#854 Blue Mountains, NSW, Australia

http://www.bluemts.com.au/

This is the view I remember, but when I saw it, I don't think there was a gondola sitting above the depths. It was my first experience of a hail stone storm -- I didn't understand how it could be so hot, yet with massive pieces of ice falling from the sky.

A short drive up from Sydney, the mountains encompass a large area of inland New South Wales. I remember how the mountains seemed to drop off, as opposed to rising up, and this would make sense considering they are a sandstone plateau with gorges being carved out of it.

The aboriginal legend is a Gundungurra creation story where the Dreamtime half-fish half-reptile creatures Mirigan and Garangatch fought a large battle, scarring the landscape. Many areas of archaeological importance are in the area (22,000 years old), with the rock shelter Red Hands Cave having ancient hand stencils and other areas having grinding stones and carved animal track images.

They were called the blue mountains because of the appearance from a distance, believed to be caused by mie scattering combined with ultraviolet radiation, and the terpenoids emitted by the many eucalyptus trees (though I admit I don't really know what that means!).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:BlueMountains123.jpg

Source: http://www.bluemts.com.au/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_Mountains_(New_South_Wales)

#885 Sydney Opera House, Sydney, Australia

If I had to pick the most iconic and original piece of architecture in the world, the one I knew from a very young age, it would have to be the Sydney Opera House. A beautiful structure reminiscent of sails, and beautiful from afar, up close, and spectacular when lit up at night -- one day I might even climb it. When I first saw it at the age of 11, it was a real treat, something so awe-inspiring and special it made a memorable impact.

I think the era it was built (started in 1959 and finished in 1973) and the fact that it remains so iconic makes it legendary. Few recently man made structures in the world have had such a long-lasting effect other than the Eiffel Tower (#898) in Paris. It was designed by Jørn Utzon, and when construction commenced, many geometrical and structural issues with the design remained, not to mention funding and political support. We can only be glad that they all were resolved and the construction succeeded!  

Note: Apologies, but I do not have any of my own photos of the Opera House with me. Image is from http://famouswonders.com/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sydney_Opera_House

Royal Exhibition Building and Carlton Gardens Australia

The Royal Exhibition Building and the surrounding Carlton Gardens, as the main extant survivors of a Palace of Industry and its setting, together reflect the global influence of the international exhibition movement of the 19th and early 20th centuries. The movement showcased technological innovation and change, which helped promote a rapid increase in industrialization and international trade through the exchange of knowledge and ideas.

Continent: Oceania

Country: Australia

Category: Cultural

Criterion: (II)

Date of Inscription: 2004

The great international exhibitions of 1880 and 1888

The complex was designed for the great international exhibitions of 1880 and 1888 in Melbourne. The building, designed by Joseph Reed, is constructed of brick and timber, steel and slate; it combines elements from the Byzantine, Romanesque, Lombardic and Italian Renaissance styles. The property is typical of the international exhibition movement which saw over 50 expositions staged between 1851 and 1915 in venues including Paris, New York, Vienna, Calcutta, Kingston (Jamaica) and Santiago (Chile). All shared a common theme and aims: to chart material and moral progress through displays of industry from all nations.

The scale and grandeur of the building reflects the values and aspirations attached to industrialization and its international face. The Building boasts many of the important features that made the expositions so dramatic and effective, including a dome, a great hall, giant entry portals, versatile display areas, axial planning, and complementary gardens and viewing areas. Unlike many international exhibitions, the Building was conceived as a permanent structure that would have a future role in the cultural activities of the growing city of Melbourne.

Royal Exhibition Building Australia

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Despite the great impact of the international exhibition movement worldwide and the impressive nature of the many buildings designed and built to hold these displays, few remain. Even fewer retain their authenticity in terms of original location and condition. The Royal Exhibition Building, in its original setting of the Carlton Gardens, is one of the rare survivors. It has added rarity as the only substantially intact example in the world of a Great Hall from a major international exhibition.

