Tweet of the Week

 

This pic.twitter.com/TGurdDCg7P

— melissa (@ArtistAffame) December 24, 2024

 

Cartoons of the Week

Matt Golding
2024 in a nutshell

Cathy Wilcox
My Christmas Carol

Megan Herbert

 

The first & only all species wildlife hospital in NSW, Byron Bay Wildlife Hospital, is in urgent need of ongoing funding to keep its doors open 7 days a week

 

The staff at Byron Bay Wildlife Hospital doing their thing. Image supplied 

IMAGE: The Echo, December 2023

Byron Bay Wildlife Hospital provides professional veterinary services for injured, diseased, orphaned and displaced native Australian animals. Its services are provided free of charge, 7 days a week, and available to wildlife rescue groups and members of the public.

Although receiving calls from all Australian states & mainland territories, the majority of phone calls made directly to the Wildlife Rescue 24 hour national call centre operated by Wildlife Recovery Australia, the parent organisation of Byron Bay Wildlife Hospital, came from members of the public seeking assistance within Queensland, New South Wales & Victoria in 2024.

These calls for information and assistance were made on behalf of a wide range of Australian native animals in distress, ranging from sea birds, marine mammals & sea turtles through to land birds, koalas, gliders, bandicoots, possums, echidnas, wombats, kangaroos, wallabies, goannas & other lizards, snakes, frogs & small native mice.

ECHO, 1 January 2025:

As Australia’s bushfire season approaches, the only all-species wildlife hospital between Sydney and the Gold Coast has been forced to reduce its opening hours over Christmas/NY as surging patient numbers take their toll on the humans who provide the vital veterinary service free of charge, seven days a week.

‘Combined with no government funding to operate, an uncertain economic climate, donor fatigue and a chronic veterinary sector workforce shortage, the relentless demand for wildlife care has forced us to reduce our opening hours to protect the mental and physical health of our veterinary staff and volunteers,’ said Dr Ken Henry AC, Chair of Wildlife Recovery Australia, the parent organisation of Byron Bay Wildlife Hospital.

‘It’s unsustainable that governments continue to rely on wildlife hospitals like ours to treat the native animals under their legal protection, with no recompense. Recurrent government funding would reduce the mental and physical stress on our people by allowing us to train more people to share the load.’.....

Read the full article at

https://www.echo.net.au/2025/01/wildlife-hospital-vets-struggling-as-summer-patients-surge/

It's happiness as usual on Yamba beaches during the holiday season

Pippi Beach, Yamba NSW
IMAGE: Yamba Weddings

Turners Beach, Yamba NSW
IMAGE: Clarence Coast Holiday Parks

Main Beach, Yamba NSW
IMAGE: Londoner in Sydney

The Courier - Mail, 29 December 2024:

If you’re a surf lifesaver and volunteer to patrol on Christmas, you’ll know what a rewarding experience it is.

Apart from the fact that doing a shift at the beach on our most venerated public holiday is virtue-signalling of the highest order, it offers an iron-clad excuse, if you need it, to get out of tricky family gatherings or participation in tedious board games.

It’s also the happiest day of the year to be on the beach. Everyone’s loving being there, and everyone appreciates the lifesavers being there.

Strangers will come up to patrol members and offer genuine thanks and/or some leftover pavlova.

Big tip for future reference: don’t put yourself in a situation that requires rescue after lunch on Christmas Day.

Another benefit of sitting in a chair for hours watching the crowd having fun between the yellow and red flags is that it offers the opportunity to let your mind freewheel, which is good exercise only without sweat.

On Wednesday, on patrol at Yamba, I turned on the TV in my head and skipped from topic to topic: wondering how various couples on the beach met, what do seagulls really think of us, do fish feel fear, using alliteration for amusement, how many prawns get eaten on Christmas Day, the enormous amount of equipment some people bring to the beach … and how lucky we are to be a swimming nation.

There were several families from overseas on the beach that day. They were easy to spot not because of their accents or wacky swimming costumes … it was the fact they wouldn’t go beyond ankle deep into the gentle surf.

Australia would be an entirely different country if we hadn’t embraced the aquatic life. It’s a credit to our culture that we put so much effort into teaching our kids to swim and that as a nation we are so confident in the water.

The OECD last year released a major report on the influence of swimming competence on people’s lives globally. Australia’s relationship with swimming is referenced repeatedly.

It makes for fascinating reading, and as I watched the kids bodysurfing a sentence in the report came to mind.

“The ability to swim, like other life skills such as being able to drive and cycle, broadens the horizon of the possible and empowers individuals.” Happy new year and see you down the beach.

*********HAPPY NEW YEAR 2025*********

Source: unknown

*****Season's Greetings for 2024 from***** ************North Coast Voices************

 

Best wishes for the festive season to our readers from

North Coast Voices

North Coast Voices will be on holiday until New Year's Day 2025

Animated from Google Images

With our families, friends & holidaymakers out on local rivers & coastal waters this summer perhaps a timely reminder is due concerning the danger of drowning

 

Lennox Head
IMAGE: Amy Fallon
The Guardian, 21.01.20
 

In the twelve months between 1 July 2023 and 30 June 2024 there were 323 drownings across Australia.

Last summer, 134 lives were lost, averaging at least one drowning per day. Older adults were particularly at risk, being 39% of all deaths, 27% of victims were people born overseas and 10% were children aged 0-14 years. A total of 82% of drownings were male.

Many drowning incidents occurred at unpatrolled or isolated locations, including beaches, rivers, lakes and dams.

All states and territories reported an increase in drowning compared to last summer, except for South Australia and the Northern Territory. [See:https://www.royallifesaving.com.au/research-and-policy/drowning-research/summer-drowning-toll]

ABC News, 22 December 2024:

More people have drowned across Australia in the first three weeks of summer this year than during the same period in 2023, with the current death rate 120 per cent higher than the five-year average, according to Royal Life Saving Australia data.

Australia's leading drowning prevention body has reported 18 drowning deaths since December 1, including six in New South Wales and five in Queensland.

In the first three weeks of December last year, 14 people died drowning in waterways across the country. The five-year average number of deaths since 2019 for the same period is 15 fatalities.....

Justin Scarr, the Royal Life Saving Australia CEO, told ABC News that the end-of-year holiday period and consecutive days of good weather across the country have contributed to the higher fatal drowning numbers....

"The weather has been great and many people are flocking to a range of waterways, including beaches and lakes," he said.

"We're urging people to plan. Preparation is key.

"When you arrive at a holiday location, it is the first couple of days where you are unfamiliar with the location, you don't know where the patrolled areas with lifeguards are, you don't know the time for the lifeguards and potentially you don't know necessarily the swimming ability of the people you are holidaying with.

"We urge them to make smart choices about where they are going picnicking, know the local conditions and if people can't swim, don't go near the water at all."....

Royal Life Saving Australia water safety guidelines at

https://www.royallifesaving.com.au/about/campaigns-and-programs/Water-Safety