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20/02/10 1:58 PMFremantlebiz - Paul's Letter from Australia

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Fremantlebiz - Paul's Letter from Australia

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Let's hear it for biodiversity.

MMX Paul R. Weaver.

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Check out each month's subject index on the Calendar Page for my "common-man" monologues about survival in 21stcentury Australia plus a little history occasionally. An original essay is added most days as part of an undertaking towrite at least couple of million words. Zzzzzzzz!

Current Music:The Ugly Bug Ball - Burl Ives(Comment on this)

Friday, February 19th, 20108:18 am Barbecuing the occasional chop

The most delicious barbecues I remember were when I was a kid. My Mum or Dad would simply light a small fire fromdried gum tree twigs in the backyard and grill some mutton chops clamped in a folding wire frame, which was also goodfor doing toast. When one side was done the frame was flipped over to do the other side. It was simple, cheap, easy andfast.

Cooking chops has become much more difficult nowadays. First you have to be able to afford them. Mutton chops are outof the question. Our local supermarkets only carry more expensive lamb and its not as tasty as the older mutton. A pack ofordinary lamb chops might cost six to seven dollars a kilogram here, but the supermarkets carry fancy varieties which havebeen trimmed of fat and given trendy names like French cutlets for between twenty and thirty dollars a kilo. What-is-more, Ive actually see people buying them. Suckers!

So it goes without question that we are always in the cheaper division when it comes to buying chops. Open fires are nowout of vogue. If a plume of wood smoke spirals skyward from a backyard these days someone is likely to ring the firebrigade and all hell would break out. Gas barbecues have become all the go.
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Lamb chops on our old gas fired outdoor kitchen

Weve been thinking of replacing our blackened monster because its inefficient, messy and difficult to light. We boughtthe Rinnai Outdoor Kitchen about fifteen years ago. It was top of the range and looked great on the showroom floor, butafter a couple of years it proved to us that the Japanese didnt really know much when it came to designing such stuff tolast. That its still here is testament to our mechanical ability to fix things, and the fact that we dispensed with expensivebottled LPG gas and converted it to run off our house gas system - so called natural gas.

Weve been looking in the specialist barbecue shops this week. Theyre full of ginormous, gleaming stainless-steelmonsters costing several thousands of dollars. Its a very costly way to cook a chop or sausage. All we want is somethingsmall, simple, inexpensive and well designed. When weve stayed at Rottnest Island in the past weve used a simplestainless steel Beefeater branded hotplate with a removable tray-top to stop the predations of carnivorous quokkas.Because of the simplicity they were great, but all the Beefeater stuff weve seen in the shops this week is in the big-bucks,complicated, gleaming-monster category.

A Quokka cleaning a Rottnest barbecue in 2007

Its true that there are plenty of cheap barbecues around. At Bunnings and Kmart for example. Cheap and ugly; and looklike theyd be rusted out after a good winter. They are also mostly designed to run on bottled gas.

Weber do some small ones called Q barbecues. They look like a trendy clam. The Q200 retails for $449, but we found alocal retailer who offered to sell us a natural gas version for about $400. But theres also a version with added features andadded dollars. However, its early days yet and we havent made a final decision.

MMX Paul R. Weaver.


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Current Music:Backdraft: Main theme - Hans Zimmer (Theme used for the Japanese 'Iron Chef' cooking show.)(1 Comment |Comment on this)

Thursday, February 18th, 2010

3:50 am Flashback - A 2001 letter to an editor

Yesterday I was converting some of my old pre-blog writings to PDFs and came across a mordacious letter I sent to a

major newspaper in February 2001. A lame-duck admiral had gone on the defensive because he had been labelled a pussycat:

Dear editor,

People need not take exception to the term pussy cat, because those animals have many traits which aremilitarily desirable.

To the uninitiated a healthy cat lying with eyes closed in a comfortable part of the garden appears lazy, butwatch carefully and see that the animal is by no means complacent. Like scanning radars, its alert ears pick upsounds of all that is happening around it, and beyond. Undoubtedly it is gathering and analysing strategicintelligence.

Like warriors, cats tend to keep themselves in peak physical condition, ready for any action at split secondnotice.

Cats have a high standard of personal hygiene, and are expert at the cover-up. Most dont smoke or over-indulge in alcohol. Furthermore they dont impose their political philosophies on anyone else, or feel thecompulsion to divert attention from personal inadequacies with scary looking tattoos.

It is true that some cats are very good hunters, and they are also disciplined masters of the ambush.

That they are said to have nine lives is surely due in part to their calculated bravery. They can fearlessly leapenormous gaps, and patrol narrow ledges with a sureness of foot that always brings admiration and envy fromhumans.

Yes indeed, the courage of cats is second to none, and once engaged in an unavoidable fight they become

ferocious and entirely focussed on winning. Furthermore they will often stand and fight against formidableodds. Many is the large dog that has been sent packing with its tail between its legs after a decisive strike by adefensive domestic cat.

If injured, a cats recuperative powers can be astonishing. If treated well it will respond with loyalty, howeverI am sure no cat will ever tolerate bastardisation.

As with humans, cats cannot be expected to be warriors all the time, they need adequate R & R., and as theygrow old and slower, to be cared for generously by those whom they have served so selflessly.

