Monday, September 5, 2011

Leaving Behind

Leaving behind


 my comfy four star (so it said in the brochure) bed


my windy coconut palm Mission Beach view
(it had been calm and sunny the day before)



 and the hurricane stripped, scrawny chicken neck, post Yasi, d-tree-d landscape



I enter the green tree frog, banana leaf, sugar cane town


 of Tully                   (wettest town in the whole dang country they reckon)


Where I'd been told  I was sure to encounter some


 strange characters


and great old buildings


in dire need of repair








(Pause)









(Imagine a photo or two of acres of blue bagged banana trees, cute sugar cane trains, toothpick chewing stop-sign-holding-walky-talky road workers,  windy roads leading up and up to the rolling hill, misty, Milla Milla wonderland, that flattens out into some not-quite-how-I-imagined-the Tablelands-to-be, paddocks and arrives in the middle of the town of Atherton)






where









I came across a sign



no, not this one


not this one either




it was a pretty boring looking sign that said -



 
China town - turn left




 and there it was ...

this fabulous Glen Murcutt, ripple iron, woolshed of a joss house temple


with its ornate carving


Chinese lettering

  frescoed walls

exquisite door handles



and out-the-back-rooms


This part intrigued me more than anything


I peered through a weatherboard crack


 and caught a glimpse of


 a yesterday


 left behind


North Qld, August, 2011
Black and white photos of signs at Houwang Temple, Atherton, North Qld.
http://www.houwang.org.au/

1 comment:

  1. Great post as usual, Jan. Very funny mix of words and images. Chinatown there looks more authentic than Chinatown here!
    Jennifer x

    ReplyDelete