The Dingo Fence

The Dog Fence, the worlds longest fence.

The Dingo Fence or Dog Fence is a pest-exclusion fence that was built across the south east corner of Australia during the 1880s and finished in 1885. Originally purposed and built as a rabbit proof fence which proved unsuccessful, it was however well suited to keeping out feral pigs, brumbies, kangaroos and emus. In 1914 it was converted into a dog-proof fence to keep dingoes out of the relatively fertile south-east part of the continent in order to protect the sheep flocks of southern Queensland, New South Wales and South Eastern South Australia. By 1914 dingoes and wild dogs had largely been exterminated throughout the south east.

It is one of the longest structures on the planet, and the world's longest fence. It traverses a sometimes tortuous path through the outback and stretches in total some 5,500 kilometres from Jimbour on the Darling Downs near Dalby through thousands of miles of arid outback country to the Great Australian Bight ending on a high bluff at Nundroo. Estimates of the total length of the fence vary with the consensus being somewhere between 5,200 and 5,600 kilometres total length.

The fence in Queensland is also known as the Barrier Fence or Wild Dog Barrier Fence and stretches some 2,500 kilometres. It is administered by the Department of Natural Resources and Water.

It joins the Border Fence in New South Wales, where it stretches for 584km along Latitude 29. The fence passes the point where the three states of Queensland, New South Wales and South Australia meet (Cameron's corner), where there is a brass plate on the survey monument. It is known as the Dog Fence in South Australia, where it continues a twisting course towards the ocean over another 2,500 odd kilometers.

The fence is 180cm high made of wire mesh, and extends for 30 - 50cm underground. The fence line on both sides is cleared to a 5m width. Star pickets are spaced every 9m. The wire strainers are joined with Gripples.

Sheep and cattle stations in Australia protected by the fence are often very large. While varying in size, some of these stations can be larger than some small European countries. Prior to the completion of the fence, one station alone in South Australia lost over 11,000 sheep in a year due to dingo attacks. As recently as 1991, there were reported losses on one station of 3000 sheep in a single year. Sheep farmers have fought back by using poisoning, shooting, and eventually constructing the longest fence in the world. Aerial 1080 poison bait drops are still used today.

Parts of the Dingo Fence are lit at night by 86 mm (3.4 in) cold cathode fluorescent lamps which are alternately red and white. They are powered by long life batteries which are charged by photovoltaic cells during the day. A series of gates allow vehicles to pass through the fence.

Although it is only 1.8 metres (6 feet) tall, you can make out the path of the fence across Australia due to the presence of maintenance tracks which run along both sides using google earth. A good place to pick up the fence easily using google earth is  Cameron’s corner  where the Dingo fence joins the tri-border of Queensland, New South Wales and South Australia.

Despite the fence’s age it has never been officially surveyed, so an exact path is hard to pin down. Google Earth Forum user A185F has created a placemark file which gives you a rough idea of the fence’s route and its enormous scale.

The Dingo is a survivor and the top of the food chain in the Australian outback. Believed to have been introduced some 5,000 years ago they dominate as a predator and scavenger throughout their range. Today, dingoes are legally classified as vermin and carry a bounty of $20 AUS a head. Rewards for dingoes caught on the inside (southeast) of the fence can be upwards of $500 AUS.

Although the fence has helped reduce the loss of sheep to predators, the exclusion of these predators has allowed for increased pasture competition from rabbits, kangaroos and emus. The use of poison is a common practice in Australia by lacing waterholes with chemicals. There is strong evidence that shows kangaroo and emu numbers are lower outside the fence, but this could be related to the reduced amount of man made water sources outside the fence as much as to the fences exclusion of the dogs.

Today, the rate at which feral camel are smashing down sections of the fence is fast increasing in Southern Australia. Plans for restructuring the Dog fence to be taller and electric are being considered.

Camping and Fishing on the Darling River

Our Christmas Trip "Up the River"

Our neighbours over the lane, the Bessell family, often go away to the Darling River to camp and fish and we decided to join them and head up for the week ourselves. This summer the weather has been surprisingly mild so  it was an ideal time to enjoy a visit to the river and the Menindee lakes.

After a few evenings work rearranging the back of the trusty Landrover Defender 130 I was all set. I built myself a camp kitchen with gas cooking and running water and also put a bunk deck system into the back of the Ute so we had options on where to sleep depending on the weather. 

Rather than camp in a traditional tent we set up a mosquito tent which is screen on all four sides with a roof area overhead. This proved to be the ideal outback "tent" as it allowed ample room for all our kitchen gear, fishing gear and bedding and was very quick and easy to erect and pull down. The cool breeze at night through the screening was great.

