Garden watering advice & native plants

March 2nd, 2010

Yuruga Native Plant Nursery, at Walkamin on the Atherton Tableland ( far north Queensland), has the most sensible garden watering advice I’ve read. Watering plants thoroughly but as infrequently as possible would seem like common sense, to encourage healthy root growth (and thus, drought and wind-tolerate plants) and avoid wasting water. Unfortunately with shrinking backyards, […]

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Dumping Nuclear Waste in the Bush & BNI

February 28th, 2010

Read the latest on government intentions to dump nuclear waste in the bush at the ‘Beyond Nuclear Initiative’ (BNI) blog. Depressing stuff, and indicative of how our Federal Government views remote Australia. Logically, nuclear waste should be stored as close to where it is created as possible, to minimise transport distances and associated spillage and […]

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Beef importation from countries with BSE (‘Mad Cow’ disease)

February 26th, 2010

Who voted for a Government so utterly stupid, that they have decided to relax Food Safety rules and allow the importation of beef from countries that have had BSE (Bovine spongiform encephalopathy – otherwise known as ‘mad cow disease’)? No Australians have been inflicted with the BSE-related variant of Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (vCJD) and no Australian […]

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‘Iconic landscapes’ – another exercise in wasting taxpayer’s money

February 26th, 2010

Today I stumbled upon ‘Iconic Landscapes’.Quoting the home page: “A group of researchers representing the Sciences and Arts at the University of Sydney have been funded by the University’s Institute for Sustainability to conduct a study looking at how communities value the environment and understand local environmental challenges and their options to overcome them.They are […]

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Bronco Branding Competitions in the outback

February 24th, 2010

If you are travelling through the outback this year and would like to see Australia’s unique sport – bronco branding – then visit the Bronco Branding Australia website for some dates of upcoming bronco branding competitions. At present there is a Queensland and South Australian Bronco Branding Association. Most bronco branding competitions are held in […]

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Escalating rural property prices & Qld’s Channel Country

February 17th, 2010

I stumbled upon an excellent piece on AgMates on the history of many channel country families and management of sheep and cattle stations in the far south-western corner of Queensland – the country south and west of Quilpie. Well worth a read. In the AgMates article, David Edwards, Quilpie Mayor, is quoted frequently. One of […]

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The ‘Big Lorry Blog’ – road transport

February 11th, 2010

Anyone interested in trucks, transport or machinery generally must visit the Big Lorry Blog. There are photographs and information on road transportation of all shapes and sizes, old and new. Lots of quirky machines and oddities. It is a UK website edited by Brian Weatherley, however there are photos and information from all over the […]

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Townsville meatworks & the live export trade

February 9th, 2010

There are rock-throwers who periodically accuse the live export trade of being a threat to the only remaining meatworks in northern Australia – the JBS-owned meatworks at Townsville. For example some people who regularly write in to the Townsville Bulletin, bagging the live export trade. Such criticisers clearly need a lesson in basic economics (if […]

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Fernleigh Farms & The Diggers Club – real environmentalists

February 3rd, 2010

‘Pretend’ environmentalists are now as thick as fleas on a dog’s back – people who have just jumped on the bandwagon in the last 5 minutes because it’s fashionable. They now feel really good because they use those green synthetic shopping bags and buy their garbage bags, instead of using the free supermarket plastic shopping […]

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Rice paddy art in Japan

January 28th, 2010

Rice has been grown in Japan for more than 2,000 years – it is a revered crop which was once even used as currency. In 1993 some clever farmers in the town of Inakadate came up with the idea of using different varieties of rice plants, with different coloured leaves, to create pictures. Others have […]

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