Date: September 26th 2008

 

Westprint Friday Five September 26, 2008

Included this week are:

·         The Emu War

·         OziExplorer

·         Mitsubishi 4WD Environment Groups  

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Friday Five 26/9/08

1. Animalia Graeme Base. As you travel from A to Z, each extraordinary scene reveals an ever expanding world of detail, and each new discovery begins with the letter for that page. Thus, amid the Horrible Hairy Hogs you will find hamsters and hang-gliders, hippos and hummingbirds, hammocks and horses.... Also hiding in each illustration is Graeme Base as a boy. With his bright yellow and orange jumper you can't miss him - or can you? Normally $29.45 including post. Three copies available at $20.00 including post.

2. Rose Paterson’s Illalong Letters 1873 – 1888. Rose Peterson was born into a squatter family and spent the best part of her life at Illalong station in western New South Wales . She brought up seven children; one of these Andrew Barton (Banjo) was to achieve fame as one of Australia ’s most popular balladists. Now out of print.  One copy only $28.00 including post. 

3. The War Chronicles. Joseph Cummins. Hardcover, new release. A world history of warfare, from the Greco-Persian wars in 500BC to the American Revolution, ending 1783AD. A large 400 page book that includes the Norman invasion of England, the Spanish conquest of Mexico, the Spartans, Persians, Koreans, and the Mongolian conflict. This was an ‘accidental’ purchase (I wrote the wrong ID number on the order form) so we are offering these at a special price. Normally $57.00 including post. Two copies only $45.00 including post.

4. Beyond The Legend. Noni Durack. Two brothers from a famous pioneering family struggle to keep alive the family dream in the rugged Kimberley Ranges . They are the grandchildren of the great cattleman who first developed the area, but this is the era of WW2 with strict petrol rationing and shortages of everything. A thought-provoking sequel to Mary Durack’s Kings in Grass Castles. Now out of print. One copy only $37.00. 

5. Gliders Of Australia . David Lindenmayer. There are six species of Australian gliders ranging in size from the tiny Feathertail Glider to the 1.3 kg Greater Glider. Although rarely seen by most people the gliders are an extraordinary group of animals with many fascinating adaptations to their existence. These include eyes that act like an in built range-finder, elongated limbs to help grip branches on landing, and a padded pouch to protect their young. One copy only $40.00 inc post. 

Important - How To Order Notice. To order any of the products listed, please send us an email with your request. If you are the first person to request an item we will contact you with payment options. If you are not successful we will notify you. Orders are taken on a first in, first served basis but we do calculate time differences.

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An important message.

Please note that the opinions and articles included in the Friday Five are not necessarily those of the Westprint crew. Nor do we endorse products (other than our own) listed in contributed articles.

Friday Forum

Jo’s forum comments in green.

A Note From Jo

·         The next two Friday Fives (Oct 3 & 10) will be ones ‘I prepared earlier’ due to field days’  preparations. We will be back to the usual on October 17.

·         It’s that time of year again and we are busy preparing for the Elmore Field Days. If you are going to the Elmore and would like to look at specific products please let us know before October 3.

Border Track  

·         For those following the story – Hari has been on holiday - in Thailand . Some people have received the booklet; but some didn’t receive the book because of its large file size. Hari has offered to post a CD of the booklet to anyone who couldn’t download the file. If interested please email me and I will pass your email address directly on to Hari. info@westprint.com.au  

The Emu War  

Continuing the story of the Emu war sent in by Perry and from the following publication. Serventy D.L. & H.M. Whittell, 1967. Birds of Western Australia . Lamb Publications Pty Ltd, Perth .

By 1919 the Emus were considered a serious pest in the wheatbelt of WA….  

…For some years trouble in the Northampton area waned, the rabbit proof fence checking the movement of the Emus southward from the Murchison country. In November 1930, the local vermin inspector reported that the No. 3 Rabbit Proof Fence blocked thousands of Emus going south – “they are lying dead all along the fence between Ajana and the junction of the No. 2 and 3 fences. …The farmers on the south side of the fence are jubilant.”  