To those service personnel who might be accused of being pussy cats I say just purr, have good stretch andflex your claws. Remember, being likened to a pussy cat is no insult.
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The editors response

MMX Paul R. Weaver.


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Wednesday, February 17th, 20106:54 am Cantonment Hill - a heritage victory in Fremantle

Theres recently been an important heritage victory in Fremantle. The news came to me via an excellent article written bylocal citizens for the Fremantle Herald- 13 February 2010, pp: 5,10.

After a thirteen year battle by a group of dedicated battlers the federal government has promised to sell Cantonment Hill tothe heritage minded Fremantle City Council for a token sum. The holus-bolus transfer apparently includes the old maritimesignal station, bushland surrounds, federation era Army buildings and the old Navy Store which dates back to beforeWW2.

I wrote a more detailed account of the area in Cantonment Hill in Fremantle - 1 July, 2008.

The land was originally gifted to the peoples of Fremantle by Queen Victoria in 1892, but was compulsorily resumed bythe Commonwealth Department of Defense in about 1910 for Army use. Theyve been refusing to hand it back ever since.

The Army built some magnificent examples of post-colonial military architecture, most of which are still in very goodcondition. A significant portion of these are occupied by a volunteer-run Army museum, but over the years their tenure has
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been very uncertain because of the Commonwealths procrastination.

In about 2000 there was an announcement that the entire site would be gifted by the Commonwealth to the WesternAustralia peoples, but the Liberal led Howard government went back on its word after the Liberals lost the WA stateelection.

There was great public outrage when word was leaked out that the Federal government was trying to do a secret deal withNotre Dame University whereby parts of the precinct would be carved up for sale as a housing development.

The museum folk had a very uncertain future until they managed to secure a 25 year lease with peppercorn rent in 2004.

Views of the old signal station atop Cantonment Hill and surrounding military buildings

The latest news comes from the Rudd Labor government. It will be interesting to see if they keep their word and completethe transfer before a federal election later this year. I hope the euphoria hasnt been premature. The Liberals seem to begaining favour, and they proved in the past they couldnt be trusted over Cantonment Hill.

While the buildings are of outstanding heritage value, so is the remnant bushland on the northern side of the hill. It isbelieved to be the only example of coastal bush in the port era which has managed to survive since before colonisation in1829.

Remnant coastal bushland at Cantonment Hill, Fremantle

When the land transfer is completed there will be public access to the old signal station on top of the hill. It will providethe best views of the Port of Fremantle and the lower reaches of the Swan River. Similarly to the magnificent old SunsetHospital site at Dalkeith, this was a concept always intended by the states founders.

MMX Paul R. Weaver.


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Current Music:Blue Hills Rhapsody - Ronald Hamner (1917-1994)(Comment on this)

Tuesday, February 16th, 20108:52 am The Appealathon house

After Jill and I had taken a brief look at the old Sunset Hospital on Sunday we had travelled only a few hundred meterswhen we saw a sign proclaiming that the latest Appealathon fundraiser home was open for inspection. It was located inJutland Parade, Dalkeith which is said to be the most expensive piece of real estate in Western Australia. Its so expensiveone suspects that it attracts the worlds most successful corporate criminals, dictatorial despots from third world countries

and others with so much grubbed money they dont know what to do with it. Judging by most of the gardens, they seem tohave one thing in common and thats a lack of good taste. Anyway, we parked in a side street and walked to the latestmansion for a quick gander at how the common folk dont live.

Appealathon was the brainchild of the Nine TV network. The Seven network has a similar charity called Telethon. Luxuryhouses are built every year with the donated goods and services of dozens of eager business and tradesmen. Presumablythey hope that when people see their names on a glossy brochure at sale time, that somehow God and the public willreward them for their magnanimous act of charity.

Like many of the mansions in Jutland Parade, the place was fortified with walls and barriers. These are definitely not thereto keep the dog in. The place was very neat inasmuch as there was not a stray grain of sand or leaf where it shouldnt be.There was a sign by the front door ordering that taking photos was absolutely verboten and shoes had to be removed.Thousand of people must have inspected the place with their smelly feet grinding into the carpets. Excellent!!!

Heres the link to Perth Nowsonline photo of the joint.

The energy hungry two story house was quite large, but it would easily have fitted onto our own suburban block. However,at least three or more Ferraris could have fitted into its tiled garage. Inside we visited four bedrooms with king-sized beds.Just the sort of thing some Muslim prince with four wives would appreciate. Alternatively the place could be used as abordello. The glimpses of the Swan River were about as rewarding as the glimpses of cranes on the Fremantle wharf fromour roof. The views into the backyards of the neighbours revealed some urban scungyness lies beyond the fancy facades.

The plush carpet throughout the house was dark grey - the colour of wet concrete. There was a stainless steel elevatorconnecting the ground floor to the top. I wondered what would happen to the future owners if there was a power failure.

Being new, everything was very neat, sort of like a hotel. Muzak wouldnt have been out of place. In a separate glass-walled annex near the front of the house was a gymnasium with a variety of fitness torture-machines. At the back of thehouse was a small swimming pool. I didnt notice a sauna or a gold-storage vault. There's sure to be a vault somewhere.

Nor was there a separate entrance for a cat.
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Every home should have one

MMX Paul R. Weaver.


