Kabooooooom! Not anymore

I looked up at the late afternoon sky and had a hunch. The clouds were right for a colourful sunset, I mused. Layers of clumpy altocumulus with higher wisps of cirrus, maybe I might even see a Parhelia (Sundog) or the rarer 22 degree Sun Halo as these clouds often harbour the right shaped ice-crystals needed for such marvellous atmospheric phenomena. The backpack was aflung and I was out the door in a jiffy with some lissom movements that betrayed the logic of my middle-aged body. The 3:52pm Bus was running late as usual arriving just after 4:00pm. "Hiya, Plod, sorry I'm late, traffic's murder on the western ring road today!" said a friendly and apologetic greeting from Tom, one of the Bus Drivers I have come to know over many years of journeying. "Off to the outdoor office, are 'ya?', he enquired. I replied, "In that general direction is the cunning plan for this one", as I whipped out the Crossword that was waiting plunder from backpack. Over the 30 minutes of so journey from near my home to the beach where I would start my rollicking ramble, Tom and I duly grappled with the Crossword puzzle from the morning Newspaper with me explaining the clues as he drove, "4 Down, six letters, fearless bird of two colours and sweet song?" Too easy I thought, he'll get this one in snap, "Magpie" replies Tom. And thus the Crossword was completed by a joint action of dubious minds with aplomb in just under 26 minutes and as we approached the final Bus Stop! It's going to be a fine plod this one as I bade Tom a "farewell mate" and hopped off the bus to trundle the easy three and bit kilometres to my destination. This being the Parklands around the old Truganina Explosives Magazine where a couple of favourite places to watch sunsets - Laverton Creek and the miscellany of the Explosives Tramway and Jetty - is found.

Laverton Creek is a nondescript, minor waterway of a handful of kilometres length (and is mostly tidal) that draws into and from Port Phillip Bay. It does not have much going for it really. Very shallow and not the place to swim or fish and it has, since European settlement, been much abused. Though it has begun to improve over the past decade and now attracts flocks of coastal and sea birds feeding on its tidal flats. It has a notable footbridge too, (part of a cycling track) which offers a fine platform for sunset photographs.

'Truganina Explosives Reserve', near the Creek, is located at Altona Meadows, approximately 15 kilometres from the Melbourne CBD; now part of the 300 hectare Truganina Coastal Reserve. Once known as the 'Truganina Magazine' or 'Truganina Explosives Magazine' it came about s a result of the then Colony of Victoria passing the 'Powder Magazine Act of 1896' which enabled land to be purchased to the south and east of Laverton (an outer western suburb of Melbourne), with the bulk of the land situated in present day Altona Meadows. The Act also allowed for the establishment in 1900 of a 2 kilometre Tramway that followed part of Creek near its mouth and then onto a long wooden Jetty that stretched into the Bay itself. This was so that the high explosives stored at the Magazine could be safely (in case of explosion) hauled by Draughthorses along a 2 foot narrow gauge line to waiting Ships moored offshore for further transhipment. The Tramway was also linked via a Siding to the main Melbourne to Geelong Railway to the north at Laverton Railway Station. The Tramway and Railway Siding remained in use until 1943 during the middle of WW2, whereupon road transport of the explosives took over. However, the link to the Jetty remained in use right up until 1963 when the Magazine closed due to the encroachment of residential areas extending from Altona. Over the ensuing years up until the 1990s, the old Tramway slowly fell into ruin and was virtually removed except for a small remnant and easement leading from old Magazine area itself to the ruins of the old Jetty (which features in the photograph).

All this nearly meant nothing in a photographic sense as Murphy's 4th law of Photography rose up and smote me as I was taking pictures: 'Thou shalt always have a spare battery just in case'. I did not, so I had to nurse the near flat battery I had installed in the camera. All non-essential camera functions were turned off - no preview screen, no camera data, only basic manual shooting, no zoom to be applied, no fill flash, no fiddling with cute in-camera settings, definitely no AUTO anything. Treat the G10 as an old Box Brownie though with a computer chip inside fed by a recalcitrant battery bereft of excited electrons. I deuced, sheepishly, and with a middle-aged moment that I had just enough voltage in both the battery and me only to take a handful of shots. Photographic rationing does focus (no pun intended) one on being very, selective with the compositions and proved, timely I suspect, of Murphy's 5th Law of Photography - Digital Photography can lead to gluttony if batteries abound.

Due to the rationing, I had to select a perspective. Either turn westwards and capture what I hoped would be a fiery sunset with Laverton Creek as a riband of reflected light leading toward the horizon (my desired choice) or face east with the Pier remnant and Port Phillip Bay as the subject and take a punt on some anti-solar glare or anti-crepuscular rays for effect. The Pier won out as I was loathe that I might have deploy the zoom to narrow down the western perspective if I adopted the Creek and thus diminish further the number of photos I could effect.

I was right about the sunset though, it was quite flaming as the low clouds were lit up with a burst of solar inducements in a very un-June comportment. Fortunately, there was some anti-solar flare too (being opposite to where the Sun was farewelling) of scarlet hues. Although these lingered only for a gorgeous few minutes before the eastern horizon remembered it should be dark and turned off the colours.

for Norm Green, vale