Australia - The Land Down Under

Yup. We're still under 9 hours of daylight where I am.

I'm okay with that, or I'd not live here.
 


The Real Cocodile Dundee

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The Real Crocodile Dundee - Luke McCall
The drover, stockman or ‘ringer’ as he is called, is an iconic figure in Australia. He has been immortalized in poetry, songs, folklore, paintings and literature. But there are few real drovers and stockmen left. Nowadays, these men and women of the outback have been replaced with road trains and helicopters.
Luke McCall, who passed away on 9th November 2018 aged 88, was one of the last iconic drovers. For over half a century he crossed the vast length and breadth of Australia with thousands of head of cattle and horses.
He loved the life and the stock and never saw it as a life of extreme physical hardship, danger and isolation.
The droving life was almost sedentary compared to the thrills and spills of mustering wild cattle. It too started at first light when the mob slowly moved out along the stock route feeding all the way to ‘dinner camp’ where they were given a spell then a long drink of water and then moved out in late afternoon to settle down on good feed when it could be found. The ringers, who had been in the saddle since dawn, took shifts in riding around the mob on night camp singing as they rode to settle the cattle.
There was always a risk that the mob could rush at night. In this case the night watch would be joined by the rest of the men who woken from their sleep, would grab their night horses which were always saddled and tethered nearby and ride to turn the lead back on itself to slow the mob down.
Source: Patricia McPherson
"More than Just a Museum"
 

Frank Deshon buys the whole town of Hebel in Queensland to keep it on the map​

ABC Southern Qld
/ By Belinda Sanders
Posted Sun 8 Aug 2021 at 11:58amSunday 8 Aug 2021 at 11:58am, updated Sun 8 Aug 2021 at 2:33pm

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Why you should watch the Sydney Hobart yacht race​


The fleet leaves Sydney Harbour following the start of the Sydney to Hobart yacht race.

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Wild Oats XI is back for this year's race.

When does it start?​

About 111 boats ranging from the super maxis (longer than 20 metres) to smaller 30-footers (9 metres) will be ready to go at 1pm AEDT Boxing Day on Sydney Harbour.

The start is arguably one of the greatest spectacles in modern sport.

Once the starting cannon is fired, all teams will be gunning for The Heads and into the open water of the South Pacific, with competitors surrounded by all manner of craft.

Watch as boats come perilously close to the super maxis.

The fleet then begins to make its way down the east coast of Australia to Hobart, a distance of approximately 630 nautical miles (1,166 kilometres).
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The weather always plays a starring role in the Sydney Hobart

What are they racing for?​

It isn't money. Yes, you read that correctly — there is no prize money for the winners.

READ ON
 

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Some people resist visiting/living in Australia, for fear of the many critters etc that will bite/sting you.

This guy allows these nasties to bite/sting him...all in the name of science.


Note:pain levels are measure from a 1 (pretty mild) to a 4 (omg !!!!
if you live !)


This man lets critters sting and bite him for science. Here are his top three most painful​

ABC Science
/
By Kylie Andrews, Petria Ladgrove and Dr Ann Jones for What The Duck!?

Posted 10h ago

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Giant red bull ant: "Bottled fury, focused and hot." Pain level: 2.5.

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Gympie gympie: "When the dentist’s drill touches a nerve." Pain level: 3


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Red-headed centipede (large): "Imagine a plant taking root in your arm, and the plant is on fire." Pain level: 3.5.


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Australian spider-hunting wasp: "Authoritative, gripping and shockingly powerful. Next time call an electrician." Pain level: 4.(Supplied: Sam Robinson)
So, Dr Robinson decided to find out, using really long tweezers to hold the large 34-millimetre wasp, drawing back several times before getting the wasp close enough to sting him.

"Your heart sort of races as you grab for the wasp to test that sting.
"That's going to happen every time. But I guess the curiosity sort of overrides it."

He describes the pain as "authoritative, gripping and shockingly powerful".

"I'm still afraid of them," Dr Robinson says.

