Australians (and John) Only Thread

[Spike]

35 minutes ago, Toinho said:

That’s similar to my Pakistani hierarchy list except it’s empty. 

The indian list however, is a marvel to behold. Many people highly rated.

[Spike]

My favourite Indian is a fella that goes by the name of 'Lamb Vindaloo', absolute cracker of a bloke, especially when he is knocking about with his mate Naan, and Basmati, and Lager.

[CaaC (John)+]

Travel wise in Aussie with me is all over Victoria where I grew up and then it's Freemantle, Adelaide, Sydney & Queensland (Surfers Paradise), I travelled all over Victoria from Ballarat, Bendigo, the Dandenong Ranges, Daylesford and the Corio Bay area in Geelong, I loved it and most of the travelling I did was either by foot, bike or Ship, Train & Bus.

[Azeem]

6 hours ago, Spike said:

The indian list however, is a marvel to behold. Many people highly rated.

Banjo Patelson ?

Edited April 16, 2020 by Azeem

[CaaC (John)+]

Typical 'Fair Dinkum' Aussie. 

 

 

[Danny]

This may amuse @Toinho due to the boner I used to have for Sydney but me and the missus have been thinking about moving to Melbourne instead of Auckland in a few years 

[DeadLinesman]

We’re contemplating the move. There’s just one massive problem with Perth though.

[Danny]

2 minutes ago, DeadLinesman said:

We’re contemplating the move. There’s just one massive problem with Perth though.

TFF live together in Melbourne 

[Stan]

7 minutes ago, DeadLinesman said:

We’re contemplating the move. There’s just one massive problem with Perth though.

It's fine. He goes to Japan regularly enough (apparently) so he's barely in Perth  

[Toinho]

11 hours ago, Danny said:

This may amuse @Toinho due to the boner I used to have for Sydney but me and the missus have been thinking about moving to Melbourne instead of Auckland in a few years 

How come? 

10 hours ago, DeadLinesman said:

We’re contemplating the move. There’s just one massive problem with Perth though.

We would probably have an affair wouldn’t we? 

10 hours ago, Stan said:

It's fine. He goes to Japan regularly enough (apparently) so he's barely in Perth  

Haven’t been for over a year  

[Danny]

7 hours ago, Toinho said:

How come? 

We’ve been pretty set on moving back to that side of the world but the last year or two we’ve been fairly set on Auckland. But Melbourne is just a bit bigger and offers more whilst we’re still fairly young...and tbh Auckland was the opposite of Sydney in a lot of ways which is a reason why we liked it so much as we both loved Sydney but living there always felt a bit off at times and from visiting Melbourne to speaking to people about it Melbourne feels like what we liked about Auckland and the opposite of what we disliked about Sydney.

I’d miss Sydney’s beaches but I don’t need amazing beaches to get by, Melbourne has some nice ones that’d do the job. Outside of that I’m not massively a beach person in that I’d move somewhere just for them and when I was in Melbourne it just felt right to be there, great restaurants and bars, millions of sporting events, the comedy festival. Just felt like there was more balance there.

I think if we were to move to Melbourne and it didn’t work out then Auckland would be a backup plan that would be fairly spot on.

[SchalkeUK]

Lots of nice plus thoughts about the place - My greatest achievement - signing Wally Lewis in the 80's to play for us in the UK.  Time with young James Mason when he was getting settled in 'Neighbours' before moving over here . Sitting with a young cricketer in Chennai as he was beginning to get the rest of the world looking at him and now seeing him captain the Green Hat brigade.  Back to Melbourne with young Chris and old Bill as they filmed the Pirate Movie.  First time in Melbourne in 1959 when I visited the Aussie DSB re work!

The wife and I will try and get there next year before we get too old to travel that distance, but would love to add NZ to the trip and do the whole antipodes!

[CaaC (John)+]

1 hour ago, Danny said:

I think if we were to move to Melbourne and it didn’t work out then Auckland would be a backup plan that would be fairly spot on.

I've heard from family still out there that Melbourne has changed a lot since I was there and in Victoria in general, there was still a lot of bush areas outside Melbourne in the '60s & '70s but now new suburbs have been built stretching out if I had a choice between Melbourne (Victoria) and another state then it would have to be Queensland and Surfers Paradise, went there in the late '60 or early '70 I think it was and I loved it, I wasn't married then and free as the wind.     

