...Whelan is here.

G-day Petals, 
Mrs Wombat and I have been away for a few days so I'm late and because of that this is a looooong one.

Shane behind the Wire

 For overseas readers the title may need some explanation.

Here in Melbourne there used to be a building demolition firm called "Whelan the Wrecker".
 When on the job they would place signs saying "Whelan is Here" and on finishing the demolition leave one saying, "Whelan was Here" .

No further explanation will be needed on this or Shane's Pic on reading this weeks Wombat Droppings.

Mrs Wombat was cold in the burrow and wanted a holiday in warmer climes. Shane needed to do some topographical research in Mildura and on 2 RAAF OTU.
Voilà... Congruence.

Lake Tyrrell, Mallee National Park

Mallee Wheat

Mildura and surrounds is the prime area in Victoria for Wheat, Oranges, Citrus and Grapes. It is irrigated from the Murray, and water conservation, its allocation etc have been a "hot-political-Potato" over recent years. It is also near the confluence of the Darling River in nearby Wentworth, N.S.W.

Murray-Darling: painting by Jade Temby

Which we visited..... and found Wentworth's Post Office to be architecturally much like our Ballan Mechanic's Institute.

Wentworth P.O.

Just up the road, well, Darling Street, you'll find Jade's Cafe which has very good coffee (and scones) and interesting artworks... that's Jade's painting above,  also fascinating art-works by Roger Clarke who'll also teach you Didgeridoo if you stick around long enough.
Good conversation, too....ta, you lot.

Jade, Steven, and Roger, Jade's Cafe, Wentworth, NSW

 In Mildura, a bonus for me was wandering around at dusk to photograph bits and pieces under street lighting; something you can't do much of in the burrow.

Deakin St, Mildura

Mildura, night

Jacks Corner Chinese, Mildura

The Sentinals, Car Park, Mildura

The Grand, Mildura

We took a 100+ km trip to Lake Mungo, 80 Km of which is on a "good weather" track.
It's not the Emu, Kangaroo, Cows or other assorted wildlife which are a problem on this track but humans, those with a distinct lack of "country-road-nouse".

One Way. Lake Mungo

For the American reader who like and trust the veracity of their bible stories: this place is very old.

For anyone else: cremated Aborigine remains dating back 40,000 years have been found here.
It is a significant place.

Lake Mungo

And then there are the Sand Dunes ... lord-only-knows why this fine pale cream sand hasn't been mined and shipped to wherever?
Bloody Greenies, always trashing the "Brand".. as recently elected Senator for PUP Jacqui Lambie (ex soldier) opined t'other day.
Methinks she's better suited for destroying things than waxing philosophic or instigating a judicial enquiry into why people are trying to protect the environment!

Lake Mungo Dunes

Lake Mungo Dunes

We also saw this idiosyncratic piece of spatial awareness in the car-park at Mungo.
I mean, you really have to wonder, don't-cha?   There were only two other vehicles and they weren't in front of this position.
But like I've said before, they do things differently in the Far North!

Parking, Lake Mungo, Far North, Q'land Style!

 There are plenty of restaurants in Mildura...

Rendezvous Restaurant, Mildura

The Rendezvous being one of the oldest licensed restaurants in regional Victoria..... 1953...and in a delightfully refurbished 30's cinema, the Mildura Brewery Pub....

Mildura  Brewery Pub

 ...where we took hold of a copy of issue 2 of "The Dura", a quarterly; and met its originators, Harry Rekas and Brendan Nasoufis.
The mag is eclectic, partisan, local, exciting and particularly ignorant of that-which-must-not-be-said in a conservative regional city, which makes it a really good and relevant read.

The Dura

Mention must go the the photographer for the cover and other portraits in the Mag...  ...Jayhan Uhanik, a 17 YO, doing his Cert 4 in Imaging at Sunraysia TAFE ... watch this name .. he's good!
Which makes you wonder why ex-premier of the Tardis State (Where-All-Goes-Backward) "Big-Bird" Baillieu (Genus: Silvertail Incompetens) cut $800,000,000.00 from TAFE when there is talent like this in our regional centres which need nurturing.

We finally, on our last day made it to the the reason I was in Mildura: and went out to the RAAF Museum for No:2 OTU.

RAAF Museum, Mildura

The volunteer staff couldn't have been more knowledgeable, helpful and accommodating. A fascinating and informative, even if, at times depressing place, as any museum to war can be.

On the trip back to the burrow we stopped of at the Mechanics Institute (1918) in Kurting...

Mechanics Institute, Kurting

.. and as you can see there is nothing ... nothing around, nothing behind... I can only surmise that Kurting may have been part of "Soldier Settlement" land after WW1 and that their land was bought/appropriated on failing to make-a-go-of-it ... and the building, in surprisingly good condition, is all that remains...Concrete block-house with buttressed corners a'la Walter Burley Griffin and Federation Style. Chimney at North end; entrance at South

A fine time for three days; Mildura's good warm weather, new interesting people .. moving landscapes and a better appreciation of how vibrant our regional cities can be.

