Uralla, Walcha and their hinterlands

First stop today was Uralla. The town centre's streetscape is highlighted by the New England Highway that runs north-south through the town's business district.

A panoramic view of Uralla can be had from a lookout on Mt Mutton which is to the west of the township.

If one spends any length of time in this small township then one simply has to check out the grave of C19th bushranger Fred Ward alias "Captain Thunderbolt".


A very interesting conversation was had with a local wool merchant who provided us with a detailed account of how the wool buying firm purchases (mainly) local fleeces and exports them to China.


Morning tea was had at Uralla's Galloping Gourmet. The cake we had featured apples, dates and coconut- it was absolutely scrumptious. If you're ever in Uralla you simply must taste the GG's cakes.


We then journeyed to the east of Uralla and visited the Gostwyck area where the focus is a quaint little village that is now privately owned. Although we were not able to visit the village or the nearby Deeargee woolshed we did manage a stopover at the Gostwyck chapel.


Then, it was off to Walcha, via Kentucky. This very productive sheep and cattle country appears to be set for a very healthy spring and summer. Dams are full and streams are flowing. Actually, we were somewhat surprised to find one causeway was still covered with water and that necessitated a committee decision about whether we should navigate the waters or opt for an alternative form of action.

After much deliberation the consensus of the touring party was that we couldn't wimp it - no such obstacle was going to prevent us reaching our planned destination, Walcha.

We arrived for a rather late lunch at Cafe Graze, which proudly boasts that it enjoys 2010 SMH Good Food Guide status. Lunch was a very generous helping of Sweet Potato and Pear Soup, accompanied by thick crusty toast - just the tucker for us as we prepared for a coolish afternoon.


An afternoon walk around the township enabled us to chat with a number of locals. One couple of mature-aged citizens gave us a very detailed description of major flooding the Walcha township experienced when it was inundated by a raging Apsley River in the early 1960s. These days the town is protected by flood walls on both sides of the river.

Another local, a long-term teacher at the local central school, gave us a detailed account of buildings in the town's centre.

Australian Labor Party redeems itself in historic agreement with The Greens in Federal Parliament [Transcript]

The Australian Labor Party entered into an historic agreement with The Greens on 1 September 2010.

This agreement comes into effect when federal government is formed after the results of the 21 August 2010 general election are declared.

It resets the national agenda in relation to climate change, constitutional recognition of Australia's first peoples, situating local government within the constitution, parliamentary reform and political donations among other matters.

As the goodwill this agreement represents does not appear entirely dependent on Labor forming a minority government, it also potentially creates a formidable force the Coalition and Tony Abbott may have to deal with as a political reality for the next three years at least.

Full transcript here.

It's a slow news week so let's hunt bogans

It is obviously a slow news week at The Daily Examiner in Grafton on the NSW North Coast.
On Page 4 last Monday it ran a story about the dreaded bogan, inserted what looks like a staged photograph and happily added to the stereotyping with a list:

SOMEWHERE, sometime during our lives we have all encountered someone we would say is a "bogan".
Those flannelette shirt-wearing, double-plugger rubber thong-sporting, stubbies shorts/tracky dacks-clad types with their mullet hairdos and trucker caps.
The stereotype of the bogan has been largely shaped by the media's perception of a certain class of Aussies, typically working class or unemployed.....

Bogan check list

You're a bogan if...

You wear the brand "UNIT" all over you

You wear white-framed sunnies

You wear big studs on your belt and your pants around your ankles

You wear ugg boots, short shorts and a big floppy jumper

You wear rip-off Holden racing team shirts

You wear your boxers higher than your pants

You let fireworks off in your backyard just for something to do

You wear more bling than a famous person

You've ever rolled a smoke

You've ever gone fishing with more beer than bait

You only go to the pub in happy hour cause you're too stingy to pay full price

You go to the pub and fill up on bar snacks so you don't have to cook dinner

You've ever driven a Datsun

You've ever taped your sunnies back together

You've ever had a fire in a 44 gallon drum

You go to garage sales

You've ever drunk VB in a can

You have ever driven all the way to Grafton from the Lower Clarence just for Maccas

You've ever worn a bandana under your flat rimmed hat

You own one of the many cars that line up in Prince Street, Grafton of a night to show off your Commodore or Falcon

You go to the speedway and take frozen leftovers for dinner in an esky

You wear a flanny undone with jeans and no shoes

You put your cigarette behind your ear.