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Current Music:Amelie: 'La Mansion' - Yann Tiersen(Comment on this)

Monday, February 15th, 2010

9:00 am Sunset Hospital being neglected

My Akela wife Jill was away for much of the weekend and spent Saturday night camping with her Cub Scouts at PelicanPoint on the Swan River. She looked much refreshed when I picked her up yesterday afternoon.

On the way home we stopped by the now closed Sunset 'Old Mens Home' in Dalkeith to take a few more photos not ofthe film makers activities I showed yesterday on the eastern side where a TV mini-series of Cloudstreetis being created,but at the western side which is very overgrown and seriously neglected. Its now at huge risk from fire and no one seemsto care. Notice the dry vegetative litter on the roof in the central image below.

Locked up Sunset buildings on the western side

The stone buildings go back to 1904. Theyre heritage listed. Others including a chapel made of brick are younger. Theyoccupy a wonderful 8.2 hectare site overlooking the Swan River. There are probably plenty of smarmy entrepreneurs whowould love to get their paws on the land and carve it up for a quick profit. They'd regard a fire as a blessing. It would be animmense lack of foresight on the part of any government if it happened.
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An entangled stairway to heaven - leading up to the southern side of Sunset from the Swan River

Sensibly, the site should be retained and developed as something like a community arts and recreation precinct. Thishappened on the opposite side of the river at the old Heathcoat psychiatric hospital. No one would now say it wasnt theright thing to do, but there was a major political battle to save that site from the smarmies at the time.

Heres a link to a State Government website which describes why the Sunset site is of outstanding heritage value to the

nation. Hopefully one day there will be someone politically outstanding enough who is prepared to actually deliver thefacility back to the community as a significant public asset.

In the meantime, Sunset would be a perfect project for a team of minimum security prisoners to be put to work on thebasic stuff. They could repay some of their debt to society by regularly reducing the fire risk with a major tidy up:Removing the rampant vegetation from near the endangered buildings - clearing away all the dead leaves and dry pineneedles from the roofs and gutters. The NearMap view below doesnt really show the fire risk on the western and southernsides. It really needs to be viewed at ground level.

A NearMap view of Sunset

The old hospital was an institution where many elderly Western Australian men lived out their final days. Given that it wasstarted about 1904 its possible that some of its earliest inmates had lived through much of the Swan River Colonys 19thcentury history. Lest we not forget the events of the twentieth. The facility was closed in 1995. Perths Battye Library has asignificant collection of records pertaining to Sunset Hospital. They are likely to be of value to genealogical researchers.

MMX Paul R. Weaver.


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Current Music:Soundtrack To A Vacant Life: 'Sunset Dept.' - The Flashbulb(Comment on this)

Sunday, February 14th, 20108:57 am Cloudstreet happening sighted at Sunset

Western Australian author Tim Winton is the darling of Australian literary circles. His several books have won manyawards, but Ive never read one because the synopses Ive seen have seemed a bit syrupy for my taste. I met him once atan environmental affair in Fremantle many years ago - no photo unfortunately. Tim has a face and hair a bit like the MonaLisa and apparently lives a humble life in a beach shack as the millions of dollars in royalties keep rolling in. One daysomeone might make a movie about him.

But I do have some photos I took over a fence yesterday at the now-closed Sunset Old Mens Home in fashionableNedlands of a TV mini-series setting for his acclaimed fictional story Cloudstreet. It was written about two decades ago. Apoll this year, organised by theAustralian Book Review, recognised it as still being the nations most popular novel. Themodern TV adaptation is a collaboration between Mr Winton and scriptwriter Ellen Fontana.

Temporary prop-buildings for Cloudstreet being constructed at Sunset

Reportedly Foxtel is in the financial mix. Therefore no expense or effort has been spared in the project. Apparently abudget of ten million dollars has been allocated for six episodes.

A few weeks ago I had an inquiry originating from the prop department via a friend for a squarish 1930s ceramicbathroom sink. Unfortunately my plumber sons didnt have one. Darn, we might have gotten into the credits. In the photosbelow, again taken over the fence, you can see one of the prop departments scrounging successes - a vintage truck. TheCloudstreet saga takes place between 1943 and 1963. The wider image shows some of the large production vehicles andsections of the original Sunset buildings. There were more of both elsewhere.
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Cloudstreet invades the defunct Sunset Old Mens Home at Nedlands

The episodic adventures of Dolly Pickles, Lester Lamb and other dramatis personae are likely to appear on pay-TVscreens next year. That leaves me out. No pay-TV. Ive decided instead to keep an eye open for the book at the local fleamarket and force myself to read it.

MMX Paul R. Weaver.


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Saturday, February 13th, 2010

6:42 am Winter Olympics - Oh Canada

The Winter Olympics gets under way in Vancouver today. I know Vancouver is in a country called Canada. I know itsnorth of the USA, but I wouldnt readily be able to locate the city on a map. I once met a Canadian.

