Bunbury...City of Three Waters

We've sufficiently recovered from our Steampunk exploits of yesterday to give you a feel for Bunbury, Western Australia. Located about 110mi/175km south of Perth, it's the third largest city in Western Australia (Perth and Mandurah are #1 and #2). That said, it's not a metropolis by any means. The population is ~35,000 people and you can easily walk from one end of the city to the other without breaking stride. It's called the City of Three Waters because it is surrounded on three sides by water … the Indian Ocean, lovely Koombana Bay (where we're anchored) and the Leschenault Inlet.

We were able to tie up our dinghy at a small, out of the way spot, on a very convenient wharf at the Marlston Waterfront. The walk to the Visitor's Center was only about 10 minutes along the foreshore where we also found a large Cole's Supermarket across the street. For cruisers, this is a sweet find.

With a city map in hand, we made our way to Victoria Street, the city's main boulevard. We passed right by the Bunbury Tower aka the Milk Carton and got a different view of the building. Up close, it looked in need of some upkeep and renovation.

Victoria Street is lined with sidewalk cafes galore and all sorts of interesting shops. We sauntered along and just because of their imaginative window display, we stopped in at Afez of the Heart, which specialized in Indian, Moroccan and Mid-Eastern wares. It was hard not to love the place … so much color and beauty all in one small space. Shops like this only whet my appetite for visiting the bazaars in Morocco and Turkey and India that offer all these wonderful creations.

We wandered around aimlessly for awhile taking in the street art at every roundabout. Colorful banners touting local historic figures and upcoming events fluttered in the light breeze. There were lots of smiling people about, all seemingly enjoying themselves and the day.

We cut up a sidestreet and headed for the Marlston Hill Lookout when we happened upon the Art Galleries and the steampunk exhibit which sidetracked us for a couple of hours. We got back on track again and headed for the tower. We had seen it as we approached the port, so climbing to the top was on the list of “to-do's”. Lots of stairs and the tiniest bit out of breath later, we reached the observation deck for a rewarding 360-degree view of the city, the bay and the Indian Ocean below. That's how we managed the first pic above.

Not far away is the distinctive, black and white checker-boarded Bunbury Lighthouse. Back in 1841, a storm lantern on a wooden keg sufficed as the port's beacon. The structure became more sophisticated over the years. In 1971, a formal 27.43m/89' lighthouse was erected on the hill and painted as we see it now.

We followed a short, pleasant beachwalk to Point Casuarina and headed back into the city. The day was waning already … so much to see, so little time when you wander as we tend to do. We've already decided to stay another day in Bunbury. Let's see what tomorrow brings.

Steampunk in Bunbury

Did you ever experience one of those times when you visit some place just because it's there with no expectations at all and it turns out to be wonderful? We visited the Bunbury Art Galleries, housed in the converted Sisters of Mercy convent, just because it looked interesting as we walked by. Built in 1897, the convent building has been restored and is heritage-listed with much of its original architectural conventions preserved including the stained-glass windows, a choir loft and chapel … a nice place to display artwork.

A traveling exhibit entitled “The Antipodean Steampunk Show” was featured in the chapel. Steampunk? No idea? Well, according to what we read, the term “steampunk” was first coined in 1987, by sci-fi author K.W. Jeter (Blade Runner) to describe the alternate-history sci-fi adventures he and some fellow writers had been working on, “set in a re-imagined, futuristic, steam-technology world”, much akin to the works of Jules Verne and H.G. Wells. That's the hard-to-understand definition, but what we saw was pure fun … amazing, out-of-the-box, ingenious contraptions and costumes and artwork and even videos that worked.

Many of the artists/artisans are cross-disciplined … there were works by a physicist/artist and a jeweller/taxidermist. Some artists are tinkerers and hobbyists; others devote a good portion of their life to this type of art. Tim Wetherell, physicist/artist, offered a piece The Clockwork Universe, that caught my fancy.

The most common materials used in steampunk seem to be brass, copper, iron, polished wood and glass, as well as “found objects” and “shiny things” which seem to play an important role. There was a mirror, for instance, entitled In-sink by Jos Van Hulsen that was indeed a mirror, ornamented with copper tubing, bronze faucets and brass doorknobs. You have to pay close attention to the detail … it's all in the detail. Yes, that's me “steampunk-writer” taking the pic. Couldn't avoid a selfie.

