Welcome to Ausemade… coming to you from the ‘heart of Australia’.
Ausemade 2023… we hope you enjoy browsing through our website.
It has been an exciting last 12 months, with our content continuing to grow, especially with the intense passion of the many contributors and authors, who have been sending in their photos, articles and blogs, and who share with us their love of the world around them here in Australia.
We would like to start off with promoting this wonderful calendar for 2024…
The 2024, Australian Native Bees Calendar – Limited edition.
All profits go to the Wheen Bee Foundation’s “Discover Bees” project.
As well as the many species of birds in Australia and the discovery of a little vagrant Musk Duck in Alice Springs, we have contributions from lovers of native bees, and the excitement of a fan when they documented their 9th species of bee in Alice Springs. There is a wonderful series of articles about the difference between Dragonfly or Damselfly? (an educational starter), and our growing section on the interesting species of local wasps in Australia, including the Flower Wasps, Australian Mud Nest Wasps, Thynnid Wasps, and the genus Bembix.
And who does not love the wonderful Peacock Spider Maratus volans. Of course around Australia there was a boom not so long ago, in the number of Golden Orb-weavers that were being seen everywhere, which have led to a great series of articles on the Australian Golden Orb Weaver Spider (Trichonephila edulis). We also have a growing section on other interesting spiders including Crab Spiders, Ogre-faced Net-casting Spider, Mangrovia albida, Scorpion-tailed Spider (Arachnura higginsi) and the Long-tailed St. Andrew’s Cross Spider (Argiope protensa) just to name a few.
Our blog sections continues with a wonderful collection of stories reflecting the lives and personality of the authors, from Strike a pose… potty wasp…, A beautiful life, Little Dave’s Story, multicrystaline polyinverted refractionism…, a penthouse with a view…, a solitary performance and many more. Read about our Guest Authors.
SUPPORT LOCAL TOURISM AND BUSINESSES
For many travelling somewhere for a holiday, a quick break, visiting family and friends, or even work, there is always something to look forward to. So for a number of Australian tourism operators and even small business and local shops throughout Australia who are still struggling, they welcome your support and spend. As some may still be trying to recover from fires and floods, whilst others are struggling to find workers, remember that a kind word and a little understanding, as well as a smile, can go a long way…
As some of us travel where we can and when we can… many Australians are now exploring not only their own backyard, but further afield, within their own state and territories, and then crossing borders to travel interstate.
SYDNEY NSW
We have been expanding our content on Sydney and surrounds, with some Sydney Art, Sydney Attractions, and the iconic attractions from the Sydney Opera House, Queen Victoria Building, Sydney Harbour Bridge, Sydney Tower, Barangaroo and more… check out our Sydney Cityscape and our fun look at Sydney City of Escalators.
Recent travels to the Northern Beaches in Sydney, we have brought back some great information on the popular locally known rainforest habitat of the Stony Range Regional Botanic Garden.
ALICE SPRINGS / CENTRAL AUSTRALIA
As we are based in Alice Springs, our website main focus is on Central Australia, that include Central Australia attractions.
If you are coming to the heart of Australia, check out some of our information, as we continue to grow our content. Read some of our recent additions to Alice Springs Flora and Alice Springs Fauna, as well as the many attractions such as the Alice Springs Desert Park, Olive Pink Botanic Garden, Araluen Cultural Precinct.
New content has been added to Alice Springs, including listing of accommodation, attractions and places to eat in Alice Springs. There are also topical stuff that reveals the not so arid heart as we talk about Water in Central Australia and our ever popular Aboriginal Symbols and Wildflowers of Central Australia page.
Central Australia remains a vibrant artistic centre, with amazing works from Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal artists. From our archives, we introduce “art in the park” or as in the case of Alice Springs “Art in the Botanic Garden“. Some of these works are still amazing even after all this time and many Araluen public artwork are still on display. There are of course the annual art exhibitions including the Advocate Art Award, Desert Mob and other exhibitions held in Alice Springs.