A serious jolt has been that someone forgot to pray for snow for the Olympics. Obviously God is not a Canadian. Theorganisers are putting on a brave face and apparently have had 600 trucks involved in scraping up the white stuff fromwherever they can find it and dumping it where its supposed to be for the competitions. They reckon nobody will be ableto tell the difference, unless its yellow.
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Max ponders winter sports

As if all thats not enough, comes the news this morning that a competitor has been killed while practicing on the Luge.Other lugers have had near death experiences. Allegedly the high speed track has been badly designed and can fling thedownhill racers into thoughtfully positioned steel poles. Reportedly, many athletes are expected to receive serious injuriesin other events during the Games.

One of our free-to-air TV stations is advertising a full coverage, so I guess well be seeing a lot of the action replays ofaccidents over the next couple of weeks. If the snow continues to melt at the current rate, water skiing might need to beintroduced as a winter sport.

Ive just been reading in the news that one of Canadas senior military commanders has had a spare time hobby as a serialrapist and murderer. Thats put the Canadians into a real spin. Actually there seem to be a lot of heinous murderers inCanada. Maybe theres a vitamin D deficiency in the population?

MMX Paul R. Weaver.


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Friday, February 12th, 2010

8:02 am Harry Butler and the International Year of Biodiversity

I last wrote about the Western Australian naturalist Harry Butler on May 29, 2009 with Rottnest Island - Home of camo-spiders and centipedes.
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I first met him when I was a school kid in the early 1950s - in the days well before TV and the resources boom. He tookme and my class into the bush near Attadale Primary School for a practical nature-study lesson. For me it turned out to bemy most inspiring experience for the entire time I attended school. Harry in his inimitable way had introduced me towonders of biodiversity, although I suspect that particular word hadnt been invented then.

He subsequently had a successful career as a consultant naturalist and became a national TV star with a popular, longrunning nature series,In the Wild... In 1979 he was named 'Australian of the Year.' Along the trail he also picked up anhonorary doctorate and a CBE (Commander of the Order of the British Empire).

Yesterday I met him again at the Western Australian Museum. Hes now eighty. He was guest of honour at the launchingof Western Australias contribution to The International Year of Biodiversity.

HB launches the WA edition of The International Year of Biodiversity.

Theres to be a series of free public talks in Perth, Fremantle and other major regional centres by prominent investigatorsof the states natural marine, avian and terrestrial treasures. These are scheduled between February and June. The Museumhas the subjects listed on their website at: http://www.museum.wa.gov.au/whatson/year-of-biodiversity.asp Theyve beencalled The Harry Butler Lecture Series.

I had a private conversation with him and told him how he had influenced me so long ago. Like over half a century. Hewas pleased to stand with me for a photo. I thank one of the Museums curators for pressing the button on my camera.Someone cracked a joke about the animated dinosaur in the background. The old man reacted with his wry sense ofhumour.

Harry Butler and I
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The launch was held in the main foyer of the Museum. There were some tables displaying samples of the many biologicalspecimens that Harry had prepared for the Museums reference collection over several decades - spiders and reptiles in

jars, skinned native birds on sticks, and semi-stuffed marsupials were all represented. Museum employees were on duty toanswer any questions. I learned the rudiments of skinning a bird and preserving the handywork with borax.

Harry Butler is not without controversy. It goes back several decades to when he decided to become a consultant naturalistfor the petroleum and mineral resource industry. This positional shift was viewed with distrust by the environmentalactivist movement. He is still strongly affiliated with the American company Chevron, which is one of the major players inthe exploitation of gas and oil resources in the northwest of our state. He mentioned the company favourably yesterday in

his speech and was convinced his own environmental strategies had achieved measurable positive outcomes.

Nevertheless, my own view is that there is still an urgent requirement in this state for a greater public and politicalappreciation of its rich natural biodiversity. Too often in the past only lip service was given by state governments andprivate companies when it came to protecting natural flora and fauna. The evidence of continuing environmentaldegradation in this state in the name of development is widespread and relentless.

MMX Paul R. Weaver.


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Thursday, February 11th, 20106:07 amAdventures of a film-music fan

Last Sunday morning I was up early and managed to acquire some more original soundtrack CDs from the local fleamarket for a dollar each:

Blackhawk Down - Hans ZimmerTitanic - James HornerTarzan - Mark MancinaGreat Expectations - Various composers

Theres a soundtrack recording Id like to have, but Im not likely to find it at the flea market. Its title is The Dove,produced by Gregory Peck. That was the famous American actor, Gregory Peck. It was released in 1974. It was based onthe true story of 16 year old American boy Robin Lee Graham who in 1965 set out in a 24 foot sloop to circumnavigate theglobe single handed. He took about five years to do it and found a beautiful wife along the way.

Robin didnt visit Fremantle or Rottnest, but the area was selected as one of the locations for shooting a Dove replica andthe actor playing the part of Robin at sea. I remember it was quite a big deal when the film crew and Gregory Peck turnedup at Fremantle. Mr Peck was apparently as charming in his executive off-camera role as he was so famous for on the
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screen.

Filmed near Fremantle and Rottnest

Yesterday I was enviously perusing some of the great US websites which specialise in the authorised sale of CDs of rareoriginal soundtracks. The titles are usually limited editions and generally not available in Oz. They can be purchasedonline, but with the exchange rate and postage Id be looking at about $30 for something like The Dove music CD, which Idiscovered was released as a limited edition last year. Im sorry to admit that the local flea market has made me a bitparsimonious with so much turning up for a dollar. But at least I had a free-sample taste online yesterday of The Dovetracks, courtesy of Amazon.