Many people in the outback use swags to bed down with but they do have a couple of disadvantages. You can't cook and eat in them away from the flies, the mattress is at best only 60mm thick and they can feel stuffy and restrictive on a hot night, even with the best ventilation arrangement. Of course if it rains really hard and sideways, the mozzie tent is next to useless, so the bunk setup in the back of the Ute was the fallback plan.

The camp kitchen was modelled on the brilliant designs of Luke from Drifta kitchens based in Gloucester NSW. I would suggest you take a look at Luke's website for some great camping ideas. http://www.drifta.com.au/  I would have purchased one of these myself but the idea was too close to the trip and the kitchen would not have been freighted out in time for the trip. Having purchased all the materials and spent the time building one myself I can happily say Luke's pricing is very reasonable indeed.

We left Broken Hill at around 2am and stopped on the way to Menindee to drop some yabbie nets in a friendly Cockie's stock dam. Sadly the yabbies were not there in the numbers we expected so we hit the road again. Bessell nailed a pair of 'roo's with the bullbar once we were back on the highway. Kangaroos are a real hazard when night driving in the outback, the best advice is to brake firmly and stay straight, swerving madly to avoid hitting a 'roo can easily get you down onto the soft shoulder of the road and result in a rollover. The best bet is to have good driving lights, back off every time you see anything remotely the shape of a 'roo near the road and stay straight. As it turned out is was pretty quite on the yabbie front for the entire week, we dropped nets in the Darling river, Lake Pamarmaroo and Lake Wetherell. We did get some yabbies and shrimp, enough for bait but not enough for a big boil up feed.

The Darling river was the highest I'd ever seen it and had a discernible flow as the water authority had opened the valve at the Block Dam to allow water to run into the river downstream of Lake Pamarmaroo.

Our usual camping spot, a rare flat sand bar on the river was 3/4 under water when we arrived and by the time we left was completely submerged. This made launching and retrieving the boat interesting as the banks of the Darling are quite steep all through this region. If you look over young Bessell's shoulder in this photo of a nice Golden Perch he landed you can see the angle of the bank clearly. This is the way the banks are for many miles along the river.

Although the yabbies and shrimp just weren't around in numbers like we'd expected the fish certainly were. I suspect the lower than usual water temperatures for this time of year and the good rains and flows through the system all this year have the yabbies dispersed into areas we just didn't get to. The Perch were fighting fit and in good condition with all of us pretty much catching our bag limit each day from the boat or banks.

As usual the Carp were a pain in the ass and prolific everywhere we went. The best Golden Perch landed for the trip was about 5 pounds on the old scale and was a good fish indeed. The bulk of the catch were around 2-3 pounds and fairly lean compared to impoundment fish like those caught in Windermere Dam near Mudgee. What the Perch gave up in size they made up for in fight and taste with many fish fried up or cooked in foil on the campfire coals and gobbled up straight from the river.

I took a small folding solar panel along on this trip and it came in really handy for charging up all our 12 volt lights, phones and batteries during our stay. A larger set of panels, a deep cycle battery and a 12 volt freezer would be a useful addition to my camping kit for the future. I took more gear this trip than ever before and mostly it was useful and worth the space. As usual I took way too much food and not enough cold drinks. Bessell took too much beer. I was really glad I quit drinking 16 years ago when I saw how crook he was the first morning out in the boat fishing in the hot sun on the river. He had lost his Akubra hat the previous night and was in a sorry state indeed. He ended up throwing up over the side while we all laughed our heads off and stirred him up relentlessly. It didn't stop him catching a bag limit though, being raised on the river he really out fished me in every situation on the Darling. His brother was equally as skillful in hooking the wily Perch. After a couple of days practise I got into the swing of things and landed some nice scrappy little Golden Perch. The Carp I caught were mercilessly dispatched by the young bloke, it is best not to return carp to the river, they are an introduced species and a pest, they compete directly with native fishes over habitat and food.

I have spent too many years catching large fish from the surf rocks and beaches where the fish literally smash the bait or lure and hook themselves with little if any effort required by the angler apart from good gear, bait and rigging decisions. A bait or lure in the right place with a natural presentation generally results in a solid hookup. The perch require a real finesse to get a hookup with local knowledge beating broader experiences on locations and species hands down. I was literally ignoring bites that I thought were just tiddler bait fish picking at my bait but which were in fact good Perch biting. This went on for a couple of days till I twigged. Even once I knew the deal, I had countless missed strikes and many fish that I did hook managed to get free by running into the cover of the fallen trees we were fishing in and wrapping my line up in a tangle in about 3 seconds flat. I fished for an average of two hours for every fish I landed, Bessell averaged about ten minutes per fish.

