Lights, Camera, Action

Look hard (above), and your faithful correspondent is part of the action!

A film crew spent the day recently filming at the coffee shop in my work building. Actor John Malkovich spent much of the day inside, but by the time I heard about it and poked my camera in the general direction, he didn't appear to be there.

The film is called Disgrace, and is based on the Booker prize-winning novel by J.M. Coetzee, who migrated to Australia in 2002, and who received the Nobel Prize for literature in 2003. It is set in post-apartheid South Africa, and is a pretty disturbing and bleak and cheerless portrait of contemporary conditions there.

Interiors are being shot in Surry Hills, and the rest of the film in South Africa.

Chester Hill Community Garden

You don't see a scarecrow very often in the populated suburbs of a big city, but here on the corner of Hector St and Waldron Rd, Chester Hill, Bert the Muppet is doing a fine job.

Carp Catching at Birrong

Sometimes serendipity leads you to be in the right place at the right time!

Yesterday I was working at Birrong, a south-western Sydney suburb. I decided to check out a green patch on the street map called Maluga Passive Park. As I neared the duck pond, I saw a boat on the other side. One of the fellows waved at me, and I waved back. They headed over to where I was standing. I asked them what they were doing, and they told me to lift the lid on one of the bins by the side (Picture 2), and it turned out they are contracted to clear the pond of the noxious fish, European and Koi carp (Cyprinus carpio), and goldfish (Carassius auratus). Koi carp, which are an ornamental strain, revert to their natural colour in the wild.

They then demonstrated their technique, and held up the "victim" for me (Picture 1). Then they headed out again (Pics 3 & 4)

Home to Google, and I found out from the council website that introduced noxious fish can severely impact the health of aquatic ecosystems by increasing water turbidity and nutrient concentrations, destroying aquatic plants, and potentially causing the recurrence of toxic blue-green algae blooms. They also breed rapidly, eliminating native fish, tadpoles and other small lifeforms. They use electrofishing, which involves passing a small electric current through the water to stun fish. Native fish are released unharmed and exotic fish are euthanased. Electrofishing took place in in 2003 and 2005. In November 2003, native Australian Bass (Macquaria novemaculeata) fry - they are native to the local area - were introduced to re-establish a healthy breeding population that are predators of introduced fish - they eat nuisance algae and carp eggs.

European Carp are mainly bottom feeders and tend to stir up sediments, increasing turbidity and releasing nutrients such as nitrogen and phosphorus into the water. In this way, carp contribute to toxic blue-green algal blooms in freshwater.

Bankstown Council continues to monitor and remove carp to ensure that the Bass survive and water quality is not further degraded. And that's what these blokes were doing!

Butt Busting

Smoking is already banned in workplaces, and many smokers congregate on footpaths outside buildings. Often to get into a building you have to walk past a small gaggle of cancer-stick puffers and their smoky fugue. It can cause problems for air intake vents, which may recirculate smoke through air conditioning systems.

From July 1, there will be a ban on indoor smoking in pubs and clubs. City of Sydney staff and City Rangers will be out and about today accompanied by City of Sydney Butt Busters talking to people about the pollution caused by cigarette butt littering.

Squads of butt busters will target litter hotspots handing out 10,000 free personal ashtrays and encouraging business to join the City of Sydney's Clean Harbour Partners program where they can apply for a free wall-mounted ashtray valued at $350.

City of Sydney Acting CEO said: "We're reminding people that cigarette butts littering Sydney streets get washed down the stormwater drain and end up in Sydney Harbour or on Bondi Beach.
"What seems like a small piece of litter is the most commonly discarded litter item in NSW and is a massive environmental issue."

A City of Sydney study in the CBD, Kings Cross and Glebe found there were more than 15,000 butts thrown away every day - which is about 5.4 million butts potentially going straight into Sydney Harbour.

The City of Sydney has also warned that its plain-clothed City Rangers will step up their operations in late July targeting litterers.
The City Rangers have the power to issue $60 on the spot fines for littering and $200 on the spot fines for littering a lit cigarette butt.

Can you see a time when smokling will be banned in all but your own home? Even then, some people in apartments complain about cigarette smoke entering their space from others' smoking on balconies. It seems evident to me that restrictions on smokign will continue to increase. Which, as a non-smoker, I don't mind at all!

We're Happy Little Vegemites

When too much vegemite is barely enough. (And yes, it is winter, but never let that stand in the way of fashion!)

We're happy little Vegemites
As bright as bright can be.
We all enjoy our Vegemite
For breakfast, lunch, and tea.
Our mother says we're growing
stronger every single week.
Because we love our Vegemite.
We all adore our Vegemite.
It puts a rose in every cheek!

-1950's advertising jingle. Listen to it here.

There was a report, later reduced to urban myth status, that the US had banned, yes, banned, the importation of vegemite, allegedly because it has added folate. We can cope with the finger-printing at the border, cope with being grilled on vias applications about our Nazi pasts, or moral terpitude, but being BANNED from taking in a jar of salty axle grease (actually a yeast-based spread, a by-product of brewing) to spread on toast - what an outrage! Fortunately NOT TRUE.

Glass, Cactus and Gargoyle

Rooftop terrace of Cydonia Glass Works in Newtown. They are a custom art studio, specialising in textural glass. (Taken Saturday morning as the sun appeared for the day- back to rain yesterday and today!)

The Wharf Theatre

We went to the Wharf Theatre at Walsh Bay to see Sydney Theatre Company's production of The Art of War, based on the 2500 year old "manual" on war by Sun Tzu. It was magnificent, and wove together themes around the invasion of Iraq, business practice and personal relationships.


To get to the theatre, which is in a renovated finger wharf, you walk down a long corridor lined with hundreds of posters from previous STC productions. The inky black waters of Walsh Bay, and the Harbour Bridge appear through the windows every few metres...

Here's an earlier post, taken in the daytime from ground level.

Catching some sun

These two women (mother and daughter?) catch some lunchtime winter sun in one of my favourite places, The Chinese Garden of Friendship at Darling Harbour.

Architectural hodge-podge

Corner Foster Lane and Elizabeth Sts, Sydney. The c.1930s cream building on the right, the c.1930s red brick, and the Victorian (1880s-1909ish?) Edwards & Co building are all apartment conversions. There is an ultra-modern apartment building behind the red brick. Edwards & Co has a grey, curved extension - see photo below). The boring blank brick wall is the back of something in the lane.
This photo illustrates the conversions and gentrification taking place in the former warehouse and garment factory district of Surry Hills, right on the fringe of the Central Business District.

Taken lunchtime yesterday. After a brief spell of sunshine, the grey skies of the past 2 weeks returned. The good news is that Sydney's main dam, which was down to about 32% capacity, is now at 50%, with more to come from runoff.

By the way, The Illustrated Man is a tattoo shop which featured in an earlier post - click here.

Cast iron drinking fountain

Canopy of a cast iron drinking fountain (1883) in Macquarie Place. It reminds me of one of the Wallace fountains in Paris.

Click on the link for an interactive panorama of Macquarie Place by Peter Murphy. You can see the obelisk (Monday's post), cannon and anchor (Tuesday's post) and drinking fountain all in relation to each other.

More of Peter Murphy's Sydney panoramas.