Diane’s Newsletter 18th June 2019
On the 9th June, we walked through the bush to the falls on Kariong Brook. It is not a long walk – about 6 kms – but well worth doing. If you live in the area, the entrance to the walk is on the right-hand side of Woy Woy Road (coming from Kariong), 300 metres beyond Staples Lookout. There is parking for about four cars at the start of the walk, which winds through the Brisbane Waters National Park, initially on a fire trail and later on a fairly rocky track. Some bushwalking sites have labelled it ‘hard’, but relative to other walks I have done I would probably label it ‘moderate’ rather than ‘hard’
From Woy Woy Road there is a definite descent, which becomes much more obvious – and very rocky – once you turn off towards Girrakool. Don’t give up though, the waterfall itself is worth all the effort.
After spending some time at the waterfall we retraced our steps, which, this time, was all up hill.
 Staples Lookout |
 The start of the walk |
 Looking across Brisbane Waters National Park |
 An Aboriginal carving |
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 The signpost to Girrakool (and the brook). |
 A designated camping area |
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 The falls |
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Looking for events and happenings from the 18th June (in fact, from any day of the year) can be a fairly disheartening exercise. I mean to say, happy, positive things must be happening every day, not just killings and riots and eruptions and government takeovers.
The 18th June 1812 was the day that America declared war on Great Britain (which cannot have been so positive for those concerned), but, after much hunting, I discovered that it was also the day (in 1942) that Paul McCartney of Beatles fame was born. Given the fact that the Beatles brought so much joy to so many people this would have to be seen as a happy occasion.
Somewhat encouraged, I continued digging through years of negativity to discover that, in 1980 on the day in question, Shakuntala Devi, dubbed the human computer, multiplied two 13 digit numbers and gave the correct answer in 28 seconds. Perhaps not a happy event as such but definitely inspiring.
When I read that on the 18th June 2002 a report was delivered, noting that sparrow numbers in London had fallen for no obvious reason (could it have been connected to climate change or general pollution?), I decided to give up.
Surely there are lovely things happening every day: people doing nice, kind things for each other; governments in tune with the people they are governing; inspirational thought, music and art filling all the negative space; beautiful sunrises, sunsets, cloud formations… Or am I being naïve?
Image of Shakuntala Devi from wikipedia.
Image of Paul McCartney form wikimedia.
Recently, the ABC (Australian Broadcasting Company) ran a survey asking people to vote for their favourite composer. The survey attracted 127,971 votes and more than 500 composers were suggested. From these the top 100 were selected, and the winner, that is to say the composer with most votes, turned out to be Beethoven.
This was probably not surprising; however, I think it is very difficult to name a ‘favourite composer’. It depends on so many things: mood, weather, and, of course, what is happening in one’s life at that particular moment. One day the obvious choice might be Beethoven, another day the choice could be Rachmaninov or Bach or Tchaikovsky, and on yet another occasion the only contender might be Puccini or Schubert.
I would have found it impossible to have voted for just one composer. Do you have a favourite composer, or do you, like me, have a whole collection of favourite composers?
As an aside: has anyone given any thought to the fact that when one thinks ‘famous composer’ the first image that pushes itself across our mind is of a male composer? How many of the 500 suggested composers were women? How many of the selected 100 are women? While pondering this I found an interesting article in The Guardian – it is worth reading.
Images of composers from wikimedia
Images of female composers from Strings Magazine