The young bloke landed his first Darling River Golden Perch on our last day on the river completely unassisted, I was up the bank fetching a cold drink. Needless to say he was pretty chuffed. We had already packed up the Defender at this stage, planning to leave after dinner. We knew solid rain was coming according to the reports and it had already sprinkled a bit the previous night and that morning. I winched the boat and trailer up the steep bank for Bessell just in case, after he had described to me how quickly the dry clay banks could turn into a mud slide quagmire if we got ten or twenty millimetres of rain. No sooner we got the boat up onto the flat then down it came hard. It teemed straight down for about half an hour and we were all in a mad scramble packing up. The formerly dry flat ground on top of the bank turned into a slippery sticky thick mud in minutes. My thongs weighed 2KG each and the mud was easily 100mm deep, luckily it backed off for long enough for us to finish packing. Not long after that we left in a convoy of 5 vehicles to slip and slide our way along the track off the floodplain and back to the far more stable red sand access road to the highway.

The "real" off road vehicles, including a 100 series cruiser, a Triton Ute towing the boat and my Deefer had no drama's at all with the clay track, but one of the smaller SUV type 4WD's got into real trouble, the mud was so thick and sticky the vehicles rear wheel arches soon became completely packed with clay and so the additional clay being lifted up by the rear wheels had nowhere to go. The rear quarter panels of the vehicle were being bent and forced outward. When we hit the sand road it took half an hour with a long handled shovel to remove enough of the compacted clay so the suspension and brakes could even function again. The vehicle could not do more than 40Km's an hour without bad rear end vibration and had to have the wheels removed and all the clay washed and scraped out before it could be driven on the highway.

Bessells Quintrex 3.85m boat with the Honda 30 four stroke outboard motor performed flawlessly for the entire week and although small and light it comfortably accommodates four people and all their gear for fishing up and down the river. When we got home to Broken  Hill the boat was half full of water and even had a couple of yabbies swimming around in the back amongst all the gear that had been hurriedly stacked into the boat during the downpour pack up. The only thing this great little boat lacks is a folding sun awning.

The small depth sounder was very useful enabling Bessell to put us over the deep snags where the fish were gathered with considerable accuracy.

Everything was wet and muddied and had to be washed and dryed out in the sun before it could be packed up ready for the next trip. It was pure luck that I managed to be fully packed up before the downpour as it was an unusual way for the rain to start, high grey cover with some drizzles that suddenly opened up with no noticeable front or change in the breeze. Normally in the outback you can see a solid storm front approaching from 100's of kilometers away and you get ample time to get your gear under cover or packed up. Many times a storm front will arrive with a dust storm and hard winds, thunder and lightning before the first drops even fall. When it does rain out here it rains hard generally, the ground often flash floods while it is teeming down and then an hour or so later it's all over as the storm moves through heading east and the water all just disappears.

We saw a lot of different species of birds and waterfowl during the week. Plenty of insects, ants, spiders and bugs. The mozzies and flies were light at worst which was great. Lots of kangaroos, a few emus, goannas, goats, a couple of rabbits and one drowned feral pig caught in a fallen tree snag on the river. Snakes were notorious only by their absence in general but no doubt they were around. The spider pictured here is what is locally referred to as a wolf spider and was a good size as you can see. In general the whole area was teeming with life and looked healthy and green. This was a huge change from my previous trip to the river a few years ago when it was very low and the land was dead and dusty with nothing moving apart from a billion flies in the dead dusty heat.

If you are planning a trip out to the Menindee lakes choose the season carefully and make some enquires about the state of the catchment and river, a trip to this region in a good season is a visit to an outback eden well worth the effort. A good site about the region is: http://www.menindeelakes.com All said and done this was a great week up the river and I'm looking forward to heading back again soon. The temperature never got above 35 degrees and although it was more humid than normal for the outback our campsite was shady and well placed to take advantage of the breeze. The kids all had fun playing around with the camp fire and swimming in the river and all us oldies got to forget about work for a while.

Mike's Top 15 Aussie Songs

Welcome to the Top 15 Aussie Songs page

Looking at the music of Australia and listing only 15 to go into a best of type list is bloody hard work.

These 15 were shortlisted from a list of over 60 great Australian tracks and no doubt some of you will suggest that some of those (or other) songs should have been given a top 15 spot.

Well I had to draw a line so here is the final list: Top 15 Aussie Songs!

