Based this one off The Nullarbor. Did a lil experimenting with a vignette, and some dithering. Overall really happy with how it turned out but critiques are always welcome

7 July 2023

the gloom & howling wind sets in 1/2 way between #caiguna and #balladonia

@somuch2see on the Bunda Cliffs Drone Footage ......but things went horr...

Greetings from crossing the Nullarbor

As we left Fowlers Bay behind it was finally time to head into the desert, the real one, the Nullarbor. This legendary drive was once an experience of a lifetime where life itself was at risk for the person willing to embark in such a journey. Nowadays it has become a little more of a tourist attraction and an essential link for the West of Australia. This 1256 km long road is crossing one of the…

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kind of desperately want to do a mainland road trip suddenly aching for the wide outback sky and those tiny remote towns

Shoutout to the time when I was in year 3 and my teacher asked us what the largest plain in Australia was, and I, being the little neurodivergent I am, yelled at the top of my lungs "QANTAS!"

This morning I was told the kettle had no water in it. I picked it up and it was too light to be false, but I really wanted tea, so I tipped it over and out came the exact amount of hot water I needed to fill my cup.

7 July 2023

Ralsei in the Nullarbor Plain. :>

skizz shouldn’t be at the nullarbor roadhouse

suggested by @stormyfis

the humble tent

Round Three: Cryptogyps vs Heracles

Cryptogyps lacertosus

Artwork by @otussketching, written by @zygodactylus

Name Meaning: Powerful Hidden Vulture 

Time: 770,000 to 55,000 years ago (Chibanian to Tarantian stage of the Pleistocene epoch, Quaternary period) 

Location: Throughout Australia, including Kalamurina, the Wellington Caves, and the Nullarbor Plain 

Today, there are no vultures in Australia. In fact, until recently, it seemed fairly clear that no vultures had lived in Australia - but now, we know they did! Originally thought to be an eagle, Cryptogyps was on the small size for a vulture, only bigger than the living Hooded Vulture - though it was about the size of the wedge-tailed eagle. However, it was proportioned similarly to other vultures, and between that and its great range across the entirety of Australia, it is logical to conclude that it lived similarly to other vultures, feeding primarily on carrion and going great distances to find it. It did not have the right musculature to be an active hunter like eagles and hawks. As such, Cryptogyps was a vital part of its environment, reducing the spread of disease and recycling nutrients and energy back into the food web like vultures today. Cryptogyps lived alongside a wide variety of weird megafuana present in Australia during the last ice age, including marsupial lions, giant demon-ducks (mihirungs), giant hippo-sized wombats, sheep-sized and fossorial echidnas, short-faced kangaroos, giant koalas, thylacines, giant maleefowls, huge monitor lizards, large crocodilians, and giant pythons - as well as cassowaries, regular kangaroos, emus, and other large animals that remain today. It was a weird place of which Cryptogyps was a small and important part, and would have been a regular sight in the skies to the first Indigenous Australians to settle on the continent!

Heracles inexpectatus

Artwork by @otussketching, written by @zygodactylus

Name Meaning: Unexpected Herculean Parrot 

Time: 16 to 19 million years ago (Burdigalian stage of the Miocene epoch, Neogene period) 

Location: St. Bathans Fauna, Bannockburn Formation, Aotearoa  

Heracles was a truly alarmingly large parrot, related to modern day Kea, Kaka, and Kakapo, known from the fantastic avifauna of St Bathans. Standing more than two feet tall and weighing about fifteen pounds, this animal was much larger than any expected from the St Bathans fauna, which represented the initial colonization of Aotearoa (Zealandia) after it returned above sea level. Heracles is also the largest known species of parrot, ever. It was presumably flightless, though it is uncertain if it was nocturnal like its living relative the Kakapo. Its exact ecology is still uncertain, given the material known from Heracles is limited and its living relatives have very disparate ecologies, though it is possible it was omnivorous similar to the Kea and Kaka today. The St Bathans fauna lived in a freshwater lake system, in a subtropical emergent rainforest. Separated from land bridges, the fauna was dominated by birds, with early relatives of the Kiwi, New Zealand Wrens, Adzebills, and Wedge-Tailed eagles found in the fauna, as well as somewhat modern looking Moas. Smaller flamingos, large fruit pigeons, and a huge variety of geese and other waterfowl are known. In addition, frogs, tuataras, other lizards, crocodilians, turtles, and many different types of fish are known from this fascinating ecosystem.