Flat Ryan Goes to Bunbury

My Uncle Larry is a consultant. At his job, he helps companies do things better. Right now he works for a big mining company that has an aluminium refinery in Collie, a town that is 130 miles south of Perth. He travels there on Monday and works there for the week and gets to go home on the weekends. Ah-Gee and I decided to travel there to visit him so that I could see more of Western Australia.

We drove down to see Uncle Larry Ah-Gee made sure I was buckled into my seatbelt. In Western Australia it is a very serious traffic infraction to be without it!

Once we got to Bunbury, Uncle Larry took us into the hills in Collie to go hiking. Uncle Larry and Ah-Gee love to go bushwalking in the many state and national parks in Western Australia. This time we went to Wellington National Park.

Here I am with some of the examples of flora and fauna at the park.

One really cool thing about Wellington National Park is that it contains a dam!

The dam was built in 1931 and used to produce hydroelectric power and drinking water for the people in Bunbury.

After spending some time looking at the dam, we all went hiking. The trail followed the river providing us with picturesque views.

We saw lots of really neat things, like speargrass.

I also saw trees that leak sap that looks like blood. The Noongar (the Indigenous people of Southwestern Australia) used to use the sap as medicine.

We also saw a big lizard!

We had to be very careful when we encountered the lizard because Uncle Larry and Ah-Gee had never seen one like it before, and many animals where they live can be dangerous. Ah-Gee also made sure that I followed other rules to make our hiking safe. I had to stay hydrated

and make sure that we followed the trail markers.

After following the river, we hiked through the woods. Before the land was a national park it used to be used for logging. Men would live in camps with their wives and children and work in the forrest all day felling trees. Evidence of the old logging industry exists in the park to this day.

After all of that hiking, it was time to go back to Bunbury and hit the beach.

We got to look for creatures in the tide pools and check out the vessels waiting to enter the port. It was a really great day!

Flat Ryan Reaches Australia

Hi everyone! It took a long time, but I reached Australia just before Christmas! Here I am in front of Uncle Larry and Ah-Gee's house in Subiaco. They live in a 100 year old cottage that used to house workers who built the first railroad in Western Australia. Subiaco is 11,594.2 miles from Westford so I am a long way from home! We are antepodean to Bermuda!



My Ah-Gee is Mom's sister. She and Uncle Larry moved to Perth, the capital city of Western Australia, in August 2010. Western Australia is full of resources such as iron ore, natural gas, uranium and diamonds, so mining companies like to set up there and the economy is robust. Perth has about 1.7 million people in the metropolitan area, and Ah-Gee and Uncle Larry live about 2 kilometres (everything here is metric!) from downtown Perth, which is called the CBD - short for central business district.

To get me used to the area, Ah-Gee and Uncle Larry took me into the CBD to show me around. On the way there, we stopped to take a picture at the gateway to the city:



Perth is on the Swan River, so naturally there are hills around. When walking into the City, we climbed this hill and we were eye level with the City skyline! Being close to the Indian Ocean, Perth also tends to be quite windy. This day was no exception!



Around the corner from this spot is Parliament House. This is where the State Government meets. Australia is similar to the United States in that it has a Federal Government and State Government, but things are slightly different here. Instead of the people electing the president like they do in the US, people here vote for senators and representatives and they decide who will be the Prime Minister. The Prime Minister is just like the President of the United States. AH-Gee just finished studying Australian Constitutional Law so she had lots to say about it!



While Perth is a small city, there are heaps of things to see and do. We definitely couldn't do it all in one day. Ah-Gee and Uncle Larry thought I would like to see some kangaroos on my first day, but these were the only ones to be found in the City!



Kangaroos are macropods. Once they have a baby, called a joey, the mother carries the joey in her pouch. Can you see the joey in this picture?



Ah-Gee and Uncle Larry had some shopping to do to prepare for our upcoming camping trip, so afterwards we stopped at one of the many cafes that line the city streets for some lunch.



Western Australia is known to produce some of the best wines in all of Australia. Uncle Larry and Ah-Gee said their wine was really good and let me have a sip, but I didn't like it too much. Maybe when I am older I will appreciate it more.



I am so excited to be visiting with my Ah-Gee and Uncle Larry! Next up is our trip to Bunbury!