Top 15 Aussie songs

 15 You're the voice - John Farnham

14 Reckless (don't be so) - Australian Crawl

13 What's my scene - Hoodoo Gurus

12 Holy grail - Hunters & Collectors

11 Take me back - Noiseworks

10 Need you tonight - INXS

9 Thunderstruck - AC/DC

8 Sounds of then (this is Australia) - GANGgajang

7 Beds are burning - Midnight Oil

6 Am I ever gonna see your face again - The Angels

5 You shook me all night long - AC/DC

4 Working class man - Cold Chisel

3 Great southern land - Icehouse

2 Downunder - Men At Work

1 Khe Sahn - Cold Chisel

A short 4WD trip around Broken Hill

A visit to Daydream Mine

This afternoon was very mild as far as temperatures normally go for this time of year, so after work and school my son and I decided to take a trip out of town to explore some of the tracks up around Stephens Creek catchment in the rugged hills of the Barrier Ranges. We ended up out at the abandoned settlement from the late 1800's known as Daydream mine. I amazes me how industrious these men were, that's a full blown smelter built up on the hill there and the black piles about halfway up the hill are massive mullock heaps. There is no permanent water supply here at all. They had to have been tough as nails to live and work out here in the barren ranges.

We've had a lot of rain, more than I've ever seen since we moved here to Broken Hill 5 or 6 years ago and the desert was green with good pasture as far as the eye could see. Even though there has been a great amount of rain this year Stephens Creek and all it's feeder creeks were all bone dry, the water just flash floods through these watercourses then disappears into the ground about the same time the rain stops.

The trip out and back with a bit of side track exploration included took us around 4 hours and we negotiated around forty dry soft sand creek crossings in total, along with some sections of badly water eroded track. There are scattered rocky outcrops up in these hills and we checked a few out finding quartz, mica, galena and other minerals just lying around all over the place. There was one particular spot I intend to head back too and check over with a metal detector as it had the look of classic Hill End or Sofala gold bearing creek eroded hillside.

As we were making our way back down to the Creek valley we spotted a feisty Stumpy Tail Lizard who wasn't keen on giving up his late afternoon sunning spot on the track to the Land Rover. We also saw flocks of Galahs, a large mob of Roos, a few scattered Emus including one hen with three chicks in tow, a couple of good size Feral Goat herds, one lonely rabbit and one cunning little fox who did not hang around much.

We didn't spot a single snake which surprised me for this time of year. The sheep on the station country were healthy and fat with lots of grown lambs amongst them.

The Darling River Isn't Cotton Country

The skies are brass and the plains are bare,

Death and ruin are everywhere;

And all that is left of the last year's flood

Is a sickly stream on the grey-black mud;

The salt-springs bubble and the quagmires quiver,

And this is the dirge of the Darling River.

—Henry Lawson

Mayor says river too unreliable for cotton

NICK O'MALLEY, SMH

30 Nov, 2011 04:00 AM

RON PAGE, a 15-year veteran of local politics in the far west, was once so incensed by the then premier Bob Carr's policy on the Darling River that he took to calling him the ''River Killer''. He even got some Aboriginal mates to teach him how to say it in the local language.
''The first time I met Craig Knowles he tore some strips off me,'' he says of the former Carr government minister behind the revised Murray Darling plan released yesterday.

Mr Page, 62, who is now the mayor of Menindee and was once mayor of Broken Hill, lives in a two-storey home on the banks of the Darling. Today the river is full, but still a good 10 metres below his home.

''When it gets hot, up around 45, I put a life jacket on, get into the river and float around for an hour or two,'' he said, looking down to his little jetty.

He remembers how important the river was when he was growing up poor in Broken Hill - cool and wet with plenty of fish to eat.

During the summer floods this year, he scooped fat yabbies off his front lawn and made his way to the road into town in his tinnie, easily clearing the fences on the way.

But he knows not to trust the water and thinks that, at best, the new plan is a good start. ''A lot of people have gone broke on this river, and they always will because this river, it's natural state is not reliable,'' he said.

Over the years, Mr Page has been shouted down at shire council conferences for his views on water allocations.

''I'd be the only bloke in the room who was not an irrigator and I would tell them 'you won't have to worry about money soon because there is going to be no water left'.''

''One mayor once said to me the only environmental flows I want to see are ones flowing straight over my property.''

Mr Page believes the Murray-Darling can sustain food production but not crops like cotton.

Later in the afternoon, he sat in the nearby front room of Evelyn and Harold Bates. Evelyn, 73, is an elder of the Barkandji river people. The three of them discuss the river they remember from their childhoods.

