Bits & Pieces

Ancient Egyptians in Australia?

Having just read Fred Blakeley's book - Lasseter's Dream of Millions - I was struck by the reference to two graves having about two ton of stone on each of them. There was distinctly some order; the stones were in rows and kept fairly level. At one end there was smooth large black stone; very flat and standing on its edge.

He also mentions the sand people - a much lighter coloured Aborigine that lived in the area - that worshipped some kind of God. A Rabbi scientist who spent time studying these people (pre 1932) concluded that they used 19 ancient Jewish words in their ordinary everyday language.

I was also aware of an internet article by Paul White - 1996 in which he details a discovery of a cave in the Hunter Valley in which approximately 250 hieroglyphs are carved. They appear to be in the archaic style of the early dynasties, which translated, tell of shipwreck and travels across a strange and hostile world.

As the Old Testament is taken from Egyptian and other mythology it is feasible that the ancient Jewish words could be in fact ancient Egyptian.

A white stone, carved as a scarab, has been found in SW Qld. Does anyone have any updates on these stories? John. Queensland

Interesting links with ancient Egypt. Could be a load of crap but you never know. Andrew

In 1981 I was talking to an older man in Bendigo, Victoria about my move to North Central Arnhem Land to work with an Aboriginal Community, and he told me about some of his travels into outback Northern South Australia in the late '60s through the '70s to visit a remote Aboriginal Community (every couple of years) somewhere around the top of Lake Eyre.  In this Community there was a meeting area and in the middle of it was a huge vertebrae bone from a Dinosaur. After a couple of visits the people took him to a nearby cave to show him some paintings, one of the paintings was of a fully robed Egyptian woman and others of similar things.  On one visit in the late '70s the huge bone was missing and the people were quite agitated when he asked about the cave and eventually he was taken to the cave to find a big hole in the wall where the Egyptian woman had been, it had been cut out with some sort of saw.  He was told that some Americans had come and offered them money for the painting and bone and they had sold them but were very sorry they had done so.

He also told me he had seen a similar painting in a cave in Central West Victoria somewhere near the Grampians. I don't know how true all this is but is as was told to me and reading the article brought it back to me.  Ian.    

...Tyre tubes

My mate and I drove down from Sydney to Adelaide where we linked up and headed north. When we pulled over to camp, one of the tyres started going down.  We changed tyres and stopped at Port Augusta to have it fixed. The bloke at the local Tyrepower went over it and found the leak very quickly. All he had to do was look for the label inside the tubeless tyre Shorty was running with a tube, and there was the cause of the leak.  The label inside the tyre wears a hole in a tube as the tube remains stationary within the tyre EXCEPT where the label is. 

Apparently, Tyrepower in Port Augusta has changed many leaking tubes in vehicles which have just arrived from Sydney with the label still in the tyre. So watch out, if you fit a tube inside a tubeless tyre, remember to remove ALL labels from the inside of the tyre or prepare to mend a flat. Graham.

I felt as one with poor Shorty on reading about the tyre label wearing, through his inner tube. I had four new tyres put on my newly purchased second hand 80 Series LandCruiser. Within a few weeks I had my first flat, in inner Melbourne at peak hour I might add, lucky I had my son with me to help with the wheel change. I learned from the repairer that it was the tyre label that did it, the first time I had heard of the phenomenon.

It took little imagination to realize that there were three more flats waiting to happen. Sure enough, two more happened relatively soon after. The fourth, mercifully, never happened but the threat hung over me for the couple of years it took for the tyre to wear out. Innocuous looking, the little white hard plastic number label with sharp corners is removed by reliable tyre dealers before fitting. I ask every time now that they not be left on and I am met with responses that range from amazement at my fastidiousness through to insult that I should even feel the need to ask. Unfortunately we can’t always go to our regular and trusted dealer in these circumstances, so just be aware and remember to ask. Perhaps the more progressive tyre makers have already found a better labeling method.  David.

  • Have I missed something or are all these people who are getting flats due to the tyre label rubbing on the tube actually inserting a tube into tubeless tyres?  If so why would they do it?  They are negating the value of a tubeless tyre.  Ken   

 

  • When your camper trailer has 13 in. English Ford wheels which also appeared on XK to XP Falcon utes, and the rims are getting battered and they have no safety rim for tubeless fitting, and to fit a larger wheel would upset the tent trim, and they are as scarce hen’s teeth; you fit tubes. Doug.  

  • I had the problem of stickers rubbing a hole in the tube. Most if not all tyres are made for tubeless rims but if you run split rims (e.g. Landcruiser) you have to run tubes. These rims are easier to change in the bush if you do have a flat. Brian.

  • You need to put a tube in a tyre going on a split rim. If you don't remove the label it damages the tube. Dave   

  • I am one who has experienced a flat tyre due to the little sticker on the tube. It was on a conventional (not tubeless) tyre on a split rim wheel. John.

 

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