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Carlton Gardens are in two parts: an axial garden layout in the southern part of the site and a northern garden that was landscaped after the close of the two great 19th century exhibitions. Bounded by Victoria, Rathdowne, Carlton and Nicholson Streets at the edge of Melbourne's city centre, the entire block remains intact as originally designated by the Victorian Parliament in 1878. During the 1880 and 1888 international exhibitions the southern portion of the garden became a pleasure garden, with many attractions. The South Carlton Gardens, as it is now known, continues to be used for parkland and exhibition purposes. The southern entrance to the building, on the city side, is the apex of the design. A level promenade was created along the front of the building, and a semi-circular space has as its centrepiece an ornate fountain. A ceremonial approach is provided by a 24 m wide avenue, and two other paths form a radiating axis from the fountain. In 1888 another fountain, the Westgarth Fountain, was added.

The aesthetic significance of the Carlton Gardens lies in its representation of the 19th-century Gardenesque style. This includes parterre garden beds, significant avenues including the southern carriage drive and Grande Allée, the path system, specimens and clusters of trees, two small lakes and three fountains. The formal ornamental palace garden, which was the context for the Great Hall of the Palace of Industry, is substantially intact.

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Tasmanian Wilderness Australia

Covering an area of over 1 million hectares, the Tasmanian Wilderness constitutes one of the last expanses of temperate rainforest in the world. It comprises a contiguous network of reserved lands that extends over much of south-western Tasmania including several coastal islands. In contrast to the mainland, the island of Tasmania is a rugged region with fold structures in the western half and fault structures in the east, both of which are represented in the property. The fold structure province in the south-west is an extremely rugged and densely vegetated region with north-south oriented mountain ranges and valley systems.

Continent: Oceania

Country: Australia

Category: Mixed Heritage Site

Criterion: (III)(IV) (VI) (VII) (VIII) (IX) (X)

Date of Inscription: 1982

Tasmanian Wilderness Atmosphere

Changing climates have also influenced landscape development, highlighted most recently by late Cainozoic and Pleistocene glacial and periglacial events. Glacial erosion has contributed to spectacular landform features including horns, aretes, cirques, U-shaped valleys and rock basins (tarns). The coastline has been subjected to a number of sea-level changes during the glaciations and now provides a classic example of a drowned landscape, as shown by the discordant coastline in the south. Special landforms associated with the development of karst have formed through the solution of carbonate rocks such as (Precambrian) dolomite and (Ordovician) limestone. Features include cave systems, natural arches, clints and grikes, dolines, karren, pinnacles and blind valleys.

The vegetation has as much in common with cool, temperate regions of South America and New Zealand as with the rest of Australia. In addition to climatic and edaphic factors, the vegetation has developed in response to fire. Aboriginal occupation over the last 30,000 years has constituted a major source of fire; more recently, much fire can be attributed to the interests of fishermen, logging concerns and prospectors. The fauna is of world importance because it includes an unusually high proportion of endemic species and relict groups of ancient lineage. Owing to the diverse topography, geology, soils and vegetation in association with harsh and variable climatic conditions combining to create a wide array of animal habitats, the fauna is correspondingly diverse.

Tasmanian Wilderness Australia

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The insularity of Tasmania and of the Tasmanian Wilderness in particular, has contributed to its uniqueness and has helped to protect it from the impact of exotic species which has seriously affected the mainland fauna. Tasmania was cut off from mainland Australia by the flooding of Bass Strait at least 8000 years ago, thereby isolating the aboriginal inhabitants. The Tasmanian Aborigines were, until the advent of the European explorer Abel Tasman, the longest isolated human group in world history, surviving some 500 generations without outside influence.

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Surveys and excavations of inland river valleys have located 37 cave sites, all considered to have been occupied between 30,000 and 11,500 years ago on the basis of the finds. Recent discoveries of rock art at three cave sites have shown that this painting had a ceremonial significance; hand stencils predominated. Stone artefact scatters and quarries and rock shelters in the Tasmanian highlands indicate a distinctive adaptation to this subalpine environment in the later Holocene. The south coast contains a range of shell maddens; evidence available so far suggests changing patterns of shellfish exploitation over several thousand years until the arrival of Europeans in the early 19th century.