''The water would be so clear you could see schools of fish swimming about in it,'' Mr Page said.

Mr Bates remembers the duck weed that floated on the surface and the water spiders running about. ''You don't see many water spiders any more.''

His wife remembers the cod and the catfish.

''I haven't seen a catfish for years, maybe 10 years.

''A bloke caught one in his dinner break.''

Running high and fast yesterday, the Darling was the colour of clay and full of carp.

Rugby World Cup 2011 winners!

Congratulations to the New Zealand ALL BLACKS:

World champions, having defeated France to secure the Rugby World Cup 2011.

A nation of 4 million produces a team of men to defeat the best in the world, it's a real life Cinderella story, I am overjoyed as is the whole Nation of New Zealand, no doubt!

Aussie Kids Learn Morals and Ethics in the Home

A typical Australian Kid learning right from wrong:

A young mother was working in the kitchen listening to her son playing with his new electric train in the living room. She heard the train stop and her son said, "All of you sons of bitches who want off, get the hell off now, cause this is the last stop! And all of you sons of bitches who are getting on, get your asses in the train, cause we're going down the tracks."

The mother went in and told her son, "We don't use that kind of language in this house. Now I want you to go to your room and you are to stay there for TWO HOURS. When you come out, you may play with your train, but I want you to use nice language."

Two hours later, the son comes out of the bedroom and resumes playing with his train. Soon the train stopped and the mother heard her son say, "All passengers who are disembarking the train, please remember to take all of your belongings with you. We thank you for riding with us today and hope your trip was a pleasant one. We hope you will ride with us again soon."

She hears the little boy continue, "For those of you just boarding, we ask you to stow all of your hand luggage under your seat. Remember, there is no smoking on the train. We hope you will have a pleasant and relaxing journey with us today." As the mother began to smile, the child added, "For those of you who are pissed off about the TWO HOUR delay, please see the bitch in the kitchen."

Hang on real tight Mate, don't let bloody go!

About 2003 in the summer, just before Christmas, we went to the Waimate rodeo in the South Island, New Zealand. My young bloke James won the sheep riding event!

Sadly there is no photo or video of the epic ride I was too busy chasing the bloody sheep hoping I could catch him if he fell hard, but the crowd cheered and roared and the boy hung on for dear life I'll tell ya.


A lad with a streak of stubborn tenacity...

If he can approach problems in life as he grows older with the same level of stubborn tenacity as he displayed riding that daggy old sheep, I reckon He'll do good.

He won prize money of $NZ 12.50, that's almost enough to buy a can of coke once ya convert it to $AU!

Edit: He also scored a pocket full of wool, he ripped that out of the sheeps back when he finally fell off.




A proud Father...

Mate, I was seriously proud of him that day. I think it's probably every Father's ideal to watch his boy grow up to display stoic courage in the face of fear.

I Have watched James come to terms with bullies at school with the same quite determination he displayed at that rodeo since. He is certainly well on track to grow up to be a knock about bloke just like his old man.

Australia is the last bastion of that kind of toughness in our modern world and I reckon it will serve our nation well to raise our sons to be stand up individuals. We face an uncertain future as a nation and it will be the task of our kids to carry us through.


Turbulence!


Here's a tale of Billy Hayes from out near Alice Springs,

A wild young ringer in is day who done some crazy things.

He'd jumped bulls over fences, raced a colt up Ayers Rock,

See, his legs weren't built for walking they were made for riding stock.

A legend round the rodeos from Aileron to Broome....

Chainsaw

The toughest bull of em all.

Chainsaw was the wildest ride of 'em all. This Brahman bull developed an almost cult following on the Australian rodeo circuit and he even stars in a great country and western song!

The best information I could find about chainsaw comes fromMechanicalbullhire.com.au

"The most famous Brahman Bull in Australian Rodeo history is Chainsaw. Chainsaw had an expansive career of over 10 years on the circuit. Being one of the toughest and roughest bulls to ride, only nine cowboys were ever successful on Chainsaw. The King Brahman Bull had a very impressive record.

Chainsaw won Australia's Bull of the year a world record of eight times from 1987 to 1994 becoming a legend in rodeo and bull riding circuit around Australia.

Chainsaw had a unique a powerful bucking style that was hard to track and predict and even though Chainsaw was not a large bull, these abilities made it difficult for cowboys to ride.

Cowboys tried to study Chainsaw movements without success, Chainsaw had the ability to shift direction and do whatever it takes to throw the rider to the ground.

