Tag Archives: High Country

Australia Christmas 2007: Mt. Buller Area

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Note: This post was originally posted April 12, 2008. I have posted dated it to be closer to the Christmas holiday when the photos were taken.

I have taken quite a long time to go through my photos from Christmas. It is very interesting to revisit these photos long after taking them. I find that, while my husband enjoys the landscape photos, I prefer the more abstract close-ups of things: tree stumps, flowers, posts, fences, windows, etc. I don’t feel like the landscapes are my favorites. I don’t know what one does with a photograph of a post (one probably won’t put it on a wall in a frame) but I like that photo the best.

We spent Christmas Eve near Mt. Buller (pronounced Bull-er; we kept saying Bueller and getting weird looks) in the High Country.

The idea was that we’d get to the summit of Mt. Buller in time for sunrise Christmas Eve morning. Well, we got there in time; however, it was completely foggy. We could barely sense the clouds lightening as the sun came up. We drove back down the mountain. It was beautiful coming down out of the fog. By 8 a.m. or so, we were driving by a lovely spot in the road so we stopped for photographs.

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After a while there, we headed to Pickerings Hut. This is a cattleman’s hut, much like Wallaces Hut. It is on the side of a river. I thought the hut was quite ugly. That’s one reason I kept it in black and white. I kept finding other things to take pictures of there. I don’t know why, but there was a random clothesline with clothes pins on it right behind the hut.

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As we drove back to Mansfield (where we were staying), we saw a beautiful field, called Sheepyard Flat. I didn’t take many pictures (because Paul required attention) but I did see kangaroos hopping down the hill to the right. I took my favorite picture–the post.

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That night we visited Craigs Hut for sunset.

The next morning, Christmas, we were too tired to get up for sunrise. We had a great day relaxing at the apartment. That night, we headed back to Mt. Buller for sunset pictures. This time it was clear and beautiful. I’ve included our family picture, too, even though I know you’ve seen it before.

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We had a wonderful Christmas. I’m glad Paul was such a great sport with all of our photographing. He got along really well in the carrier, and he slept a lot.

I suspect he won’t sleep quite so much next vacation!

Australia Christmas 2007: Wallace Hut

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Wallace Hut is the oldest of the cattleman’s huts still standing in the High Country. It was built in 1889 by the Wallace brothers from slabs of snowgum trees. The roof has been replaced, but otherwise, it’s still the original building.

I think this is a beautiful hut, out in the middle of the snowgums in the High Country. We visited Wallace Hut on Boxing Day. (I know, I’ve been holding them for a long time! And I still have more pictures from our Christmas road trip.)

As I processed the pictures, I couldn’t decide which I liked better: the color versions or the monochrome versions. I am not a very experienced photographer. My understanding is that monochrome is preferred when there is contrast in the frame: when the photograph is left in black and white, the textures are better revealed. I think there is delightful contrast on the building and reflecting in the windows. However, as I look at these pictures, I also like the contrast of the green grass with the reddish-brown building.

Here are four pictures in both color and monochrome.

Which do you prefer for each shot: color or monochrome?

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Australia Christmas 2007: High Country, Victoria

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On Boxing Day 2007, we drove up the mountain and entered the high country, which essentially is the plateau on top of the mountain. There, the trees were naked. At first glance, I thought it was still too cold for leaves; it was the beginning of summer, but maybe at such a “high” altitude, it was still early spring. The trees still had to bud.

But the further we drove in the high country, the more I realized that these naked-looking white-barked trees were the famous snow gums I had heard so much about. They were supposed to be undressed.

In August, we visited the Dandenong Ranges, and I mentioned how much I liked the naked trees. I liked these even more.

When I first moved to Australia, I asked some Relief Society sisters what it is that Victoria, Australia is famous for:

“What do you have a lot of? When you think ‘Victoria,’ what do you think of?” I asked.

“Well, we have a lot of gum trees,” one sister said.

“And we have koalas,” another answered.

I mentioned kangaroos, surprised no one had mentioned them.

“Well, yes, those too.”

I guess Victoria is to kangaroo the way Illinois is to deer: there are lots of them, but that’s not what they want to be “known” for.

Gum trees are another name for eucalyptus trees.

While I really don’t know anything more about these plants, I found them incredibly fascinating.

I like viewing my pictures in black and white because that is the general mood I had looking at these trees: since the trees themselves were only black and white, color didn’t seem to add anything to the composition. Rather, the contrast between the black and the white provided most of the interest.

The one color exception in this batch is the moment, during the sunset, when the light rested on a tree across a small valley. I didn’t have an appropriate zoom lens (so it’s probably out of focus), but I took the shot anyway.

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Australia Christmas 2007: Craigs Hut

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“The Man from Snowy River” is a well-known Australian poem. In the 1980s, the story from the poem was made into a movie. I admit, the movie is cheesy and the special effects say “low budget,” but it is definitively Australian.

When we first decided to come to Australia, my husband and I watched the movie. As I watched it, I awed at the beautiful landscapes. The main character, Jim Craig, has a house that overlooks a beautiful range of mountains. Part of the story is that the other mountainmen won’t let Jim, who is still a teenager, stay in his mountain house after his father died: only men who have earned it can live in the mountains. (Spoiler alert! By the end, he’s earned the right to live there.)

As I watched the first time, I felt sad that we would be so far south in Australia: if only we were going to Brisbane, we’d be near to where this movie was filmed and we’d be able to see the beautiful mountainscapes.

To my surprise, at the end of the movie, a note told us that this was filmed in Merrijig, Victoria. I told my husband we were going to see the mountains.

The house that Jim Craig lived in was built as a prop on the side of Mt. Stirling. Many people visited it to see the same view that is seen in the movie. Unfortunately, it burnt down a few years ago (there are often brush fires in the area, especially during droughts). But because so many people wanted to visit the place, the hut was rebuilt. Last January, it burnt down again in a more serious brush fire.

I was sad that we wouldn’t be able to visit it — until my husband found out that they are rebuilding it once again! The hut that we visited December 24 is still under construction; in fact, standing right in front of it is a huge dumpster. Because one side of the house has been completed, we could still take some nice pictures. I could avoid the dumpster, but I was unable to get an extra wide view.

To get to Craigs Hut, we drove on a washboard road winding up and down the mountains for about 1½ hours. Our Toyota Corolla did not like it! Then we walked 2 km up and down a very rutted path (we could have driven if we had 4-wheel drive). Finally, we arrived at the scenic overlook where Craigs Hut has been built.

It was a chilly night. Paul was fussy in the carrier until we put the snow suit on him. I carried him and finally he fell asleep just as we arrived. (My husband was the trooper that carried both of our cameras and both tripods.) The wind on the top of the mountain was horrendous.

It was so windy and I was so chilled that I only really took pictures for about 10 minutes. I was afraid that none of them would turn out, but with a little bit of adjustment to the exposures, I think I got some good shots.

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