Australia - The Land Down Under

[wizardfromoz]

On the shark sightings

A surf life saving nippers carnival was also postponed due to the Saturday sighting.

They didn't want the Nippers getting nippered.

 

[Condobloke]

'Our snakes are no joke': With more snakes around in summer, what should you do if you get bitten?

Hundreds of Queenslanders are bitten by snakes each year, with reports peaking in the warmer months. So how can we keep safe when they're on the move?

www.abc.net.au

 

[Condobloke]

Meiqing followed his winery dream from China. Now, his losses are soaring past $1 million

When Lin Meiqing bought an 80-hectare wine property in South Australia to grow red grapes for the booming Chinese wine market, he had no idea his cherished dream would be met by disaster.

www.sbs.com.au

Meiqing followed his winery dream from China. Now, his losses are soaring past $1 million​

Standing on a levee at his flooded property outside Renmark, in South Australia’s Riverland, Lin Meiqing is putting on a brave face.
He is looking out to neat rows of grape-covered vines that are turning brown in the baking summer sun, their roots submerged in flood water.
“Half the vines are already dead,” says the 55-year-old. “If the water stays high one more month, they will all be dead. A very bad year: Hopeless, hopeless yeah.”


Mr Lin says in the early days his business was thriving. At its peak, the vineyard’s annual output of 1,500 tonnes of grapes produced more than 2 million bottles of red wine, shipped exclusively to China.
However, as
Australia-China relations soured
in 2020 around $1 billion worth of table wine exports dried up. Mr Lin was among those severely affected.

More to the story...read on:

Meiqing followed his winery dream from China. Now, his losses are soaring past $1 million

When Lin Meiqing bought an 80-hectare wine property in South Australia to grow red grapes for the booming Chinese wine market, he had no idea his cherished dream would be met by disaster.

www.sbs.com.au

 

[wizardfromoz]

What to do if you encounter a snake?

Take the appropriate steps.

Large ones in the opposite direction.

 

[Condobloke]

These snakes move very fast and can even outpace a person running at full speed.

Snake Facts: The Eastern Brown Snake

Eastern brown snakes are widely distributed across eastern Australia and are most commonly encountered in the spring. It is important to know first aid for a bite from an Eastern brown, as they are the second most venomous land snake in the world.

australiawidefirstaid.com.au

 

[Brickwizard]

Something every Aussie outbacker needs to own and know how to use!

Spoiler: own and use

 

[Condobloke]

if you can use a punji sufficiently well to 'tame' an eastern brown.....I reckon there would a job opening for you in Australia

The first few attempts could be damn interesting/dangerous. Remember you can't outrun it !

 

[Condobloke]

Japanese backpacker using scooter to travel 3,000km from Melbourne to Cairns

The 23-year old is determined to complete the trip from south to north on his foot-powered scooter – and regional Australia has welcomed him with open arms

www.theguardian.com

Uni....you are an absolute legend, mate. i take my hat off to you !

Uni on the road from Melbourne to Cairns. The text reads “A journey of approximately 4,000km ... Australia north-to-south cut, start!” Photograph: @Uni.Kick

Japanese backpacker using scooter to travel 3,000km from Melbourne to Cairns​

The 23-year old is determined to complete the trip from south to north on his foot-powered scooter – and regional Australia has welcomed him with open arms



You often see lively sights on the back roads of north-east Victoria: tractors, horse floats, the occasional fruit seller.
But rarely will you see a young man scooting along gravel tracks, wearing a traditional Japanese kasa and carrying nothing but a backpack.

 

[Condobloke]

Invented in Australia, this battery never degrades and can last 'forever'. So why haven't we heard of it?

A type of battery invented by an Australian professor in the 1980s is being touted as the next big technology for grid energy storage. Here's how it works.

www.abc.net.au

Vanadium redox flow batteries can provide cheap, large-scale grid energy storage. Here's how they work​

The world's largest VRFB, installed in China last year, has 100MW of power and a capacity of 400MWh, or enough to meet the electricity demand of 200,000 residents for a day.

 

[Condobloke]

Blue Tongue Lizard

Collect your FREE Wildlife Care Guide | Do you know how to care for the native animals in your backyard, when they’re affected by natural disaster? We’ve created a free Wildlife Care Guide so... | By Australian Conservation Foundation | Facebook

55K views, 740 likes, 106 loves, 144 comments, 103 shares, Facebook Watch Videos from Australian Conservation Foundation: Do you know how to care for the native animals in your backyard, when they’re...

fb.watch

 

[KGIII]

The Bathurst 12 Hour is on their warm up lap.

