On Sydney's leafy north shore, developers are circling.
"All the magnificent trees that are really vital habitat will go. The birds will go. It's a really special place."
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https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-02-25/nsw-developers-sydney-suburbs-rezoning-train-metro-housing/104949442
#sydney #kuringgai #biodiversity
Just another day on the northern fringes of Sydney - a 1.5+m lace monitor (Varanus varius) strolling up a neighbour's driveway just now.
I don't believe they are venomous, but because they are carrion-feeders their mouth and teeth are covered in bacteria that make for a very nasty bite if you get in their way.
Taken on the mobile phone through the car windscreen.
Waratah Bay in Ku Ring Gai Chase National Park, north of Sydney.
The ruins of the old bridge on the track from Berowra to Waratah Bay in Ku Ring Gai National Park, north of Sydney.
The iron pipe on the right appears to have been a conduit for telephone cables.
The shipwreck (boatwreck?) in Waratah Bay in Ku Ring Gai Chase National Park, north of Sydney.
Now I promise I’ll try to stop posting photos of it. I’m sure you’ve had enough.
The old shipwreck in Waratah Bay, Ku Ring Gai Chase National Park.
It’s located next to the old Windybank boatyard, but seems to be unrelated to the Windybanks - likely happening long after the Windybanks had left and the site had been resumed into the national park. The shape feels like a houseboat, but the construction feels more commercial - a solid-steel superstructure.
You can see stonework from the Windybanks settlement behind the boat.
A huntsman spider contemplating eating a photographer, Ku Ring Gai Chase National Park in Sydney’s north.
Waratah Bay in Ku Ring Gai Chase National Park in Sydney’s north.
The Windybank settlement was to the left. You can just make out a wrecked boat at the left edge.
A view inside one of the caves above the Windybank settlement. Someone’s clearly been living here - but probably more recently than Edward Windybank, who would have first moved here around the turn of the 19th Century.
I just posted this but can’t see it in my timeline - so apologies if you see it twice.
This is a cave in the sandstone cliffs In Ku Ring Gai Chase National Park, above the old Windybank settlement. Edward Windybank apparently lived in caves around here while he built the house on the water’s edge that his family would move into.
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