Osca Textures

Barrow Creek, Australia

2007-12-01T20:33:00.000+11:00

Barrow Creek
Nothern Territory
Australia
Population 11

Barrow Creek is located on the Stuart Highway 284 km north of Alice Springs and 1198 km south of Darwin, the town was named after John Henry Barrow, a preacher, journalist and politician who had migrated to South Australia in 1853. The town came into existence with the arrival of the Overland Telegraph in 1872. The Telegraph Station has been preserved (keys are held at the Pub) and is now a monument to the troubles which beset the early days of the Territory and stands as a reminder of one of the more shameful moments in Australian history.

In the 1920s Mounted Constable William George Murray was in charge of the local Police Station and also the 'Chief Protector of Aborigines' in the area. When an old dingo trapper, Fred Brooks, was killed by Aborigines on Coniston Station, Murray led a 'posse' which killed an estimated 70 Aborigines in a series of bloody reprisals. This massacre occurred as recently as 1928. When Murray was called to Darwin to explain his actions he was greeted like some conquering hero. When asked why he had taken no prisoners he expressed the racist attitudes which prevailed in the territory at the time by telling the Darwin court 'What use is a wounded black feller a hundred miles from civilization?' He was totally exonerated of all charges.

My interest however was in the textures Barrow Creek could offer a would be photographer.

Barrow Creek textures 18th Sep 2007

Pootnoura, Australia

2007-11-25T22:33:00.000+11:00

Pootnoura is not strictly a correct description of the location of these textures.

Barely a dot on the map, Pootnoura is about half way between Coober Pedy and Marla (South Australia) on the eastern edge of the 'Great Victorian Desert'.

44 percent or roughly 2.3 million square kilometers of the Australian landmass is classified as desert making Australia the second driest continent on the planet.

The sparse vegetation forms swirling patterns in the landscape

Often described as barren and therefore biologically dead, the Australian arid lands are in fact home to some of the most highly adapted life systems on earth. For my purpose though, the desert environment is ideal for sandy and rocky textures.

Pootnoura textures 16th Sep 2007

Even the shoulder of the road yields richly coloured gravel textures.

And then there is the road surface its self.

And a few more based on and inspired by the textures of the day.

And one of the rocky textures, heavily filtered.

Kata Tjuta panorama

2007-11-19T20:28:00.000+11:00

Orroroo Australia

2007-11-18T23:17:00.000+11:00

Orroroo
South Australia
Australia
population 498

Surely there could be no more Australian town name than Orroroo.

Located 262 km north of Adelaide, Orroroo, formely the home of the Ngadjuri Aboriginal people, the town was officially named by G. W. Goyder in September 1875. There is some confusion about the meaning and pronunciation of the town's name. It seems the local Aborigines called the area 'Oorooroo' - this may have meant 'rendezvous of the magpie' or some sort of rapid motion or the name of a local Aboriginal girl or 'place of departure'.

When asked to establish a Post Office in the town the premier, Sir Charles Todd, is supposed to have observed: 'Dear me! There are only two letters in Orroroo. What do you want a post office for?'

A few kms outside of Orroroo (on the road to Port Augusta) is Goyder's Line. In 1865 Goyder marked on the map of South Australia a line delineating drought affected country. North of the line, stretching across the entire Australian continent lies the Arid Zone with annual rainfall of around 250mm. The line through this area became an important factor in settlement of South Australia indicating the limits of lands considered safe for agricultural development.

A short drive into the countryside, the harshness of the land is evident in this ruin of a failed sheep station.

The old farmhouse offered this b&w temptation.

One of the local pubs offered a nice variety of textures to add to my collection.

Orrorroo textures 14th Sep 2007

I can't resist by try to see what the textures would look like with some filtering.

Sign near Coober Pedy Australia

2007-11-14T03:26:00.004+11:00

Coober Pedy
South Australia
Australia
population 3060

Coober Pedy

Driving toward Coober Pedy, many signs warn visitors to stay away from the opal fields.

Weathered by exposure to the searing heat conditions of the Outback, the cracked sign appealed as a source of some textures.

Weathered sign textures 16th Sep 2007

Off the topic of Textures, this is a long train making its way to Coober Pedy.

Lake Dutton Australia

2007-11-12T23:31:00.000+11:00

Lake Dutton
South Australia
Australia

Lake Dutton

Lake Dutton

With settlement names such as Tennant Creek, Renner Springs and Wyclife Well dotting the road north of Port Augusta, one would imagine a landscape of rivers, lakes and creeks. Instead, the land is harsh and barren, composed of rock and sand. The riverbeds and creeks are dry and the lakes parched.

Lake Dutton

Well within the Australian Arid Zone, Lake Dutton is a typical example of the Australian Outback waterways. Infrequent rain means the little water that occasionally fills the lakes soon evaporates, leaving a surface crust of salt crystals.