In 1932 another focus of complaint against the Emu developed in the north-eastern Wheatbelt, in the Campion, Bullfinch and Walgoolan areas. Here an invasion of Emus took place in the first time on a scale large enough to make them a serious menace and the affected farmers persuaded the Commonwealth and State Governments to become involved in the bizarre interlude, the Emu War of November 1932. This was an attempt at the mass destruction of the birds with machine guns operated by a military unit. In October the Minister for Defence (Sir George Pearce) agreed to a request from the local settlers that a machine gun unit should be used to eradicate the large numbers of Emus which were then menacing the district. About 20,000 Emus were reported to be devastating crops in an area of about 40 square miles. The Premier (Sir James Mitchell) co-operated and the settlers agreed to meet the cost of the expedition. The offensive began on November 2, at Campion, when an armed party consisting of the Commanding Officer of the 7th Heavy Battery, Royal Australian Artillery (Major G. P. W. Meredith), with Sergeant S. McMurray and Gunner O’Halloran, took the field with two Lewis guns and 10,000 rounds of ammunition. About 50 settlers turned out to organise a 20-mile drive of Emus to a point on the No. 1 Rabbit Proof Fence where the fire would be concentrated. A special correspondent of the press was in attendance as well as a motion picture photographer from an international unit.  

Continued next week.

Training Courses - OziExplorer

·         I found a set of introductory OziExplorer Help documents, prepared by The Toyota Landcruiser Club of Australia (VIC) Inc., and hosted on the Smarter Safety Group's website at http://www.smartersafety.com.au/oziexplorer.html .

They are freely downloadable, and the Toyota Landcruiser Club appears willing to run training days when practical.

There is also an OziExplorer forum at http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/OziUsers-L/ .

They might be of assistance to newcomers to OziExplorer. David  

The Smarter safety crew (Roger and Christine) have run numerous workshops on OziExplorer. While I haven’t been able to sit in on a complete workshop I have ‘stuck my head in’ a few times and know that their information can be understood by the first-time user right through to those wanting more in-depth information. They are willing to travel and can be contacted through the Smarter Safety website.

·         Do you know of a communications training course? We live in the Eastern suburbs of Melbourne.  Lorraine  

Information Wanted - Burketown to Borroloola

·         Re: Burketown/Borroloola we travelled that way across Top Gulf rd last year. We towed an off-road van. It came out with a few problems as it was a rough rd at that time. We did not speed.

·         Re: Kidson/Wapet Roads. I was going to do that track on way home from Mitchell Falls . You can get permits at Alice Springs for both states. You need permission from one of the mines to traverse their rd. The reason we decided not to go was cost of fuel $4 lt and no fuel at border. I think the road they traverse would be Gary Junction Rd. Cliff

Fuel Outlets

In the 8th August issue Ian was seeking a listing of fuel outlets. The ExplorOz website has fuel price trend pages listing the availability, location and price of fuel throughout the country. The Victorian page is at http://www.exploroz.com/OntheRoad/FuelPrices/VIC.aspx .

ExplorOz members add to, and update this information regularly. David  

Teewah Beach

The following response is a letter I sent to the Sunday Mail Qld which requested responses to the EPA proposal to charge a $37 single visit/monthly fee to use the beach to the north of Noosa/Noosa River to access Teewah Beach, Double Island, Rainbow Beach, Inskip Point. all part of the Cooloola National Park . Bob
Subject: Teewah Beach - NO FEES

There should definitely not be any fees for the use of this gazetted Teewah Beach main road. I have regularly used this road for over 30 years, my last visit being 7 days ago. I pay my registration fees, fuel, servicing, parts, accessories, camping item, barge across the Noosa River & sundry other taxes which should provide ample funds for all levels of Government to perform any "road work" required. I have never seen any road work being performed on the beach entry points from any of these taxes.

The "Permit Police", National Park Rangers, already spend a considerable amount of their working time, under the Governments directives, checking permits & it would be interesting to see the financial breakdown of how the collected fees are expended.

A major contrast to this "shiny bum" proposal was witnessed during my visit to the recent Birdsville Races where the Diamantina Shire graded roads, prepared camping spots, provided firewood/rubbish bags/rubbish collection bins/portable toilet facilities, all at no cost for thousands of people in attendance.

Let's keep Australia free - remind politicians of all levels of government that they work for us & if they wish to bring in any major change to our lifestyles like this one, make sure we know about it before the polls or start looking for a new job. Bob. Carseldine  

Balloons

Franz is one of our regular correspondents and lately we have been discussing hot air ballooning, as the World Championships are currently being held in Austria .  

·         As almost everything in modern aeronautics is computer maps and GPS -

So too the balloon competition tasks have nothing to do with good old flying heroes.

The aim of the balloon team is to target a 3d point. Position, altitude. Who comes nearest wins. The winner is ranked by checking the GPS logs. So all baskets are equipped with lots of laptops, minimum 3 GPS coupled to all other electronic scrap. No team without MAP Specialist and, of course, computer freak.