Chainsaw was notorious for a sideways jump with all four feet out to one side and turning back to the right all at the same time. This manoeuvre was almost impossible for left handed cowboys and made it difficult to anticipate the next move. With each successful buck, Chainsaw has an added personality by taking a swipe at the failed cowboy and charge to the middle of the pit before doing a victory lap in front of an chanting crowd.

A minute silence was given to Chainsaw when he passed, this reflected the respect he had received from the Rodeo Crowds and Cowboys. Today there has been no other Bull that has matched this famous King Brahman Bull."

Does it upset you to see animals treated like that?

Rodeo's are about skill. Riding skill. There is no better man on a station than the one who can toss a bullock or break a wild horse every time, quickly and without any fuss or muss. The stockmen of the Australian outback are a dying breed, this work is way too hard, hot and dusty for the kids of today.

That's a shame, for the character this work builds in a young man is incredibly valuable. Staunch, stoic perseverance in the face of any hardship. It's a very big part of what it means to be from the bush, to be Australian.

What do you think, are rodeo's cool or cruel?

Living in a World of Technical Innovation, be Happy, be Aware of the Risks.

Some thoughts about technology and the way it has enhanced our lives: How technology has grown, It's usefulness and the associated risks.

For all of us, there is little doubt that computers have enhanced our lives. The ability to jump online and do a google search on any topic that interests us has been useful to say the least. The internet has opened up the world to so many of us and the possibilities are nearly endless. The only real limitation now is our imagination.

I know for myself, I would not have been able to start writing without the tools the internet has freely given me. I would not have online friends in over 20 foreign countries and my point of view would be far narrower without computer technology. Facebook, although becoming invasive and controlling lately, has smashed down the barriers of distance, language and nationality and without it and online forums, interactive websites and voip technology there is no way I could keep up the level of contact I have with my extensive family and friends network.

I have ridden the wave from the outset. I first got into computers at the age of 16. My first computer was a Sinclair ZX81 which was basically a 1/2 size keyboard with a cassette tape drive and ran BASIC as an operating system. It had no monitor, the output had to be jacked into the TV for visual display. I would write my own code and back it up to cassette tape in order to do things. This little machine let me play my home grown versions of asteriods and moon lander in all their line rendered glory at home and saved me money I would have fed into arcade machines otherwise.

  

I learned early about the rapid pace of development in computer technology. The Sinclair was replaced by an Amstrad, which in turn was replaced by my first "real" PC a 286 IBM with two 5 1/4" floppy disk drives. This machine was my first to get connected online. The internet didn't exist back then beyond military and university uses. I used a 1200 baud modem to connect to BBS sites. Bulletin Board Systems were incredible openings into a world of (mostly useless) information. I was hooked!

The 286 was replaced by a 386 these early machines ran DOS, then a 486 which ran windows 3.0 my first windows machine. My first Pentium machine was also the first connection via dial up to the internet. I was online with a vast community of nearly 2 million users! I had my first system failures due to computer virus activity that same year, it was 1994. The internet has of course grown a little since then. The figures released in March 2011 have pegged 2.0195 Billion users online now, that's around 30% of the population of the planet.

Our home is very connected now, running a high speed broadband connection wirelessly serving two very high spec desktops and a 2nd gen i5 Toshiba laptop as well as a Nexus S google smartphone running the latest Android system. My 12 year old son is completely computer literate and I am still pushing the boundaries of available technology every day. I have dealt with over 200 varieties of computer virus, trojan and worm attacks and our systems are seriously secured with firewalls, software and hardware gates.

I have seen, personally dealt with or read about every hack, scam , rort, conjob, and bullshit business opportunity there has ever been online. They never ever stop. Every day new people get online who think that they can selfishly use this technology for personal gain while they safely hide behind their keyboards.

Facebook is a breeding ground for these amateur con artists and sadly it is also the first point of contact for so many of my extended family. 

A word of advice for those who care to listen: Never trust anyone online. Never click on email attachments. Never let third party software, applications or executable (.exe ) code run on your machine without sussing it out thoroughly first. Never stick a flash drive into your network and copy files without scanning them first. Assume from the outset that anything from outside your system is already compromised. Act accordingly.

Enough doom and gloom, In general your online experience will be full of fun, learning and exploring the infinite possibilities of this technology bounded only by our collective imaginations. The whole world is at your fingertips, literally, and there is no conceivable limit to what you can create, achieve, see or do here!

As a parting shot for this little article I'll leave you with this:

At a recent computer expo (COMDEX), Bill Gates reportedly compared the computer industry with the auto industry and stated, 'If Ford had kept up with technology like the computer industry has, we would all be driving $25 cars that got 1,000 miles to the gallon.'

