Fremantlebiz - Paul's Letter from Australia

A fabulous view of Fremantle

I've been to see the Vietnamese herb lady at the local flea market this morning. She sure does grow some nice plants. They're reasonably priced too, at $2.50 each. I bought a pot of Vietnamese mint and a pot of something called cucumber sage. They're both perennials and can be used to garnish salads.

I picked up a couple of cheap CDs too. Hands up who can remember the Captain and Tennile? Sure you can, unless you were born after the seventies. How about their hot songs "Do that to me one more time" and "Love will keep us together"? Now you remember, right? I picked up 14 of their great hits on a CD for two bucks.

I'm not exactly a country and western fan, but a two CD set featuring Gene Autry, Tex Ritter, Jimmy Rodgers and The Carter Family for another two bucks seemed too good to pass up.

But what I really wanted to mention this morning was that I went to a land auction yesterday. Up for grabs was a 627 square meters block of land at the top of a limestone ridge overlooking Fremantle. It had a sensational view of the entire port. Maybe the best view of any block of land for sale in the metropolitan area. Well that's what the auctioneer suggested, and I'm inclined to agree with him.

I'd become aware of the sale on Friday when I drove past the block in Swanbourne Street. It's a few hundred metres south of the Fremantle War Memorial, which also has pretty good views, but not in the same league at this block.

The estate agents had erected a scaffold so prospective buyers could see what they were getting if they built a two story dwelling. The site was locked up on Friday so I went back yesterday with my cameras. It was an opportunity to capture a spectacular panorama - one too good to miss.

The scaffold was secure but wobbly. So wobbly when I first went up that by legs went wobbly too. Nevertheless I took a series of pictures on both cameras and came down to let others have the exciting experience. Only a few people bothered so I went up again and shot another series with a different lens. The idea was to to take a sequence of overlapping photos and then stitch them together at home on a computer. I can tell you there are many pitfalls when as many as a dozen photos for a 360 degrees panorama are involved.

I hung about for the auction at 1pm. About thirty people turned up. I thought one couple I'd talked to on the top of the scaffold might be contenders. The estate agent seemed to know them. But they told me that they were a bit put off by the prospect of looking at so many urbane rooftops. They lived in Burke Drive Attadale and liked to look at views without people and houses. They didn't bid. In fact, the property was passed in at A$1.95 million dollars without a single bid.

I wanted to bid. I'd fallen in love with the block and its view. It would have been very nice for me and my wife to spend the next twenty plus years. I actually felt guilty that I hadn't put my hand up, but this would have led to unhappiness all round because I simply don't have the money. In twenty years people will probably look back and say A$1.95 million was unbelievably cheap. (I had expected to win $19 million on Lotto last night. This would've had me on the phone to the estate agent this morning. Alas it was not to be.)

After the auction I was talking to some of the neighbours I could have had if only. They all seemed very nice people. One was building on the block next door and another on the block below. Older houses had been demolished to make way.

Regarding the project below the auction site, an almost retired couple invited me down to look at their work in progress. I got the distinct impression they were enjoying the entire building process and were in absolutely no hurry for completion. I was very impressed and could imagine the seafood aromas coming from their as yet unbuilt kitchen. At a guess I'd expect them to have the roof on by Christmas. Naturally I told this pleasant couple the name of my sons' plumbing business if they ran into any bother. My lads are currently doing another house nearby.

So now for the 360 degees panorama I created. The best way to view my effort is to click the link, then click the image again once you are transferred to my Panoramio site, then click the magnification option. Use the scroll bar to move left and right to examine the full-screen image. Click here to see all of Fremantle.

© MMVIII Paul R. Weaver.

Click here to visit 'dogandcatwatcher', my YouTube website.

Original still photographs are stored online in a cache at my Panoramio website or my Picasa site. Most of them have a brief description and a link back to a relevant essay. Images on Panoramio can usually be enlarged several times by clicking them.

About the writer

Click here to see our backyard.

Check out each month's subject index on the Calendar Page for my "common-man" monologues about survival in 21st century Australia – plus a little history occasionally. An original essay is added most days as part of an undertaking to write at least couple of million words. Zzzzzzzz!