The Australian arid zone (defined by an average annual rainfall of less than 250mm) extends over most of the continent.

Lake Dutton salt lake textures 23rd Sep 2007

And some Purely Osca interpretations of Lake Dutton textures.

Glendambo Australia

2007-11-12T19:10:00.000+11:00

Glendambo
South Australia
Australia
Population 30 humans

One of the most photographed signs in the Australian Outback.

Glendambo is the last major roadside stop between Port Augusta and Coober Pedy. With an annual rainfall of 185mm, the sparsely vegetated desert landscape is ideal for sandy textures.

Sand textures 23rd Sep 2007

Renner Springs Australia

2007-11-12T15:11:00.000+11:00

Renner Springs
Northern Territory
Australia
Population 18

Named after Dr Frederick Renner who provided medical services to the men who constructed the Overland Telegraph Line.

With a population of 18, the Renners Springs settlement, 130km north of Tennant Creek, marks the point where the tropical climate of the Top End (northern Northen Territory) finally relents to the arid and dusty harshness of Central Australia.

Rocky Outcrop Near Renner Springs

Renner Springs rock textures September 23 2007

Tennant Creek Australia

2007-11-12T13:55:00.000+11:00

Tennant Creek
Northern Territory
Australia
Population 3500

Situated at the junction of the Stuart highway and Barkly highway, 500 km north of Alice prings and 980 km south of Darwin.

The first European explorer to pass through and map the area was McDouall Stuart in 1860. In 1872, a permanent repeater telegraph station was built and people moved into the area in small numbers. The station (11 km to the north of town), was closed down in 1979 and now operates as a museum. Tennant Creek was gazzeted as a township in 1934.

Overland Telegraph Station

The telegraph line was completed in 1872 and a permanent repeater station was built that year, utilising local stone for the walls. It replaced an earlier timber structure, built in 1870 which was destroyed by termites. The station was the first point of European settlement in the region and was, for many years, the only European structure within hundreds of kilometres and regularly visited by drovers, prospectors and others traversing the track between Adelaide and Darwin.

Tennant Creek Telegraph Station textures 23rd Sep 2007

Tennant Creek

2007-11-12T13:40:00.000+11:00

Tennant Creek Telegraph Station textures 23rd Sep 2007

Tennant Creek

2007-11-12T13:30:00.000+11:00

Tennant Creek Telegraph Station textures 23rd Sep 2007

Texture Run 24 Jun 07

2007-07-03T14:35:00.000+10:00

Date - 240607
Location - Fitzroy, Australia.

The peeling paint textures are from the side walls of a hotel on the corner of Johnston and Brunswick Streets in Fitzroy. The area has a vibrant, cosmopolitan feel to it with many side-walk cafe's, restaurants and is sprinkled with street art. People of all persuasion mill about. The pub has stood there for generations it seems. Certainly the outer walls have seen many posters come and go.

The striped textures are from the corner pillars of the delivery entrance to the same pub. Many a beer truck have scraped past these pillars repeatedly scaraping back layers of subsequent re-paints.

and a bit of graffiti from a nearby alley with one very cool wasp.

More water textures for Lark

2007-06-27T23:23:00.000+10:00

Took these in April, alas like the others, they were still lurking somewhere in the depths of my confused filing system :)

Water Textures for Lark

2007-06-27T15:03:00.000+10:00

At last I've actually got around to creating a blog for my textures.

It has been sometimes frustrating and often time consuming a process posting the textures on the wallpaper newsgroup. Often too big for most to see and hardly around long enough to be of use to anyone due to the terrible retention rates of most newsgroup servers. It might be a better idea te keep them here where they are more accesible for eberyone.

Here is a set of water textures that I have been promising a dear friend for months.

Finding water textures in the middle of a drought wasn't easy until I realised Melbourne has a bay. 'Ding'. Whether cloudy, sunny, windy or calm, the bay takes on different moods every day. Sometimes green and ominous, others calm with whispy streaks of light reflecting in the ripples.

Textures for Creativity Corner

2007-06-26T00:12:00.000+10:00

This is a reply to Anneli Knight's Creativity Corner blog from Friday, June 22, 2007.

http://blogs.theage.com.au/creativitycorner/

As a digital artist, I would be lost without textures.

Thankfully, textures can be found everywhere.

Polished steel plate from the "Yarra River" sculpture in Burnley Street, Richmond.

Or a rusty sculpture in Bulleen.

beading rain (rare sight in Melbourne lately)

straw from Yarra Glen,

light reflections in the shallows of Brighton Beach,

an old Bottle Shop sign from Johnston St. Fitzroy.

And a couple of examples of how textures are used :

1. A photo of a sculpture, shading, water from Brighton Beach...

a texture can be used to create a feeling of depth.

2. An old record player, transmogrified, painted bitumen from a school crossing at King Lake...

the use of a texture can help create ambience.