Wombat Droppings or The Low-down on Politics in OZ

 It’s been a tad more than 50 days and Prime Miniature “Rabbott” has decided it’s time to celebrate his Liarbril / Notional Party Government’s achievements.

100 Days used to be the norm for this sort of assessment but as you will see one of the reasons for “going early” might either be what follows or that in being  “…open-for-business”, this is just the entrée and the main is still to come.

So what has happened?

1/ Steve Bracks and family, "shafted" days before taking up a post on New York: another fine example of Liarbril pettiness and vindictiveness.

2/ Prime Miniature “Rabbott” mouths off against Labor and its policy’s to American journo’s.
International studies expert Clinton Fernandes said “Rabbott’s” comments to the Washington Post left behind an image of “coarseness, amateurishness and viciousness”.  
  
Former diplomat and senior public servant John Menadue said it remained to be seen whether “Rabbott” could ''make the transition from a critic and opposition attack dog to a responsible and constructive prime minister''.             

Rabbott's performance was to the highest of Sir Les Patterson’s diplomatic and cultural awareness standards; and I’m sure the Brits will be particularly happy quoting it back to us at every suitable opportunity. (Yanks who read this might have to Google The Right Hon. Sir Les to ken the point) 

3/ Anti-Environment Minister Greg “Ozone-Hole” Hunt quotes Wicki at Brit journo to support his Prime Miniature’s assertions against linking Global Warming and the NSW  Bush-fires. Andrew “the Dolt” Bolt, writes supporting both …Can't even read Wiki and get it right. Nuff said!

4/ “Rabbott”  tell UN rep for Climate Change “…she’s talking through her hat!” ..and later, “… that Carbon Pricing is a Socialist plot.”
 More channelling of the spirit of Sir Les!

Photographs appeared of Mr “Rabbott” in volunteer fireman clobber “saving” the country from bushfire... except the pics were taken much earlier in the year;  and though it’s nice to know there’s enough time when running a country to play “hero” in a fire-truck you would have thought that the "real"  job he has might take  a bit more time?.
He then denied any link between these fires and Global Warming saying that fires are endemic in Oz at this time of year….

“In pointing to our history of fires, Abbott rattled off a list of historical bushfires, and the dates were: the 1850s, 1939, 1968, 1983, 1994, 2003, and 2009 and now, 2013. Ignoring, for a moment that none of those other fires were in October, take a look at the gaps between those events.

80 years, 29 years, 14 years, 11 years, nine years, six years, and four years. Abbott may have thought he was talking about Australia’s proclivity for catching alight, but in fact he was reinforcing the point that these fires are getting much, much more frequent. Furthermore he displayed the shallowness of his intellect.”        John Lord in Café Whispers: http://theaimn.com/2013/10/25/three-more-years-of-this-you-say-fair-dimkum/

5/ A quarter (that we know) of the federal front bench including Attorney General “Loose-Lips” Brandis have been found to have rorted the public purse in travel allowances, and other perks over the years. 

The Prime Miniature being one of the worst.   
A more compelling display of the totality of their dishonesty, hypocrisy, flagrant disregard of public office and in the Case of “Slippery Pete”, “Ashby-Gate” and “Thommo”, their obscene absence of ethics is hard to top.

“Senior figures in the Abbott government were among those who enjoyed ''free'' travel on VIP military aircraft to fly to Canberra for parliamentary sitting weeks, amassing a taxpayer bill of more than $2 million, Defence Department records reveal. Former ministers in the Howard government including Peter “I-Had–a-Baton” Costello, Nick “Hypocrite” Minchin and Amanda “Il Patrone” Vanstone used ''special purpose'' VIP military flights to commute to Canberra with private staff members, despite having unlimited business-class air travel with Qantas as part of their ministerial perks. Empty military planes, costing taxpayers thousands of dollars each flight, were sent from Canberra to capital cities to pick up the Howard ministers, despite on many occasions regular commercial flights being available. Among those to ''catch a lift'' with Mr Costello were MPs including Kevin “Aborted”Andrews, now the Minister for Social Services, and Bruce “Who” Billson, now the Minister for Small Business. The former treasurer was joined on VIP flights by his team of private staff, who included Kelly “Shaduppa-ya-face” O'Dwyer, who succeeded Mr Costello in the seat of Higgins. Empty military planes, costing taxpayers thousands of dollars each flight, were sent from Canberra to capital cities to pick up the Howard ministers, despite on many occasions regular commercial flights being available. : mostly quoted from…. http://www.smh.com.au

6/  Joe “Oh-What-a-Feeling” Hockey lied about the budget crisis ( oohhh, really, truly) and now lies about the last treasurer and the RBA and then extends the country’s debt another $8,000.000.000.000.00. and doubles  the borrowing limit to $500 billion. Now there's a a budget crisis!