[Toinho]

2 hours ago, Danny said:

We’ve been pretty set on moving back to that side of the world but the last year or two we’ve been fairly set on Auckland. But Melbourne is just a bit bigger and offers more whilst we’re still fairly young...and tbh Auckland was the opposite of Sydney in a lot of ways which is a reason why we liked it so much as we both loved Sydney but living there always felt a bit off at times and from visiting Melbourne to speaking to people about it Melbourne feels like what we liked about Auckland and the opposite of what we disliked about Sydney.

I’d miss Sydney’s beaches but I don’t need amazing beaches to get by, Melbourne has some nice ones that’d do the job. Outside of that I’m not massively a beach person in that I’d move somewhere just for them and when I was in Melbourne it just felt right to be there, great restaurants and bars, millions of sporting events, the comedy festival. Just felt like there was more balance there.

I think if we were to move to Melbourne and it didn’t work out then Auckland would be a backup plan that would be fairly spot on.

Not been to Auckland but surely from a job perspective and the $ Melbourne is a viable option. All the best in the preparations! I’d come visit you. Haven’t been to Melbourne since around 2011.

[Danny]

15 minutes ago, Toinho said:

Not been to Auckland but surely from a job perspective and the $ Melbourne is a viable option. All the best in the preparations! I’d come visit you. Haven’t been to Melbourne since around 2011.

Yeah there’d be more opportunity in Melbourne but Auckland is decent for jobs, busier than you’d think for a city that small. Found it much easier to find work in Auckland than I did Perth for example

[Toinho]

1 hour ago, Danny said:

Yeah there’d be more opportunity in Melbourne but Auckland is decent for jobs, busier than you’d think for a city that small. Found it much easier to find work in Auckland than I did Perth for example

Interesting! What kind of jobs would you both be looking at? Something to do with acrobatics? 

[Danny]

1 hour ago, Toinho said:

Interesting! What kind of jobs would you both be looking at? Something to do with acrobatics? 

Acrobatics is in my heart, I don’t think I could make it my 9-5. I’m planning to study something along the lines of social work so it’ll be a good degree/job to get a visa for. 

[CaaC (John)+]

Australia's oldest and much-loved hippopotamus Brutus dies at Adelaide Zoo

Zookeepers in Adelaide are farewelling one of their biggest and most popular attractions — the much-loved hippopotamus Brutus, who was euthanased this morning at the age of 54.

The hippo was one of the largest and longest-standing residents at Adelaide Zoo, which said he was the oldest hippo in Australia before his death.

He was euthanased by zoo staff this morning after his health condition deteriorated.

Adelaide Zoo said he lived well beyond the average lifespan of a hippo, and nothing more could be done to improve his quality of life.

"Brutus was unable to hold off the advance of time and our latest aged-animal assessment revealed that there was nothing else that could have been done to improve the quality of his life," Zoos SA chief executive Elaine Bensted said.

"Due to his advanced years, and concerns that age-related conditions were likely to cause him further discomfort over the winter period, veterinary staff and keepers made the extremely difficult but kind decision to euthanase."

Adelaide Zoo is currently closed because of coronavirus.

"We know people from all over South Australia would ordinarily come into the zoo to pay their respects to Brutus, however in the current climate of social distancing, we've had to think of new ways for the public to farewell and celebrate our animals from afar," Ms Bensted said.

"That's why we're asking the public to celebrate Brutus's life at home by enjoying a slice or two of watermelon, one of his favourite foods.

"We will all miss him greatly and he will never be forgotten."

Brutus's female partner Susie died in 2017 at the age of 49 and, at the time, was the oldest female hippopotamus in captivity.

Adelaide Zoo also has a pygmy hippopotamus called Obi.

Brutus was born at Sydney's Taronga Zoo in 1965 and moved to Adelaide Zoo in 1975.

[Devil-Dick Willie]

Now I am the oldest Aussie hippo 

[CaaC (John)+]

24 minutes ago, Devil-Dick Willie said:

Now I am the oldest Aussie hippo 

 

Devil-Dick Willie

[CaaC (John)+]

World's largest kangaroos, wombats, and marsupials lions once roamed Australia, fossils reveal

Palaeontologists have discovered the remains of what could be the largest kangaroo to have ever walked the earth: a massive marsupial which stood at seven meters tall and weighed around 274kg – approximately half as much as a grizzly bear but three-times as much as the average kangaroo.

Researchers from the Queensland Museum and the Australian Research Council also found fossil records of at least 12 other species of enormous animals – called megafauna – including five reptilian mega predator crocodiles which could grow to up to seven metres, and the world’s largest wombats.