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Macquarie Island Australia

Macquarie Island is an oceanic island in the Southern Ocean, lying 1,500 km south-east of Tasmania and approximately halfway between Australia and the Antarctic continent. The island is the exposed crest of the undersea Macquarie Ridge, raised to its present position where the Indo-Australian tectonic plate meets the Pacific plate. It is a site of major geo-conservation significance, being the only place where rocks from the Earth's mantle (6 km below the ocean floor) are being actively exposed above sea level.

Continent: Oceania

Country: Australia

Category: Natural

Criterion: (VII)(VIII)

Date of Inscription: 1997

Oceanic Crust and Rocks

It is the only island in the world composed entirely of oceanic crust and rocks from the Earth's mantle deep below the surface. Macquarie Island probably began as a spreading ridge under the sea with the formation of new oceanic crust somewhere between 11 million and 30 million years ago.

At some stage the spreading halted and the crust began to compress, squeezing rocks upward from deep within the mantle. As the ridge grew it eventually became exposed above the ocean surface about 600,000 years ago. Thus, rocks normally only occurring deep within the Earth's mantle have become exposed on the surface.

Macquarie Island Australia

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Since Macquarie Island emerged, it has mainly been carved by marine processes such as wave action, unlike other sub Antarctic islands, which have been shaped by glaciers. These unique exposures include excellent examples of pillow basalts and other extrusive rocks.

The main landscape feature is a central rolling plateau 250-300 m above sea level, bounded on all sides by steep cliffs, from the foot of which extends a coastal platform up to 800 m wide. Glacial drift up to 20 m thick covers much of the plateau and there are several lakes.

Among the most aesthetically appealing sights of the island are the vast congregations of wildlife, particularly penguins, on suitable parts of the coastal terrace, especially during breeding seasons.

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During the breeding season on suitable beaches elephant seals also form impressive colonies. Four species of albatross nest on steep and rugged cliffs, both on the main island and on nearby Bishop and Clerk Islands.

The terrestrial area of Macquarie Island is a State Reserve with protection extending to low water mark. The marine values are protected by the Macquarie Island Marine Park declared by the Commonwealth on 28 October 1999. The primary purpose of the marine park is to protect the conservation values of the region from human disturbance. The marine park contains the world's largest marine highly protected zone, covering more than 16 million hectares.

Sealers discovered the island in 1810 and inhabited it periodically throughout the 19th century, exterminating the fur seals and greatly reducing the elephant seal population. In 1870, gangs came to exploit the king and royal penguin populations for oil, eliminating the former. The original elephant seal population of about 100,000 animals was reduced by 70% as a result of these operations. The visitors also brought exotic mammals and caused the extermination of two endemic subspecies of land birds.

There are no permanent human inhabitants on Macquarie Island although the Australian Antarctic Division station is occupied all year round. The only access to the island is by sea and there are no harbours or landing facilities, so ship-traffic in the area is minimal.

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World Heritage Australian Convict Sites

The transportation of people for forced labour is a system shared by many human societies, at various periods of history and in many civilizations. Most often, it involved slavery or the deportation of people following war. However, in the modern and contemporary eras, convict colonies were used as a place for prisoners to serve their sentences in a distant land, where they were generally used for forced labour. Penal colonies were initially for the imprisonment of criminals, coupled with forced labour. In Europe they were concentrated in military ports, for example, to provide labour to work on galleys or for hard labour in arsenals, building infrastructure, etc. In times of war, forced-labour prison camps are similar in terms of their organization and objectives.