This is one of the races under SRO.

 

[Condobloke]

 

[KGIII]

The third video, I'm not watching 'cause I'm watching the race - but it's probably what I think it is and that was a spectacular accident. Modern cars are so much safer than they used to be.

 

[Condobloke]

Sleepytime had me in tears: How one television show has the world falling in love with Australian culture

Bluey has become a mechanism for Australia to engage in meaningful conversations with hundreds of millions of children and their parents across the globe — and the conversation is positive, writes David Taylor.

www.abc.net.au

Given Bluey’s success, is it reshaping Australia’s image overseas?

Numbers don't lie. Bluey ranked in the top 10 streaming programs in the United States by minutes viewed last year, according to audience insights and analytics firm Nielsen.

It beat both Gilmore Girls and Seinfeld, and was streamed for more than 20 billion minutes on Disney+.

It's clearly captured the hearts of millions of American children.

Read On.

Sleepytime had me in tears: How one television show has the world falling in love with Australian culture

Bluey has become a mechanism for Australia to engage in meaningful conversations with hundreds of millions of children and their parents across the globe — and the conversation is positive, writes David Taylor.

www.abc.net.au

Australia used to have this to encourage tourists....squarely aimed at the generation with $

 

[Condobloke]

THIS, could not happen to a nicer bloke. Well deserved.

Fugitive turned Sydney identity Darko ‘Dougie’ Desic granted permanent visa

The 65-year-old made headlines by handing himself in after 29 years on the run. But supporters are celebrating after he won the right to stay in his adopted homeland

www.theguardian.com

 

[KGIII]

By the way, I don't do spoilers, but the Bathurst 12 Hour predictably was exciting through to the last lap. Lots of green flag racing, punctuated with yellow flags.

The field was small this year, but that's fine. No Ferrari, Aston Martin, Jaguar, or Bentley. Mercedes AMG GTR examples filled the field, with just a couple of BMW M4 GT3 entries. This was the last hurrah for the Porsche 921.1, as the 922.2 will be homologated soon.

It'll be another year or two before you see a couple of American cars back in the mix, as Corvette has started a customer racing program and BMW has agreed to build and maintain on behalf of Ford (when outside the US).

But, it was still worth watching.

 

[KGIII]

So... There's a town in Australia called "Poowong" and they're now "Pooright" - but only for a month and because of gut biome health stuff.

Poowong becomes 'Pooright' as small town gets behind gut health message

Toilet humour aside, there is a serious message behind the altered moniker in a town where residents are set to have "the healthiest guts in Australia".

www.abc.net.au

 

[Condobloke]

. As Australia prepares to modernise its electricity grid, it should follow other countries examples, with the use of superconducting cables for key sections of the grid. A single 17-centimetre cable can carry the entire output of several nuclear plants. Cities and regions around the world have done this to cut emissions, increase efficiency, protect key infrastructure against disasters and run powerlines underground. It's a once-in-a-generation opportunity.

Australia is about to modernise its electricity grid. This technology should be the first step

Labor has pledged $20 billion to make the grid ready for clean energy, including an extra 10,000 kilometres of transmission lines. But what type of lines? Ignoring superconductor cables would be a missed opportunity, write Ian Mackinnon and Richard Taylor.

www.abc.net.au

High voltage power lines are cheaper but they have disadvantages.

Where would superconductors have most effect?​

Queensland. The sunshine state is planning four new high-voltage transmission projects, to be built by the mid-2030s. The goal is to link clean energy production in the north of the state with the population centres of the south.

Right now, there are major congestion issues between southern and central Queensland. Strategically locating superconducting cables here would be the best location, serving to future-proof infrastructure, reduce emissions and avoid power loss.

 

[Condobloke]

The Worlds Longest Fence
(hint:: it's in Australia (of course)

The longest fence in the world has transformed Australia's landscape in surprising ways

The dingo fence does its job keeping the predator at bay — but that single change has cascading effects on the environment, right down to the shape of the sand dunes.

www.abc.net.au

 

[Condobloke]

Just popping down to the local supermarket to pick up a few things?

A grocery run.....in Outback Australia

It takes a road train, a chopper and a lot of team work to get groceries to this outback station when it floods

Some good old fashioned Aussie teamwork sees a grocery order trucked and flown more than 500 kilometres across two states after floodwaters isolate a family on an outback station.

www.abc.net.au

The milk and bread Ms Doyle unpacked in her kitchen the other day had travelled a passport-worthy distance of 540 kilometres across Queensland and the NT.