Alcoa Mine

Today we joined some friends for a free tour of Alcoa bauxite mine and refinery. The tours are free and anyone can book in. We saw some huge machinery including the massive mine trucks (above) and the rock crusher (below). The rock crusher is capable of "walking" to new locations whenever the miners need to establish a new pit.

We learnt about the conveyor (bottom left in the photo above) that carries the crushed rock 35km to the refinery. As we drove through the mine site we found out how the landscape is returned to its natural state once the bauxite has been extracted. We saw areas that had recently been replanted and other areas where the vegetation had fully grown back and you would never know a mine existed.

The refinery was spectacular with pipes twisting in every direction. Unfortunately we were not allowed to take photos in this area so here's one from Yahoo that doesn't do it justice.

A Munch and a Scurry

Following on from our visit to Wanneroo Art Gallery (see previous post) for the Crash of Rhinos exhibition we worked on a mixed media artwork similar to those we had seen in the exhibition. R made "A Munch of Piranhas" (above) and L made "A Scurry of Squirrels" (below).

Perth Royal Show 2016

Last weekend we went to Perth Royal Show. We managed to avoid the overpriced rides and showbags and concentrated on the free stuff instead. The children attended a kids cooking workshop where they made healthy muffins and snack balls. We found out how to become a police officer (above). The children rolled oats and ground wheat to make flour and made fresh pasta from dough.

We found out about lots of crops and farm animals along with sustainable gardening and geology of WA.

Planting potatoes and digging them up again!

Panning for gold.

Investigating contour maps

Recycling

There was time for pretend shopping, climbing and the obstacle course.

We visited the heritage displays and the vintage machinery. The cat tent was popular as were the animal  petting pavilions. We also enjoyed the art and photography displays and live music.

We watched the grand parade, motorbike stunt team and fireworks.

11 hours later we were exhausted and bloated from the free tastings. Time to go home and we hadn't even seen everything!

Tulip Time

Today we went to Araluen Botanic Park to see the tulips and other spring flowers.

Crash of Rhinos Exhibition

We joined some friends for a workshop at Waneroo Art Gallery where they were showing book illustrations from Crash of Rhinos by Patricia Mullins. We saw the original illustrations and storyboards from the book. The artist uses mixed media including, collage, photographs, pen and pencil drawings and crayons. Here are some of her images:

We had a go at using collage materials to make our own animal pictures.