Continent: Oceania

Country: Australia

Category: Cultural

Criterion: (IV)(VI)

Date of Inscription: 2010

Australian Convict Sites

A new form of penitentiary combined with a colonial project appeared in the early 17th century in European countries, involving the permanent transportation of prisoners to new territories. Under the Transportation Act of 1718, England organized just such a system for its criminals in its North American colonies. France did the same after closing its galleys in 1748. Being condemned to a convict colony is in theory a severe prison sentence, for a serious crime. In reality, however, because of the colonies' need for labour, all sorts of crimes, often relatively minor, led to transportation for more or less lengthy terms. The expression of certain opinions or membership of a banned political group was also punishable in this way.

In 1775 England stopped transporting its criminals to America, because of the upheaval that eventually led to these colonies gaining their independence. Australia became the replacement destination starting in 1778 with the gradual organization of many convict colonies. Port Jackson (Sydney Harbour) was the first place where convicts were landed.

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Transportation to Australia reached its maximum between 1787 and 1868, with 166,000 prisoners sent to its many convict stations. Australia was at the time a vast area, inhabited only by Aboriginal peoples, who were rapidly forced away from the most sheltered and most fertile coastal areas. From the point of view of the colonists, everything had to be built, starting with ports, houses, roads, colonial farms, etc. The convicts were often from the lower classes; women accounted for 16% of the total, and there were also quite a few children, who could be punished with transportation from the age of nine.

The Australian convict system took different forms in order to meet its many objectives. It evolved out of a great debate in Europe at the turn of the 19th century about how to punish crime and the social role to be given to the transportation of prisoners. The discussion included on the one hand the notion of punishment and on the other the desire to discourage crime through the idea of rehabilitation of personal behaviour by means of work and discipline. Transportation of a labour force to serve colonial development, especially in the more distant lands, was seen as a useful and effective response to these various social issues in England, as well in other European countries such as France and Russia.

In the Australian case, the convict system was in practice also designed to make the prisoners fully fledged colonists once they had served out their sentences. The considerable distance between Europe and Australia meant that that the convicts almost always remained after their release.

The Australian convict system included a variety of prison systems, ranging from outdoor to indoor work, from probationary transportation to simple imprisonment; it included convict stations for women or children (Cascades Female Factory and Point Puer). In some convict stations, the prisoners lived alongside free settlers (Brickendon and Woolmers Estates). Living conditions were naturally very strict, but they were variable in terms of their harshness, depending on the site and function.

Overseeing and transporting the convicts also required the presence of a sizeable prison administration, the organization of a specialized fleet, the presence of numerous guards, etc.

The most harsh stations, for those prisoners considered to be the most dangerous, included a prison, hard and often dangerous labour, corporal punishment, such as lashes or deprivation, and solitary confinement. Most sites had a prison and a solitary confinement area; but others were punishment stations, such as Norfolk Island, Port Arthur, and the Tasman Peninsula Coal Mines. These stations were renowned throughout the entire British Empire for their harshness, in order to maintain the fear of transportation among the population and so reduce crime in Great Britain and its colonies

The convict gang system was used for public works, especially for roads and port facilities. They were generally very strict and the work was hard. Examples include Old Great North Road, Hyde Park Barracks, Port Arthur, Coal Mines, Kingston and Arthur's Vale Historic Area, and Fremantle Prison.

There were also labour convict stations for those prisoners considered to pose less of a threat, where the convicts were made available for private projects, often farming. The entrepreneurs used them at their own risk. Examples include Brickendon and Woolmers Estates and Old Government House. Female labour was more of a manufacturing nature, such as Cascades Female Factory, a textile mill. These were, of course, still prisons with a system of punishment and rewards. Some convict stations used women as servants - for example, on farms and Old Government House.

Those convicts who behaved themselves could earn a lighter sentence, gradually leading to their early release. In the very vivid minds of the social reformists of prisoners, the aim was to establish a probationary path that would gradually lead to social rehabilitation through labour and, finally, to the status of fully fledged colonial settler.

The creation of convict stations in Australia, at the heart of the programme of creating colonies, had particularly negative effects on the Aboriginal peoples. This led to social unrest, forced migration, and the loss of fertile land, as well as devastating epidemics because of their lack of immunity. Conflict and resistance were frequent occurrences as settlers and convicts arrived, often resulting in death.

