GateWAy Blog

The City of Albany has adopted the same Christmas Trading Hours as metropolitan Perth.

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Find out what to do over the Easter Long Weekend in our Region.

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Big prizes are on offer for photographers who can capture top pictures on the
theme of ‘Great Southern Life’.

The Great Southern Development Commission (GSDC), Albany Gateway and Albany Camera House (ACH) are offering a prize pool of more than $1500 for digital photos showing ‘why we like to live and work in the Great Southern’.

The Great Southern Life digital photography competition is the third in a series that has showcased outstanding photographic talent from the region over the past two years.

GSDC Chief Executive Officer Bruce Manning said it was a great time of the year to get out and about taking photos for the competition.
“Now is the Great Southern’s festival season, with PIAF events and others providing plenty of photo opportunities,” Mr Manning said. “Apart from that, it is a time for outdoor activities and enjoying the many reasons we like to live and workin the Great Southern.”

The prizes are a mix of cash and vouchers:

• First prize $400 (GSDC) plus $149 ACH voucher for framed canvas print
• Second prize $200 (GSDC) plus $99 ACH voucher for framed print
• Third prize $100 (GSDC) plus $100 ACH print voucher
• Fourth prize $60 (GSDC) plus $100 ACH print voucher
• Eight encouragement prizes of $30 (GSDC)
• Two people’s choice prizes of $50 (Albany Gateway)

The Terms and Conditions can be found on the following link:
http://www.albanygateway.com.au/legal/photo-competition.html

Great Southern Festival 2011

The program for the Great Southern Festival was launched last week at the new Albany Entertainment Centre.

I am still surprised to find there are people who don’t know about this excellent range of events that has been held in Albany for 9 years now.  This year there will be over 24 different events held in various locations in the region starting on the 8th February and finishing on the 17th March.

These awesome events include concerts, plays, movies, exhibitions, food, dance, writers, there is something for everyone.  It doesn’t matter if you regularly take part or its your very first time, you will come away feeling touched, moved, inspired.

You can pick up a copy of the program from the Albany Entertainment Centre and cafés and  shops around Albany.

A Tree Top walk was first proposed in this area in 1994 to protect the tingle forest. Construction began a year later.  The construction consists of 60 metre lightweight bridge spans on seven pylons.  It reaches a maximum of 40 metres at the highest point.   It is a world most people never see.  The spans were especially designed to sway slightly as you walk to create the sensation of being in the canopy of the forest.  Well it certainly swayed brilliantly today.   The life of a Red Tingle is approx 400 years and they can reach a height of 75 metres.  They are some of most enormous trees in the world and can only be found in this region.  A distinctive feature of the Red Tingle is the large, hollowed out base.  These have been caused over a long period of time by fire, fungal and insect attack.  Most of the plant life is unique to this area and the tingle forest hosts an abundant food source for native animals such as quokkas, bandicoots, possums and the western grey kangaroo.  As most of these animals only come out at night we need to do a Forest by Night Tour.  Here you get to explore the forest by torchlight beneath a blanket of stars.  The Ancient Empire Walk meanders through a grove of veteran trees at ground level and gives another perspective of the magnificent giants
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As luxury accommodation providers, our aim is to give our guests the ultimate experience while in Albany.  We like to recommend places to eat, so we are trying the many restaurants in Albany.

Tonight we headed off to the ‘new’ Rustlers Steak House. The minute we walked through the door we were immediately impressed by the gorgeous surroundings. Rustlers have chosen their colours wisely and used the space well of what used to be a Health Club. (more…)

We love being tourists in our own region.  So many exciting and interesting things to do, touch and taste.  We made a stop at the Elephants Rock Cider Factory. We had an unforgettable experience tasting various ciders at Denmark’s first cider factory – Apple & Pear, Pear, Apple, Sweet Apple, Strawberry, Apple Ginger and Oaked Scrumpy. We had to try them all. The cider factory is also home to the toffee factory, ‘bit on the side’ (which is a range of gourmet sauces, preserves, chutneys) and a ½ kilo ice cream cone. We had to try it all. We bought some pickled garlic, asparagus chutney and some mayo’s. Of course we also took home a selection of ciders. (more…)

Mutton Bird Island

Yesterday I was educated that when the cows are lying down, the fish are not biting.  Well even the horses were laying down yesterday.  Did that mean that the whales were also not out? Mutton Bird Island is a favourite fishing spot approx 16km from Albany. Main species that can be caught here are herring, skippy, rock species, whiting, salmon, silverbream, pike, flathead, shark, queen snapper and sampson fish.

Awesome colours of the wild flowers

The Stirling Range National Park is about 80 kms north of Albany. The ranges rise abruptly from the lowlands which have been mostly cleared for farming. The ranges stretch for more than 65 kms, there are barren cliff faces, awesome views and brilliant coloured wildflowers. We walked along part of the Bluff Knoll Trail. (more…)

We went on long beach walk today from Ledge Beach to Gull Rock.Gull Rock Beach named of course, because of the large number of Gulls found on the rock just off shore, one of whom Captain Kalgan thinks might have been Jonathan Livingstone! Gull Rock is 26k East of Albany. The water was a turquoise colour and we were tempted to jump in. Albany has some of the most stunning and pristine beaches in Australia if not the world. There are beaches for fishing, snorkelling, swimming, surfing and body boarding. Stay at HideAway Haven while in Albany and enjoy some time at the beach. We have facilities for washing bathers and towels at the end of a day at the beach.

Ledge Beach

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