Does Katter still hanker after our water?

These days Queensland Independent MP for Kennedy Bob Katter only seems to speak of water incidentally and in the last few days not at all. However his own website extols large-scale water diversion and still carries a Vision 2000 pdf file which states:

"In early 1995 a major breakthrough in the political fight to get Bradfield moving when Hon. Ernie Bridge OAM, a long-serving minister in the W.A. Parliament and current Shadow Minister for the Northwest, met with the Federal Member for Kennedy, Hon. Bob Katter MP, himself also a highly experienced senior Minister in the Queensland government, in Canberra to discuss the formation of a National Water Development Committee.

The purpose of the politically bipartisan committee that resulted from this meeting is to co-ordinate a National Water Distribution Scheme that will include the Bradfield Scheme, the Kimberley-Perth Pipeline, the Daly Scheme in the N.T., and the Clarence River Diversion in northern N.S.W."

So has Bob given up on the idea of stealing Clarence Valley fresh water for his irrigator and mining mates or will he be using his 'balance of power' in the new minority government to renew that push to turn some coastal rivers inland?

Does the NSW North Coast have to see off yet another greedy b*gger?

The Gruen Transfer should have this youngster on its panel

Source: The Daily Examiner, 11/09/10

A view of Armidale

Day 2 - Armidale and surrounds

Woke to find the glorious final day of winter ordered the night before had been promptly delivered.

Breakfast was at Caffiends on Marsh - thanks to a recommendation from a local - and it was A1-plus.

Just happened to notice a sign on the premise's front window stated it was in the SMH's "Good Food Guide" for 2007, '08 and '09. If it's not accorded the same (or higher) status in the 2010 edition there's something drastically wrong with the way The Guide decides upon the how it it accords a status to an eatery. Take it from me, Caffiends on Marsh is a real gem.

Oh! And something worthy of a mention ... a bloke at a nearby table at Caffiends requested tomato sauce for his bacon and eggs. Gee, he was very neatly sat on his ar*e by a waiter who brushed the request aside and remarked, "We don't have that on our premises."

Our early morning excursion commenced with inspections of some of Armidale's stately residences.

"Esrom" at 164 Mann Street brought back memories for some members of the touring party along with a few of their associates.

"Esrom" was built as a gentlemen's residence for Mr G F Morse (reverse 'morse' and what do you get?) in the 1890s. As pic 3 above shows, "Esrom" was built using Armidale blue bricks. In a later life the building provided a residence for male students attending UNE - it was one of the town houses associated with Earle Page College (see pic 2 above).

Next stop was "Booloominbah", built between 1883 and 1888, as a 45-room mansion for Frederick Robert White. Its features include decorative brickwork and architectural features that include prominent chimneys and high gabled roof ends. White's son-in-law, T R Forster, purchased the mansion in 1937 and presented it to the University of Sydney for the establishment of a University College. Today,"Bool" is UNE's administrative centre (pic 1).

After inspecting the university's academic faculties and residential colleges the touring party proceeded on its tour around Armidale's business, commercial, residential, industrial, religious, sport and cultural areas.

A highlight of the afternoon's activities was a close inspection of the notorious "Victorian Gothic" building that sits high on Armidale's south hill (pic 4). The building, which has been variously known as "Psycho House", "Wuthering Heights" and "House of Lords" has been restored and now seems to serve as a normal family residence, unlike its usage in the 1950s, 60s and 70s. Let me assure readers that if that building's walls had ears they could tell hundreds, perhaps thousands, of stories that wouldn't be fit for publication in a family-friendly post such as NCV.