 Right-Wing economics commentator, Judith Sloan said of Chris “The-Whyne” Pyne in his mincing, giggling and garbled defense of this, “You are economically irresponsible!”

Pyne-the-Wyne, the Perfect Prefect.

7/  Scott “The Drone” Morrison, No-Immigration minister, has, quite apart from displaying his overweening arrogance at his weakly newspeak (from Sydney and not Canberra where most of the journo’s are) of announcements about his “Illegals”    has also provided more evidence of the dearth of feeling and humanity successful Liarbrils must have to attain the higher ranks… 
 “..four families, all with new born babies were woken and taken at 5am to Christmas Island yesterday. They have been told that they will then be transferred to Nauru.
The Minister's new rule to deal with babies born in Australia is that all babies born of mothers who arrived post July2013, are to be sent at 6 weeks of age to Nauru.
These babies were born in Darwin under rules from the previous minister:  new minister: new rules.
 Live babies are to be transferred to Nauru at six weeks of age, unborn babies are to be sent for birth on Nauru. These little ones may struggle to survive in tents in 50 degree Celsius heat in communal tents in a camp with no running water.
 

Babies and children under 5 years in Nauru are more likely to die than babies and children in Australia: UNICEF REPORT into Child mortality 2012

There are 40 deaths per one thousand babies born in Nauru to 2 deaths per thousand in Australia. Pamela Curr Campaign Coordinator Asylum Seeker Resource Centre.

  

refugee mothers and babies

8/ Aside from kow-towing to the Chinese and Indonesians, insulting Vladimir Putin, chopping 
 anything to do with a scientific analysis of climate change and being the first government in 86 years to not appoint a science minister and planning to privatise state education, to sell of the profitable medicare private  followed by the again, profitable Australia Post… the first fifty days has been, by Liarbril standards a roaring success.

So to celebrate these “achievements” “Rabbott” threw (we believe at taxpayer expense) a dinner party whose “….. guests included Andrew “The Dolt” Bolt, Piers “Toad Hall” Akerman, Alan “Bondi” Jones (he of London Toilet Fame), Janet “Wasp”Albrechtsen, Miranda Devine, Chris Kenny, Daily Telegraph editor Paul Whittaker, and News Corp editor Col “ Pot” Allan, who is believed to have flown back from New York in time for the intimate gathering of friends. The Australian editor Chris Mitchell was invited, but told Fairfax Media he was unable to attend. Fairfax Media columnists Paul Sheehan and Gerard “Sycophant” Henderson were also invited to the knees-up, which was orchestrated by “Rabbott’s” chief of staff  Peta “Bloody-Idiot” Credlin who will not verify who is paying……or publicly verify anything else for that matter. 
Will it be a ''a circus'' and… ''scandalously wasteful''? 
We will never know because as “Rabbott” has only fronted the media eight times in his 50 days and Credlin is telling Ministers when and where they can talk. 
An interesting version of Democracy isn’t it?

9/  Alan “Bondi” Jones (he of London Public Toilet Fame and acolyte of “Rabbott”)  shock jock from Sydney, has been told to get his facts straight before mouthing off on air.  Station responds with, "….we pointed out to ACMA that this new requirement (to verify the factual accuracy of reports in other media) is burdensome, uncertain, ambiguous and impinges on editorial freedom".

It would be funny if it weren’t true.

Ahh, Democracy in Oz.

Back around 2005 there was an animated serial from Britain on TV titled, “I am Not an Animal.” It begins in an animal/ human vivisection lab where research into Frankenstein-esque type beings is taking place.

An accident occurs, some of the “animals” escape and they try to find their way in the world, thinking they are normal.

I am Not an Animal

It’s a macabre comedy that came to mind because it has so much in common with the present Government. 
In both, there’s a real disconnect between reality as it exists and reality as a perception. 
This perceptual dissonance is what The-Coots-with-Queer-Ideas-from-a-Parallel-Universe (aka The Institute of Public Affairs) develop to feed  Liarbril’s thought-bubbles masquerading as policy by pushing their sponsor’s lines. You know, the likes of Big Tobacco, Big Mining, Privatised Health, Big Pharmaceuticals, Coal Miners et al. And we are supposed to believe that we are governed for the good of the people and nation. 

What Bullshit!   
Welcome to the wonderful, wacko world of the LNP/ Murdoch government as promulgated by the IPA.''

So there you have it. …. no wonder the ex-seminarian (aka “The Mad Monk”) “went early” with this premature ejaculation of a “success” spiel  because who knows what horrors and incompetence await us in the next 50 days and subsequent two years and eight months?

It’s also interesting to note that this is probably the first federal government since Federation that has not had a “honey-moon” period following its election: It went “on-the-nose” from day one and looks like only getting worse!

Cheers, Possums,

Shane.

A Rose by any other name.....with thanks to Harry from "The Dura"

PS. On Yer Bike, Tone

 










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