Australians Only Thread

[Toinho]

7 minutes ago, CaaC (John) said:

Prime Minister Scott Morrison apologizes for saying there was 'no slavery' in Australia

(CNN) - Prime Minister Scott Morrison has apologized for saying earlier this week that there was "no slavery" in Australia after his comments provoked outrage and accusations that he was ignoring the country's history of forced labour.

Speaking at a news conference in Canberra Friday, Morrison said he was referring specifically to the fact that the first Australian colony of New South Wales was set up without the widespread use of slave labour.

"My comments were not intended to give offence, and if they did, I deeply regret that and apologize for that," he said, adding that he was a passionate advocate for the rights of Indigenous Australians.

"I was simply trying to make a point that Australia, yes, we have had issues in our history, we have acknowledged them, I have acknowledged them, and we need to address them."

Morrison originally made the remarks during a radio interview on Thursday, in which he was discussing the Black Lives Matter protests in the United States and around the world, and calls to remove statues of British explorer James Cook, whose arrival in Australia paved the way for the first European colony.

"My forefathers and foremothers were on the First and Second Fleets (of convict settlers). It was a pretty brutal place, but there was no slavery in Australia," Morrison said in the interview Thursday.

FULL REPORT

 

 

Opposition party just need a semi likeable leader and you would think this clown would be voted out. But then, Australia.

 

and

@Rick it’s very popular because it’s been marketed very, very well as being the sport that makes you Aussie etc. The media pretty much only cover it in my state anyway. Rubbish game in my opinion. 

Edited June 15, 2020 by Toinho

[Harry]

On 14/06/2020 at 04:48, Rick said:

I was up early for work this morning and had the misfortune of seeing a game of Aussie rules football....do any of you wombats watch this piss?? Fucking shite. 

Not sure what you mean mate. I'm not hugely attached to it but objectively I think it's a pretty strong sport.

It's a tough game, high energy and intensity and demands incredible fitness and skill in it's players. Produces great moments which are easy on the eye and with more regularity than football.

[Rick]

37 minutes ago, Harry said:

Not sure what you mean mate. I'm not hugely attached to it but objectively I think it's a pretty strong sport.

It's a tough game, high energy and intensity and demands incredible fitness and skill in it's players. Produces great moments which are easy on the eye and with more regularity than football.

What skill does it require, really? I watched it and it just looked like a big game of hot potato. Didn’t seem to be much tactics at play other than “hoof the bastard ball”. Honestly looked like a shit game of rugby you see between a bunch of kids. 
 

No doubt you need to be athletic to play, as it looks draining physically. You have to be taking the piss with that last sentence an all

[DeadLinesman]

1 hour ago, Rick said:

What skill does it require, really? I watched it and it just looked like a big game of hot potato. Didn’t seem to be much tactics at play other than “hoof the bastard ball”. Honestly looked like a shit game of rugby you see between a bunch of kids. 
 

No doubt you need to be athletic to play, as it looks draining physically. You have to be taking the piss with that last sentence an all

AFL is fantastic. What’s wrong with the last sentence? In football, you shoot a ball between a set of posts to score. Exactly the same in AFL, but it happens more regularly, which is exactly what Harry said?

[CaaC (John)+]

I got hooked on the sport when we emigrated to Aussie land in the early '60s, went to nearly every game to watch Carlton play and I loved it, I have played rugby in my army days and played Aussie rules too when I was young and it was hard and could be brutal also, just because you kick a ball between 4 posts does not make it boring.

Football, Rugby, Hockey etc has the same sticks or goalposts where you have to score between the posts, the good things about Aussie rules is you never get a 0-0 result like some sports and some teams as we know in football can close shop or park the bus then the match becomes a boring draw.

But at the end of the day, you have to play the game to like it, watching Golf, Darts, Lawngreen Bowling etc is boring to watch for me but that does not mean I would not play the games and if I did I would more than likely enjoy playing it.

They have started to play live games on BT Sport again like they do every year and I watched a game live on Saturday morning gone and I will do the same next week right up to the finals. 

Edited June 15, 2020 by CaaC (John)

[Rick]

2 hours ago, DeadLinesman said:

AFL is fantastic. What’s wrong with the last sentence? In football, you shoot a ball between a set of posts to score. Exactly the same in AFL, but it happens more regularly, which is exactly what Harry said?

