Australia - The Land Down Under

[KGIII]

It doesn't matter how hard it is to get a driver's license...it doesn't stop the morons on the road who just don't care about road rules...

While true, some areas have statistically worse drivers on the roads. As much as I complain about the US drivers, we're not even close to the threshold of 'most fatalities per mile driven'.

Modern safety standards have improved the survivability a great deal. Though, I tend to think we'd drive better if we didn't have a horn button but rather a 12" steel spike poking out of the steering wheel and pointed at the driver. Instead of airbags and passive restraint systems, just put a giant spike on the steering wheel. People will start paying a whole lot more attention at that point.

Well, I hope they would...

But, we'd weed out the bad drivers more quickly. So, there's that!

(I kid! Do not put spikes on steering wheels. That's a horrible idea.)

 

[Condobloke]

Australia....in ink.....

'No excuse for getting a bad tattoo': Why these artists love getting inked

Tattoos have a long and rich history in Australia, but they have often been limited to an artistic subculture. This is the story of how they went mainstream.

www.abc.net.au

 

[Condobloke]

And you think (pray/hope) it can never happen to You or yours .... until it does.

Organ transplants gave family the 'gift of life' three times

After three successful organ transplants, the Stolkers say they've been given a new lease on life. Now they're campaigning for more Australians to become donors.

www.abc.net.au

Yes, he WILL return to the footy field. Onya Levi.

 

[KGIII]

I'm an organ donor. I'm probably too old to really help out after my death, but I'm still willing to let them harvest anything useful after I die. I've (sincerely) offered things like bone marrow, but I'm not a relative and a relative is the preferred source.

 

[Condobloke]

now THAT (below) is just a load of bull.......

All 1.3 Tonnes of him

Weighing as much as a car, 'Buster' the bull wins another ag show title

A 1,356-kilogram Angus bull has won the title of heaviest bull on the grounds at this year's Ekka in Brisbane. But he is not the biggest ever.

www.abc.net.au

 

[KGIII]

1356 x 2.2 = 2983.2...

So, that's a bunch of bull. The pulling bulls we have (steer) for competition at the ag fairs may have bulls up to 3500 lbs, which would be like 1590 kg. They're not 'show' bulls, however. They have them pull very heavy loads, by themselves or yoked to another pulling bull, across a dirt floor.

Our local ag fair will be in about a month and a half, but there are a bunch of other counties already having fairs.

Hmm... Let's just say that a bull can still reproduce but a steer can not, if there's any interest about the distinction.

 

[Condobloke]

Hmm... Let's just say that a bull can still reproduce but a steer can not, if there's any interest about the distinction.

I reckon the 'focused' look in the bulls eye above shows intent re the reproductive urge
.....and bit of froth at the mouth may be a further indication...

 

[bob466]

Here's another one of those videos that they allow on youtube that is just total BS.

It's designed to scare people...if you look at the map of Australia in the video...you notice anything strange about the states...and since when is the steering wheel on the left hand side.

Youtube turned off the comments...I wonder why.

 

[KGIII]

It sounds like AI bullcrap. YouTube is now demonetizing AI videos. Good.

 

[Condobloke]

Iconic former Aussie Test captain, coach dies

One of the game's most influential figures

www.nine.com.au

 

[Condobloke]

Film critic and Public Intellectual, David Stratton

​

​

​

Hello there,​

I sent my email to David Stratton 10 days ago. I was starting to wonder why I had not received a reply.

I sent my note because I was finally making the plan: the plan that David and I had spoken about for years but had never managed to achieve.

I can't remember when David first suggested that I come for a weekend at his and his wife Susie's house in the Blue Mountains, and we would watch all the films of the great 1920s and '30s German émigré filmmaker Ernst Lubitsch — the director of films like The Shop Around the Corner, To Be or Not to Be and The Merry Widow, and the creator of the famed, sophisticated sense of humour and wit that became known as "The Lubitsch Touch".

I don't know how David and I shared that we each revered this man's films. We were not close friends; we were not even good friends. I had interviewed David from time to time and over many years had run into him at film events and always enjoyed his company.

But somehow, we had each revealed our private adoration of this clever filmmaker and had discovered the immediate ease that comes from a shared cinematic language — a shibboleth understandable only to us in the form of the name of a German director whose wit and style built the bridge between the old cinema of Europe and the post-war Hollywood auteurs who entranced us both.

For a film critic juggernaut like David Stratton, movies were not just his career — it was at his very core.

Whenever we met, he would remind me: "Now don't forget about our Lubitsch weekend. You must come soon." It was a wonderful idea — I would bring some good food and wine, we would start with Lubitsch's silent films, move through his elegant conquering of 1930s Hollywood and, I quietly plotted, we would finish with a couple of movies by his protege and heir, the incomparable Billy Wilder.

He was unwell when he generously gave of his time and allowed me to interview him about the singular Australian filmmaker Warwick Thornton, for my series Creative Types. His high regard for Thornton's lean, powerful filmmaking help make him globally revered and awarded.

As we wrapped our chat, he said again: "Now, we still have to arrange our Lubitsch weekend."

I promised I would. I so very much wanted to.

I sent my email on August 4, naming the month we could finally watch the films. I heard no reply. On Thursday I heard the news of David's death.

I rang the celebrated filmmaker George Miller, another alumnus of Creative Types, to share the sad news together. George told me of his own regret. He visited David three months ago, just as he came home from surgery. David was sharp and on his feet, and he suggested to George that he come back soon, and David would select three films that he thought George should watch. George promised that he would.

"I would love to know what three films he picked," George told me.

He would probably dislike the term, but David Stratton was a true public intellectual. He unapologetically spoke up to his audience. Film is, by definition, a popular art, and to be successful must remain so: a film projected to a crowded theatre is its own reward. David's mission was to ensure that as many people as possible heard of that director, sat in that theatre, noted that cinematographer, heard that soundtrack and was transported and maybe even changed by the experience, as he was.