There's a lot of over-ornamentation. The use of cogs, wings, hearts, military insignia and compasses is common. We also saw airships, rayguns and, of course, all things steam engine. Take a look at these gaiters by the artist known as Pendragon. It was hard to look at a piece just once. You had to look closely, walk around it then look again, to take it all in.

Russell Anderson's Remote Effluxion Cloning Apparatus was particularly fascinating, though we were unable to get it to work. All in all, the exhibits were clever, imaginative and tongue-in-cheek appealing.

I might add that this exhibit was only in the chapel of the Bunbury Art Galleries. We did wander around the rest of the building's many nooks and crannies. Upstairs we saw the works of Peter Dailey, which were, to say the least, thought-provoking. What was more thought-provoking, however, was that Dailey received his funding from The Syndicate, a Western Australian philanthropic collaboration that grants promising artists $100,000 to create ten pieces in two years. How refreshing.

We noted a brochure on the way out for Steampunk Design classes. It sounded like fun, but we won't be around. I also learned there's a World's Fair of Steampunk coming up later in May 2014 in, of all places, Piscataway, New Jersey. That would be over the top. Still time to buy your tickets!

More about our Bunbury explorations tomorrow … we're still trying to get our arms around steampunk.

Bustle-less Busselton

We're still here in Busselton. We spent yesterday aboard because of strong winds from the W/NW. One thing about anchoring, when the winds change direction and increase dramatically, there's always a chance of dragging. Staying aboard is the prudent thing to do. Sometimes we use that as an excuse for being lazy, but in this case, it was a legitimate reason. Not to mention, I've had a miserable cold, so staying aboard was fine. And,actually, pics from the boat weren't all that bad. We had a pretty good view.

Anyhow, back ashore today, it was good to stretch our legs and venture out a bit further than Busselton's iconic jetty. The foreshore is very well appointed with paths, protected swimming areas and lots of tree-covered picnic spots and roaming around space. There are several little restaurants and souvenir shops. There's a climbing wall for kids and huge trampolines with bungee harnesses that let the kids bounce extremely high with minimal worry of injury. It looked like fun.

There's artwork placed here and there. I especially liked the bronze bust of French explorer/navigator Nicolas Baudin … mostly because I could get a pic of Cups at anchor into the same shot.

We walked up Queen Street, a pleasant boulevard lined with shops, leading directly from the beach to the town center. We stopped at the Court House thinking it was just a coffee shop and soon found out it was an historic place as well as a gallery displaying local artists' works. Much of the old court house/police station/jail (gaol) was still intact including the court room and jail cells. Since David was in his Alcatraz t-shirt, it seemed most appropriate to take his mug shot and put him behind bars … all before we had our flat whites.

Across the street, a statue in front of the GeoArt Building caught our eye and we walked over to check it out. It was a life-size bronze of a pregnant woman standing next to a large trunk entitled “The Whaler's Wife”. The story surprised us. During American whaling voyages, sometimes officers brought their wives along. During the voyage, many of the women became pregnant and were left in Busselton to fend for themselves while their husbands went back to whaling … sometimes for a year or more. If educated, the women could often find room and board in exchange for teaching. What a hard life for these women and a compelling story to tell in this artform.

With such an introduction, we had to see what else GeoArt offered and since it was open, we went in. It's not particularly large and we soon found out that The Whaler's Wife was unveiled recently and is the first in a series called The Settlement Art Project. The current exhibition is entitled Sandakan: The Story that Must Be Told and it is most appropriate having just celebrated ANZAC. It tells the story of the internment of Australian and Allied soldiers and the Sandakan forced death marches in Borneo during the Second World War. It is compelling and horrific at the same time ... a testament of man's inhumanity to man. Reading the accounts and looking at the exhibits brought tears to our eyes. It was one of those things that are worth seeing, but will be troubling to our hearts and minds for a long time.

Needing to lighten up a bit, we continued up Queen Street. I must note here that we haven't seen a traffic light in a very long time. Australians, like the British, used roundabouts (rotaries/traffic circles) most effectively and there's one at every major intersection.

The school holidays are over, by the way, and it was ever-so-evident in town. Where the foreshore and jetty were crowded and bustling over the weekend, today was just the opposite. It was bustle-less. Many of the seasonal shops, like the dive shop for instance, have just changed to winter hours. Many of the restaurants were closed or had limited hours. Winter is fast approaching and it's time for us to head north, then west. Maybe starting tomorrow?

In the meantime, here's a sunrise shot of the iconic Busselton Jetty. It's always beautiful.