If that’s what he meant then fair enough, but I read it as it produces more great moments than football...which I find hard to believe. 
 

At the end of it all though, each to their own. I personally do not care one bit for it, but appreciate that plenty do since it’s massive. 
 

Also, way to make it seriously you pack of bastards...I was only poking fun to start with. I hate having to defend myself when I have no argument!!

Edited June 15, 2020 by Rick

[Toinho]

Can I just correct everyone as AFL isn’t the name of the sport. It’s like saying, hey EPL is a fantastic sport. 

If it was any good it would be popular around the world. No surprises John and Harry like it as they are basically Victorians. The state which breeds all the hype.

Edited June 15, 2020 by Toinho

[CaaC (John)+]

9 hours ago, Toinho said:

No surprises John and Harry like it as they are basically Victorians. The state which breeds all the hype.

True, the game was a big thing then when I was out there in the 60s & early 70s, there were 12 teams in the Aussie Rules game then, then it became interstate with Footscray (Bulldogs) moving location out of Victoria and became the Western Bulldogs, Fitzroy (Lions) moved and became the Brisbane Lions and Sth. Melbourne (Swans) moved and became the Sydney Swans, to think the Swans home ground (Albert Park) is now pulled down and an F1 circuit is now there so I believe.

Now there are 18 teams in the game out there with the Adelaide Crows, Freemantle, GWS Giants, Gold Coast Suns, Port Adelaide & West Coast Eagles joining, it's changed a hell of a lot since I was there and so has the rules but the sport has grown and they have International matches against Southern Ireland mixed playing Gaelic Football and Aussie rules, both teams playing each other swapping codes, Gaelic football is similar to Aussie rules.

They televise the games alive across here on BT Sports on a Saturday morning and sometimes on a Friday and a Sunday so the game is picking up World Wide coverage and growing, at the end of the day you love it or leave it, I prefer watching a game of Aussie Rules than watching Golf or Darts any day.

Gaelic football vs Aussie Rules: Is there a connection?   

     

 

 

 

[CaaC (John)+]

Sydney's water supply at risk because of department failure on conservation, audit finds

© Photograph: Jenny Evans/Getty Images Warragamba Dam in February 2020. An audit report has found that the department and Sydney Water did not effectively investigate, implement or support water conservation efforts in Sydney.

The New South Wales government has failed to investigate or implement water conservation measures for greater Sydney, leaving the city’s water supply vulnerable to the effects of population growth, drought and climate change, the state’s auditor has found.

The report by the NSW audit office also found Sydney Water was two years too late in increasing funding for water conservation in response to the recent drought.

The audit examined whether the state’s Department of Planning, Industry and Environment and Sydney Water had properly planned and introduced water conservation measures since 2016.

“The Department and Sydney Water have not effectively investigated, implemented or supported water conservation initiatives in Greater Sydney,” the report states.

The auditor found neither agency had met key requirements of the Metropolitan Water Plan and that Sydney Water was also failing to meet the water conservation requirements of its operating licence.

The office said there had been little effort to find new water-saving initiatives or options for funding them.

Related: NSW water officials knew decades of unmeasured floodplain harvesting by irrigators was illegal

“As a result, Greater Sydney’s water supply may be less resilient to population growth and climate variability, including drought,” the report states.

NSW Labor’s water spokesman, Clayton Barr, said the report showed the government “is currently doing absolutely nothing for water conservation”.

“Worse than that, they’ve taken money out of water conservation,” he said.

“The incompetence of not dealing with water conservation, water recycling, leaks in the pipes in our water storages will fall faster which means our water bills will be higher more often.”

The independent NSW MLC, Justin Field, said the findings were alarming.

“This is a scathing report that shows that since the Liberal/National Government was elected, it has failed on water conservation exposing Sydney residents to a greater risk of water shortages and higher prices,” he said.

“As the biggest city on the driest continent on the planet, we should be world leaders in water conservation, but under the Coalition we are failing.”

Publication of the audit comes just months after the state government eased water restrictions. Restrictions were raised to level two last year as drought pushed greater Sydney’s dam storage levels below 50%.

It also comes in the wake of a new pricing structure released by the Independent Pricing and Regulatory Tribunal that will reduce water prices from next month for Sydneysiders but bring sharp price increases the next time Sydney’s dam levels fall below 60%.

