This page provides -

• the background to this web-site,
• the equipment and facilities used to create the site,
• information on how to use the images.

And I thought "now there's an image of Australian culture".

And while I sit here keying into a Malaysian made PC, using American Software with images taken with my Japanese camera for this web-site that's on a server in Canada, I realise that we are all using the "Global Market", and with certain reservations I believe that that is good.

However, there's a false partner of the Global Market, and that's the Global Culture - which is singular, invasive and sinister - as it can suppress and extinguish local indigenous cultures.

The motivation behind the Waratah Software web-site is to promote an aspect of the uniquely Australian culture, and that's its flora and fauna.

I would like to think that every Australian would at least be able to recognise and name the common wildflowers, birds and lizards that are in our own backyard.

So that's my purpose, and whether I am now opening my eyes more for those "photo opportunities", there appears to be more visits from "posing" animals, and the wildflowers seem even more spectacular.

Although it is one thing to find a gecko in one's home and to be present when St. Andrew's Cross Spiders hatch - it is another thing altogether to find a Red Bellied Black Snake at the clothes line - although it looked superb!

Then there was the crazed Angophora we saw in the park - but that's a tree of a different colour.

But it is a buzz, and our appreciation and knowledge of our wonderful wildlife is growing.

Our simple objectives then are to promote Australian Flora and Fauna by making available free images for non-commercial use, and to enjoy the journey of capturing these images and presenting them on the World Wide Web.

So watch this space as the images grow in variety, in quality and in detail.

A year after starting we were comfortable enough to spend some cash and upgrade some software and acquire a ".au" domain name.

The biggest expenditure by far was the digital camera, and we have been very fortunate with the choice.

The equipment and facilities used is as follows -

• Olympus C-740 digital camera. It was chosen because of its 10x optical zoom and 3.2 megapixels. The discovery of its super-macro facility was a massive bonus.
• Adobe Photoshop Elements 2.0. This actually came free with the camera.
• AceHTML 6 Pro. We started out using AceHTML & AceFTP Freeware - this was after trialling several freeware products. We recently took advantage of an AceHTML/AceFTP Pro deal to upgrade.
• AceFTP 3 Pro. Transferring source to your web server should be simple - and AceFTP works for me.
• Doteasy domain name & web hosting. Doteasy is simply the best. Establishing the domain name and then having the hosting free is great, and suited us until we were comfortable with it all. A major downside was not having the ".au" as a suffix - and thus if anyone did a search for Australian web pages they wouldn't have found www.waratahsoftware.com. That was then - we are now www.waratahsoftware.com.au and have Doteasy hosting it. The best of both worlds.
• Dell PC and Microsoft XP Operating System.

The large images have been set at 800 by 600 pixels in order to fully cover most PC screens.

The thumbnail images vary in size, but most are a sixteenth of the large images, that is, 200 by 150 pixels.

The following instructions relate to Microsoft XP.

• Wallpaper can easily be created by selecting the large image and once it is displayed, simply point at the image with the mouse and use the right mouse button. Then select the "Set as Background" option.

• To save the image, follow the same process above, but select the "Save Picture As ..." option.

• To create a screen-saver with these images, save the images into an exclusive folder. Then use the Control Panel and select the Display icon and the Screen Saver tab. Then in the Screen saver choices choose "My Pictures Slideshow". Under Settings use the Browse facility to locate the folder that contains the Waratah Software images.