Booyeembara Park Fremantle

Booyeembara Park is on the corner of Stevens and Montreal Sts Fremantle and adjacent to the (public) Fremantle Golf Course to the north and the (private) Royal Fremantle Golf Course to the east: one of its greens can be seen bottom right, and the 17th tee is at the top of the photo - for which thanks to Google etc.

Two of the lines of olive trees bottom right. Young trees on the mound in the centre.

The 'lake' at the centre. It's an artificial hollow lined with blue plastic sheeting. The guys who sail their model yachts on it think of it as the 'swamp', so they are the Swampies.

What is now the park was first a quarry, and then a rubbish tip. When I first moved to the area, I enjoyed walking on the fill which by then covered the tip, which of course remains beneath the surface.

Another photo from the RFGC 17th tee. This one shows what is intended as a sort of traditional meeting place and story-telling area.

Locals would recognise Jan ter Horst's house on the skyline, right, and Garden Island, a naval base, dimly perceptible in the far distance. The area in the foreground is fenced and the (planted) native vegetation is doing well as a result.

I've taken a great many photos of the lake.

There are two people under the tree.

The piles that hold up the jetty on the western side are mirrored by six similar piles on the eastern side, holding up nothing, suggesting the other end of an unbuilt bridge.

One of my favourites. I managed to get a bird on each of the nugatory piles, plus a bunch of ducks swimming north.

The 'Swampies' have put some buoys in the lake to make a course around which to race.

I wonder what will happen if I shoot straight into the sunlight? Oh ... OK.

Well, I think it's worth another snap.

This perfect rainbow wouldn't fit into my viewfinder.

So I had to shoot it in two parts. I have nfi why the sky seems to be a different colour above and below the bow. Something to do with the magic of digital photography, I spose.

My best yachts photo. I hope there's a slight trompe-l'oeil effect. We don't get swans every day, so I was keen to get this pair in. Unfortunately, the light wouldn't cooperate, so they're only getting a bit of reflected, while the boring ducks are getting it direct. Sigh. Also, the swans kept dipping their heads in the water - so I didn't have much choice as to the moment.

The nicest spot is under some trees right near the water.

Michael Booth was a long-term and much-loved teacher at Murdoch University.

His partner, Joan Eveline, donated a bench to the Park in memory of Michael.

Now she has also departed, and I assume that their friends - hers and Michael's - have donated this new plaque, as the old one had become illegible.

... as you can see.