As well as finding governance around water conservation was weak, the auditor concluded:

• The department had not undertaken any detailed analysis of water conservation options since 2013.
• The department had no documented strategy for water-saving for greater Sydney, despite this being a requirement of the Metropolitan Water Plan.
• Funding for water conservation had been cut since 2012.
• Sydney Water should have developed a water conservation program in September 2017. It did not do this.
• Sydney Water’s lack of planning meant it was slow to respond to the drought.
• Investment in water conservation measures should have been increased when dam levels began to drop in 2017. Instead, extra funding did not start until May 2019 when the drought was showing serious effects across the state.
• The department has made no progress in removing regulatory barriers to water recycling and water harvesting.

The report makes several recommendations, including that the department develops clear policies on water efficiency, reuse and recycling, that Sydney Water develops a five-year plan for water conservation and that the government improve funding for water conservation, including through the state’s climate change fund.

A spokeswoman for the department said the report had identified what the department needed to do better and it would be implementing the recommendations.

She said before the report was finalised, the department recruited a chief executive with a track record in improving the efficiency of water systems.

“We are changing the way we work across the sector so we can ensure we deliver on the recommendations, including working with Sydney Water and Water NSW in the development of a new Greater Sydney Water Strategy,” she said.

She said the strategy would include a greater focus on water conservation and a range of measures to improve Sydney’s water security. The reduction in water use by consumers during the recent drought, combined with recent rainfall, meant the outlook for water supply was now more positive.

Sydney’s water storage is currently above 80%.

A spokesman for Sydney Water said the organisation acknowledged it needed to improve.

“We have already made very significant achievements in water conservation and will continue to work collaboratively with the Department of Planning, Industry and Environment on further water sector improvements including the development of the Greater Sydney Water Strategy,” he said.

“As an example, despite a 26% increase in population, we have seen the total consumption of drinking water decrease to its lowest since mandatory restrictions were introduced 17 years ago.”

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/other/sydneys-water-supply-at-risk-because-of-department-failure-on-conservation-audit-finds/ar-BB15RxWK?li=AAnZ9Ug

[Spike]

Yeah, no shit. That is what happens when the federal government treats water as a commodity to be collected and sold IN A FUCKING DESERT COUNTRY.

[Harry]

 Well said by Kevin here

[CaaC (John)+]

Lovely yesterday morning watching Aussie Rules live and my Carlton take on Essendon and beating them by a point, lovely because my brother-in-law is an Essendon supporter and I found out he was gutted and calling me all the names under the sun. 

Essendon  8-3-51
Carlton   7-10-52         

[CaaC (John)+]

This tiny lion with teeth like bolt-cutters once roamed Australia

Reconstruction of Lekaneleo roskellyae hunting in the early Miocene rainforest at Riversleigh in northwestern Queensland.

(CNN)- Researchers have discovered a new type of lion, the size of a domestic cat, with powerful flesh-cutting teeth, which roamed the earth around 24 million years ago.

Palaeontologists discovered the remains of the creature at Australia's Riversleigh World Heritage Area in Queensland, where experts have been excavating fossils by dissolving limestone rock deposits with acid for more than 40 years.

Researchers from the University of New South Wales uncovered a partial mammal's skull, and initially presumed that it belonged to the Priscileo Rauscher genus of a marsupial lion because of its teeth and size.

Marsupial lions died out 35,000 years ago and varied in size, with some as big as a modern-day African lioness, Michael Archer, professor of biological, earth and environmental science at the University of New South Wales, told CNN.

Experts studied the mammal's skull and lower jaw and noticed the animal's skull anatomy was different than what they had previously encountered in other marsupial lions.

"As we found more and better specimens at Riversleigh, we began to realize it didn't belong to that group at all. It was a new kind of marsupial that hadn't been seen before," Archer, who worked alongside lead author Anna Gillespie and Suzanne Hand, told CNN. "It was a different branch on the marsupial lion family tree," he said.

It was only by studying the creature that researchers realised how "significantly different" the animal, named Lekaneleo, was.

In a paper published in the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, researchers confirmed that the mammal was a new genus of the marsupial lion.

Lekaneleo would have been the "size of a pussycat," Archer said, but had "probably the most powerful flesh-cutting teeth that we've ever seen."

"Lekaneleo had teeth in it that are a bit like micro bolt-cutting teeth; there is nothing this animal decided to eat that it couldn't have cut into bite-size, swallowable pieces almost immediately," Archer said.

