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Who are we and how did this all start?
Well to start with 'we' is mostly 'I' as primarily, only one person is responsible for the creation and maintenance of this website. We have had people contacting us who think that there is a large organisation behind the site but basically there are just four of us and we are all members of the same family.
It all started back in 1997 when we gave up our regular jobs and went on a working trip around Australia in an old 1962 Bedford bus that we christened 'The Western Belle'.
(Journal entries from 1997-2010) and (Video tour playlist)
At the time there were just two of us and I started to write about our travels and developed a website called 'www.westernbelle.com' which has since been removed from the internet. Our site was only the second Australian website about travelling in a motorhome and the whole 'internet thing' was only in its infancy. If only we had the technology back then that we have now, what a huge difference that would have made.
As part of our website we included information about Western Australia in a separate section and this gradually developed into a book.
The book grew and grew and became harder and harder to update so in the end we decided to stop producing it and turn everything into an easily accessible website.
In 2009 this website was created and has continued to grow ever since.
Who does what:
Website design : Marc
Programming : Marc
Photography : Marc, Dororthy, Rosabelle, Katherine. Other photographers are credited by photo.
Research : Marc
Editing : Marc
Proof Reading : Marc, Rosabelle, Dorothy
Filming : Marc
Video Editing : Marc
Quad Copter Operation and filming : Marc
Unfortunately I am in a race with time to get as much done as possible before I am unable to do any more. For some time my eyesight has been deteriorating and not long ago I was told
I have early signs of a degenerative brain disorder. It is somewhat disturbing to type a paragraph of text and find when I review it, that some of the words are complete gibberish and I
have to go back and correct them. Even so, I hope to continue to be working away on this site for a while yet. I know I am in a race I cannot win, as there is so much to do and so many
things I would like to add that the work will never be completed.
I can only hope that what has been achieved so far, and what is still to come will continue to be interesting and useful for many years after I am no longer able to work on this site.
About the site
The original intention of this website was to educate people about Western Australian history and to a great extent we have succeeded in this aim. Every year thousands of school children
access our site to help in their history studies and a lot of adults drop in to find all sorts of historic data.
We have also included a lot of information about attractions and places to go, with pages dedicated to 'What To Do' and 'How To Get Around'.
Although this is a non-profit site, it does cost a fair bit to travel around gathering new information and pictures. Also upgrading our photographic equipment, computers, GPS, web hosting fees etc. all puts a strain on our budget. In 2013 we decided to join the Google Adsense program to help offset the money that we were spending.
We are nowhere close to even breaking even at this stage but even so, the small amount we get from the ads on our site does help. To give you some idea of what this means in reality, from April 2013 to December 2014, we spent $10,381.97 on this site and received around $3,500.00. This means that it actually cost us over $6,000.00 to continue to update and maintain this site. If you like this site and want to help us out then please consider making a small donation. Every cent we get goes back into the website in one way or another and helps to make it better. If you want to help please click the 'donate' button below:
Current Developments
As well as continuing to update old content and add new pages we have to keep up-to-date with changes in internet design and we have started to completely re-design the site to assist with expected changes in the future. This is a long and exhausting process and we expect it will take about 12 months to complete.
You will gradually see the new format pages appear through out the site but it will be a while before it is all completed.
The Future
The number of people visiting this site continues to grow. A year ago we were getting about 25,000 hits a day, this has now more than doubled and we get well over 1 million hits a month.
We are still acquiring new reference books to add to the information on the site and will continue to travel as much as possible to add new photos and video. Late in
2014 we purchased new camera equipment and hope to be able to bring you even better still shots and video over the coming years.
All our new video is now housed on our YouTube page.
Our Sites and Pages
We run a number of different websites and pages and below you can find a complete list of everything we currently have available:
Western Australia Now and Then website
Western Australia Now and Then Twitter
Facebook : Camping in Western Australia
Facebook : Western Australia Now and then
Facebook : Abandoned Western Australia
Facebook : West Australian Folklore
Western Australia Now and Then YouTube
Western Australia Now and Then Pinterest
Western Australia Now and Then Instagram
Other Stuff
Let's Eat Malaysian Website
Let's Eat Malaysian YouTube Channel
Let's Eat Malaysian Facebook
Let's Eat Malaysian Pinterest
Let's Eat Malaysian Twitter
Belle's Veggie Garden
Bush Ballads and Bulldust
Dorothy Loader Watercolour Portraits
Rosabelle. Colour Pencil Artist
Flickr page
Aussie Bush Ballads
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