If you are planning to visit Central Australia for holiday or short-term work, it is wise to ensure you have your accommodation pre-booked and confirmed. Check-out our Alice Springs Accommodation list of providers.
ALICE SPRINGS FESTIVAL / EVENTS
The heart of Australia is a very popular destination with their iconic events and attractions, such as the FABalice Festival, Parrtjima Festival, Alice Springs Beanie Festival, Red Centre Nats and the Desert Mob, just to name a few. Check out our Alice Springs Festival & Events page and follow some of the links.
If you missed the Alice Springs Beanie Festival 2023 or you want to revisit some of those memories of this wonderful event, checkout out the many beanies that were there for 2023… and as this is a work in progress, we will be adding more content from the 2023 festival over time… enjoy.
THE REST OF AUSTRALIA
We continue to add content about the rest of Australia. We have been flat out for the past 12 months and are still working through some great content from our former site to include in our revamp website.
Occasionally you will see pop-up things from our archive, with some expanded on the original article such as Bourke and the historic North Bourke Bridge.
For those planning a visit to the Queensland Southern Downs region, there is some great contributions from Marc Newman about the fauna that can be found in the Southern Downs district. And check out his recent blogs about Gnammas in the Granite Belt…
FLORA & FAUNA
Flora and fauna is one of our favourite subjects at Ausemade… indeed what a poorer world we would live in if there was not the beautiful diversity. In Australia there is an amazing array of life from the smallest of insects to the huge whales that swim up and down our coastline.
Our flora and fauna section has been steadily growing, with some great contributions from fans of our site, guest bloggers, friends and family. You will also find some flora and fauna sections within specific destinations.
Our popular addition is the Golden-browed Resin Bee (Megachile aurifrons), the Caper White Butterfly (Belenois java teutonia), and the beautiful Waroona Cuckoo bee (Thyreus waroonensis). Make sure you check out our expanding Wasps section and the recent addition of the Crusader Bug (Mictis profana). Take the wildlife tour with us as we continue to expand the ever popular section on Australian birds, Spiders, Beetles, Native Bees and other Insects.
For bird lovers, we are continually growing our content on Birds with some wonderful photos from our contributors including Dorothy Latimer. We are now starting to groups some of the bird species into their own collection such as Australasian Wrens, Honeyeaters, Kingfishers, Parrots, Raptors, Waders etc.
Other recent additions to birds includes the Australian Hobby (Falco longipennis), Channel-billed Cuckoo, Painted Finch (Emblema pictum), White-browed Woodswallow (Artamus superciliosus), Variegated Fairywren (Malurus lamberti), Black-shouldered Kite (Elanus axillaris), Black Falcon (Falco subniger), images of the soaring Whistling Kite (Haliastur sphenurus) and the beautiful markings of the juvenile Whistling Kite.
Also the popular Insects and Spiders will open up our eyes to the wonder of creatures small and smaller. The popular Bees, Wasps, Butterflies, Moths, Dragonflies and Spiders continues to grow with some fabulous images from our contributors.
Our new section on Grass and Grasses, will highlight some of the great and not so great grass species that grown all over Australia, such as Kangaroo Grass and Silkyheads. If you peer closely at some of the grass species, you may be surprised at what may be hiding or resting on the grass.
As we grow our bee section with a focus on native bees, check out some of the amazing photos in our Fauna > Insects > Bees section, many from contributors around Australia.
There is the rare Waddy-wood (Acacia peuce) that can be seen at both the Alice Springs Desert Park and the Olive Pink Botanic Garden, and if you can travel, you can see the waddy at the Mac Clarke Conservation Reserve. For those able to travel to the Newhaven Wildlife Sanctuary, you can see Dorothy’s photos, who travelled to the sanctuary. Even in our own backyards, we can be surprised and delighted by what grows and lives there.
So the next time you are out and about in your travels, instead of what is that flower, what creature is that, or what is the name of that bug, you may have already seen information on our site that provides you with the information and knowledge.
