Whatever happened to the humungous karri log in Kings Park?

Karri Log Kings Park
Originally uploaded by mrlederhosen.

Gosh, a few weeks have passed since I last wrote here. My new position at work has been keeping me busy running around the city doing surveys about the use of certain train stations around one of the major transport corridors. Working in strategic planning is an awesome job, and I'm loving it.

One of my work colleagues recently sent me this photo of the old massive karri log that used to sit in a prominent position in Kings Park. Everyone I know who grew up in Perth have memories of trying to climb the log and sit on top of it. I remember getting up there once (unless they are imagined memories.. eek! - it must be Total Recall! ), and when I got on top, I thought I had climbed Mt Everest. My brother and I ran up and down it like we were kings of the world, and being little tackers, we were a little freaked out we'd hurt ourselves if we fell off. I definately remember hanging off the end of the log, just above where that guy in the pic is standing. There was also this cool slice of log located just to the left of this pic, and it showed in the growth rings how big the tree was during the French revolution, the signing of the Magna Carta and a host of other historical moments going back around 1000 years. I wonder why they took it away, surely it has a strong environmental message by leaving it there. Even back then I was thinking, "if it's so ancient, why did we cut it down?". And that was before public endorsement of environmentalism became trendy.

What ever happened to this log? When did it disappear? How did I not notice it missing until I saw this photo of it? Seeing this photo, it brings back streams of my childhood memories. I remember all sorts of things now, like playing on the dangerous but oh-so-cool playground made out of a hollowed tree next to that island which is now called the Western Power parklands.. and riding on the carved wood horses on the carousel they used to have there.. and trying not to fall in that festy lake while delicately clambering over the collapsed tree that was the only access to the playground in the middle of the little island.. sheesh i evem remember i had these corduroy pants when i was climbing around it.. i must have been 4 or 5 or something! I remember my parents had matching flared pants as they called out to us, hehe, yep that was definately the 70s! ... better yet, I can remember the song 'Dreamweaver' playing out of a stereo... ooh wait no portable stereos weren't around til the 80s... hmm, maybe it was from one of the Sandman wagons parked nearby..

Golly, so much memory from just one photo, taken over 20 years before I was even born! Actually I asked Anle the other day about this log, and she said it was eaten up by termites, so it had to be removed. I suppose that's a logical reason as to what happened to it, but even so.. I can't believe this memory got locked away in the back of my mind in the 'childhood' compartment.

In other news, I had the best weekend ever down south :') More about that later.

Ooooh yes.. and thank you sooooo much Julie for promoting my radio show Ambient Zone on your website! You are the best, hoooray!! I think i'm scheduled to do it next on either the 11th or the 18th of March. Stay tuned and I'll let you know.

Contested Baltic states borders

Baltic states borders
Originally uploaded by mrlederhosen.

This map accompanies the following entry.
It looks like Russia was worried that their country was getting too small in the new post Soviet Union, so they had to claim chunks of land from their former subjects..

Estonia

tartucastle
Originally uploaded by mrlederhosen.

I wasn't sure if I had already posted this pic a year ago, but this is the remains of a great castle built during the Knights of the Sword period of Estonian history. Half of the castle has been restored, and that part of the building is used as a library for the main university of Tartu. If this building was in Australia or the US the whole site would be fenced off and everyone would be too worried about being sued to allow people to wander around the ruins of a once great place. I still think it's the coolest warning sign that I have ever seen!

I thought I'd clarify something I'd mentioned in my last entry. I had referred to the troubles in south eastern Estonia still brewing, but since I had last read about it a few years ago whilst completing my International Relations degree at uni, I had not read the latest developments regarding the area of Petserimaa - the area around the town of Petseri. Since Soviet times, Petseri has been officially called Pechory. Estonians have traditionally considered this region one of the 11 counties that constitute their Nation, and this has been the source of many simmering tensions with Russia. I found a great map that shows the disputed territories, it also includes the area around Narva and also Latvia's border dispute area with Russia.
Wikipedia seems to suggest that the Petserimaa issues were resolved in 2005, (see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petseri ) but I am not sure what the Estonian people think of this. I notice that Wikipedia have entered their summary in a way that suggests this is an historic Russian area that has been returned. I'm not so sure if other historical sources would agree with that either. I will have to read more about it.

Some other webpages for Estonian history for all you history geeks if you are interested..
http://www.einst.ee/publications/12/viies.html
http://www.iexplore.com/dmap/Estonia/History
http://www.britannica.com/ebi/article-200389
http://www.infoplease.com/ce6/world/A0858036.html

Refugees

Refugees
Originally uploaded by mrlederhosen.

I got this spooky photo from the internet. It's small and low res, but it captures the atmosphere of what it might be like to live in there.

I was searching for some new places to travel, so I typed Georgia into the search engine. The Caucasus has always fascinated me, although it seems many places in that region of the world are too dangerous to travel. Russia has long sought to destabilise all of the breakaway parts of its former Soviet Empire that lean westwards and out of their sphere of influence, and the region of Abkhazia is no exception. There's a few thousand years of history along the eastern Black Sea coast, but the Soviet legacy of ethnic population movement has led to endless conflict in many areas. The Abkhazian minority declared independence from Georgia in the early 90s, although as yet no country has recognised it. At the end of a nasty war, most of the ethnic Georgians fled, with the expectation to return soon. The political situation has been in stalemate ever since, with Russian support of the separatists enabling the situation to stay as it is, with Georgia refusing to grant anything more than autonomy. Both sides cannot agree on a solution. It's obviously more complicated than just that, but that's basically how it is. Along the border there are lonely refugee towns filled with Georgians wanting to return, living a temporary existence believing that one day they can go back to Abkhazia. There are similar deadlock situations in other ex-Soviet nations, such as South Ossetia, Transnistria in Moldova, the southeast of Estonia, Karelia in Russia/Finland. Not all of these circumstances are in direct conflict, but tensions are simmering.

This is the caption that accompanied this photo:

Zugdidi, close to the Abkhazian border Georgia, January 2003.
An un-named town on the border with abkhazia. Once it was town built to house construction workers building a Dam during Soviet times. Now most of it is abandoned but for a number of refugees. There is no running water or electricity any more. In winter it can drop to -40 and it is 60 miles from the nearest town on very bad roads. It is a harsh and lonely place to live.