In Darwin

Darwin velodrome is near the airport and I....

.....snapped this lady practicing cyclocross in the centre of the field.

Slightly dodgy bike path on the way to the airport.

The load carrying.....

setup.

A presentation from Steve Rogers from the Centre for Appropriate technology was about their mobile phone signal magnifiers.  These are installed in remote communities and allow mobile phone access beyond the normal range of existing networks.  They are completely passive and don't need power of any sort to run. The installation shown in the pic was installed at a remote location called Boggy Hole on the Finke river where (the name says it all) Southerners who didn't know how to drive their 4wd's would get bogged and ask the ladies for assistance. The phone magnifiers gave them mobile phone coverage

Posters at the.....

Darwin Outdoor Cinema.

Lisa at the croc zoo where the dinner was held amidst.....

the raucous squawking of these birds overhead.

At the croc zoo, Abraham Leung right, Alexa Delbosc left.  Abraham gave a great talk on Non-government ways of paying for cycleways, he is an enthusiastic and charming presenter.  I'll put up a link to the paper when it becomes available. He had a short go on my exotic Bickerton when strolling between conference sessions.  "You should see my other bike", I told him.

Matthew Burke gets animated during a "Transport Debate", a small piece of theatre and lightheartedness amidst mostly serious presentations.

This was one of the possible routes between conference venues, a covered walk-and cycleway atop a breakwater.

Clinton Hoffman from Driveabout showing off his companies amazing ......

phone app which teaches road laws and learner driver information. It is available in 8 aboriginal languages, and aims to decrease barriers to aboriginals getting properly licenced and driving within the law.  Fully 25% of aboriginals in custody in the Northern Territory are there for driving offences, and the phone app is Clinton's attempt to rectify the problem.  The animations included car crashes, graphically demonstrating what happens when you try to overtake a road train doing 90 kph in a (say) crap 1982 Honda Civic.

Herbs growing at the Youth Hostel.

Bike at the place where I went swimming a couple of mornings in row.

Hi, a few more pics of my Bickerton folder on my ATRF conference trip to Darwin.  The presentation of my research on Human Generated Electrical Power went ok! 

Don't want to add too much, except to say that there is fairly laissez-fair helmet wearing in the Northern Territory backed up by some laws with plenty of wriggle room to not wear a helmet. Coincidentally, a facebook post alerted me to this article concerning one of our major cycling organizations attitude to helmet wearing in Victoria moving away from agreeing with helmet compulsion.

My own position on helmet wearing is this - I make my helmets into daggy ensembles including lights, reflective tape, a visor and a mirror which held make me visible, see map instructions, not get sun, wind or rain in my eyes, see behind me and generally function well as a cyclist on my usual recumbent trikes.  That makes my helmet and me daggy or a bit of a Fred.  But for others - make up  your own mind I reckon and it is a bold and welcome move by the Bicycle Netwirk to advocate against our helmet laws.

Regards

Steve Nurse at Darwin Airport.