And why was I excited about the CD. Well apart from the film having a tenuous Rottnest connection, the composer wasthe very famous John Barry. Heres just a few the films I can remember he made famous with his compositions: Zulu(1964), The Knack (1965),Born Free (1966), Midnight Cowboy (1969), The Dove (1974), The Black Hole (1979),Somewhere in Time (1980), Out of Africa (1985), andEnigma (2001). There were many others, including many JamesBond 007 themes. Mr Barry was not afraid to include the harmonica in his most poignant compositions.

Apparently The Dove has never been released on DVD, so thats another film title that has gone on my nostalgia wish listto see again. Maybe it'll be never again?

MMX Paul R. Weaver.


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Wednesday, February 10th, 20107:46 am Skink secrets
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The title of this entry is a bit misleading because I dont know many skink secrets, even though weve always had a fewspecies living in our garden. Im not even sure what species we have, but theres two or three. They are difficult to observebecause they are small and very fast. They dont really like being observed.

They like to hang out in places like the woodpile down the back and the warm brick wall on the northern side of our house,but they never stay on the one spot for very long. Especially if they figure out they are being watched. They also liked tohang out in the leaf litter of the old bamboo which we finally managed to pull out this week.

I reckon I must have stopped work to rescue at least a dozen skinks at various times in the past few days. I placed them inother parts of the garden where there was plenty of leaf litter. Im careful picking them up - I would hate to accidentally

squash one. Usually I try to grab them with a handful of leaves included and take the whole lot to the new destination.

A skink rescued from the bamboo patch

You can see in the photo how tiny their legs are. Its amazing that these can move the comparatively much larger body sofast along any surface, including vertical walls. The tails can detach if they are grabbed by a predator.

Skinks are very good at catching flies. Sometimes Ive seen them leap a foot or more downward from a vantage point toget at one. Leaping lizards. Occasionally too, Ive noticed what I assume have been discarded egg casings when moving

junk. Theyre very small. Slightly smaller than a pea. They have a hole where a young skinkling has emerged. However Ihave never seen skinks lovemaking nor do I know how to differentiate the sexes. Thats secret stuff they keep tothemselves.

As with our frogs, we are very fond of our garden skinks. Theres a lot we dont know about them.

MMX Paul R. Weaver.


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Current Music:Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events: 'The Reptile Room' - Thomas Newman(Comment on this)

Tuesday, February 9th, 20107:35 am Victory over the old bamboo

Here on terra firma Jill and I have finally conquered the old bamboo, with a little help from two of our sons late yesterdayafternoon. If they hadnt turned up we probably would have been chopping at it all day today. The boys are natural borndiggers. Apart from being super fit, they say that having the right sort of shovel is essential. They use an American brandcalled Rigid which has genuine hickory handles and costs about $100. They took a different approach to us. They dug adeep hole to stand in and attacked the remaining bamboo from a comfortable level.

Woman at work

Jill and I suffered some slight damage during our several days effort. She has scratches and grazes on her legs and armsand I bonked my head, got stung by a bee, grazed my calf and then late yesterday received a deep slash on the same legfrom a broken glazed flowerpot. Apart from that we are okay.

Weve created a small mountain of bamboo chunks. Weve decided to burn these in our lounge fire in winter, taking careto split open up any stems so they dont explode. The pile is near one of our sweetest grape varieties, which this weekhave ripened to perfection.

A garden victory

So now we can think about the pleasurable aspect of what to do with our recovered ground. First off well be doing somerebuilding of a low limestone wall which was damaged during the project. That should take us about a day, unless wedecide to do something more elaborate.

I notice that English jazz musician Johnny Dankworth has died aged 83. I had the pleasure of watching him and his wifeCleo Laine perform at the University of WAs Winthrop Hall in about 1972.

MMX Paul R. Weaver.


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Monday, February 8th, 2010

9:20 am Things come in twos, threes or more

The dog did a puddle in the hallway and I trod in it this morning, then the electric kettle decided it had passed its use-by

date and tripped the power off. This also shut down the computer too suddenly and one of my hard drives is taking aneternity to re-boot. My fingers are crossed.

I decided to read the morning newspaper. Some lame brain at the The West Australian has now decided that I would likeadvertising stickers adhered to the front page. When they are peeled off the newsprint underneath is damaged. Ive gotnews for folks at The West Australian. If they keep defacing the paper with advertising stickers then we are canceling.Finito. No more home deliveries.

I worked my way through the pages and came to the death notices. I usually dont check them, but this time I did. Thename Neville Green jumped out at me. I was shocked. Jill and I had been to his house cooling party on Saturday night.Maybe the warm potato salad we contributed had done him in? I checked the bereavement entries in detail. It was adifferent Neville Green. Bad luck for him, but good luck for my friend.

Dr Weaver and the very much alive Dr Dr Green

So whats a house cooling party? Well its the opposite to a house warming party. The famous author, historian,indefatigable scholar and occasional road-kill barbecueist, along with his wife Mary, have sold their humble Cottesloehome to a wealthy surgeon to knock down, and are moving to a retirement village which has a priority for former RoyalAustralian Air Force personnel.