BLOGS
Our Blogs have entertained and provided us with a variety of stories, insights and topics, with many of our authors sharing a little of themselves with you our readers. Our recently published The Definition of Mental Anguish…, Hylaeus mysterium puella…, To bubble or not to bubble…, and Peek-a-boo… from our writer Gary Taylor provides an insight into the inner character and wonderful Australian humour of the author. There is also a blog about Felted Love, that shines a light on a passionate artisan Jane Gillard. Whilst DaQua is currently back home in Wales, you can still read her blogs Alice to Auburn – the Audacity of Adventure, and her Autumn Passion poem sent to us whilst in New Zealand, along with the Waitati Wandering.
Our very first blog Treasures of our Western Bowerbird (July 2020) and sequel Looking forward… (1 January 2021) took us through the making of a bower and the journey we travelled. 2023 sees the bower looking slight worn, but the treasures are still being laid out meticulously by the industrious male Western Bowerbird.
There is our blogger JeLa D with photos by Dorothy L., who gave us a great story with CBC… Fostering and the sequel A Home Like Alice. Included is our flashback to 2010 with the Night of a Thousand Croaks, whilst Toni from Alice Springs brought us Raining on the Rock.
For dog lovers, there is Camp Dogs and Beanies by Andrew Turner, who also reminiscence in The Camouflaged Pisser and reflects in his Part of the family… A light is shone on the iconic Bird Watching at the Beanie Festival, that takes us to The Art of Birds from our blogger Koh Lin, who also writes how he was smitten by the Faces of the Blue Moon, Golden moments, A hard life, A tangled web, Those White-plumed Unexpected Moments, Its a jungle out there! and the moment he Felted Love…
Check out Stefan Jones amazing photographs of the Scorpion-tailed Spider (Arachnura higginsi) and Ogre-faced Net-casting Spider (genus Deinopis), we look forward to more content from him. You can also read contributions from Marc Newman with his blogs that include Too much for Mrs Carpenter and Looking for Love… We like to thank David Rennie for his series of blog contributions about Little Dave’s Story (Prologue), and indeed a story worth telling of a life well lived.
We hope you enjoy our bloggers and their blogs, where we will be bringing our thoughts, our musings, our experiences… through articles and blog style quirky ramblings.
Take a stroll through our site, as we ‘showcase Australia’… See the places we have been, share our interest in flora and fauna, festivals and events that we have experienced, and learn about Australia from the coasts to ‘the living heart’. Keep coming back to our Snapshots (as we grow and evolve this section).
We look forward to up-coming events and look back at those that have been and gone, such as Vivid Sydney, and those in Central Australia including the Parrtjima Festival and Alice Springs Beanie Festival,
Throughout the site we detail the source of our information, listing them in our Footnotes & References and on our publication page, we list books and other resources we enjoy here at Ausemade.
We also now making it easier to share on Facebook and send links via your email, with the shortcut buttons on each page.
For those who cannot explore at the moment, we share what we can through social media and our own website, and hope that one day soon, you can experience what you find here…
WHAT’S NEW
As we add new and re-edit content every day to AusEmade… we will mention some of it here with quick links… Check out our expanded listing on Recent Additions…
● Australian Huntsman Spider ● Alice Springs Show – Alice Springs Show 2023 ● Advocate Art Award ● Araluen Cultural Precinct ● Public Art / Araluen Art Collection ● Beanie Maker Artisan ● Alice Springs Beanie Festival 2023 ● Henley on Todd ● John Flynn’s Grave Historical Reserve ● Landscape at the Ponds ● Landscape of Birds at the Ponds ● Alice Springs Eremophila Wildberry ● Alice Springs Ghost Gums ● Alice Springs MacDonnell’s Desert Fuchsia ● Alice Springs Sturt’s Desert Pea ● Dan Murphy ● Margaret Worthington ● Alice Springs Eateries ● Bees ● Southern Downs Native Bees ● Apis mellifera ● Wasps ● Eremophila ● Publications & Social Media ● Blogs
