Australia - The Land Down Under



In north-east Ukraine, a small truck emblazoned with a jumping kangaroo delivers help to the most vulnerable — and an Australian is behind the wheel.



Words and photographs by Luke Cody
Updated 18 Feb 2023, 9:34am
Published 18 Feb 2023, 6:30am

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Say G'day to Daniel “Rusty” Russell.
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Please read it all. It is a longish story.

It may even raise a tear.

Rusty has my vote for Australian of the Year/Decade
Yeah, this raised a tear... (more than one too I suspect!)
 



Edisons of the 'burbs: Cheesy chip finger cleaner, prosthetic workout adaptations and car bushfire shield​

ABC Science
/
By Emily Sakzewski and technology reporter James Purtill

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The duck's arrival in Alice Springs is bittersweet because it's probably lost...

Musk duck found in Central Australia for first time probably lost​


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and in other 'Twitcher" news....

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and

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Can animals predict weather?​


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Australia is full of folklore about animals being able to predict the weather, from ants changing behaviour before rain to dragonflies marking the end of the wet season. But how reliable are these miniature meteorologists and what is the most popular animal forecaster in Australia?

 
“Black Cockatoos with patches of yellow feathers inside their tails, i was standing next to a Indigenous Friend on a property one day admiring the creek below in the valley when a flock of these birds flew by and my friend uttered Rain Coming, and sure enough 3 days later rain came.”

I see yellow tailed black cockies on occasion... I'll have to look and see if they're being seen is followed by rain.

Seeing currawong use one of the bird baths (to drink) I'd not think anything of; though those birds tend to appear & disappear rather quickly, and they tend to prefer a bath I have hidden away (that I can't see unless outside).

The first photo showed a yellow crested cocky, I was really hoping to see some of them today (being away from home), alas no luck.. All I got mostly was juvenile long bill (corella), and that's something I can hear at home in the backyard.
 
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Living in the nsw northern highlands, Armidale/Glen Innes area, we see an abundance of bird life every day.

The majority of them nest/rest/make noise etc in the Claret Ash trees, which are in abundance here.

White cockies (suphur crested) are in huge proportions....although we do not see many black....which is a shame, because the black cockatoo is my favourite bird....with yellow or red in their tail feathers.
Their intelligence is breathtaking.
 
Living in the nsw northern highlands, Armidale/Glen Innes area, we see an abundance of bird life every day.

The majority of them nest/rest/make noise etc in the Claret Ash trees, which are in abundance here.

White cockies (suphur crested) are in huge proportions....although we do not see many black....which is a shame, because the black cockatoo is my favourite bird....with yellow or red in their tail feathers.
Their intelligence is breathtaking.
I'm ENE of Melbourne, about ~20km out from the CBD in the suburbs. Luckily I'm not far from a pretty large municipal garden, which isn't itself that far away from the yarra (river).

In my area (close to home) Little Corella seem to rule the area (as for parrots; & ignoring rainbow lorikeets that seem to rule most backyards), though the park is dominated by Long Bill Corella, with Galahs outnumbering Little Corella most of the time. I don't see any sulphar crested, but usually only travelling a few km in any direction and I usually find them (which I hoped to do today; alas nope).

I see gang gangs often if I walk at specific time at the park (prior to dusk), but never red-tailed black cockies, only yellow-tailed black cockatoos. I usually hear them (yellow tailed but also gang gangs) first, and then go looking for them. Yellow tailed will visit my street about twice per year (they'll eat from a tree in the front yard & make their usual mess..), but see them flying by in the back yard more often, but most of the time it's at the park (their calls, or just the sounds of a tree falling apart around you being the cues to step away & look up, yellow-tailed cockies are above)
 
Extract from CJ Dennis.


Clarence Michael James Stanislaus Dennis, better known as C. J. Dennis, was an Australian poet and journalist known for his best-selling verse novel The Songs of a Sentimental Bloke (1915). Alongside his contemporaries and occasional collaborators Henry Lawson and Banjo Paterson, Dennis helped popularise Australian slang in literature, earning him the title 'the laureate of the larrikin'.