The penal settlements continued for quite a long time after the transportation system was abolished, up until the eve of World War II, driven by their own dynamic of prisoner management and similar practices, though applied on a far lesser scale, such as exile.

The last of the sites to remain in active use was Fremantle Prison, which closed in the early 1990s.Today; most of these sites are entirely or in part places of remembrance, museums, or parks.

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The Ningaloo Coast Australia

The Ningaloo Coast is located on Western Australia's remote coast along the East Indian Ocean. The interconnected ocean and arid coast form aesthetically striking landscapes and seascapes. The coastal waters host a major near shore reef system and a directly adjacent limestone karst system and associated habitats and species along an arid coastline. The property holds a high level of terrestrial species endemism and high marine species diversity and abundance. An estimated 300 to 500 whale sharks aggregate annually coinciding with mass coral spawning events and seasonal localized increases in productivity.

Continent: Oceania

Country: Australia

Category: Natural

Criterion: (VII)(X)

Date of Inscription: 2011

The Karst System

The marine portion of the nomination contains a high diversity of habitats that includes lagoon, reef, Open Ocean, the continental slope and the continental shelf. Intertidal systems such as rocky shores, sandy beaches, estuaries, and mangroves are also found within the property. The most dominant marine habitat is the Ningaloo reef, which sustains both tropical and temperate marine fauna and flora, including marine reptiles and mammals. The main terrestrial feature of the Ningaloo Coast is the extensive karst system and network of underground caves and water courses of the Cape Range.

The karst system includes hundreds of separate features such as caves, dolines and subterranean water bodies and supports a rich diversity of highly specialized subterranean species. Above ground, the Cape Range Peninsula belongs to an arid ecoregion recognized for its high levels of species richness and endemism, particularly for birds and reptiles.

Ningaloo Coast Australia

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The landscapes and seascapes of the property are comprised of mostly intact and large-scale marine, coastal and terrestrial environments. The lush and colourful underwater scenery provides a stark and spectacular contrast with the arid and rugged land. The property supports rare and large aggregations of whale sharks (Rhincodon typus) along with important aggregations of other fish species and marine mammals. The aggregations in Ningaloo following the mass coral spawning and seasonal nutrient upwelling cause a peak in productivity that leads approximately 300-500 whale sharks to gather, making this the largest documented aggregation in the world.

In addition to the remarkable aggregations of whale sharks the Ningaloo Reef harbours a high marine diversity of more than 300 documented coral species, over 700 reef fish species, roughly 650 mollusc species, as well as around 600 crustacean species and more than 1,000 species of marine algae. The high numbers of 155 sponge species and 25 new species of echinoderms add to the significance of the area. On the ecotone, between tropical and temperate waters, the Ningaloo Coast hosts an unusual diversity of marine turtle species with an estimated 10,000 nests deposited along the coast annually.

The majority of subterranean species on land, including aquatic species in the flooded caves are rare, taxonomically diverse and not found elsewhere in the southern hemisphere. The combination of relict rainforest fauna and small fully aquatic invertebrates within the same cave system is exceptional. The subterranean fauna of the peninsula is highly diverse and has the highest cave fauna (troglomorphic) diversity in Australia and one of the highest in the world. Above ground, the diversity of reptiles and vascular plants in the drylands is likewise noteworthy.

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The largest sand island in the world

Fraser Island lies just off the east coast of Australia. Stretching over 120 km along the southern coast of Queensland, Fraser Island is the largest sand island in the world. It is a place of exceptional beauty, with long uninterrupted white beaches flanked by strikingly coloured sand cliffs, majestic tall rainforests and numerous freshwater lakes of crystal-clear waters. The massive sand deposits that make up the island are a continuous record of climatic and sea level changes over the past 700,000 years.

Continent: Oceania

Country: Australia

Category: Natural

Criterion: (VII)(VIII) (IX)

Date of Inscription: 1992

Fraser Island

Fraser Island features complex dune systems that are still evolving, and an array of dune lakes that is exceptional in its number, diversity and age. The highest dunes on the island reach up to 260 m above sea level. 40 perched dune lakes can be found on the island. These lakes are formed when organic matter, such as leaves, bark and dead plants, gradually builds up and harden in depressions created by the wind.

