Real koalas are part of the experience at Blackbutt Nature Reserve but these sightseers are hugging a toy koala.
I've only seen koalas in an enclosure once or twice, and twice (not two times) seen a lone koala in a tree top out of captivity and another time suddenly one ran close past me in bushland days after a bush fire that had singed its fur, an encounter not forgotten.  The numbers of koalas are declining as their bushland habitat is cleared and pet dogs attack them and other problems.  

Wide calm waters of the Murray provide excellent passage way for the paddle steamers.  This scene was taken between Mildura and Merbein. (South-west corner of the state NSW.)
Next, dipping grapes at Irymple. before drying.
Vintage post cards by Nucolorvue

This is how it was. This bridge near Wentworth is typical of many which span the waters of the Darling or Murray Rivers.
Old postcards from Nucolorvue P/L.

Just imagine how it is to be a radical.  I'm still the same old self but my ideas are extreme.  Climate change is not happening yet I have been known to mull over the ethics of taking a flight on a holiday whim, considering the hugh amount of fossil fuel that an aircraft burns and exhausts. The act of using a human or a donkey as a beast of burden so as to swan around mountain tops is another question. At least the donkey is not carrying a male bigger than itself. (yes, it is employment, but...)  And isn't Nepal riddled with malnutrition?

Prime Minister Gillard has an uphill battle.  In my books, she can do nothing better than finalise climate change leglislation.  If she has to sacrifice everything and become a martyr to the climate change cause she will be glorious and enjoy the view from the top.

My daughter just loved trecking in Nepal despite the effects of local illnesses, was it the altitude, and she carried her pac.

Follow the secret path to a wonderful eyrie and hear the hum of bees, wild flowers, birds and shore break. 

Solar energy

No doubt Kangaroos are unique animals as well as a challenge to the home gardener in some situations - like homesteading. They like vegies and it takes a high fence to exclude them.

The Dot Com Bubble, maybe ten years ago, saw big time investors at play but then the bubble burst in a big way. Is Coal seam gas extraction the latest similar bandwagon hereabouts gone for it in a big way. 

Get rich quick, or future crazy-John carbon-credit trading, no matter what cost to our countryside.

Energy is vital but fracking could be planned using a rational scheme with constraints as to where is most appropriate and plentiful or what's a fair thing.

To the uninformed, like moi, it seems we are overly ready to set up invasive knock 'em down drilling fields instead of developing clean alternative long term solutions to providing energy. 

Newspapers have no need for phone tapping. Instead, just do other news and letters to the editor. The Sydney Morning Herald gave us cat mythology in letters relating to names for cats and their failure to acknowledge them and Ian Walters wrote on July 11:

...T.S. Eliot ...points out that the naming of cats is a difficult matter...a cat must have a name for everyday...then a name that is particular, peculiar and dignified and thirdly, a name that no human research can elicit, but one only the cat knows... (after)...a succession of cats I can state categorically... that a cat which is provided with luxury... abundant gourmet food, and attentive staff will frequently come when its name is called, or at the very least open one eye and even raise an inquisitive eyebrow.

In strange juxtaposition is the Sumataran Tiger, endangered in a big way, according to the footage that streams from Indonesia showing the relentless clearing of the rainforests. What the hand dare sieze the fire? The human fat cats have deaf ears. Totally deaf.

Tiger, tiger burning bright

In the forests of the night

What immortal hand or eye

Could frame thy fearful symmetry?

In what distant deeps or skies

Burnt the fire of thine eyes?

On what wings dare he aspire?

What the hand dare sieze the fire?.............Blake................................image of Tiger from Sun Herald

The sun shiney shower soon changed to a 'dreaded' East Coast low, which decoded means rain and windy weather and more rain.  Terrific weather in some respects.
Weather reports have taken on a life of their own.  Every hour or so they reach us. 

Sunlight will soon warm up everything, solar panel included.  Free power in abundance.

