Coppermine Photo Gallery

On the early morning of Sunday the 25th April 1915, soldiers of the Australian New Zealand Army Corps -- ANZACs landed on Turkey's Gallipoli Peninsula at a location that would become known as Anzac Cove. British troops landed at the peninsula's southern tip along with other troops from within the British Empire/Commonwealth and France with the ultimate objective of securing the Dardanelles Strait, thus leaving the way clear for the British Navy to assault Constantinople or modern day Istanbul, knocking Germany's Turkish ally out of the war. However, due to terrible planning, old inaccurate French maps from the 1860s and gross underestimation of the Turks by the British top brass, the operation was a disaster with its only success being the remarkably concealed and well executed withdrawal of 80,000 Allied troops just under eight months later. From this disaster however was formed the ANZAC legend, with many of the Gallipoli Anzacs covering themselves in glory later on at the Western Front in France such as the critical battle on yes, ANZAC day, 1918 in the French village of Villers Bretonneaux, which played such a pivotal role in breaking the dreaded trench stalemate of the Western Front. Throughout the country there were major ceremonies to commemorate this event, along with dawn ceremonies on Anzac Cove in Gallipoli and Villers Bretonneaux in France. In Brisbane, I attended my first ANZAC Dawn service at 4:28am and stayed on for the street parade which commenced just after 9:30am, lasting almost three hours which I was able to photograph from a street overpass traversing Adelaide Street. However, after the Dawn service, and waiting in line, I climbed the Shrine of Remembrance with its Eternal Flame and references to the battles of WWI that the Aussie Diggers fought in such as the aforementioned Villers Bretonneaux in France and Jerusalem and Damascus in the Middle East and the Hindenburg Line which was Germany's famous last fortress or line of defence which the Diggers participated in breaching in 1918. For me, a monumentally moving day that will forever live on in my consciousness. Their memory liveth for eternity, and thus, the dead diggers of Gallipoli, will never be forgotten.

200 files, last one added on Apr 26, 2015

Photos from our first wedding anniversary. We spent it in the beautiful Numinbah Valley in the Gold Coast Hinterland on the New South Wales/Queensland border. The place with the waterfall falling into a cave is known as "Natural Bridge". When we got there I felt a sense of deja vu as I remembered the place from a visit there in April 1986

67 files, last one added on Nov 04, 2006

Photos from our time at Mount Tamborine in the Gold Coast Hinterland---not far from Natural Bridge in the Numinbah Valley. The first photos are taken from the Numinbah Valley with some of me swimming in the waterfall at Natural Bridge. Near the end are photos taken at the "Polish Place Cafe" at Mount Tamborine. The Lorikeets as you can see are very bold and daring with a very partial taste for cream and sugar.

64 files, last one added on Dec 16, 2006

Beautiful Binna Burra high up in the Gold Coast Hinterland has 160 Kilometres of walking tracks, some of which stretch to the New South Wales border. This day myself and my mate Adrian from Taiwan walked along the Border track and the Coomera Circuit trail, which follows the Coomera River almost to it's source. It was a beautiful walk, something almost out of a fairy tale, the ultimate highlight being the spectacular Coomera Falls and neighbouring Yarrabilgong Falls where we stopped for lunch. Coomera Falls evoked memories for me of Taroko Gorge in Taiwan and of Zakopane in Poland's Tatra Mountains.

326 files, last one added on Sep 01, 2009

Fifteen days after my bush walk with Adrian to the beautiful Coomera Falls, which partly involved trekking along the Border Track, this time I did my entire walk, namely a 30Km walk from Binna Burra to Wanungara Lookout and back to Binna Burra along the Border Track. Wanungara Lookout is actually just inside New South Wales (NSW), although the only possible way I see to get to it is from the Queensland side of the state border, as getting to it from within NSW would involve scaling a 500 metre or so high cliff which basically marks the state border. Most of the Border Track follows this huge cliff face, and I stopped several times at various lookouts, including Mount Merino for lunch for spectacular views looking south into NSW, with Mount Warning 15Km away in the distance being most prominent. While having lunch, I was only two metres or so from the cliff face, but this offered me magnificent photo opportunities and time to take in and reflect on the awe inspiring panorama of this World Heritage area, on this beautiful early spring day.

197 files, last one added on Apr 22, 2012

On this day I was all psyched up to climb the great Aussie mountain where Australia's day starts. That is, it's peak is the first point on the Aussie mainland which sees the sun rise. So at that moment the peak is in daylight while all around it is still in darkness. Later on I plan to view this great spectacle. However on this day to my great disappointment, I along with every other climber was denied access because they were flying a helicopter around the mountain for maintenance of some of the steps up the track. Mount Warning is in the Tweed Valley of Northern New South Wales just south of the Queensland border and about a 150 Km drive south of Brisbane's city centre.

138 files, last one added on Oct 13, 2007

Seven weeks later I finally got to climb the WORLD'S LARGEST AND OLDEST EXTINCT VOLCANO--MOUNT WARNING which last erupted about 23 million years ago. I started the 4 and a half kilometre walk up the mountain at 9:45 and got to the top 2 hours later. I took my time taking photos on the way up, and near the end was a steep rock climb where you used a chain to assist you on the way up. You need to be fairly fit and prepared with proper footwear, water and food, as well as starting early enough, but I still saw some silly people on my way back down at about 2:30 climbing up in just shorts and thongs, which will be ripped apart when you get to the chain assisted rock climb. You will see photos of signs warning people not to start the climb too late as people have got lost in the dark, but people still disregard the warnings. However, it is a great climb and a fantastic view at the top.

158 files, last one added on Oct 13, 2007

Mt Warning again, but this time I climbed up with my best mate's son, Simon. It was a beautiful day, but on the climb up it won't seem that way because the mountain on that day lived up to it's aboriginal name of Wollumbin--"Cloud Catcher". A huge cloud encompassed the entire peak and the track was damp and in patches very muddy. When we first got to the top you could see no view, but gradually the cloud cleared to a degree to allow shots to be taken

66 files, last one added on Apr 13, 2008

I arrived at the car park at Mt Warning at 03:00am, and arrived at the summit about 04:45, half an hour or so before first light. It was a pleasant temperature at the car park, but when I arrived at the summit it was freezing!!! As the sun rose, it gradually warmed up. The idea apart from seeing the brilliant sunrise, was to get a glimpse of the peak of Mt Warning being bathed in sunlight, while it's surrounds were still in darkness---Mt Warning being where Australia's day starts. That effect was not as pronounced as I expected, but the sunrise was more than brilliant enough to make the early early morning trip and it's freezing cold more than worthwhile.

158 files, last one added on Aug 31, 2009

Photos taken from the Brisbane City Catamaran (City Cat). This travels up and down the Brisbane River. My wife and I had a pleasant two hour cruise and I think it is time that I finally show some photos of Brisbane where I have mostly lived since early 1995.

151 files, last one added on Jul 22, 2007

Photos from my day out in early Aug 2004 at the Polish consulate and Sydney Harbour just before I head off for Europe. Other consulates were on this street in the very expensive suburb of Woollahra. People with me are my future wife Sonia and my Uncle Michael.

76 files, last one added on Aug 16, 2004