Clarence Dennis spent most of his professional life in Victoria where he created The Sentimental Bloke, who first appeared in The Bulletin in 1909. Dennis was a prolific writer of both verse and prose, contributing more than 3000 items over 16 years to a daily column in the Melbourne Herald as well as creating Ben Bowyang in Letters from the Bush and other feature series. But his verse novel, The Songs of a Sentimental Bloke, with its vernacular celebration of Bill and Doreen's everyday love story, was his most enduring success, selling more than 60,000 copies within a year of its first publication in 1915.

You'll never read turn of the 20th century Australian dialect any more real than in the Sentimental Bloke by CJ Dennis. Here's an excerpt from near the start, when he's just met Doreen.

'Er name's Doreen ...Well spare me bloomin' days!
You could er knocked me down wiv 'arf a brick!
Yes, me, that kids meself I know their ways,
An' 'as a name for smoogin' in our click!
I just lines up an' tips the saucy wink.
But strike! The way she piled on dawg! Yer'd think
A bloke was givin' back-chat to the Queen....
'Er name's Doreen.

I seen 'er in the markit first uv all,
Inspectin' brums at Steeny Isaacs' stall.
I backs me barrer in--the same ole way--
An' sez, "Wot O!It's been a bonzer day.
'Ow is it fer a walk?"...Oh, 'oly wars!
The sorter look she gimme!Jest becors
I tried to chat 'er, like you'd make a start
Wiv ANY tart.

An' I kin take me oaf I wus perlite.
An' never said no word that wasn't right,
An' never tried to maul 'er, or to do
A thing yeh might call crook.Ter tell yeh true,
I didn't seem to 'ave the nerve--wiv 'er.
I felt as if I couldn't go that fur,
An' start to sling off chiack like I used...
Not INTRAJUICED!

Nex' time I sighted 'er in Little Bourke,
Where she was in a job. I found'er lurk
Wus pastin' labels in a pickle joint,
A game that--any'ow, that ain't the point.
Once more I tried ter chat 'er in the street,
But, bli'me!Did she turn me down a treat!
The way she tossed 'er 'cad an' swished 'er skirt!
Oh, it wus dirt!

A squarer tom, I swear, I never seen,
In all me natchril, than this 'ere Doreen.
It wer'n't no guyver neither; fer I knoo
That any other bloke 'ad Buckley's 'oo
Tried fer to pick 'er up. Yes, she was square.
She jist sailed by an' lef' me standin' there
Like any mug. Thinks I, "I'm out er luck,"
An' done a duck

Well, I dunno.It's that way wiv a bloke.
If she'd ha' breasted up ter me an' spoke,
I'd thort 'er jist a commin bit er fluff,
An' then fergot about 'er, like enough.
It's jest like this.The tarts that's 'ard ter get
Makes you all 'ot to chase 'em, an' to let
The cove called Cupid get an 'ammer-lock;
An' lose yer block.

I know a bloke 'oo knows a bloke 'oo toils
In that same pickle found-ery. ('E boils
The cabbitch storks or somethink.)Anyway,
I gives me pal the orfis fer to say
'E 'as a sister in the trade 'oo's been
Out uv a jorb, an' wants ter meet Doreen;
Then we kin get an intro, if we've luck.
'E sez, "Ribuck."

O' course we worked the oricle; you bet!
But, 'struth, I ain't recovered frum it yet!
'Twas on a Saturdee, in Colluns Street,
An'--quite by accident, o' course--we meet.
Me pal 'e trots 'er up an' does the toff
'E allus wus a bloke fer showin' off.
"This 'ere's Doreen," 'e sez. "This 'ere's the Kid."
I dips me lid.