 'Roo in a hurry heading for a warmer place.
The worst frost in years occured right at the seaside in the warmer areas to the north - the Pleasure Coast  (!)- for instance at Coffs' and Port'.
Frosts do not occur in Newcastle city - as far as I know.

A good start to the day.                                                                                                              Concerns are heard about ID theft and privacy yet, it is curious that in Europe, a war criminal has remained anonymous for years prior to capture.  

A sign bowled me over, in perhaps, the largest newest shopping centre outside Sydney, namely Charlestown Square.

The shopping centre is like a space station in that humans scurry around totally indoors in long disorienting passage ways and sloping escalators, down down into the depths.
All of which is par for the course if outdoors were covered in two metres of snow or were lashed by desert sand storms but, hey, we won't have anything less than air con, no matter what, in our mild climate.
Hang the environment and energy use. Ignore the existing stock of empty shops available for reuse in the district. 
'Onya, Kate Blanchett!

An abundance of waterfowl, emus, mutton birds, wild ducks, pigeons and swans were once common in the area.

Show Ride if you look closely
Earth Hour tonight 26 March 8.30pm. Switch off power and fire up the collective conscience!

McDonald's has supported Earth Hour since its introduction in 2007. They state they have initiatives and innovations to save energy with more information on their website.
http://www.earthhour.org.au/ to see more about Earth Hour which has gone viral after beginning in Australia.
It is said that energy consumption did not fall last Earth Hour in Newcastle. The weather was very hot and air con use was high.
In contrast, today is cool, breezy, humidity is low and rain showers have commenced as summer days just begin to fade away.

Earth Hour 26 March 2011.
Seeing the light in darkness.
Switch?  Switch governments?  New kid on the block, complete unknowns seek our vote. Guess they have to start somewhere and it's better than nepotism.

Earth Hour is on 26 March. Will fast food switch off?

A new era has dawned in Newcastle. Post industrial Newcastle. True grit activites around trades hall and industrial relations have ceased long ago. Old-guard labor politicans are marginalized. All that there is to do has been done.
Post industrial Newcastle, postmodern Newcastle verges on endless commodified lifestyle choice. Kick back and enjoy. Some enjoy new developments at Honeysuckle. 
Focus will be on overwhelming challenges and they include slick tourism. shopping centres, coffee culture, retailing, sport, shopping centres and coal. It is too difficult for government to grapple with messy vital institutions without resort to privatisation.
A prospective independent candidate will take on grand issues such as a level crossing and regulations around half a dozen prostitutes.  And problem drinking.

Earth Hour 26 March 2011. Switch off for an hour.

Conserve energy. We need to confront the true cost of energy. Energy should cost more to try and reduce consumption and reduce pollution. Leglisation needs support rather than protest. If protest is more a matter of defeating the government then choice of any old issue would do instead of that of carbon credits. It needs all the help it can get. But the government is into provocation.

Taxpayers don't presume to know all there is about medical science, by and large, they accept and respect what experts say and pay up taxes and pay a levy for medical care.  Taxpayers do not claim to know more than medical scientists. Yet, when it comes to climate we are all experts.  The issue is continually subverted and exploited.



 With quality similar to images from an unhinged Scandinavian art house movie it was fitting that City Hall clockface assumed a new distinctly greenish tinge to match an eerie lunar presence, observed when the luna body was as close as possible to our planet on last Sabbath.

Earth Hour is making its mark in this community and has gone viral.
 Lights out on March 26!

Ready for Earth Hour  March 26 ?

Newcastle Show 2011

What a change to see a tropical-like tree. Tropical monsoon and massive rainfall have struck northern areas. Our weather and El Nino Southern Oscillation go together.
When the Pacific Ocean in the far distant tropics around central America is warm - that is El Nino - it is associated with dry weather and years of drought around  Australia. This situation alternates with La Nina which brings clouds and rainfall to eastern Australia when the conditions reverse.
Ocean currents, trade winds and the Walker Circulation are part of this vast system over the Pacific from one sideof the ocean to the other and include, I think, the Indian Ocean.
When do extreme weather events change from variations and become so far out of ordinary to become climate change?