I had five mothers-John's Story

On the bus, I got chatting to John (not his real name) from New Zealand. He was born in Australia and in 1947 his mother (1) died. His dad was just home from the war and so his aunt in Sydney sent dad on his own to New Zealand to recover from the traumas. Two years later John followed but lived with another aunt for a year before rejoining his dad who had remarried. This mum (2) died about ten years later and after a suitable time his dad married the nurse (3) who had cared for her during her illness. She in turn got melanoma and was dead three years later. After a suitable time his dad married a widower (4) who lived next door. Before his dad died he told John that he had been adopted (5)! As Zig and Zag would say:
“It’s a funny old Rock and Roll world!”

Mount Connor

About an hour before Uluru (Ayers Rock) we stopped to observe a rock that is the same height as Uluru but has a much bigger base. It looked blue/grey in colour but was on private land so we had to be content with some photos from the roadside some miles away. It looks like Uluru and it feels like Uluru but it is not Uluru.

Australian Camels

We stopped at Stuarts Well Camel Farm for some refreshments and I bit the bullet and took a camel ride. My minder was a gal from Sweden. I asked her how many camels there are in Sweden and she not surprisingly replied that there were none. I tried to persuade her to start a camel farm there but she was not having any of it. Pity, I think that it could be the next big thing in Sweden! Funny how I spent four years in Saudi Arabia and I had to come to Australia for my first camel ride.

The next time you see me remind me to tell you the story of the fellow who lost his camel on O connell Street.
Did you know that there are huge numbers of camels in Central Australia? Harry brought the first one in, in 1846 from the Canaries that great camel breeding ground. The first camel was a contrary SOB so Harry decided to shoot him. While holding the loaded gun he was nudged by the camel, the gun went off and blew away two of Harry’s fingers. As he was in the outback far from medical attention, gangrene soon set in. Harry died, thus becoming the only man that was ever shot dead by a camel!
Anyway many camels were imported in particular to help with the laying of the overland telegraph. Explorers and gold miners also used them. By 1920 there were around 20,000 in harness. By then there were cars and the Ghan Train Line had been built signalling the end of their era. They all got the hump and stormed off into the desert-only kidding! They were let free and now there are 1.25 million of them doing terrible damage to the vegetation. Apparently they eat trees so the Government are employing people to round them up in helicopters and shoot them. It is causing controversy here as they are being left to rot after being shot. The ones closer to civilisation are being exported live and butchered for their meat which is then exported to Morocco, but the rest are too far away for this to be viable. At the end of the day they estimate that they will cull about 300,000 which means that the number will soon be back up to 1.25 million.

The Alice to The Rock

Wed. 28th: Up at six and on the road at ten to seven. There were only fifteen of us on the bus as we set off on our six hour journey. The first thing I noticed about N.T. (Northern Territory) was that the speed limit is 130 km. Up until recently there was no limit until there was a bad accident during a ‘Cannonball Run’. I saw quite a few road trains some three and some four carriages long but none more than 55m.
The place is very un-desert like due to the rains. There was water flowing in most of the rivers and everywhere was so green. In a normal year they would expect to get 70 mls of rainfall but so far this year they have had 570mls! There was a noticeable absence of road-kill as the animals do not need to come close to the road to get the nice grass. We even saw two tractors cutting the verges! Seemed a little pointless as there was hardly a house within 100k. When we asked the bus driver why she replied:
“…because they can! It has been ten years since they have had that novelty.” Another highlight of our day was the two (and only) right turns we had to make. Other than that it was all straight ahead. We had plenty of stops for photos and food so the journey was not long in passing.
We passed through two or three cattle ranches each about 2,500 square miles in area. They supported about 8,000 head of cattle. Gives you an idea of the scale of the place.

Signs from Alice

Leave a comment if you can make sense of the above.