"This 'ere's Doreen," 'e sez.I sez "Good day."
An', bli'me, I 'ad nothin' more ter say!
I couldn't speak a word, or meet 'er eye.
Clean done me block!I never been so shy.
Not since I was a tiny little cub,
An' run the rabbit to the corner pub--
Wot time the Summer days wus dry an' 'ot--
Fer me ole pot.

Me! that 'as barracked tarts, an' torked an' larft,
An' chucked orf at 'em like a phonergraft!
Gorstrooth! I seemed to lose me pow'r o' speech.
But, 'er!Oh, strike me pink!She is a peach!
The sweetest in the barrer!Spare me days,
I carn't describe that cliner's winnin' ways.
The way she torks!'Er lips!'Er eyes!'Er hair!...
Oh, gimme air!

I dunno 'ow I done it in the end.
I reckerlect I arst ter be 'er friend;
An' tried ter play at 'andies in the park,
A thing she wouldn't sight. Aw, it's a nark!
I gotter swear when I think wot a mug
I must 'a' seemed to 'er. But still I 'ug
That promise that she give me fer the beach.
The bonzer peach!

Now, as the poit sez, the days drag by
On ledding feet.I wish't they'd do a guy.
I dunno'ow I 'ad the nerve ter speak,
An' make that meet wiv 'er fer Sundee week!
But strike!It's funny wot a bloke'll do
When 'e's all out...She's gorn, when I come-to.
I'm yappin' to me cobber uv me mash....
I've done me dash!

'Er name's Doreen....An' me-that thort I knoo
The ways uv tarts, an' all that smoogin' game!
An' so I ort; fer ain't I known a few?
Yet some'ow...I dunno.It ain't the same.
I carn't tell WOT it is; but, all I know,
I've dropped me bundle--an' I'm glad it's so.
Fer when I come ter think uv wot I been....
'Er name's Doreen.
 

Biggest wet season ever transforms one of Australia's last untouched landscapes​

ABC Rural
/ By Elly Bradfield and Amy Phillips
Posted 3h ago

Piccaninny Plains Wildlife Sanctuary, in the middle of the Cape York Peninsula, is one of the last wild, undeveloped places left in Australia.
Ms Gray, the assistant manager of Piccaninny Plains Wildlife Sanctuary, has been stuck at home since before Christmas after the region recorded 2,420 millimetres, or 2.4 metres, of rain.
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Biggest wet season ever transforms one of Australia's last untouched landscapes​

ABC Rural
/ By Elly Bradfield and Amy Phillips
Posted 3h ago

Piccaninny Plains Wildlife Sanctuary, in the middle of the Cape York Peninsula, is one of the last wild, undeveloped places left in Australia.
Ms Gray, the assistant manager of Piccaninny Plains Wildlife Sanctuary, has been stuck at home since before Christmas after the region recorded 2,420 millimetres, or 2.4 metres, of rain.
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Beautiful photos... vibrant colors... :D
 
The majority of people reading this topic, will not know of my dog....Belle.

She has been my constant mate since 2009.

An Australian Kelpie, a gentler soul you would rarely ever come across.

Loyalty and mateship in spades

Every post I have written here, Belle will be on the floor beside me

Until today. i keep a close eye on her,,....and am aware of the pain that is creeping in, starting to be a constant part of her day.

The vet overdosed her with anaesthetic and Belle slipped quietly away....with her paw in my hand.

I owed her that....to be honest, I owed her more.
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The majority of people reading this topic, will not know of my dog....Belle.

She has been my constant mate since 2009.

An Australian Kelpie, a gentler soul you would rarely ever come across.

Loyalty and mateship in spades

Every post I have written here, Belle will be on the floor beside me

Until today. i keep a close eye on her,,....and am aware of the pain that is creeping in, starting to be a constant part of her day.

The vet overdosed her with anaesthetic and Belle slipped quietly away....with her paw in my hand.

I owed her that....to be honest, I owed her more.
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Sorry to hear about your loss.

Loss of our usual *companions* is painful..
 
Yes, too painful.

I guess like other painful events, the pain will lessen with time

Thanks for caring
 

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