In the early 1950s Neville did a stint with the RAAF in Korea. After he got out of the air force he trained as a teacher. Hebecame interested in Aboriginal history as a result of a transfer to the desert community at Warburton. In the ensuing yearsproduced a number of significant books relating to Western Australian Aboriginal history. He also knocked off two PhDs,so I jokingly call him Doctor Doctor. Weve been good friends for some twenty years.

Good news. The missing hard drive has just announced its reappearance. All is well.

MMX Paul R. Weaver.

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Sunday, February 7th, 20109:38 am Bamboo bashing

Spending an entire Saturday chopping out bamboo is not my idea of fun, but theres plenty of healthy exercise involved.

The way to do it is start at the edge and gradually work to the other - washing away the sand with a hose, attacking theexposed sections with an axe and then levering them out with a wrecking bar. Its a slow and very physical process. I workthe axe and Jill works best with the wrecking bar. Its thirsty work. Occasionally weve had a passing son to lend a hand,but their interest wanes after ten minutes.

Thirsty work for Jill

The entire clump had expanded from one small chunk I planted about thirty years ago. In those days it was very rare. Thisspecies hasnt been invasive, but we decided to take it out as part of our fire mitigation plan. Bamboo creates a greatamount of leaf litter which is slow to break down and it tinder dry through summer, and our increasingly dryer winters. Asof yet we havent decided on what to replace it with.

As weve been working our way through the clump weve rescued many small lizards (skinks) and moved them to otherparts of the garden. Sometimes our work stopped for ten minutes as we tried to catch one. We usually succeed.

Im not sure if well finish today. Our tabby cat Mad Max is the chief garden works supervisor. He has the best job.
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The garden-works supervisor

MMX Paul R. Weaver.


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Saturday, February 6th, 20107:46 am Cockburn Council crushes cheap veggie vendors

Nothing lasts forever. A couple of our favourite fruit and vegetable vendors at the Stock Road Markets have beenthreatened with eviction by the Cockburn City Council because some bureaucratic bright spark has determined that sellingfruit and vegetables in the building they occupy is contrary to some obscure planning policy unearthed from the distantpast. Reportedly, it says something along the lines that food sales should be excluded from light industrial precincts.

This is confusing news because there are many food factories, wholesale butcheries, wholesale bakeries plus manyhundreds of lunch bars in light industrial precincts all around the metropolitan area including Cockburn which are happilyselling direct to the public.

Weve been buying our fruit and vegetables from the Stock Road Markets for a few years because they are fresh and cheap- at least half the price of regular supermarkets. That might be the real problem - are they too cheap for some operator withsignificant behind-the-scenes influence?
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Jill looking at fruit and vegetables, and the queue for the cash registers in Galati the family's store yesterday morning

The Stock Road setups have been very popular. The long queues at the cash registers in the Galati familys store beartestimony to this. On a Friday morning its common to line up behind twenty or thirty other people to pay. But the waitsare fairly short because the girls on the three tills are fast, efficient workers and they all have another girl alongside as apacker. Besides the fruit and veggies, they also sell typical Italian lines such as olives, cheese, nuts, beans and biscuits

from an attached warehouse section.

Theres another hard working fruit and veggie facility nearby called Go Nuts which is in the same predicament. It's sadthat the local government authority seems determined to put all these people out of a job. There could be more than twentypositions at risk in these still recessionary times. The stores had a petition running yesterday which I signed. There were alot of other signatures. If these places are shut down it will make a significant difference to our weekly food budget andeffectively end our convenient custom with other small businesses in the area. It's called a 'knock on' effect.

A plea to save jobs

MMX Paul R. Weaver.


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century Australia plus a little history occasionally. An original essay is added most days as part of an undertaking towrite at least couple of million words. Zzzzzzzz!

Current Music:Yes! We Have No Bananas - Spike Jones(Comment on this)

Friday, February 5th, 20108:41 am More war on the way?

Twenty years ago the US led coalition was heavily engaged in the First Gulf War against Iraq. It was popularised asDesert Storm. The Australian military contributed in a variety of mostly supportive roles. Some 700 personnel wereinvolved. The official end was 28 February 1991.

It was only a pause until the Second Gulf War, or 'Operation Iraqi Freedom.' The invasion of Iraq by a US led coalitionwhich included Australia began on March 20 2003 and has been festering ever since. The toll on all sides has beensubstantial.Contributing to the ongoing mayhem has been a war in Afghanistan, 'Operation Enduring Freedom,' which the coalition

officially launched on October 7, 2001 following the the notorious attacks the previous month against the US by SaudiArabian nationals on September 11. Almost a decade later that war is still raging. Collectively they are all part of the moreambiguous 'Global War on Terror.'

Now it appears that Iran, which is sandwiched between Iraq and Afghanistan is at serious risk of being subjected to asimilar strategic action by a US led coalition. Reportedly Iran has been urgently developing a nuclear weapons program.This week it launched a ballistic missile with some unfortunate biological specimens aboard, a rat and some wormsinserted in a capsule. Presumably this was to attract external media publicity by hinting at a biological warfare capability.Iran has been rattling its swords for quite a while and everyone else is getting a bit jittery.

In the past Ive noticed what appeared to have been subtle signals appearing on Australian popular media preceding majorUS led actions. They usually consist of old war movies and assorted documentaries featuring gee-whiz military hardware.I suspected the intent was to soften up public opinion in advance.

