The Winged City
Mechanics and Protocol
The Skytrain is approaching the platform. Please stand clear and make way for alighting passengers.
Open twenty-four hours.
Gates open three hours before scheduled departure time.
Follow the signs to customs clearance and immigration.
Photography of the airport tarmac is not permitted at any time.
All flights will operate subject to traffic demand. Some flights may be combined subject to traffic demand.
“Malaysia four-one-nine heavy, make a right turn on runway three-one right, move up behind company on Echo.”
Ensure fire detectors in the front and aft baggage holds are unobstructed and display a full charge.
Please return your vest at the end of your shift. Thank you.
Passenger Tubes
Secure the overhead compartment flap properly and be careful when opening as loose items may fall out injuring those seated underneath.
Do not smoke in the passenger compartment, toilets, or when the sign is switched ON.
The cabin lights will be dimmed for landing. Ensure window shades are open and return your seat to its full upright and locked position.
As Living Space
The viewing gallery is located in the passenger concourse and is free to all visitors and passengers.
Please refrain from touching the models.
Smoking lounges are provided for your comfort and convenience.
Supervised play only.
Make your family smile with great tasting LIPTON Mango Iced Tea! It’s the perfect blend of thirst quenching LIPTON Iced Tea and the sweet taste of mangoes.
For security reasons, please do not leave your baggage unattended. Should you spot unattended baggage, contact the airport police immediately.
Please check-in early if you prefer bulkhead or emergency exit seating.
Customers are advised of a 15% price increase on all menu items effective November 1.
Currency exchange services are available for all of the airport’s destinations.
Carry-on baggage must not weigh in excess of six kilograms.
Have your ticket and passport available for inspection upon entering the plane.
Surfers Paradise at Daybreak
A group of bleary-eyed partyers watch the sun rise from the entrance to the beach.
A man scans for coins with his metal detector, the fast-climbing skyline of bordertown Coolangatta in the distance.
Investigating.
Shoes out front a public toilet.
Stumbling and still giddy from a night on the town — Surfers Paradise claims Queensland’s largest concentration of bars and nightclubs — two girls stroll up the beach.
Birds of a feather.
Wave breaker.
Outback New South Wales
A dust devil touches ground near Silverton.
Next services.
Crows reclaim an abandoned ice creamery in the mining town of Broken Hill.
Roadhouse-turned-billboard near Wilcannia.
A woman reads the Adelaide Advertiser from the cool of her van.
Family counselling, Broken Hill.
An aboriginal nanny buys a locally-bottled soft drink at a roadhouse in Bourke. Many of the towns in north-western New South Wales are so-called “dry zones” with the sale or importation of alcohol strictly prohibited.
Spur lines.
An abandoned train station and dredged-up tracks in Broken Hill.
Matt Explores the Postmodern Playground
A decidedly not-fun concrete slab playground in Melbourne’s Carlton district.
Clear?
Surprise!
Jana and her amazing sunglasses watch from the sidelines.
Adelaide in Photos
A diagonal line separates old from new.
Stairs to the train station.
Food court at closing time.
Adelaide Metro at a red light.
Workers watch a bus billboard.
Coin toss for a waltzing marionette.
Slow business.
Kids play ball at the gates to Chinatown.
Pay phones.
Sydney in Photos
Some more sights from an afternoon spent wandering the boulevards and lanes of Australia’s largest city.
Ghosts of the Marketplace: Australia
In 1998 an unlikely commercial development was started in Hope Island, one of the Gold Coast’s most genteel and exclusive neighbourhoods. Christened the Village Square Arts and Crafts Centre, this would be anything but a typical suburban shopping centre with upwards of 250 permanent, craft-themed stalls and shopfronts built around an artificial waterfront and kaleidoscopic windmill. What led developers to believe such a homely venture would succeed in Hope Island I can only speculate, but whatever the reason the anticipated crowds never materialised and it wasn’t long before the shops started closing their doors.
When Matt and I considered shooting Kite Circuit there two years ago (our visit is chronicled on video here) a few stragglers still remained but by the time Hemma and I went back to visit this past August we found it weather-beaten and faded, with newly-erected “Private Property” signs plastered across its outer walls.
Local word holds that the sprawling complex has been sold to developers and is earmarked for demolition in early 2008.
Postcards from the Sunshine State
Searching for 1960s Florida on Australia’s Gold Coast, circa 2007.
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Fish and Chips
For as long as the Lake family has lived on Chevron Island, John and Anne have started their days by feeding the schools of fish that live in the canal behind their home. The staple is cheap white bread bought specifically for the purpose, appropriately dubbed “fish bread”, although their diet is occasionally supplemented with leftovers from the previous night’s dinner.
This morning the fish were fed chips.
Competition in the shallows.
Most mornings the fish have to compete with savvy seagulls and pelicans for their bread.
Zak, the family dog, gets rewarded with a chip as thrashing fish battle for scraps below.
A poisonous toadfish tows the last piece of bread.
