So, as you all know, Australia right now is suffering from extreme wildfires which are burning homes and habitats rapidly. The areas most affected by this tragedy, toward the southeast places like Victoria and New South Wales, were where I was born and spent the first couple years of my life. Although I have only been back there a few times in 12 years, it continues to hold a special place in my heart. I am aware that there may be a few other posts on this topic for this month since it is so prevalent in the media, but I thought I would take a more emotional than a factual spin on mine. I really wanted to share a few pictures and places from my childhood when I was in Australia.
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| Judgment |
This was taken at a "fancy" seafood restaurant at the docks in Fremantle. My granny was with us at the time and we went to this particular place because she loved the ocean and grilled squid, which was what I'm holding up. The seafood in Australia is phenomenal and usually freshly caught. My parents said we had to be really protective of our food here because of the mass amounts of seagulls swooping in and stealing food off of people's plates.
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| A busy gal |
While we were living in Albury, we often went to the place pictured above, the Mount Buffalo Chalet (which is just outside of Bright) in Victoria. It was a peaceful town. The gardens are beautiful and there are other pictures of my dad swinging my sister and me around and tossing us in the air.
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| Bucket Hat |
After visiting Sydney around my 8th birthday, we took a ferry from there to Manly. My family and I hiked up to the Manly Heads, which you can see above, that overlooks Sydney Harbor.
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| Two sunglasses |
My sister Eva and I are standing under a sign warning tourists about the box jellyfish that can kill a human in two minutes in the Daintree forest. It is the oldest tropical rainforest in the world. Just north of here is Cairns, where my family and I took a boat from to snorkel in the Great Barrier Reef.
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| Munch |
My mum adores this picture she took of me at the Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary because I was wary of animals growing up, but I loved this kangaroo. The sanctuary has all the iconic Australian animals and is located in Queensland. According to my parents, I also bought my friends plush koalas from here aswell.
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| Stylish |
This is by far my favorite picture out of all of these. I'm on my mum's shoulders at the Twelve Apostles (and wearing the cutest outfit). At the time, we were on a road trip on The Great Ocean Road and this was one of the stops along the way. This is also in Victoria.
The realization that many of the places in my memories and some of the places in these images are in harm's way or already gone breaks my heart. My dad recently spoke to a coworker who lives in the town I used to, Albury, New South Wales. He said the fires were 100 kilometers away and the smoke was already invading the air. This was about two weeks ago. I've always wanted to go back to Australia and visit my family and my birthplace when I turned 18 (and of course had the money), but now I'm not so sure. Would I be returning to the place I once knew?
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Great photos. I love that you still have a connection to Australia.
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