Alice Springs

Tue. Sept 27th: At last some heat though there was much evidence of recent rain in the greenness of the land and the puddles of water. Strange to have heat in the mid-twenties accompanied by a ‘cool breeze’. Alice Springs has grown from 125 years ago when it was just a station on the Overland Telegraph Line to a small town which now has about 28,000. 2,000 of these are Americans who have a secret base at Pine Gap a few miles outside the town. I could tell you what they do if it wasn’t a secret! You can see the Yanks driving their left-hand drive cars in town. 33% of the population is what my Canadian friends call First Generation. They are more in evidence here than anywhere I have been in Australia. The money they get from the Federal Government is called ‘Sit Down Money’ and you can see a lot of them doing just this in Alice. They call it ‘The Alice’ here and it is the main jump-off point for ‘The Rock’. It very easy to get around. I stayed at The All Seasons which has four stars because of the swimming pool which was being refurbished: I would have swum but there you go. The rest of it is a little ‘tired’ but it is clean and breakfast is included! I was able to walk to the Old Gaol and RFDS. The former was nothing spectacular except it had a ‘National Pioneer Women’s Hall of Fame’. This celebrates the first European women to brave the elements in the Outback up to 170 years ago. What they had to endure before ‘civilisation’ came in greater numbers was awe-inspiring. Sisters were doing it for themselves long before the song was written. The latter is The Royal Flying Doctor Service: you have seen the TV show. They bring medical aid to isolated communities in an area within 600km radius of Alice. An area as big as Western Europe is serviced by medical aircraft and radio consultancy.
I hired a bike for the afternoon and rode into town. It was only about five minutes away. Got some souvenirs and postcards and visited Anzac Hill which has panoramic views of the rugged Mc Donnell Ranges. Went for something to eat and found an Internet Café before returning for the sunset. I had to get off the bike as the hill was a little steep and then by the time I got to the top the sun had set. Other than that it was a great day. Early to bed as I have been up since four this morning and have to get up at six tomorrow. I will need a holiday to recover from this lark!

The Brownlow Medal

Monday Sept. 26th

Drove to Melbourne to stay in the Quality Hotel. $115 for the night with a free shuttle bus to Airport and able to leave my car there for four days for only $20. Good value when it would have cost me $99 in the Long Term Car Park. Have an early start so intended to go to bed very early. Unfortunately started watching the voting for the Brownlow Medal.

Each round, and there were 22 of them, the umpires vote on the three best players each match. The best on ground gets 3 and the others 2 and 1. The voting is like the Eurovision or like it used to be when somebody gave a toss. This was riveting viewing, the voting being interspersed with great moments in footy this year and in years gone by. At the halfway stage the favourite, Dane Swan (Collingwood) was way down the list, as was Gary Ablet (Geelong) the second favourite. Chris Judd (Carlton) took the early lead which was amazing considering he was suspended for the first three games. The players and their girlfriends/wives/partners were all sitting around dinner tables like it was the GAA Allstars. Setanta got one vote and Tadhg got two.
Jim Stynes was especially honoured. They showed clips of his career for five full minutes. They even had clips of him as a teenager playing for the Dubs. He had won the Brownlow in 1991 but he has done such great work for charity (The Reach Foundation) since then. He holds the record of the most unbroken competitive games over ten years. He has had cancer recently and continues to inspire those around him. He was elected Melbourne Person of the Year recently. “Many sports people inspires greatness but Jimmy fosters it.” He appeared at the ceremony to accept a special award and got a standing ovation which went on and on, from everyone in the hall. He still has the Dublin accent and he spoke very well. You could hear a pin drop in the hall everyone hung on every word. Twenty minutes all about Jim. He was given nine months to live fourteen months ago. Scary. Huge moment. I shed a little tear. His mantra: Do whatever it takes! WOW!
Some of the commentators there said that his story is the greatest story in the history of football.
Dane Swan was two votes behind with four rounds to go, Chris Judd was still leading. He is a class player who has already won the medal in 2004. He eventually won with 30 votes, Gary Ablet was second with 26 and the favourite Dale Swan was third with 24 votes. Chris mentioned Jim Stynes and his achievements as being greater than what any footballer does. Great excitement. Who needs the Eurovision?!