This week Ive seen John Wayne acting the WW2 hero with the US Navy in Wings of Eagles. (1957). Then on Thursdaythere was a more modern American PBS special featuring the remote use of drone aircraft to take out Middle Eastern badguys by pilots secreted thousands of miles away in a bunker in the US. Last light in prime time there was a lengthy docoabout life aboard the aircraft carrier USS Nimitz. This was followed by a doco about the glossy magazine industry, butmosty seemed to feature Time Magazine and its patriotic role of covering US soldiers in Iraq.

Maybe these sporadic media observances have been coincidences? But Im glad Im not living in Iran.

John Wayne still at war?

MMX Paul R. Weaver.


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brief description and a link back to a relevant essay. Images on Panoramio can usually be enlarged several times byclicking them.

About the writer


Check out each month's subject index on the Calendar Page for my "common-man" monologues about survival in 21st

century Australia plus a little history occasionally. An original essay is added most days as part of an undertaking towrite at least couple of million words. Zzzzzzzz!

Current Music:Sunshine: 'War And Misery' - Maurice Jarre(1 Comment |Comment on this)

Thursday, February 4th, 20108:23 am

And the winner will be...

The Academy Award nominations have been announced for 2001. I cant say theres much excitement for me so far.Maybe Im getting too old.

Theres been a lot of hype aboutAvatar. Reportedly its had higher earnings than any movie in history. I tend to take suchclaims lightly. But with all the hype it seems likely it will score some high voting marks. Most of my kids have seen it andhavent been all that enthusiastic. It was orrright was a pretty common remark. The trailers Ive seen on TV haventinspired me. Ive also seen the trailers for The Fantastic Mr Fox. It left me a bit cold as well.

I have seen the Disney/Pixar animation feature Up. Jill rented the DVD during the school holidays. I was weepy for thefirst fifteen minutes. So was Apples Steve Jobs. When he gave his keynote speech last week to announce the iPad hespecifically mentioned it as one of the best movie sequences he had ever seen. If this movie doesnt win an Oscar then itwill be a shame. The music is pretty good too. Plus there were some excellent animated shorts as extras on the DVD.

Theres a lot of movies amongst this years nominees Im unfamiliar with. I guess this will change over the next fewweeks as I do more research. I gather that no Australian movie has won a nomination this year.

Locally theres a feature movie just started production in the Perth hills suburb of Roleystone. Its working title isBlame.Could it be an Oscar winner? Five masked vigilantes take a man hostage to seek retribution for their friends suicide. Itsbeen described and a home-invasion movie. It sounds like nice family entertainment.

There have been a lot of non-Oscars for locally made feature films. The psycho-dramaLast Train to Freo which Imentioned on 18 September 2006, failed to be nominated. Same thing with a local 2008 boxing epic featuring colourfulreal-life underworld identities titled Two Fists One Heart. It comes out on DVD next month.

And who could forget the 1997 melodrama Under the Lighthouse Dancing which was made at great expense on our veryown Rottnest Island: The story of six friends who journey to an island off the coast of Australia for the weekend. Two of

them, Emma and Harry, announce that they intend to get married, but have made no plans, nor do they have a properlicense. Emma also announces that she is very ill, and all she wants is a wedding. The other four friends then try to find away to make it all happen Surprisingly, it also missed out on an Academy Award.
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Non-Academy Award winners from Western Australia

MMX Paul R. Weaver.


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Current Music:Long Walk Home; Music from the Rabbit-Proof Fence: 'Crossing The Salt Pan' - Peter Gabriel(Comment on this)

Wednesday, February 3rd, 2010

8:41 am The President is coming

I guess it had to happen. President Obama is coming to the land of Oz in March. Apparently hes bringing Mrs Obama andtheir two children to have their photos taken with some cute kangaroos and koala bears for the Australian Womans Weeklywhile he gets on with the serious business of persuading our PM Mr Rudd to agree to stuff that the Australian public mightnot approve if they found out.

Mr Obama will address the Australian Parliament and it will be telecast to live to the nation. Hell say that America has nobetter ally than Australia. Its a clever use of words which is routinely applied to every country which is friendly towardsthe US. It keeps all the others from getting jealous because the same thing can safely be said to them. Hell also extol thevalue of the ANZUS Treaty which has ensured that Australian troops have cooperated with Americans in innumerableforeign wars. A wreath at the Canberra War Memorial is sure to be on the cards. Possibly the only politician who willattempt to say anything embarrassing to the President will be The Greens senator from Tasmania.
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US leaders have visited Australia in the past. Presidents Clinton and George Bush junior immediately come to mind, andthere was also Frank Sinatra. I think Mr Clinton was the most popular of the three because of the Monica incident, plus healso played a saxophone.

The visit by Mr Obama is sure to be already planned down to the last detail, but the Australian public will none the wiserfor a long time, even after hes been and gone. The G men on both sides dont trust us. They fear that someone might startsearching Google Earth for grassy knolls.

Australian Aborigines will certainly be looking forward to the visit. Some will be thinking black skin means kindred

spirits and political affinity. Someone will be be wanting to waft gum leaf smoke over him like they did with PrinceWilliam a couple of weeks ago.