Marsupials are a group of animals commonly known as "pouched mammals," endemic to Australasia and the Americas. Koalas, kangaroos, wallabies and wombats belong to the group, which is characterized by premature birth followed by feeding the newborn from the mother's nipples.

Experts believe that Lekaneleo lived in trees, surviving on creatures including birds, snakes, possums -- and even animals the size of sheep. Although they are named "lions," researchers said the animals were more closely related to kangaroos and koalas.

Experts say that in understanding the demise of now-extinct creatures like the marsupial lion, we will have a better understanding of how climate change will affect modern-day animals.

"These are such different kinds of carnivorous mammals that they were occupying an ecological niche that nothing today is similar to," Archer told CNN.

"In a sense, it tells us how we have lost many distinctive specialized kinds of animals over time. And this is the result of climate change," he said.

"We see many of these very strange groups that don't have any living representatives, slowly disappearing. Understanding this whole relationship between environmental change and biodiversity is very important in understanding and anticipating what's going to happen now," he said.

CNN

[CaaC (John)+]

Archaeologists find ancient Aboriginal sites underwater, off the coast of Australia

One of the sites was found in the Cape Bruguieres Channel, off northwestern Australia.

(CNN)- Researchers have found the first confirmed underwater Aboriginal archaeological sites off the coast of Australia, and predict that there are many more to be discovered.

Many settlements were built in areas that were on dry land at the end of the Ice Age, when sea levels were lower but were submerged as the sea rose, according to a study published Wednesday in the journal PLOS ONE.

The Australian coast extended 100 miles farther out to sea than it does now, say a team of researchers led by archaeologist Jonathan Benjamin of Flinders University in Adelaide, so it is likely that many ancient sites are underwater.

Scientists sent divers to explore likely sites and also used a number of techniques, such as aerial and underwater remote sensing.

The study included maps of the sites.

They found two sites off northwestern Australia. The first, in Cape Bruguieres Channel, contained artefacts that are at least 7,000 years old. At the second site, Flying Foam Passage, they found a single artefact that is 8,500 years old.

Many of the artefacts had marine life growing on them, but the team were able to identify a number of worked stone tools, including two possible grinding stones.

The findings show that these exploratory techniques are useful in detecting underwater archaeological sites, said the authors, who hope they can be used to systematically recover and investigate ancient artefacts.

The team urged the Australian government to enact legislation that would protect and manage Aboriginal sites along the coastline.

"Managing, investigating and understanding the archaeology of the Australian continental shelf in partnership with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander traditional owners and custodians is one of the last frontiers in Australian archaeology," Benjamin said.

"Our results represent the first step in a journey of discovery to explore the potential of archaeology on the continental shelves which can fill a major gap in the human history of the continent," he added.

In 2016, a genomic study revealed that Aboriginal Australians are the oldest known civilization on Earth, with ancestries stretching back roughly 75,000 years.

The findings indicate Aboriginals diverged from Eurasians 57,000 years ago, following a single exodus from Africa around 75,000 years ago.

The data may show Aboriginal Australians came to the continent as early as 31,000 years ago.

• Aboriginal Australians are Earth's oldest civilization: DNA study

CNN

[Spike]

I give it ten weeks before a mining magnate anihilates it to scounge a couple of kilograms of medicore pig iron.

[Bluewolf]

Get some yellow cheese mate.... 

https://9gag.com/gag/aD4gQ1N

[CaaC (John)+]

Australian man fights off one of the world's deadliest snakes while driving on a highway

(CNN) - When a traffic officer pulled over a pickup truck on an Australian highway, he didn't expect to find one of the world's deadliest snakes inside.

The driver, a 27-year-old man identified only as "Jimmy" in a police news release published Tuesday, was heading down the Dawson Highway in the state of Queensland at 100 kilometres per hour (62 mph) when he noticed a reptile in the vehicle.

It was an eastern brown snake -- highly venomous, and responsible for the majority of snakebite deaths in Australia.

"The more I moved my legs ... it just started to wrap around me. Its head just started striking at the (driver's seat) chair, between my legs," Jimmy said in the news release.

He then used a seat belt and a nearby knife to fight it off -- while trying to stop the car.

Jimmy thought he had been bitten in the ensuing tussle, and feared for his life. Eastern brown snake bites are fast-acting and fatal, and the venom can cause paralysis and bleeding into the brain.