In response to Bill's comments, Ford issued a press release stating:

If Ford had developed technology like Microsoft, we would all be driving cars with the following characteristics:

1. For no reason whatsoever, your car would crash.........Twice a day.
2. Every time they repainted the lines in the road, you would have to buy a new car.
3. Occasionally your car would die on the freeway for no reason. You would have to pull to the side of the road, close all of the windows, shut off the car, restart it, and reopen the windows before you could continue. For some reason you would simply accept this.
4. Occasionally, executing a maneuver such as a left turn would cause your car to shut down and refuse to restart, in which case you would have to reinstall the engine.
5. Macintosh would make a car that was powered by the sun, was reliable, five times as fast and twice as easy to drive - but would run on only five percent of the roads.
6. The oil, water temperature, and alternator warning lights would all be replaced by a single 'This Car Has Performed An Illegal Operation' warning light.
7. The airbag system would ask 'Are you sure?' before deploying.
8. Occasionally, for no reason whatsoever, your car would lock you out and refuse to let you in until you simultaneously lifted the door handle, turned the key and grabbed hold of the radio antenna.
9. Every time a new car was introduced, car buyers would have to learn how to drive all over again because none of the controls would operate in the same manner as the old car.
10. You'd have to press the 'Start' button to turn the engine off.

P.S. - I'd like to add that when all else fails, you could call "customer service" in some foreign country, most likely India, and be instructed on how to fix your car, yourself!

Snake! What to do, What not to do.

We have a snake at our place right now, somewhere...

Eastern Brown Snake

Yesterday afternoon a lady visiting our neighbor over the road knocked on the door and let us know she had spotted a brown snake sunning itself in our driveway as she drove up to park opposite. Of course the snake sensed the vibration of the approaching vehicle and made itself scarce straight away. 

I have no idea where it is now but there were some worthwhile things to do around the place to lower the risk for us and our neighbors.

I've been keeping an eye out for him but haven't spotted him yet. Based on the description I've got him figured for either an Eastern Brown or a King Brown snake.

This morning early I got out the beast, my big 4 stroke motor mower, and attacked all the salt bush and undergrowth along the drive, in the native plant quarter of the yard and down the bottom of the back yard. Chances are if he was still around this morning he's long gone now. Snakes don't like noise much. I fixed the side fence up to give him less ways to get about the place and generally tidied up the yard to remove any nice snake hiding places.

We have double blocks either side of our place that are fairly overgrown with salt bush, native grasses and wildfowers so I suspect he's been camped out on the left side property as there is water there and an old derilict cottage to give him a place to hunt mice and nesting birds.

The do's and the don'ts of snakes:

There are some simple enough rules to follow with snakes. Do stand still when you spot one. They have a really short memory and will soon forget you are there. If you've got a camera with you now is a great time to grab a shot but don't try to get closer or move around to get a better angle.

Don't try to hit him with a stick or a broom. Don't chuck things at him trying to kill him or scare him away. A snake will not just rock up to you and bite you. He will bite you if you give him a reason. Don't try to pick him up. Back away from the snake very slowly after you have stood still for a couple of minutes and leave him well enough alone. He's not interested in you he's just getting some sun or looking for prey or water.

A good Australian Snake website, including some stories about snakebite: http://www.outback-australia-travel-secrets.com/australian_snakes.html#whatshouldido

Common or Eastern Brown Snake Pseudonaja textilis The Brown Snake may be found all over Australia. It has extremely potent venom, and although the quantity of venom injected is usually small, this snake causes more snakebite deaths in Australia than any other. Sudden and relatively early deaths have been recorded. Its venom causes severe coagulation disturbances, neurotoxicity, and occasionally nephrotoxicity (by a direct action of the venom), but not rhabdomyolysis. The Gwardir is also known as the Western Brown snake, and the Dugite is a spotted brown snake found in Western Australia. All need brown snake antivenom. See also Venom Supplies brown snake pages, AVRU brown snake info (Eastern Brown, Dugite, Gwardar, and treatment, Australian Reptile Park, Wikipedia. Some more local pics: Eastern (Common) Brown Snake - Pseudonaja textilis (36K jpeg) Western Brown Snake (Gwardir) - Pseudonaja nuchalis (18K jpeg) Dugite - Pseudonaja affinis (59K jpeg)

King Brown or Mulga snake Pseudechis australis

The king brown (or mulga) snake is found in all arid parts of Australia, and has the greatest venom output, with neurotoxic, coagulopthic and myotoxic actions, but of relatively low toxicity. It has a strongly defined dark crosshatched pattern on its scales, and is more related to the black snakes than the brown. The king brown needs black snake antivenom. See also Venom Supplies, AVRU Mulga page.