A marsupial lion called "Thylacoleo" was also discovered by scientists. This is a carnivorous “pouch lion” which could weigh around 130kg. Pound-for-pound, the Thylacoleo Carnifex had the strongest bite of any mammal – living or extinct.

The animals were discovered in an area near Mackay, located on Australia’s eastern coast, called South Walker Creek. It is the youngest megafauna site in Northern Australia, with the huge animals only going extinct approximately 40,000 years ago.

However, rather than humans driving the beasts to extinction, there was no evidence placing humans at the scene during the time period. Instead, “successive loss of water flow, intensified drying, increased burning and vegetation change” was the reason for the animals not existing today.

The findings, which were published in the journal Nature Communications, were conducted by Scott Hocknull, Richard Lewis, Lee Arnold, Tim Pietsch, Renaud Joannes-Boyau, Gilbert Price, Patrick Moss, Rachel Wood, Anthony Dosseto, Julien Louys, Jon Olley and Rochelle Lawrence.

This “40,000-year-old crime scene”, as described by Dr Hocknull, challenges the theory that human hunting drove the elimination of the large animals.

“The megafauna at South Walker Creek was uniquely tropical, dominated by huge reptilian carnivores and mega-herbivores that went extinct… well after humans arrived onto mainland Australia,” Dr Hocknull also said. 

Researchers used the animals’ fossilised teeth to determine their age. Chemical elements including, uranium and thorium found in the fossils, placed the giant wombats approximately 25,000 years ago.

“No doubt humans would have hunted megafauna and had it for dinner. But these new results show that humans alone didn’t drive megafauna to extinction; climate and environmental change was also a big driver,” said Professor Dosetto from the University of Wollongong.

Some of these species are newly discovered, so are yet to receive formal descriptions or scientific names.

The fossils were originally discovered in 2008 over a systematic excavation that revealed other fossils, such as tiny fish scales and huge limb bones. It was found by the Barada Barna – otherwise called the Baranha, an aboriginal tribe of northern Queensland – during a cultural heritage clearance at the site.

The site is currently operated by the mining, metals and petroleum company BHP Billiton Mitsui Coal.

“The Board of Directors from the Barada Barna Aboriginal Corporation are extremely excited that we have found the Megafauna within our traditional country,” a Barada Barna Aboriginal Corporation spokesperson for the Board of Directors said.

“The team that discovered these finds back in 2008 had no idea of how great discovery it was. With the help of the Queensland Museum, we have discovered more and more animals from that time.”

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/offbeat/worlds-largest-kangaroos-wombats-and-marsiupial-lions-once-roamed-australia-fossils-reveal/ar-BB14n5kT

[CaaC (John)+]

Western Australia hit by 'once-in-a-decade' storm

Australia's western coast is being battered by a huge storm, with strong winds buffeting the main city of Perth.

Torrential rains and waves of up to eight metres (26ft) are forecast in some areas.

The severe weather is the result of the remnants of tropical cyclone Mangga interacting with a cold front, according to the Bureau of Meteorology.

A senior official in the Department of Fire and Emergency Services (DFES) said it would be a "once-in-a-decade" storm.

"Normally our storms come from the south-west and this will come from the north-west," DFES acting assistant commissioner Jon Broomhall told journalists.

FULL REPORT

[Toinho]

4 hours ago, CaaC (John) said:

Western Australia hit by 'once-in-a-decade' storm

Australia's western coast is being battered by a huge storm, with strong winds buffeting the main city of Perth.

Torrential rains and waves of up to eight metres (26ft) are forecast in some areas.

The severe weather is the result of the remnants of tropical cyclone Mangga interacting with a cold front, according to the Bureau of Meteorology.

A senior official in the Department of Fire and Emergency Services (DFES) said it would be a "once-in-a-decade" storm.

"Normally our storms come from the south-west and this will come from the north-west," DFES acting assistant commissioner Jon Broomhall told journalists.

FULL REPORT

Have seen a fair bit of damage on social media. I’m about to go off to work so will see what it’s like in my area. 

[CaaC (John)+]

5 hours ago, Toinho said:

Have seen a fair bit of damage on social media. I’m about to go off to work so will see what it’s like in my area.

Take care buddy. 

[Toinho]

2 hours ago, CaaC (John) said:

Take care buddy. 

Wasn’t too bad. Except it was the toughest day of my school year so far. One of my students decided he didn’t want to be in the classroom and hopped literally hopped like a frog out into the blistering wind and rain. 
 

I am now on my way to a liquor store.