That great Australia on the other side of the sphere

"That great America on the other side of the sphere, Australia..." 

- Herman Melville, Moby Dick chap.24

I have been assured that this a southeast Queensland Bunya Pine (Araucaria bidwillii)  - growing just under the Hollywood Hills on the way up to the Hollywood Bowl.

So, not just eucalypts here. And the air is full at the moment of Australian fragrances - wattle and sweet pittosporum. Boy, you mightn't know it was America - except they drive on the other side of the road, signs are bilingual in English and Spanish, and, er, well...there's a sense of the unlimitedness of possibilities...