So Jimmy killed the snake, hit the accelerator and headed for the nearest hospital. That's when a police officer spotted his car, driving at 123 kilometres per hour (about 76 mph) and pulled him over.

The Eastern brown snake that Jimmy killed, photographed in the back of his truck in Queensland, Australia.

"A brown snake or a tiger snake is in the back of the ute (truck), I think it has bitten me, it was in the car with me," Jimmy can be heard saying as the officer pulled up, in a video released by police Tuesday. "You can feel my heart, mate."

The officer saw the dead snake lying in the back of the truck and called for help. When paramedics arrived, they determined Jimmy had not been bitten but was suffering from shock.

"It was pretty terrifying, I've never been so happy to see red and blue lights," Jimmy said in the video.

CNN

Edited July 8, 2020 by CaaC (John)

[CaaC (John)+]

The bilbies 'thriving' after a 100-year absence

The marsupial has bred in the wild in New South Wales for the first time in a century.

 

Edited July 19, 2020 by CaaC (John)

[Devil-Dick Willie]

On 16/06/2020 at 02:16, Rick said:

What skill does it require, really? I watched it and it just looked like a big game of hot potato. Didn’t seem to be much tactics at play other than “hoof the bastard ball”. Honestly looked like a shit game of rugby you see between a bunch of kids. 
 

No doubt you need to be athletic to play, as it looks draining physically. You have to be taking the piss with that last sentence an all

It's shit. True you need to be athletic. they are tall, strong and run all day, but fuck me shithouse game. No "Special" moments, to little structure. 

[Spike]

6 hours ago, Devil-Dick Willie said:

It's shit. True you need to be athletic. they are tall, strong and run all day, but fuck me shithouse game. No "Special" moments, to little structure. 

It's pretty fun to play to be honest, but fuck me there is no rhyme or reason to it, the bloody thing is the worst spectator sport in the world (I've been told TV is rubbish and live it's not bad). Hock the bastard to the bloke with the best leg and let him smash it for a six or miss for one point. It's also a dirty game, at least in rugby it's frontal contact, one can run up behind a poor prick in VFL and dig the knee into their spine to make a catch on the full.

Racist fans as well, can't have that in league half the players are Aboriginal.

Edited July 19, 2020 by Spike

[Beelzebub]

Any game that requires you to hold a ball in your hand and run to a goalpost  is a no no for me

[Spike]

Just saw a bloke that played for Richmond and came from a famous AFL family just killed himself. 

[CaaC (John)+]

17 hours ago, Spike said:

Just saw a bloke that played for Richmond and came from a famous AFL family just killed himself. 

Suffered from depression apparently, R.I.P. Shane, you ended up a great player like your father.

Watched him play for the Tigers over the years on BT Sport (Aussie Rules) here and I saw his father play in Australia, Michael Tuck, a couple of times for Hawthorn in 1971/72 before I left for the UK and he was an understudy (full-forward), for the great Hawthorn player Peter Hudson.

https://www.news.com.au/sport/afl/shane-tuck-dead-afl-club-hawthorn-confirms-greats-death/news-story/90ae4b4b2db2e271b29d43524eb41cfd

Edited July 21, 2020 by CaaC (John)

[Spike]

These people will bury me. it makes me want to join a local labor group ffs

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-07-22/queensland-koala-habitat-under-threat-development/12476108

[CaaC (John)+]

Indigenous Australians had their languages taken from them, and it's still causing issues today

CNN -"I'm Fanny Smith. I was born on Flinders Island. I'm the last of the Tasmanians."
The audio is scratchy and distorted, sounding at times like it is being spoken through a wall. Yet the voice speaking is high and proud, with long, stretched syllables in English. When she breaks into song, in her native language, it is half chant, half bluesy-spiritual.

Smith was born on the Australian island of Tasmania, in December 1834, to the Palawa people, an Indigenous population that had lived on the land for at least 34,000 years.

By the time she died in 1905, Smith was the last native speaker of her people's language.

It was one of more than 250 distinct languages spoken on the Australian continent when Europeans began arriving in the 17th and 18th centuries. Since then, colonial rules systematically stripped Indigenous peoples of their languages through English-only education policies and discriminatory practices, causing deep-rooted issues that held communities back socially and economically, and fractured their identities.....

CNN - MORE