Seems the last adventure is to cross the big deserts with only the GPS (and epirb hidden in the survival kit). Have a look at the people in town in their GPS navigated cars.  They do not look even outside (like pilots flying on instrument rules).

Poor people.

1. Lost the ability to make fire

2. Lost the ability to find/make food

3. lost the ability to find to a predefined place (without gps)

4. Lost the ability to communicate (eye to eye) ...following soon.

That is my philosophical outlook for today. Here is a photo of one week before the competition (training week). Franz.

As I always said: Australia and Austria : only two letter difference.

Wheels falling off

·         Don't know if the group is still interested in Nissan wheels falling off, but found the following:

At Kununurra while having the front wheels balanced, a chewed out Nissan wheel was on the floor. It was the 10th Nissan alloy wheel replaced this tourist season at that one tyre service. Their theory is after water crossings the hot wheel shrinks. The corrugations help it loosen more and you have a problem. It makes sense to me as we had no problems till we hit the water crossings and very rough roads.

on http://myswag.org/forum/index.php?topic=1518.0;topicseen#lastPost

Dave  

Just a reminder: we had a report this week of a camper losing a wheel after travelling a 20km stretch of corrugated road. Regular checking may help.

4WD Clubs

·         Our club ethos is simple: “leave the bush as clean, or cleaner, than you found it.” 

Our club ( Blue Mountains 4WD Club, west of Sydney ), has been involved in many ‘clean-ups’, even before “Clean Up Australia Day” came to be.  In recent years, it has not been just recovering car bodies, but we have had crews of volunteers pick up litter along the roadside through our beautiful Blue Mountains .  I write this just having spent a Sunday afternoon helping take 5 car wrecks from a National Park.  Another tale, our club recently ran a Cape York trip of 8 vehicles.  About 170km out of Weipa they came across a seriously injured motorcyclist.  He and his companions were not equipped to deal with the situation.  Our members rendered first aid, contacted emergency services by sat phone, and cleared a 40m sq landing area for the evacuation helicopter.  This after two 4WDs ‘declined’ to stop and assist.  I hope this restores some faith to some for the Friday Five readers about 4WD clubs. Tony. President. Blue Mountains 4WD Club  

·         I thought I could send you some material that present the positive side to 4WD clubs. We also have photos of work carried out on our website http://www.mitsubishi4wd.org.au/  

Mitsubishi Club Leschenault Environment Group (M.C.L.E.G.)

Since 2001 our club has been assisting the Department of Environment and Conservation (D.E.C.) formerly (C.A.L.M.) in looking after the Leschenault Peninsular just North of Bunbury in Western Australia . Our regular visits help to ensure the area will survive against erosion, weeds and pests.

The Peninsula has a varied past, dumping of mine site waste, farming and horse breeding just to mention a few.  After considerable restoration, it is now a Conservation Park run by D.E.C. Local flora and fauna are now starting to flourish once again with birds of many varieties, kangaroos and other native creatures now inhabiting the inlet and surrounds.

Duties carried out include rubbish removal, planting tree seedlings, putting in bollards, oiling the jetties, erecting signs, fencing off dunes and car parks, regenerating dunes and clearing walk trails. Our club achieves great satisfaction from performing these duties and appreciate the also appreciate the tremendous work undertaken by the very dedicated staff of DEC. 

The WA 4WD Association and its member-clubs are seen by DEC as partners in protecting, preserving and restoring our natural heritage and we hope that our work will be a valuable contribution to the enjoyment future users will have in WA.

Mitsubishi Club Byford Environment Group (M.C.B.E.G.)

In 2007 we were approached by a ranger from D.E.C. and asked if the club would be able to assist in cleaning up the Darling Range Regional Park . The area was previously privately owned and needed to be returned to its natural state. After some of our committee member met with the ranger early in 2007, it became evident that the area had been invaded by people more interested in dumping rubbish than seeing the area restored to its natural beauty. An action plan was put into place and our first clean up was held on Saturday 22nd of July 2007, we managed to remove 12 tonnes of rubbish that day with a promise to return for more on a regular basis.

There are further plans to do more rubbish removal, fence removal and general clearing up of objects foreign to the natural landscape. Securing the area to keep unauthorised vehicles out is also a high priority.