He was an educator at home and revered throughout the world of cinema as someone who was immune to fashion but excited by the innovation of creativity. He had the catalogued knowledge and the temperament to contextually weigh art against its intent rather than the mood of the day. He knew more than enough about the vagaries of the box office and celebrity to pay them no attention.

"He was a true creature of the cinema," George said. "I would see him at Cannes and other festivals, and he would spend every day watching film after film after film. The cinema was his natural habitat … all that time in the dark."

I have spent countless hours of my life very happily in that dark, and the regret I have about never spending that time with a film sage as wise and generous as David is keen and sharp. And I want to remember it.

I write this to remember David and his incomparable contribution to Australian and world cinema, but also to implore myself and anyone else reading this: don't wait. If there is a conversation to be had, a moment to be shared, a film to be watched with someone you admire and respect, do it now. Don't wait.

There are very few experiences as strong, and few friendships that are forged as powerfully as those that are made in the cinema, in the dark.

​

 

[Condobloke]

Changes to percentage of Angus beef and what it means for producers

It is one of the most recognisable global meat brands, but what defines Angus beef is changing and it means new opportunities for Australian farmers.

www.abc.net.au

Beef producers say this steak stays juicy even when overcooked

Marbling has long been considered essential to steak quality, but new research is highlighting the role of omega-3.

www.abc.net.au

 

[Condobloke]

At 77 years young, Leo Sayer says his best years are still ahead of him

Performing in front of more than 15,000 people, Leo Sayer played some of his most famous songs at the fifth annual Mundi Mundi Bash music festival in outback NSW.

www.abc.net.au

 

[Condobloke]

Some farmers diversify by planting new crops. This goat producer hosts a giant outback music festival

Belmont Station in Far West NSW is primarily focused on sheep and goat production most of the year, except for a week in August when it becomes home to the Mundi Mundi Bash.

www.abc.net.au

 

[Condobloke]

Grazier who trained in town pool completes third huge open water swim

An outback grazier completes the 32-kilometre Catalina Channel in his latest marathon swim after training in Broken Hill's pool and Menindee Lakes, devoid of waves or currents.

www.abc.net.au

Like to know where Brendan Lives?

Here;

 

[Condobloke]

Dare to dream: How wool captured city girl Sam Wan’s imagination​

Dare to dream: How wool captured city girl Sam Wan's imagination - AustralianFarmers

The western suburbs of Sydney are a world away from the green, sheep-dotted pastures of Gordon, Victoria, but Samantha Wan’s story shows us the power of dreams. “I’m a first generation Australian-born Chinese. My Mum is from Hong Kong with Macanese heritage and Dad is Chinese Malaysian. I’m the...

farmers.org.au

 

[Condobloke]

Outback sheep farmer takes on Sturt's Meadows Station for family legacy
By Katherine Spackman and Patrick Reincke

ABC Broken Hill

Topic:Sheep Farming

6h ago (September 7th, 2025

The man, whos is the centrepiece of this article, has a steady job....probably until the day he dies...or passes the property to the upcoming generation (his sons)

The property?....just 186,000 Acres.... ( bigger than Singapore)

from Sydney?...1,400KM....around 900 miles

Young dad takes over sheep station 'bigger than Singapore' to keep legacy

In outback NSW, fourth-generation farmer Sam Beven is forging the way for the next generation of farming families.

www.abc.net.au

 

[Condobloke]

Sir Sidney Kidman stars in new photographic exhibition

There is a story about Sir Sidney Kidman, of the time he and his Aboriginal friend Billy and Billy's dog, shared a threadbare blanket to keep warm.

www.abc.net.au

Sir Sidney Kidman stars in new photographic exhibition

There is a story about Sir Sidney Kidman, of the time he and his Aboriginal friend Billy and Billy's dog, shared a threadbare blanket to keep warm.

www.abc.net.au

Kidman was perhaps Australia's greatest pastoralist.

Both in the sheer size of his land ownership and the scale of the journey he made from penniless teenager, to a man who controlled 160,000 square miles of Australia, and who was knighted by the Queen of England.

 

[KGIII]

186,000 Acres

And I thought I owned a lot of property!

(I own an embarrassing amount of acreage, but that dwarfs my holdings.)

I hope the vast majority of that won't be 'improved'. So, the taxes won't be as high as they could be. Still, I can relate to paying a bunch of money on property taxes. Much of my property is unimproved, which isn't too bad. The commercial property is much more expensive. The residential is right in the middle of the other two.

I'm not sure how they do property taxes in Oz. My assumption would be that it's similar.

If their acreage isn't considered 'unimproved', it might be considered 'commercial'. From my experience (only owning property in the US and Canada), they tax commercial property at a higher rate. The good news is that it might be considered a business expense and they can write it off their income taxes.

Again, I'm not sure what your taxes are like. Here, we'd be able to write those taxes off our income taxes. That doesn't mean we get the money back (which lots of people seem to think is how it happens), it means you're just not taxed on that income.

If your income is Y and your taxes are X then your taxes would be based on Y - X.

That's how it works here.

 

[wm460]

Here's another one of those videos that they allow on youtube that is just total BS.

It's designed to scare people...if you look at the map of Australia in the video...you notice anything strange about the states...and since when is the steering wheel on the left hand side.

Youtube turned off the comments...I wonder why.

Well bugger me, I all ways thought I was a Territorian now I don't know where I live.

Well bugger me, I all ways thought I was a Territorian now I don't know where I live.
I seem to hear a lot more about young drivers having accidents than older drivers.
If PM AnAl wants us to work till we are 70+ how are we going to get to work?