Credit: Armidale Visitor Information Centre's "Armidale Self Guided Heritage Drive" brochure

Australian electors disenfranchised by AEC failure to handle ballot papers correctly

Given the general malaise which afflicted the national psyche over the last two months, it comes as no surprise that at least 2,977 early votes cast for the Division of Boothby (South Australia) and 452 early votes cast for the Division of Flynn (Queensland) will not be counted in the 21 August 2010 Australian Federal Election, because the handling of these ballots breached the Commonwealth Electoral Act and the Australian Electoral Commission has instigated urgent examinations into the circumstances which led to the exclusion of these votes. The examinations will establish the facts surrounding the incidents and report findings to the Electoral Commissioner.

ABC News reporting on the Boothby count:

The ALP demanded an investigation into how the voting papers were handled by an official.
Its candidate Annabel Digance achieved a swing toward Labor in the marginal seat.
The party has not ruled out going to the Court of Disputed Returns.
ALP South Australian secretary Michael Brown says the party will decide whether to pursue the matter once the AEC investigation is finished.
"We do not have any confidence now that the 3,000 votes counted were actually the 3,000 votes that were cast," he said.
"The AEC has agreed with us that those votes cannot be included so it's now the case that we do not know at this stage and may never know who actually was elected."
Mr Southcott has claimed victory with a current lead of 1,394 votes.

A Concerned Voter's Prayer

The journey of a modern day Marco Polo

Toothbrush and toothpaste packed ... check ... yes!

Righto, preparation for the journey to the New England area was complete.

Day 1 ... left the flood plains of the mighty Clarence behind and headed west.

First stop ... Glen Innes where the early European civic fathers (and, perhaps mothers, but I doubt they had much say in things at the time) had the foresight to plan for an urban centre with good wide streets.

Unlike most touros, who take the shortest route from A to B, a conscious decision was made before departing home that a fair bit of time would be spent meandering around the backstreets and roads of the study area.

And, what delights Glen Innes and Guyra proved to be.

Morning tea was had at a quaint tea and coffee shop housed in GI's town hall building (pictured above). And, it was a delightful bargain! The special of the day was home-made poppy seed cake (with cream, of course) and a mug of tasty coffee for the princely sum of just seven bucks.

But, the best part of the stop-over at GI was the opportunity it provided to catch up with the "news" of the day according to a couple of cockies who sat at the table next door. I didn't mean to eavesdrop, but the cockies were yarning at a level that was way off the decibel register and their topic of the day was The Merits of Snakes in Australia.

Cocky 1 remarked that snakes were on the move again on his property and that was a sure sign things were beginning to warm up and that spring wasn't far off. Me thinks, should I tell him that it starts on Wednesday? Nah, I'll keep my big trap shut.

Cockie 2 responded, "Ya know, I reckon the best thing about snakes, especially red-belly black ones, is that they make great belts."

Considering the girth of Cockie 2, I reckon he'd need at least half a dozen of the poor b*ggers to successfully complete a circumnavigation around his waist.

Then, off to Guyra. And it, too, didn't disappoint.

First thoughts were that Guyra's central business district was far too quiet and not much should be expected of the small township where I had the misfortune to get stuck on a number of occasions when hitch hiking to the university city to its south and had to cuddle up in makeshift sleeping arrangements and await a next new day before resuming my journeys.

Memories of lazy, biting, bitterly cold winds that went straight through you rather than do the proper thing and blow around you were in the distant past. The day was marked by a few low, ground-hugging clouds (typical of the tablelands) but for the most part it was a gorgeous sunny day with, I suspect, the mercury hovering around the low double digits.

Then, off to Armidale.

A couple of hours were spent exploring the township and the grounds of UNE.

First impressions of the city's CBD gained in the mid afternoon were confirmed via a second site inspection in the early evening ... the mall area is a disaster. Pedestrian traffic in daylight hours was almost non existent - there were very few signs of any post stimulus spending activity to be seen, although good tucker and coffee was had at an establishment a few doors to east of the NAB in Beardy Street.

