Blackburn Lake Sanctuary: Melbourne Australia # 2. Original Photography. Magical Moments. Nature's Beauty.
Let the neglected presence of your soul come to meet and engage you.
It can be a lovely reacquaintance with your forgotten mystery.
~John O’Donohue. Anam Cara: A Book of Celtic Wisdom.
Melbourne.
It was time to leave my art making and 'all agendas behind me' and go to Melbourne.
And although there were some specific people and places I wanted to visit in Melbourne's eastern suburbs, I wanted to be able to slip between those spaces of 'having to be somewhere' so that I could connect with nature and re-engage with my soul.
Blackburn Lake Sanctuary.
The Blackburn Lake Sanctuary has become a special haven for me: A place where I can allow time to slow down and as I do, become at one with the wild diversity of life there.
Located in the suburb of Blackburn about 18 kilometers east of the Melbourne's CBD, the sanctuary is a wonderful example of regenerated and remnant bushland within an Australian city area.
NOTE: History of the Blackburn Lake Sanctuary below.
Journey to Duck Point.
The track alongside the Blackburn Lake opens out to a flat graveled clearing that's aptly called 'Duck Point' ~ My intended destination.
Standing on the rocks at the water's edge you can see up and down and across the expanse of the lake. A tranquil place to sit, to reflect while watching the rest of the world go by.
Photograph: ©Alison Lee Cousland.
SONY Mark2 A7: ISO 100: 35 mm: f/5.6: 1/50 sec.
First glimpse of the lake, from Lake Road, Blackburn. The photograph was taken, through the wire, while walking alongside the walled and wired footpath.
Photograph: ©Alison Lee Cousland.
SONY Mark2 A7: ISO 100: 35 mm: f/5.6: 1/50 sec.
Taking the left side of the Lakeside Walk, the lake was on the left. First glimpse of the lake through the bushland.
Photograph: ©Alison Lee Cousland.
SONY Mark2 A7: ISO 640: 35 mm: f/8: 1/50 sec.
A natural tipi of burnt tree trunks. The lake, peeping through the indigenous grasses.
Photograph: ©Alison Lee Cousland.
SONY Mark2 A7: ISO 1000: 35 mm: f/8: 1/50 sec.
The Lakeside trail.
Photograph: ©Alison Lee Cousland.
SONY Mark2 A7: ISO 1250: 35 mm: f/8: 1/50 sec.
First sight of Duck Point: From the other side of the lake.
Duck Point is anything but a 'nothing happening here' spot.
It's a place where 'mums and dads' can catch up with their kids, who run on ahead to see if they can spot a tortoise.
A place for ducks to glide by with their ducklings. A place for magpies to strut around. A place for wildflowers, dragonflies and butterflies.
Photograph: ©Alison Lee Cousland.
SONY Mark2 A7: ISO 400: 35 mm: f/8: 1/50 sec.
Now heading towards the swampy area of the lake.
Photograph: ©Alison Lee Cousland.
SONY Mark2 A7: ISO 500: 35 mm: f/8: 1/50 sec.
Pines and lichens. Never-ending cycles of life and regeneration.
Photograph: ©Alison Lee Cousland.
SONY Mark2 A7: ISO 500: 35 mm: f/8: 1/50 sec.
Bridge to the other side of the lake. The trail bordered by the vine featured in Blackburn Lake Sanctuary Melbourne Australia # 1.
Photograph: ©Alison Lee Cousland.
SONY Mark2 A7: ISO 250: 35 mm: f/4: 1/50 sec.
Tea Tree flowers. Loved by the bees and loves the swampy and coastal areas of Australia.
Tea Tree essential oil is steam distilled from the leaves of the tree. It has an aroma similar to camphor, but also spicy and fresh like eucalyptus.
The therapeutic qualities of Tea Tree Essential Oil are well described in Top 10 Terrific Uses for Tea Tree Essential Oil.
Photograph: ©Alison Lee Cousland.
SONY Mark2 A7: ISO 100: 35 mm: f/3.5: 1/50 sec.
Spindly branches, stumps, and blue gums. Reminders of the paintings of Charles Condor and Frederick McCubbin
Photograph: ©Alison Lee Cousland.
SONY Mark2 A7: ISO 160: 35 mm: f/6.3: 1/50 sec.
Fallen logs. Wild grasses.
Photograph: ©Alison Lee Cousland.
SONY Mark2 A7: ISO 400: 35 mm: f/6.3: 1/50 sec.
Duck Point: I have arrived.
Photograph: ©Alison Lee Cousland.
