Date: November 27th 2009

 

Westprint Friday Five November 27, 2009  

Included this week are:

·         Camels in Australia

·         Satellite Phones

·         Four Secondhand books (one copy of each only)

 

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Unless otherwise noted all special prices listed in the

Friday Five are valid for seven days.

 

Friday Five 27.11.09  

1. Tin Mosques and Ghantowns. Christine Stevens This book covers 130 years of Australian history. Fifty years of which camel trains criss-crossed the continent, carrying the necessities of life, and a few luxuries to settlements in the interior. 372pp. $39.95 plus post. Add to Cart 

2. Adam’s Empire. Evan Green. Second Hand, good condition, hardcover with dust jacket. Protective acid-free plastic sleeving on the dust jacket. Adam Ross cherished a dream to have land of his own. The opal fields of Coober Pedy offered his first glimpse of riches. From the Western Plains of New South Wales to the sparkling waters of Sydney Harbour , from the grinding heat of a West Australian cattle station to the eerie desert shores of Lake Eyre , he was driven by ambition. And when tragedy struck, it seemed that Adam would never realise his dream. $28.00 including post in Australia . One only. 

3. North of the 26^th. Second Hand, good condition, hardcover with dust jacket. Protective acid-free plastic sleeving on the dust jacket. The north of Western Australia , written by the people who live/d there. Mary Durack, Ruby Penna, Maggie Churnside, Hal Missingham and others. $42.00 including post in Australia . One only. 

4. The Great Victoria Desert . Mark Shephard. Second Hand, good condition, hardcover with dust jacket. Protective acid-free plastic sleeving on the dust jacket. $68.00 including post in Australia . One only. 

5. Hell West and Crooked. Tom Cole. Second Hand, good condition, hardcover with dust jacket. Protective acid-free plastic sleeving on the dust jacket. Buffalo and crocodile hunting adventures in the Far North. $39.00 including post in Australia . One only. 

Books are allocated on a first-come first serve basis. To reserve your copy of any of the following books please email info@westprint.com.au with the title you are interested in. All emails will be answered during the following week, either with details of how to pay, or a ‘sorry, the item has already sold’ email. Where possible, postage on multiple items will be recalculated to offer you the best price.  

Postage Rates. These items will usually not be found on our website. Orders will be supplied on a ‘first come, first serve’ basis. Westprint normal postage rates are now $8.50 for one book, $11.00 for two books, $13.00 for 3 or more books. Free post applies to orders of more than $150.00. Postage rates apply to Australia only. Airmail postage rates apply to overseas orders.

 

Disclaimer.

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

Friday Forum

Jo’s forum comments in green.  

Pre-notice

The end of the year is fast approaching. Just a reminder that there will be no Friday Fives during January. All being well (no broken bones and no major fires) we intend to visit Kangaroo Island for a couple of weeks. The first Friday Five for 2010 will be February 5.

 

Camels in Australia

While researching information about camels in Australia (see Tin Mosques listed above) I found a couple of interesting sites.

The following information is from the Camels Australia Export Web site. Camels Australia Export is the registered business name of the Central Australian Camel Industry Association Inc (CACIA). http://www.camelsaust.com.au  

·         The 2001 survey by the Northern Territory Parks & Wildlife Commission has estimated the present feral camel population in the Northern Territory to be in excess of 200,000. The likely Australian population is now 600,000.

The first camel in Australia was imported from the Canary Islands in 1840 by Horrock. The next major group of 24 camels came out in 1860 for the ill-fated Bourke and Wills expedition. The first time the explorer Giles used camels he travelled 220 miles in 8 days without giving water to the camels. He later went from Bunbury Downs to Queen Victoria Springs (WA), a distance of 325 miles in 17 days and gave one bucket of water to each camel after the twelfth day.
Camel studs were set up in 1866, by Sir Thomas Elder at Beltana Station in South Australia . These studs operated for about fifty years and provided high class breeders. Working camels bred in Australia were of superior quality to those imported. Imports continued until 1907 from Palestine and India as there was a need for large numbers of cheap animals.
An estimated 10,000 to 12,000 camels, imported into Australia between 1860 and 1907, were used as draft and riding animals by people pioneering the dry interior.
The camels brought into Australia were almost exclusively the one-humped camels (Camelus dromedarius) which are found in hot desert areas and are highly suited to the climate in Australia . Only about 20 of the two-humped camels (Camelus bactrianus) normally found in cold deserts were imported into Australia . The very big camel teams in Western Australia and the Centre consisted of 70 camels and 4 Afghans. Normally they travelled between 20 and 25 miles a day in desert country. The teams would collectively carry between 16 and 20 tons on their backs.
Central Australia used camels in the construction of the Overland Telegraph line, the supply of goods to Alice Springs and to cattle and sheep stations, missions and Aboriginal communities. Camels hauled wagons loaded with wool to the railhead at Oodnadatta, pulled scoops and ploughs to build dams or perform other heavy jobs.
Most of the camels were released in the mid 1920s, when motor vehicles began operating in the central areas of Australia . They established free-ranging herds in the semi-arid desert areas of Australia .  

The following information is from the ABC website.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/11/26/2753917.htm

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/11/25/2753354.htm

·         The Northern Territory Government says residents of a remote Central Australian community are too scared to leave their houses because it has been overrun by thousands of wild camels.

Local Government Minister, Rob Knight, says the situation is critical.

"The community of Docker River is under siege by 6000 marauding, wild camels," he said.