So Im guessing when I say that as well as Canberra, the Presidential entourage will also visit Sydney and his nibs mightbe photographed on Bondi Beach wearing nothing but a pair of red Speedo budgie smugglers. Id be very surprised if hecame to Perth, and even more so to Fremantle. Rottnest Island is completely out of the question because the airstripcouldnt handle Air Force One. Heres a picture of it in the background when Jill and I were photographed on a grassyknoll in 2008. You might have to click the pic up a size to see it:

From Rottnest Island - October 2008

Most Australian and US citizens probably dont realise that there have been American tourists visiting the west coast ofAustralia for the past 220 years. The first was James Whippey in 1790. It was one of the things I learned when I wasresearching for my PhD. How about that.

MMX Paul R. Weaver.


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Rottnest essays:



About the writer


Check out each month's subject index on the Calendar Page for my "common-man" monologues about survival in 21stcentury Australia plus a little history occasionally. An original essay is added most days as part of an undertaking to

write at least couple of million words. Zzzzzzzz!
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Current Music:Full Metal Jacket: Yankee Doodle (1) - Anon(1 Comment |Comment on this)

Tuesday, February 2nd, 2010

7:17 am Old computers test old body

I've got a stiff back today and its not due to the bamboo I was going to dig out yesterday. Thats still in the ground and islikely to stay there for for another few days. The reason Im slightly incapacitated is that yesterday I carried two old OSXBlueberry iMacs at once from the back building to our front verandah. I should have done them one at a time.

My friend Kevin was going collect them and several others for his philanthropic recycling project whereby he places oldApple computers for free in homes that normally wouldnt have them. Recently hes been providing machines to membersof Perths Aboriginal community.

Kevin has been doing this sort of thing for several years and has become something of an expert in pulling old machinesapart to grab useful parts and then reassemble them into fully functioning iMacs. So it didnt matter yesterday that half themachines he collected didnt work for one reason or another. Id tested and marked each one whether it was okay, or whatI had observed so he knew which stack to place them in his shed.

I also provided him with a couple of working Brother laser printers. Theyll be useful for giving to someone as a freepackage deal. Kevin wasnt able to take everything on offer yesterday, but he might be eligible for a Guinness record with

the amount of stuff which was packed into his cavernous car. Hes going to come back for the rest later in the week. Healso knows a computer collector and there is some stuff here which will end up in a private Apple museum. For example agenuine Apple A3 dot matrix architectural printer which I rescued from a verge throwout about twenty years ago andwhich has been taking up space here ever since. I feel sure its become very rare.

A couple of our redundant iMacs

For me its a relief to have this small mountain of stuff gone, and very satisfying that someone can still put it to good use.I was thrilled myself to obtain the iMacs from Curtin University when they were outdated five years ago. I wrote about theinitial acquisition of six in iMac Mania on 7 April 2005. I eventually bought some more because they were so cheap. Ilearned they were easy to connect together with an ethernet cable-network so my entire family could have internet access

through the one family account. I wrote about the completion of the project in Ethernetting the family on 15 January2006.

Nowadays on the same network there are five more-modern flat screen iMacs serving various members our household andone old OS9 CRT machine which I use for scanning documents and photos.

This morning Ill be buying a couple of new Brother laser printers to replace the old ones I gave away yesterday. TheGood Guys have them on sale for $88 each. (Less for cash.)

My friend Kevin has an interesting blog well worth checking out called Lock Family Ramblings. Hes a retired teacherwho put in ten years with the Fuzzy Wuzzies in New Guinea. His wife Joan is currently undergoing chemo treatment forthe big C. The prospect of a positive outcome is improving by the day.

MMX Paul R. Weaver.


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Monday, February 1st, 2010

8:37 am Back to school today

Its February already and today is Back to school day. I can hear Jill in the kitchen tearing off lunch wrapping for thecheese and Vegemite sandwiches. We only have two school age kids now, one at Melville High and one at MelvillePrimary - both public schools. Weve been nagging the kids to get their stuff ready for a few days, but Im sure there willbe some last minute stress because someone cant find a shoe or something. There always is. The dog has already startedyapping with more than usual excitement.

Also as usual there have been recent expeditions to places like OfficeWorks for pens, pencils, highlighters, erasers, andother essential stuff for their classmates to pilfer. Too much stationary is never enough.

Last week the Federal government launched a new website calledMy School. It has descriptive and statistical data on everyschool in Australia.

There was a bit of controversy from the teaching fraternity because they feared over exposure of under-performing schoolsand a subsequent parental backlash. A minority seemed to be promoting the notion that performance-ignorance ineducation is bliss. Apparently there were six million hits on the first day and the website went into meltdown. It seems tobe running smoothly now and weve had an initial look at the entries for our two schools. They sound very nice. Just thesort of places wed like to send our kids to. We didnt see anything that made us want to rush off and enroll our darlings atsome expensive private school. Allegedly, the elitist private sector is where the Federal Labor government has beendirecting most of its financial education grants.

Our two eldest daughters are about to begin their tertiary education. One will be starting on a four year primary teachingdegree at Notre Dame University in Fremantle and the other a two year diploma in architectural drafting at LeedervilleTAFE.

As for Jill and me, were looking forward later to a relaxing day digging out some bamboo in our back garden. Theresnever a panda around when you need one.
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