SONY Mark2 A7: ISO 400: 35 mm: f/6.3: 1/50 sec.
'Bush Idyll' by Frederick McCubbin.
In my next article, I'll share some of the wild beauty of Duck Point.
Following that, I'll share some of the work of Frederick McCubbin and images of the Frederick McCubbin trail at the Sanctuary.
Photograph: ©Alison Lee Cousland.
SONY Mark2 A7: ISO 400: 35 mm: f/6.3: 1/50 sec.
History of the Blackburn Lake Sanctuary.
The Blackburn Lake Sanctuary is the most significant of the many parks in the City of Whitehorse, featuring areas of regenerated bushland and various walking tracks.
The Blackburn Lake at the very centre of the sanctuary was formed in 1889 with the damning of Kooyongkoot Creek. An early land speculative syndicate has been credited with having built the lake to enhance local land values as well as provide a reservoir for local orchardists.
The lake became an extremely popular social centre: In the 1920's diving towers were erected and swimming lessons were held at the lake. However by the 1960s, human usage and vandalism had left the lake very polluted.
With the awakening of bush regeneration and the principles of permaculture in Australia in the 1970's, local residents and community groups started to take protective measures in order to reclaim the lake and its surrounds back to its natural state.
So that today, the lake is home to a variety of creatures including herons, cormorants and pelicans, ducks and tortoises, wattlebirds and lorikeets, swallows and wrens, magpies and butcher birds, and other local wildlife such as possums and sugar gliders, dragonflies and butterflies.
And of interest to me as Frederick McCubbin is one of my favourite 'old worldly' Australian artists:
During the 1890s Frederick McCubbin lived briefly near the lake, where he painted some of his best known works including 'Bush Idyll' and 'Down on his Luck' as well as 'The Bush Burial.'
Extracted from 'Blackburn Lake Sanctuary.'
'Blackburn Lake Sanctuary # 2' is for:
I could feel the peace just from the photos and your words, so I'm sure it's a billion times over in person. Beautiful post!
Thanks so much @full-steam-ahead.
The sanctuary truly is a place where one can find peace in being present to the 'small things' there as well as the large expanse of still water. 🦋
its excellent photography. @allyinspirit.thanks for sharing.
Thanks so much @suchi. A pleasure to share one of Melbourne's wildlife hide-a-ways.
Place I would be happy to get lost :) Thank you on this nice walk.
I actually became lost at one stage @jungwatercolor. Not so much 'lost' but disorientated.
I was looking for 'Duck Point' but I couldn't find the familiar rocks at the edges of the lake (or the landmark seat alongside the track before you go down to the lake.)
I thought I was on the right side of the lake to come to it, but then looking over to the opposite side of the lake to the clearing there, I realized that that was actually where I had intended to go.
The feeling of unfamiliarity in a place that I have come to be reasonably acquainted with was such a strange feeling. Like being in a dream where you are lost. 🦋
This is a wonderful walk with you my dear...thanks for these delightful and serene moment ^_^
So happy to take you on this beautiful walk through the Aussie bushland with me Barbara.
It would be extra magical to see it from the heights of your beautiful giraffe. She might even find lots of wildflowers to nibble on along the way. 🦋
you have a very good eye for calm beauty.
Thanks so much Edgar.
Eye and heart. Both together. Need both for the magic to happen. Don't you agree? 🦋
Oh yes, they are the key ingredients to good intuition.
Yes. Heart and all the senses. Just listening ~ To the soft and not so soft sounds of nature brings us into the moment, which can let intuition surface and flow. 🦋
Some great photos, love the white beauty. Beautiful eyes that capture such perfect angles, cheers, my dear Alison!
Thanks so much Isabel. It's a part of Melbourne where it's so easy to visualize what it must have been like for the early Australian artists who painted the landscape in situ.
They must have had very special eyes too, as up until then anyone who painted the Australian landscape still interpreted it in the European classical style.
It was the time of the early impressionists in France and the UK and the Australian artists like McCubbin realized that the light here was brighter and more intense and so made it a prominant feature of their renditions of the bushland.
I hope you have a fantastic week-end. 🦋
Aw, thanks for the explanation, it´s amazing how our world has been intertwined since forever1 And now even more, with new expressions of art, like yours... and mine, if you concede... in this amazing Internet network. Cheers, my dear Alison!
Thanks ever so much @qurator. Truly appreciate your stamp of authenticity. 🦋
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Thanks so much @pixresteemer. I'm so pleased this post caught your attention. A magical space to share now. 🦋
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