just to see it all. More pictures here.

The Tidbinbilla preserve is home to emu, kangaroo, birds of all types, a few koalas, platypi, and I am sure much more. But that's what we saw (well, everything except the platypi; they didn't seem to want to show themselves). You can see more pictures here. I was surprised that the kangaroos are so small, but I am told that the "red" kangaroo of the bush area can grow to 6 feet.

The ones here are the "eastern grays" (if I got that right) and stand no more than my height, 5' 7". We saw one with a little joey hanging out of the pouch. Kangaroos are, as you probably know, marsupials. These were not easily frightened, since they see people all of the time.

They remind of deer back home, the ones that amble through the neighborhoods and travel in small herds out in the Golden Gate National Recreational Area. They kind of look at you and wonder what you're doing in their territory.

There is a wonderful drive through the nature reserve that leads to various places of interest; one was the platypus enclosure and another the koala enclosure. The koalas were impossible to find, hidden away high up in the Gum (Eucalyptus) trees. But we were fortunate that a handler showed up as we were leaving and pulled one out of the enclosure for some visitors from the US embassy to see. We tagged along and got a couple of good shots.

Stromlo Observatory

Saturday evening, 8 PM, August 7

Last Wednesday morning, frustrated by a discovery that my new camera is not at home in San Francisco, I called United in Sydney. I was astounded that they had my camera securely under "lockup" and would hand it off to a courier. I paid $50, and got my camera back Thursday night, just in time for a trip up to Stromlo Observatory on Friday with Catherine and her friend Tricia. Leave it to me to learn more about the outdoor environs around Canberra before the city of Canberra itself.

Map of Australian Capital Territory

Stromlo is ANU's official observatory located due west of city centre, as you can see from the map. Canberra, being the seat of Australian government, has its parliament building surrounded by pomp and ceremony enclosed by a circular roundabout, just to the south of Lake Burley Griffin (on the map in the upper right corner). It sits about ¼ of the way south into the ACT (Australian Capital Territory, like a Washington DC). The remaining ¾ of ACT are suburbs and rural areas, marked by farmland, ranches, the Tidbinbilla Nature Reserve and the Namadgi National Park. The park abuts the Brindabella Mountains to the northwest (seen in the picture), on the edge of the "Snowy Mountains" where Canberrans go skiing. Before European settled in 1830, the region was inhabited by the Ngunnawal, Walgalu and Djimantan Aborigines.

A wildfire of massive proportions devastated the ACT, parts of New South Wales, the National Park and the preserve in the summer of 2003. Started by lightning, three wildfires combined to form one massive firestorm, caused 2 deaths and destroyed 500 homes, not to mention park and nature preserve buildings and the Stromlo Observatory. All buildings except the main observation telescope itself were brought to the ground. The observatory, as you can see from the photo, seems to be up and running again.

The next few pictures show a 180 degree view and gives us a wonderful view of Canberra. This picture, looking northeast, shows the Telstra Tower on Black Mountain. City Centre is to the right toward Lake Burley Griffin. Moving toward the right shows additional suburbs and a flavor of the land once covered by dense forest, all lost to the 2003 fires. What you see is reforestation over the past 7 years.

Friday afternoon I meet with my advisor and research group at the ANU and listen as a departing doctoral student outlines the basics of her doctoral dissertation for the two newcomers, myself and Angelika from Austria.

Angelika is a post-doc Chemist, intending to work with a specialized coating she developed in her doctoral work. I will be starting my work with Sudha, a theorist in the group who is working on nano-arrays on silicon substrates. Angelika and I are asked to tell everyone where we are from and why we have come to work with Kylie our lead advisor, and group convener.

More pictures here.

Canberra, my home for the next few years.

The day is August 5, Thursday almost 11 AM; I sit in the main library at The Australian National University, struggling to remember what has passed these last few days. 

On Monday at 12:30, the CountryLink leaves Sydney for Canberra. The ride down to Canberra (pronounced "Canbra") passes first through old run-down parts of Sydney before opening into suburbs, and an hour or more later into flat lands and slowly rolling hills. Reminds me of California's central valley, but with a winter look. The trees appear to be pine and Eucalyptus, but I can't tell for sure; some appear to be very different from any I have seen before. Many trees are bare. The temperature is in the 50's and was near zero the night before.

After a bit, the rolling hills turn into Sierra-like foothills with farms along the rails, full with sheep and cattle. A Kangaroo or two hop down the dirt roads, going somewhere; can't tell the motivations. And I see someone on horseback minding the ranch. Suddenly, off in the distance, I spy the Telstra Tower on Black Mountain. ANU is at its base; so I know Canberra is near. I am looking south.