I note he makes no mentions of snakes.....which accounts for the fact he is still alive.
 

David Warner scores double century in his 100th Test match​

David Warner has brought up 200 runs in his 100th Test match after earlier becoming the 10th player in history to score 100 in the milestone match.​


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This guy allows these nasties to bite/sting him...all in the name of science.

Yeah, folks have been at it for a while, categorizing the pain and whatnot.

I'm uncertain of their mental competency, really. While I love "in the name of science!" type stuff, this one largely seems unnecessary.

It seems like it'd be good enough to say, "It hurts, so don't do that." Or perhaps, "Doing this is a bad idea."

You know? It just doesn't seem like we really *need* this information.
 
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How in the name of all that is holy, could Floss's owners leave town and just leave her behind.

Yet...that is what they did.

Read the story. Let a tear fall.

She is a kelpie (of course)

At a guess I would say she had pups relatively recently. I shudder to think what happened to the pups.
 
Some folks shouldn't be allowed to have pets.
 
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I came across this by accident, I thought I would post it here since the guy is from Australia.
 
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SO, Ya reckon you could hack it in Australia, eh ?

Hit the like button if you can watch this without raising a smile

 

Australian TV drama has a rich history of live risk-taking, cultural cringe hurdles and shows 'for all'​

ABC RN
/
By Stephen Vagg and Anna Kelsey-Sugg for The History Listen

Posted Fri 1 Jul 2022 at 5:00amFriday 1 Jul 2022 at 5:00am, updated Mon 4 Jul 2022 at 12:34pm

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Tom Kruse and the Birdsville Track
In another life (it was back in the 1960s – so that really is another life in another country) I worked for the Commonwealth Department of Education and Science as an “Induction Officer” (I think that was what it was called) which involved an endless string of three day assignments designed to introduce overseas students (mostly on the Colombo Plan or the Special African Assistance Plan) to the mysteries of Australia.
We would take them off to set up a bank account – with the Commonwealth Bank (of course) in Martin Place; treat them to an Aussie meal at Cahills in Castlereagh Street – Chicken Maryland was a favourite ; take them to Gowings to buy some suitable Aussie clothes (this is getting funnier as a write it); take them for a ferry trip on Sydney Harbour; and show them a couple of short movies about Australia.
One of the movies, which I must have seen at least 100 times, was Back of Beyond. It was a documentary which had been made in 1952 and it told the story of a man named Tom Kruse who, long before four wheel drive vehicles, drove an old truck from Marree in northern South Australia across the deserts, flooded rivers, sand dunes as high as mountains and other miscellaneous obstacles, to Birdsville once a fortnight. The distance was 519 km.
The road was nothing more than a rough track which had been created by the Afghan camel drivers who lived in Marree and had used camels to cross the desert to Birdsville.
Tom was employed by the postal service to deliver the mail – the truck had ‘Royal Mail’ on the front – and supplies to Birdsville. He started doing the fortnightly run in 1936.
I didn’t realise at the time, when I was watching it every couple of days, that it had won the 1954 Venice Biennale Grand Prix Assoluto and that the artist, Sidney Nolan, a friend of the director, accepted the award.
The film was, and remains, a remarkable record of the hardships and ingenuity involved in taking mail and supplies across a desert prone to flooding, being bogged in sand dunes and breaking down hundreds of miles (we weren’t using kilometres at the time) from any assistance. There is an extract from the documentary which can be watched on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NSa4esN3CHM. Well worth checking out.
Kruse was, by any measure, a truly remarkable Australian. He lived to 96 and was there when the Governor General unveiled a statue to the tireless mailman at the National Motor Museum in Birdwood, South Australia.
In 1999, when he was aged 85, Kruse made the journey for the last time. It was recorded in the film “Last Mail from Birdsville”. It is a unique piece of Australian history and Kruse, by any measure, is as close to an authentic legend as this country will ever see.
Want to learn more? There’s a site dedicated to Tom Kruse. Check it out at http://www.lastmailfrombirdsville.com
 

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