He says in the past few weeks, camels have invaded the town in search of water.

In the process they have trampled infrastructure and invaded the community's airstrip.

"This is a significant community - some 350 people - where they've actually come right into the community, smashing infrastructure, so it's become a critical situation.

 

See also Hoosh - Book available from Westprint.  

Trailers – again

I remember seeing an article about trailers. There was one in particular that showed a letter from Parks SA stating that Kimberley trailers were "approved" for use in some areas. I also heard that only T Van's and Kimberley ’s were allowed to enter Bungle Bungle. Do you know anything about this? Robert  

I don’t remember seeing an article or letter from any government department that singled out trailers ‘approved for use’. Does anyone remember such a letter?

Prado exhaust brake query

The person querying Prado exhaust brakes could contact SGV Exhaust Brakes
Chipping Norton N.S.W. 2170. Tel. (02) 9822 47 54
www.sgvaustralia.com

 

Satellite Phone Query – from last week  

·       GlobalStar continues to suffer service problems, and in my experience is close to unusable as a result.   They have issued a notice, http://www.globalstar.com/en/news/update.php, indicating these problems are temporary, but the issues have existed for some time and the company has even gone so far as to create a tool to determine the best times to make a call for a given location; http://calltimes.globalstar.com/ .

Thuraya, http://www.thuraya.com/, suffers from no such outage problem, and neither does the other option, Iridium.  In short Iridium has a more basic phone but a better quality of service, whereas Thuraya has many functions but can't match the Iridium call quality.  Another company, Inmarsat, has a voice service only covers the western half of Australia but I understand that will expand next year.  Inmarsat's terminal-based data service does cover all Australia . Robert  

·         Our experience is: Use the Globalstar for a boat anchor. We used Thuraya on the Canning without any problems although there was a 50c or something charge every time we turned it on plus cost for calls.  It’s light, portable, relatively cheap to hire.  Connected everywhere we were. Alan Hislop. GoSeeAustralia  

·         I have tried to use a Globalstar in Oz some two years ago. The da...ed junk did not work one single time, and these were the times when people said that it was still working in places. Nowadays Globalstar are issuing time tables, at which time the sat phone is supposed to work, depending on the place, which is just ridiculous in my opinion. I have talked to people in Kununurra and in the Red Centre who have been Globalstar dealers before and who have completely quit selling this rubbish. I say rubbish because that is what Globalstar in my opinion is, absolutely useless rubbish.

A sat phone is a safety device. That means that the service shall be available 24/7, where ever you are, as your life (or the life of other people) may depend on it. I have used Iridium sat phones ever since my devastating experience with Globalstar and have been very satisfied with the excellent signal availability of Iridium. No matter where I was, Iridium worked to perfection in the Simpson Desert , on the Anne Beadell Highway and all along the Canning Stock Route , as well as on any other place in Oz. My recommendation is to hire an Iridium, as they are very expensive to buy, and the Iridium contracts are also very expensive. But they can be easily hired from companies like Landwide Satellite Solutions. Some rental car companies hire them out, too. Britz, for example.

I have not had any experience with Thuraya, but people told me that they are not working as properly as Iridium does. Maybe you should ask in the forum at www.exploroz.com for Thuraya performance. Friends of mine have recently bought a very old Inmarsat sat phone and will let me know how this worked after their return in May next year.

IMPORTANT:

There are some areas, where no sat phone will work properly, namely on the ground of very narrow gorges, as sat phones need free sight to the sky. If you go for a walk in narrow gorges it is highly recommended to contact the local rangers before you go and to let someone know your itinerary and when you plan to be back. If there is no one around, give your people at home a sat phone call, tell them at which place you are and call them again as soon as you’re back from the walk. If you do not call within the appointed time schedule, they can alarm the police and/or the rangers to initiate a search and rescue operation.

Being a volunteer fire fighter and having spoken to many rescue people in the outback, I know that a sat phone was a life saver in more than just a few cases. It is an excellent idea to have it with you, but make sure to make the right choice (in my eyes Iridium).

Cheers from bl..dy cold and boring Dortmund/Germany, Juergen

 

Friday Funnies  

Many thanks to those who regularly send jokes for the funnies. We have a couple of month’s supply at present. That doesn’t mean we don’t want any more sent – just that if you do send jokes they may not be used immediately.  

·         A woman has the last word in any argument. Anything a man says after that... is the beginning of a new argument.  

·         "All mankind is divided into three classes: those who are immovable, those who are movable; and those who move." -Benjamin Franklin  

·         A new study has found that having a cat makes you 40 percent less likely to die of a heart attack. Not that the cat could care less either way, really.  

·         A new scam is being pulled mainly on older men. What happens is that when you stop for a red light a young, top less woman comes up and pretends to be washing your windscreen. While she is doing this another person opens your back door and steals anything in the car. They are very good at this. They got me 3 times last Friday and twice on Saturday. I wasn't able to find them on Sunday.  

·         A little Irish bloke had a bit too much to drink and up ended his glass on the bar and said to all, "My names O'Malley and I'll fight any man in the bar".

The local town's blacksmith had just walked in, 7 ft high & 6 ft wide, 300 lbs, said, "My names O'Neil and I'll fight any man in the bar".

The little bloke looks at him and said," His name’s O'Neil and mine’s O'Malley and we'll both fight any man in the bar!"

 

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Cheers for now,

Jo

 

 

 

 

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