David is waiting at the station and drives me around the city showing me the sites. He drives a small white Australian car with the wheel on the right side. Cars are all moving on the "wrong" side of the street. Can I get use to the unexpected behavior of the traffic? Everything is a mirror image of American roads.

The ride is shortly over and we are in Phillip, a small suburb on the other side of the City Centre from the train station. Lucy, a tortoiseshell, like my cat back home, greets us at the door. His condo is pleasant enough and comfortable. I'm put in the guest room.

David is 70; his wife died two years ago and he has moved here from a much larger house in the northern suburbs. She was a pretty woman. He takes me to dinner at the Southern Cross Club, an establishment full of slot machines and gaming tables. This is his regular hangout for dinner, and I have to sign in as a guest. I'll talk food another time, since it deserves its own post. I may need to acquire these tastes. He suggests I pay the $3/year membership fee, so that I can get in anytime I want for dinner.

On Tuesday, David walks me over to the mall at Woden Centre, a couple of blocks from the house. We shop for some things he needs and I search out various cell phone plans. I can get a nice Android for a two year commitment of $50/mo. That's a second tier plan. The Apples are $80/mo. On top of any plan I can get International calling for an additional $20/mo. Those I call back home pay nothing as long as I dial them. All of thee plans assume a max number of minutes, of course, then the payment shoots through the roof.

One day people will learn to how to price cell phones as a necessary commodity instead of a way to get rich fast.

Prices for everything seem to be quite a bit high. I saw a clump of flowers going for $45. Mind you the exchange rate is about .93 USD to 1 AUD right now, so think about these as USD and you won't be far wrong. Clothes are a bit higher, but shoes? I found ordinary shoes for $200 and $300. The "Payless" shoes weren't much cheaper and nothing near what one would pay at Payless in the states.

The mall had all the regular stores: a Woolworth's (!), sport shops, women's fashions, men's stores, bakeries and patiseries, a Hungry Jack's instead of Jack in the Box, of course a MacDonald's and all those Mexican, Chinese and Thai fast foods spots. There are high fashion stores and discount clothiers, but on average the prices do appear to be a bit higher than Marin County.

We head off for ANU in the afternoon and drive the campus looking for parking. The building and layout remind me of UC Berkeley, but the buildings are low, no more than 4 stories. Walking about I am reminded of Sproul Plaza at UCB. The engineering building is not too far off the beaten path and after circulating around the new construction, I find my advisor's office. She is in a meeting with her group of students and her faculty partner. I introduce myself and we all talk for a few minutes, then I let them finish their work.

Evening meal is again at The Southern Cross but Catherine joins us, a close friend of David's wife. I buy them each a glass of wine and we celebrate the world travelers, since David leaves the next day, Wednesday, for Thailand, London and San Diego, CA. His son, Paul, picks him up in the early morning and I am left alone.

I spend Wednesday finding computer access and working on XET needs with Bill and Kurt for most of the day, but get out in later afternoon to explore more of the mall, have a late lunch and find the bus interchange. Woden, it seems, is one of the major centres for bus connections, something like the San Rafael bus interchange. Supposedly I can take a bus down to the City Centre exchange from here. I spend the evening pouring over the Canberra map, looking for bike trails, since David says I can use his bike for the next month to get around. I discover it is about a 4 mile ride into the ANU, not bad, and there are bike lanes and paths the whole way.

Today Thursday, I am off to the Woden interchange and run into a fellow bus rider to the City. He's actually a New Zealander, here now for four years and planning to acquire Australian citizenship. Apparently there are many more work opportunities here than in New Zealand.  He informs me that I need to get a "Ten tripper"; this is a ticket that allows me to ride the bus for 10 round trips at half the price.

Now I await a noon appointment with the admissions people to let them know that I am ready to commence study and research. 

First View of Sydney

At 6:30 AM, August 2, 2010, flight 863 lands, probably the smoothest of any I have ever experienced, and I marvel at how large craft as the 747 can be so smoothly handled. There are perhaps 10 to 12 first class seats in the nose of the plane, well equipped with on-demand TV, full beds, and other trinkets for those who can afford.

Business class stretches behind and up the stairs to the second floor behind the cabin. The passengers can manage everything conveniently as well; the bed is less accommodating, nevertheless horizontal. Economy stretches the vast cavernous length of the body, 10 seats across with two aisles. No stretch out for those passengers.

Customs is rapid but baggage takes awhile and I search for the camera while waiting, but can't find it. After baggage is claimed I make a bee-line for the door and find myself in bright sunny, 55 degree weather of outer Sydney. The train to Central Station where the I will find the CountryLink is $15, but only 4 stops away. They trap the tourists like we do.