On a sad note the work carried out in the Byford area has been trashed 3 times by so called hoons being 4WD drivers (but not those from Clubs), quad bikes and Motorbike Riders. We had fenced off an area of 4800 sq. metres to prevent the kangaroos eating the 800 or so seedlings that we planted.  It should be noted that the fence did not block any tracks or access areas, it should also be mentioned that this fence was built inside a national park which in itself is fenced off to prevent vehicular access. Mindless acts of vandalism for no apparent reason; it is enough to make your blood boil. By their actions, it will mean that the park will be closed to wheeled access for a long time. One can only hope that the strength of karma prevails.

Paul. President. Mitsubishi 4WD Owners Club of WA Inc. 

·         Here is another club initiative. http://www.convoyforkids.net/index1.htm

This started off a just a local thing to raise money for SIDS and Kids at last count there are over 2000 vehicles registered for the run and it has now gone National, all the other states have picked it up and are running similar events over the next 6 months.

 Ashley Jolley is the former President of the 4WD Association of WA but now is in charge of the Western Patrol Club and they are the organisers of this run. I am sure you will agree that this type of event can only be good for the 4WD community as a whole. (But let’s not forget the kids and the parents that have suffered the real reason behind this run).

Paul. Mitsubishi 4WD Owners Club of WA Inc.

Australian Mud Map

I don’t know why the link didn’t work last week but I do know who was meant to make it work and forgot – ME. Sorry. Here it is again.

the original australian mudmap.JPG

·                 Perhaps you could do a search for the photographer & location in your newsletter. That could stir up some interest for months. Bruce

Does anyone know the actual source?

Friday Funnies 

·       I can't help but look around and notice the youth of today. You've got it so easy.  Compared to my childhood, you live in Utopia! And I hate to say it but you kids today don't know how good you've got it.
When I was a kid we didn't have The Internet. If we wanted to know something, we had to go to the library and look it up ourselves, in the card catalogue. There was no email. We had to actually write somebody a letter, with a pen. ...Then you had to walk all the way across the street and put it in the mailbox and it would take like a week to get there.
There were no MP3's or Napsters.  You wanted to steal music, you had to hitchhike to the record store and shoplift it yourself. Or you had to wait around all day to tape it off the radio and the DJ'd usually talk over the beginning and mess it all up.
We didn't have fancy stuff like Call Waiting. If you were on the phone and somebody else called they got a busy signal, that's it. We didn't have fancy caller ID either. When the phone rang, you had no idea who it was…it could be your school, your mom, your boss, your Bookie, your drug dealer, a debt collections agent, you just didn't know.  You had to pick it up and take your chances.  
We didn't have any fancy Sony Playstation video games with high-resolution 3-D graphics! We had the Atari 2600 with games like 'Space Invaders' and 'asteroids'. Your guy was a little square. You actually had to use your Imagination.  There were no multiple levels or
screens, it was just one screen. And you could never win. The game just kept getting harder and harder and faster and faster until you died.  Just like LIFE.  
You had to use a book called a TV Guide to find out what was on. When it came to channel surfing you had to get off your chair and walk over to the TV to change the channel and there was no Cartoon Network either! You could only get cartoons on Saturday morning. We had to wait ALL WEEK for cartoons.

And we didn't have microwaves, if we wanted to heat something up we had to use the stove ... Imagine that. That's exactly what I'm talking about. You kids today have got it too easy. You guys wouldn't have lasted five minutes back in 1980!
Regards, The over 30 Crowd

·         An old farmer in the Top End had owned a large block for several years. He had a large dam in the back and so he fixed it up for swimming, picnic tables, fruit trees etc.
One evening the old bloke decided to go down to the dam, as he hadn't been there for a while. He grabbed a bucket to bring back some fruit. As he neared the water, he heard voices shouting and laughing with glee. As he came closer, he saw it was a bunch of young women skinny-dipping.
He made the women aware of his presence and they all went to the deep end. One of the women shouted to him, 'We're not coming out until you leave!' The old man frowned, 'I didn't come down here to watch you ladies swim naked or make you get out of the water naked.'
Holding the bucket up he said, 'I'm just here to feed my crocs.'
Some old men can still think fast.

·         My wife and I were sitting at a table at my high school reunion, and I kept staring at a drunken lady swigging her drink as she sat alone at a nearby table.  My wife asked, 'Do you know her?' 

'Yes,' I sighed, 'she’s my old girlfriend.  I understand she took to drinking right after we split up those many years ago, and I hear she hasn't been sober since.' 
'Wow!' says my wife, 'Who would think a person could go on celebrating that long?' 

 And then the fight started... 

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Cheers for now,

Jo

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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