I was always a bit disappointed my Dad never passed on this skill. At least to just one of his grand kids. I’m surrounded by mountains in this small rural community in Austria. It looks more like a small village with its loose collection of houses rather than a farming region. The houses are large. They need to be. I first learnt this some years ago when skiing in neighbouring Switzerland. We were making our way ...…[read more]
Blog Posts
We exchanged polite pleasantries as we settled in for the eight hour flight ahead. We are by nature a territorial creature. Defining our space, and our rights to it are as ancient as human existence. From children’s play areas, to neighbourhood fences, through to national borders. We defend the entitlement to our “space”. From peaceful coexistence, the threat of border skirmishes to outright war is ever present. A simple armrest defined the boundary between our ...…[read more]
I’ve relived it all. Teething. The terrible Twos. Meltdowns. Witching hours. Sad faces. Cross faces. Happy faces. Smiley, laughing, cute, joyful, adorable, embracing and beautiful loving faces. You forget the patience required living in the land of little people. The wheeling and dealing that starts with the first pitter patter of feet down the passage before the sun’s even had a chance to rise. From stars earnt to stay in bed all night, to kamikaze ...…[read more]
It’s been 30 years since we were last here. Yet there’s one thing I like about Darwin. It hasn’t changed! Sure the population has near doubled to over hundred and thirty thousand. There’s new roads. More houses. More industry. More businesses. More shops. More trees. I had to use Google maps on my mobile to find the place we lived for three years. Thirty years ago here, I brought home the very first mobile phone. ...…[read more]
Holy Sheet! That was the headline in today’s Fairfax’s news story. Earlier in this blog I posted a story how some charities had benefited from surplus mining camp linen. That turned out to be just the tip of the iceberg. Fifty six pallets later. Last count was over ten thousand items. This included bed sheets, doonas, towels, etc, with a replacement value of over $100,000. These have now been distributed to around twenty five charities in ...…[read more]
If we’re going to sell off the place so we can downsize and all head off to Tassy in a few years, we really need to be nice to our Chinese neighbours. They’re kindly taking all that rocky red stuff away. The mountains of it up here might make a good picture but that’s about it. So as fast as we can dig it up to put it on our trains to get it to ...…[read more]
I had been looking forward to this for the last twelve months. Even though I had to travel four thousand kilometres to receive it. The winning prize for Red FM radio station’s 2015 Father’s Day prize. Barramundi HeliFishing in Kununurra for father and son. We had figured if we couldn’t catch anything armed with a helicopter, then we might as well give up for good. Our high hopes however became increasingly subdued as time got ...…[read more]
It was just like the pictures. Rugged. Rocky. And what vegetation there was, it did not escape the thick layers of red dust that defined the landscape. I was once sent a pictures of Mars. Alongside that picture was a photo of the place I was now at. I could see the similarity. Port Headland. The busiest port in the country. Ships are lined up for days waiting to get a spot at the wharf. ...…[read more]
Locals claim they have the highest percentage of boat ownership per person of anywhere in the world up here. Not surprising. Karratha is at the door stop of a marine life Mecca. Fish varieties to suit everyone. Having said that, it’s not that simple. It’s not as though you can just duck out in the tinny, dip your hand in the seawater and pull out any fish, let alone a fish at all! This is where, what ...…[read more]
Time was against us. The pressure was on. Catch no fish, no dinner. We agreed to our little challenge before we left on our overnight camping expedition. We set off over the sand dunes to the beach. With rods in hand along with two bush chooks, two pre school kids and a dog. 40 mile beach, less than an hours drive south of Karratha according to the widely used Wikicamp app, rates as a popular ...…[read more]