I run into an professor of Ecology at Ohlone College in the Bay Area. He's in Sydney partly for vacation and partly to lead a clutch of students for several weeks. Quite a personable fellow who has been here for 2 weeks already and mentors me on the transportation system and points out the high prices of everything. We talk about solar in some detail.

Central is the main transfer point for all transportation in Sydney, bus, train, and rail, to the city and intercity. Commuters crowd the trains like they do in every big city, but the system proves to be quite efficient and rapid. Central is located in an older, perhaps seedier part of town, but I base that on old buildings and not on numbers of homeless. Maybe I see one person that might qualify, but I can't tell for sure. This is where I pick up CountryLink.

The time is 9 AM. I check my bag into CountryLink and hit the CityRail for Circular Quay. It's a $6.40 charge for a round trip ticket just before 9 AM and $4.40 afterward. It seems that "Peak Commute" time ends at 9.

Circular Quay refers to the walk, I suppose, around parts of Sydney Harbor. The rail lets me off across from the Ferry Terminal where a half dozen ferries are loading and unloading for trips to various points around the harbor. The Sydney bridge is off to the left and the Opera House off to the right, both within walking distance. I start off toward the right, miffed because I can't find my new camera amidst all my baggage. I have a hunch I left it at home on the shoebox.

The sun of outer Sydney has been pushed away by a high foggy overcast, much like the summer sun at home is pushed out by the summer fog at the Golden Gate, hurling the valley into 50 degree days, while 10 minutes north in San Rafael the sun bakes 25 degrees Fahrenheit hotter. But this is winter here not summer and I wonder if Sydney is cold in summer too, like SF.

The stop for hot coffee at a sidewalk café (more of an outdoor kiosk with a few tables) gets me a smallish cup of evil brew with some warm milk and white sugar for $3.50. I notice that an "Aussie's breakfast, consisting of eggs, Italian sausage, and toast is $22, the same price as the salmon salad. There must be more than one egg. The pasta dish goes for $18. I find a coke machine and notice the cokes are in bottles and go for $3.50, but they do use sugar cane for sweetener instead of high fructose syrup. Yippee.

Turning back and looking at downtown Sydney shows me a modest density of tall buildings, nothing like current San Francisco, but perhaps the San Francisco of the 1970's. The buildings look old in the overcast gray of the morning. Even the Opera House looks a bit dark among these near-rain clouds. The clouds seem to be getting denser; maybe it will indeed rain. Walking around the streets later, I see many newer buildings, many taller than I first saw from the Quay. These buildings use blue colored glass to great effect. It is that warm feeling of a city's embrace that one usually feels once embedded in its midst. And bustling.

After walking about the Opera House I find a seat in the Botanical garden nearby and type out this post, watching strange pure white birds with long curved beaks. I find later that they are called Ibis.

G'day, mate!

August 1, 2010 - Somewhere out there....

The current time is 10:30 AM, August 1, 2010 San Francisco time (4:30 AM, August 2, 2010, Sydney time). We are flying at 38,000 feet, 505 mph, and are still out from Sydney by 2 hours and 7 minutes with 970 odd miles to go. We are somewhere over the Pacific slightly north of Brisbane, 6715 miles out of SF. I do not know when we passed the International date line, but I suspect I saw all of about 5-8 hours of August 1^st. They used to throw overboard into the Pacific those who were crossing the equator for the first time. I am glad they no longer do that.

Barbara and Alyssa saw me off at SF security at 8:45 PM. Saying 'Goodbye" for an uncertain time into the future to those one cares most about, has to be one of the hardest things to do. I cried.

The CountryLink leaves Sydney at 12:30 and arrives at the Canberra train station at 4:30. They say I should see kangaroo along the way.

The flight is nominally 14 hours, counting tarmac time, an ungodly amount of time to sit still in a close cabin with 360 some other people, whom you hope will be nice people. But this flight has gone quite smoothly; very little turbulence, quiet engines, dark cabin (it is night time). Turbulence is expected below 10,000 feet on the way to landing. It is, after all, winter in the Southern Hemisphere. The inconveniences stem from little room to stretch in economy class and from the always-on TVs overhead, flashing dark, then bright, as the scenes change.

I bought into the extra 5 inches for 50 bucks and the investment was well worth it. I look at the other seats and see cramped quarters; seats reclining into people's laps. As it was, I slept for a good 8 hours, and didn't notice the passage of time. Mentally the rest seemed like snatched power rests more than deep sleep, but I felt like only a few hours had passed. I awoke amazed at the real passage of time.

Now at 5:30 AM, I know I will need early bed tonight, or some short power rests on the train ride down to Canberra.