Another picture: Mulga (King Brown) Snake - Pseudechis Australis (20K jpeg)

Japan have Found a New Wind Turbine Design to Take The Lead

Japanese Researchers Crack the Turbine Stall Issues Using Vortex Design

In the wake of the nuclear disaster in Japan there is some good news emerging from the battling nation. University studies on vortex patterns and the effect they have on wind energy have resulted in the development of the wind lens.

The lens is a simple funnel designed to encircle a relatively otherwise standard turbine and cause downstream eddies to form vortex energy to drive the turbine to far higher energy production. This phenomenon is also known as the venturi effect.

The University is claiming 2 to 3 times the energy production at optimum wind speeds over standard turbine machines. They have also developed an interesting honeycomb array platform for ocean deployment. Winds are far more reliable offshore than on land.

Take a look at this news video for further details:

New Solar Power Generating Technology Is Coming

Okayama Solar Absorbers Use “Green Ferrite” to Generate Super-Cheap Electricity from Heat

This could be the big breakthrough I've been expecting for a couple of years now. I have been reluctant to install a bunch of PVE panels on my roof given it's basically 30 year old technology. I wrote about that here:
http://www.squidoo.com/cling-film-solar-cells-could-lead-to-advance-in-renewable-energy-

It makes a great deal of sense to harness the thermal energy of the sun and not just the light. The point of view I've always held is that you will gain more from installing thermal collectors than PVE, dollar for dollar invested. In other words, install a solar water heater before you look into PVE investment. In fact this can be done with ridiculous ease at very low cost: http://www.squidoo.com/real-free-energy-honest-build-a-solar-batch-heater-

I have a great deal of admiration for the tenacity and intellect of the Japanese, It looks like they may lead the world again in technology development. If this pans out PVE technology will be obsolete.

There is so much energy available in solar radiation as thermal energy it simply makes sense to learn how to harness it as well as the visible light spectrum. I don't know about the x1000 claim, that may well be media hype, but otherwise this study sounds promising.

I'm more hopeful than ever right now for a new roof made entirely out of collector coated Aussie colorbond corrugated steel, that is the ideal outcome for me.


Source: Clean Technica (http://s.tt/13imq)

Okayama Graduate School of Science and Technology is one of many developing solar cells and batteries, but its research team, led by one Professor Naoshi Ikeda, has a unique approach. Instead of silicon, currently the standard component in solar cells, the Okayama team is using an iron oxide compound it calls “green ferrite,” or GF. Professor Ikeda has gone so far as to claim his product will produce 100x the amount of energy as a traditional silicon solar cell.

Part of the increase in energy production would come from the infra-red spectrum — solar cells do not currently convert heat into electricity, but apparently the green ferrite has that capability. Professor Ikeda speculates that any area collecting waste heat (the ceiling of your kitchen, for example) could serve as a home for a GF solar cell.

The team’s goal is to create a battery capable of generating 1KW of energy for 1/1000th of the cost of a traditional silicon solar cell, which comes out to about 1000 yen ($12 American) per GF cell. The GF cells, which currently use green ferrite in a powdered form, should also allow for some flexibility in solar panel shape, which means they could be wrapped around things like chimneys or telephone poles. As the early tests have been fairly successful, the Okayama team is hoping for a usable product by 2013.

Source | Picture: MSN Sankei
Source: Clean Technica (http://s.tt/13imq)

Top 15 Best all Time Australian Music Hits

Australian Music at it's Best


G'day thanks for dropping by, here is a compilation of the 15 greatest all time Aussie music hits to entertain you. This was a tricky list to compile, I spent a lot of time deciding what to include and what to reject. Even sorting the final selection into an order was interesting.

I've settled on this list as I believe it best represents the music of Australia to a wider audience beyond Australia. If you're from overseas you should be familiar with many of these hits, although there will be a few you've likely never heard here too, I hope you enjoy listening to the short excerpts in this music video.

15 You're the voice - John Farnham

14 Reckless (don't be so) - Australian Crawl

13 What's my scene - Hoodoo Gurus

12 Holy grail - Hunters & Collectors

11 Take me back - Noiseworks

10 Need you tonight - INXS

9 Thunderstruck - AC/DC

8 Sounds of then (this is Australia) - GANGgajang

7 Beds are burning - Midnight Oil

6 Am I ever gonna see your face again - The Angels

5 You shook me all night long - AC/DC

4 Working class man - Cold Chisel

3 Great southern land - Icehouse

2 Downunder - Men At Work


1 Khe Sahn - Cold Chisel