John Elkington

Polly Woodside 1 Polly Woodside 2 Elaine and historic catches Ready to fly? Girl with pearl earring Graffiti 1 Graffiti 2

Flew down to Melbourne today, spotting where we went to the coastal headland with Paul and Micelle. I bought three books at the airport and got a good way through one on the flight, a fascinating history of flight, The Airplane, by Jay Spenser, sub-titled How Ideas Gave Us Wings. The other two books are: Tim Flannery’s Here on Earth, which Elaine plunged into, and Climate Wars, by Gwynne Dyer.

Haunted as we flew, though, in a plane chock-full with Japanese tourists, by the story I read in a book I picked up in the airport bookstore, an account of what happened to a group of Australian nurses who fell into Japanese hands after the fall of Singapore.

On Radji Beach tells of the dreadful events that followed the attempted surrender of the survivors of a ship that was bombed as it fled Singapore. The Europeans were separated out and marched into the sea, where they – and 21 nurses – were machine-gunned to death. Miraculously, one nurse survived to tell the tale, after surrendering again, this time more successfully, and spending the rest of the war in a Japanese camp.

One wonders if these present-day Japanese travellers have any clue of what their country did before and during WWII? But then I wonder whether Australians recall how the Aborigines were hunted down like foxes, or young Britons remember things like the Opium Wars?

Always think that I prefer Melbourne, but temperature here is significantly lower, rain has been falling and our room at the Stamford Plaza is dark and rather noisy. Still, we found a wonderful restaurant on the other side of the river, Pure South, and had a tremendous meal – immeasurably enhanced, for me at least, by the smell of the recently trimmed box hedge smack alongside where we were sitting, one of my favourite aromas. The InVivo sauvignon blanc from New Zealand was rather nice, too.

Lawrence Hargrave memorial Elaine and Paul and wind Volans moment Mural (detail) in nearby station Queen Victoria dressed up for the Art & About Sydney project Are we amused by The Wildhearts? Captain Cook Prince Albert the Good Penny Farthing made of modern cycles Ditto King Edward VII Ditto

Curses! Perfect day, with a sting in the tail. We took a train this morning to Helensburgh to have lunch with Paul Gilding and his wife Michelle. Having filmed Ian Kiernan the other day, I had decided to do Paul next. After a lovely lunch at The Palms Cafe, Stanwell Park, we arrived at Stanwell Park station, where I set up the camera and began filming. I then stopped the camera to avoid some background distraction, then I seem to have failed to depress the start button properly.

Depressing. Paul did an excellent interview, among other things talking about his impending new book, The Great Disruption, but those seven minutes of the past, present and future have now blown away among the eucalyptus trees. Will have to catch him again, somewhere else where our paths cross.  But if I’m going to make a serious project out of this, I’m going to have to create a failsafe process to ensure this doesn’t happen again. It’ll be clapper boards next!

When we first arrived at Helensburgh, Paul and Michelle drove us to the coast in their Prius, where we were going to walk on the beach – but the wind was pretty ferocious. But I did get to visit the memorial to aviation pioneer Lawrence Hargrave, who experimented with combinations of box-kites in November 1894. A nice Volans moment.

When we got back to Sydney, we went to visit the Australia Museum, only to find it closing within five minutes, so took a leisurely stroll through the parks, loving the statues dressed up for the Art & About festival, and listening to a street band, The Wildhearts, whose guitar/fiddle/drums format reminded me of Fairport Convention (one of my favourite bands in the late 60s and early 70s) and The Dharmas (one of Gaia’s) in their respective early days.

One of the tracks on the Wildhearts CD I bought from a guitar case in front of the band is called Yesterday’s Today. And it struck me that Paul and I are living in a world that we both predicted many years ago, of climate change and gathering threats to our collective security, though we both agree that the coming ‘Great Disruption’ will offer huge opportunities, if we know where to look – and respond.

And, even though cursing my luck (or lack of professionalism with my camera), I found today remarkably uplifting – including the giant, 12-metre high Bike Bike, by Alasdair Nicol, made out of scored of “pre-loved” bicycles. A work of huge genius – and a wonderful symbol of how early experiments and designs can mutate and evolve over time.

Blue Mountains: King’s Tableland lookout Blue Elaine An obsessive’s graffiti Wentworth Falls Coal mine entrance: a day after the Chilean miners were rescued from their entombment Dave points out aspects of the kangaroo outline Two kangaroos

Rather than drive, we opted to take an Oz Trails mini-coach out to the Blue Mountains, as recommended by Lonely Planet – and indeed it proved to be the best option. The perennial blue haze – which was particularly intense today – results from sunlight refracting through eucalyptus oil particles in the air. Took in the Olympics complex en route, at Homebush Bay, but the main purpose was to see things like Wentworth Falls. Lunch in Leura, in a light drizzle – and with pink cherry blossom falling from the trees and drifting fairly deep in the gutters.

Then visits to Katoomba and the so-called Three Sisters, a giant rock formation, involving a descent into a rainforest in a cable-car and ascent in another, running almost vertical through living rock, and an Aboriginal carving of a kangaroo – which I was told I was the first to see what was wrong with the beast when the group was asked (clue: its neck and head are thrown back at an unnatural angle, suggesting it has been hunted, killed and laid out for carving). Saw a couple of kangaroos on the way back to catch the Rivercat back into Sydney.

Morning breaks Ferry snakes Ian Kiernan’s workshop Part of the bow of HMAS Sydney Wayside artwork 1 Wayside artwork 2 Figures Elaine’s brooch Surfer and passing bird Step on ferry Sydney skyline Wayside artwork 3

The first time I came to Sydney, in the late 1990s, Paul Gilding took me out to Manly on the ferry – a trip we repeated today. First, though, we went across to have breakfast with Ian Kiernan at the Garfish restaurant, Broughton Street, Kirribilli, on the other side of the Harbour Bridge. He brought along Terri-Ann Johnson, his CEO at Clean Up Australia. We then went back to his house, just around the corner, where I did a brief filmed interview.

Stumbled across the bow section of HMAS Sydney, which I knew as the ship that in 1914 tracked down the WWI German raider SMS Emden. Then off we went, by ferry, to Manly – where I will let the pictures speak for themselves, though we also had a delightful lunch at Le Kiosk at Shelly Beach.

Chairs ready for Andrea and I Birds flock over the Harbour Bridge Crushed, I thought it was called, but can’t find it on the Internet

Across to Westpac’s skyscraper this evening, to do a panel discussion with Andrea Spencer-Cooke, organised by the UN Global Compact (UNGC) and the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI). I kicked off with a private session with senior Westpac executives, then we went up one floor to the 23rd – where there was an impressive turn-out, a lively debate, an energetic discussion period and then a very interesting networking session.

Afterwards, a number of us – Simon (Longstaff), Rosemary (Sainty) and Victoria (Whitaker) from the St James Ethics Centre, Andrea, Elaine and I –  went out to dinner at a restaurant at the end of the pier that houses the Sydney Theatre Company. Fascinating and extremely wide-ranging discussion. As we walked back to the Intercontinental Hotel, it was fascinating to see the seagulls flocking above the Harbour Bridge, illuminated by the spotlights and, presumably, seeking insects attracted by the lights.