The island also has several barrage lakes, formed when moving sand dunes block a watercourse, and 'window' lakes, formed when a depression exposes part of the regional water table. A surprising variety of vegetation types grow on the island, ranging from coastal heath to subtropical rainforests. It is the only place in the world where tall rainforests, up to 50 m high, are found growing on sand dunes at elevations of over 200 m.

Sand Dune Fraser Island

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Birds are the most abundant form of animal life on the island with over 230 species being recorded. It is a particularly important site for migratory wading birds which use the area as a resting place during their long flights between southern Australia and their breeding grounds in Siberia. A species of particular interest is the endangered ground parrot, which is found in the wallum heath lands.

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Few mammal species are present on the island. The most common are bats, particularly flying foxes. The dingo population on the island is regarded as the most pure strain of dingoes remaining in eastern Australia.

The lakes on Fraser Island are poor habitats for fish and other aquatic species because of the purity, acidity and low nutrient levels of the water. Some frog species are adapted to survive in this difficult environment. Appropriately called 'acid frogs', they tolerate the acidic condition characteristic of the Fraser Island lakes and swamps.

The earliest date for the occupation of Fraser Island is currently 1,500-2,000 years. Visible remains of Aboriginal settlement include middens, canoe and gunyah trees, and a few other markings such as scars where bees' nests have been removed. The Badtjala and Kabi Kabi groups of Aboriginal people have cultural and other traditional affiliations with the area. European contact, initiated by Matthew Flinders in 1802, was sporadic and limited to explorers, escaped convicts and shipwreck survivors.

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Sydney Opera House

Sydney Opera House - World Tourism will discuss about the Sydney Opera House. The Sydney Opera House is one of the world's busiest arts center gig, hosting over 1,500 performances each year attended by some 1.2 million people. The Sydney Opera House is administered by the Sydney Opera House Trust, under the New South Wales Department of Art. 

The Sydney Opera House was made a UNESCO World Heritage Site on 28 June 2007. This is one of the buildings of the 20th century's most distinctive and one of the most famous performing arts centers in the world.

The Sydney Opera House is at Bennelong Point in Sydney Harbour, close to the Sydney Harbour Bridge. It sits at the northeastern tip of the Sydney central business district (CBD), surrounded on three sides by the harbor (Sydney Cove and Farm Cove) and inland by the Royal Botanic Gardens. The Sydney Opera House is a multi-venue arts center in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.

The building houses the Sydney Opera House where the performance below:

The Concert Hall, with 2679 seats, is the home of the Sydney Symphony Orchestra and is used by a large number of other concert presenters. It contains the Sydney Opera House Grand Organ, the largest tracker mechanical action organ in the world, with more than 10,000 pipes. 

The Opera Theatre, a proscenium theater with 1507 seats, is the home of the Sydney Opera Australia and The Australian Ballet.

The Drama Theatre, proscenium theater with 544 seats, is used by the Sydney Theatre Company and other dance and theatrical presenters.

The Playhouse, an end-stage theater with 398 seats.

The Studio, a flexible space with a maximum capacity of 400 people, depending on configuration.

Space Utzon, the multi-purpose small, seating up to 210.

The Forecourt, a flexible open space with a variety of configuration options, including the possibility of using the Monumental Steps as audience seating, used for a variety of community events and major outdoor performances. Forecourt will be closed to visitors and performances 2011-2014 to construct a new entrance tunnel to a rebuilt loading dock for the Opera Theatre.

Other areas (eg northern and western foyers) are also used for regular performances. Venues at the Sydney Opera House are also used for conferences, ceremonies and social functions.

There is no doubt that the Sydney Opera House is his masterpiece. This is one of the great iconic buildings of the 20th century, an image of great beauty that has become known throughout the world - a symbol for not only a city, but a whole country and continent.