Dinner was had at a newishly refurbished eatery and watering hole known as the Whitebull Hotel in Marsh Street - in its previous life is was a bl**d house called the Club Hotel. The food was 5-star, the staff were most pleasant and a local vino Peterson's Dangar Shiraz was exceptional (pity about the hotel's wine list describing it as a Danger Shiraz).

Again, it was impossible to avoid hearing the conversations of a group of diners at the next table. The group, who were well heeled and showed no signs of being short of a quid expressed hopes their local federal MP Tony Windsor and his maverick mates would saddle up with Ms Gillard's team - they reckon the stimulus $$$$s made a heck of a difference to their local economy and without it things in the commercial world around the area would indeed have been very ugly. I was in no mood to disappoint them and tell them I reckon it's a done deal - in my mind the three stooges have already crossed the rubicon and it's just a matter of time while they wait for the ink to dry on the memorandum of understanding they've signed up to with Mr Rabbit et al.

Day 11 and the vote count continues......

It's 72 all, it's 72-73 in the Coalition's favour, it's 71-73 with one still in doubt, he's up she's down - everyday brings a reassessment of the possible election result.

Here is the official Australian Election Commission tally at the beginning of Day 11 of the ballot count:

Click on images to enlarge

As of 9.56pm last night 84.90% of the primary vote has been counted and, the two party preferred count was 80.63% complete.

Mad or Dishonest - which is worse?

A Google search delivers about 64,900 results in 0.23 seconds for the search term senator fielding mad?
While tony abbott dishonest? throws up around 22,500 results in 0.21 seconds.
This snippet came from a young fella living a few streets away from me. Thanks, Greg.
Not all the entries accuse these pollies of being either mad or dishonest, but an uncomfortably high number actually do make these claims.
So how do the likes of Fielding and Abbott laugh this off?

Rambo of the North: Take a bow Senator H.

Opposition Leader Tony Abbott likes to tell the world that the Labor Party is ill-disciplined and in disarray.

However, it would seem that it is the Coalition which is showing the more damaging cracks in its veneer, as the both sides of the political divide try to woo the four independent MPs who will decide who forms the minority government flowing from the August 2010 Australian Federal Election results.

ABC radio news reports this morning state that NSW North Coast Independent MP Rob Oakeshott is complaining of Rambo-style telephone calls received. In particular one call from a Liberal Party member of parliament who introduced himself as "The Devil".

Now from personal experience I would say that there is only one senior politician who has a propensity to start a conversion in the manner, so..........
take a bow Senator Bill Heffernan.

You've probably reduced your fearless leader to biting through his pillow during the night and, this morning's report of an apology is unlikely to have papered over those cracks.

Whale Hunts: Japan no longer has any 'scientific' excuse left

In The Australian newspaper, 27 August 2010:

A NEW way to study dolphins and whales without dart guns undercuts Japan's argument for what it calls scientific whaling, scientists say.

The "blow-sampling" method, developed by Australian scientists, allows scientists to gather crucial DNA information without potentially harming the animal, discrediting Japanese arguments that a whale needs to be killed.

Celine Frere, from the University of Queensland, headed the study. "Maybe this will make them realise they don't have to kill the whale to get the information," Dr Frere said.

Marine animal researchers have relied on gathering the animal's DNA by shooting a dart into the skin of the mammal to gather tissue samples.

Blow-sampling captures the air and the equivalent of spit expelled from the animal when they come up for air.

For those interested in more detail about this new technique, a recent PLoS ONE open access journal article Thar She Blows! A Novel Method for DNA Collection from Cetacean Blow is available online in PDF form.

The original research was conducted using dolphins but the method is said to be transferable to research on larger cetaceans.

The Australian Government encourages and funds non-lethal research. A eight-page booklet outlining current Antarctic research can be found here.

Photograph from Greenpeace.org