Helen Stephenson's Australian Pictures - February/March, 2000 - Mount Barker Summit

During my 2000 visit, I concentrated on "the back of The Mount". By this, I mean the Eastern face, which is visible from the River Murray and was first seen by Captain Charles Sturt when he sailed down the Murray. I have previously photographed the Western face, which was visible from the property where I grew up; and I had photographed the view looking West. During the 20 years since I lived below the West face of Mount Barker, the trees at the Summit have grown considerably and I was disappointed in the views now to be seen, as they are considerably less good that what I remember from my growing up years.

The banner picture at the top of this page is the Eastern face of Mount Barker, photographed from a car travelling along the South Eastern Freeway.

The picture below was photographed from a side road East of Callington. The stubble in the foreground was dry, but within about a week of this late summer photograph being taken there was rain and the whole countryside turned from brown to green in the course of a few days. The twin lines of bitumen road visible towards the left are part of the South Eastern Freeway.

I did go up the trail to the Summit, but I was disappointed in the view because of the number of tall trees now growing up there, so I haven't included any summit views here. However, I also followed the "Scenic Bush Walk" trail, and I took these two photographs from the North East portion of the trail, where I did find some gaps in the vegetation. These pictures were taken a couple of weeks later than the one above and are visibly greener. Despite having lived in this area until I reached my mid twenties, this was the first time I had walked around the "Scenic Bush Walk". I found it to be rather overgrown in places and suspect that the Council haven't maintained it lately.

This communications mast was constructed on the flatter area below the summit a few years ago. There was considerable public protest at the time, and I do consider it to be a regrettable addition to the landscape, although as it carries transmissions for the emergency services it is no doubt justified.

As it's there, it does make an interesting photographic subject though.

Here is a banksia flower photographed near the start of the "Scenic Bush Walk" trail.

Here are two examples of Yakka plants photographed from the "Scenic Bush Walk" trail. They are more commonly known as "Black Boys", although as the flowering heads of these ones are still green, there's not very much black about them!