Australia by Tibrogargan January 2007 - present and 155216+ views later!

[klaasend]

Tibro will tell us all about Australia  

[mrs. red]

Oh.. I would love to hear all about it..... starting with do they welcome American tourists???  It is so high on my lists of places I would LOVE to visit.....

[Carnut]

Post about Christmas Snow in Australia:

UNBELIEVABLE! We're not dreamin' anymore.

[Dihannah1]

 
 
New Assue Monkey! Nice to see a new face!
Australia is one place I would just LOVE to see, it's so beautiful....

[Tibrogargan]

Thank you all for your interest.  Just let me know what sort of things you are interested in so I can do some research and get my facts straight!
Australia is a very diverse country : from tropical rainforests, mountain snowfields and deserts with everything in between.  We LOVE American and Canadian tourists and have had a lot to do with your countries over the years.  My father was with the RAAF in South West Pacific at a US base during World War 11, my brother and a cousin both went to Vietnam and I have two nephews, one in the RAAF and one in RAN,  both of whom have done their share in Iraq.  All of them came home safely for which we thank God.
I plan to post items about our wildlife and ways of life.  We are not like Crocodile Dundee but certainly have our share of weird characters.  We are very laid back and easy going, in some ways too easy going but that is more of a political topic.  Things have changed a lot here over past few years with the influence of immigrants and we are much more cosmopolitan than when I was young.
Now down to work on my first request.

[mrs. red]

Ok, I am a very political monkey...  

so I guess my questions would be...what kind of immigration are you seeing?  How is changing your political landscape?

Do Australians think this is a worthless battle on terror or do they think that it's a fight that needs to happen?

I will have a gazillion questions... but I will leave you with these for now...and please don't be shy to be frank with me... I love to hear all kinds of thoughts.... and I am not always eloquent even though, I try to be... so if you don't understand a question or I have worded it wrong please let me know...

[Tibrogargan]

Legend of the Glasshouse Mountains  An Aboriginal legend published by E G Heap, B.A
It seems that Tibrogargan, the father, and Beerwah, the mother, had many children - Coonowrin (The Eldest) Beerburrum, the Tunbubudia twins, Coochin, Ngun Ngun, Tibberoowuccum, Miketeebumulgrai and Elimbah.  According to the story there was also Round who was fat and small and Wild Horse (presumably Saddleback) who was always straying away to paddle in the sea.
One day, when Tibrogargan was gazing out to sea he noticed a great rising of the waters.  Hurrying off to gather his younger children in order to flee to the safety of the mountains to the westward, he called out to Coonowrin to help his mother, who by the way, was again with child.
Looking back to see how Coonowrin was assisting Beerwah, Tibrogargan was greatly angered to see him running off alone.   He pursued Coonowrin and, raising his club, struck the latter such a mighty blow that it dislocated Coonowrin's neck, and he has never been able to straighten it since.
When the floods had subsided and the family had returned to the plains, the other children teased Coonowrin about his crooked neck.  Feeling ashamed, Coonowrin went over to Tibrogargan and asked his forgiveness: but filled with shame at his son's cowardice, Tibrogargan could do nothing but weep copious tears, which, trickling along the ground, formed a stream which flowed into the sea.  Then Coonowrin went to his brothers and sisters but they also wept at the shame of their brother's cowardice.  The lamentations of Coonowrin's parents and of his brothers and sisters at his disgrace explain the presence today of the numerous small streams of the area.
Tibrogargan then called out to Coonowrin, asking him why he had deserted Beerwah; at which Coonowrin replied that as Beerwah was the biggest of them all she should have been able to take care of herself.  He did not know that Beerwah was again pregnant, which was the reason for her great size.  Then Tibrogargan turned his back on Coonowrin and vowed that he would never look at him again.
Even today Tibrogargan gazes far out to sea and never looks around at Coonowrin, who hangs his head and cries, his tears running off to the sea.  His mother Beerwah, is still heavy with child as it takes a long, long time to give birth to a mountain.

My notes :  The titles above are all names of the mountain group or towns around the area. (They are easier to write than to pronounce)  The Glasshouse Mountains are in the hinterland of  Queensland's Sunshine Coast which is north of Brisbane.  The area is very fertile and has many pineapple and banana plantations.  Also Beerwah is where Steve Irwin's Australia Zoo is located.  I do not have a scanner so cannot load pictures onto this story.   Hope you enjoy and for pictures you could google Glasshouse Mountains..

I'll help you out with some pics (klaasend)

[Tibrogargan]

Ok, I am a very political monkey...  

so I guess my questions would be...what kind of immigration are you seeing?  How is changing your political landscape?

Do Australians think this is a worthless battle on terror or do they think that it's a fight that needs to happen?

I will have a gazillion questions... but I will leave you with these for now...and please don't be shy to be frank with me... I love to hear all kinds of thoughts.... and I am not always eloquent even though, I try to be... so if you don't understand a question or I have worded it wrong please let me know...

When I was young we had a white Australia policy which limited migrants to coming from European countries and most of those came here to work on large electric power dam projects and stations in the Snowy Mountains.  Totally politically incorrect.  Prior to that most of the migrants had been Chinese and similar who worked in the gold fields in our early history.
But when they lifted that policy and it became an open door we got migrants from all countries.  Now we have nothing against most of them and the majority have settled in and assimilated well and proud to become naturalised and call themselves dinkum Aussies and they have bought good things from their cultures especially their varied foods.   Love them!
The problems now come from a very small minority who although they come here for a better way of life than they had in their homelands still bring their political and religious bias and arguments with them.  They expect us to bend out rules and change our way of life to suit them.  Well we are a Christian peace loving country and if they do not want to take us on those terms they would be better returning to their homeland.
As we are so easy going (you could read that as apathetic too) many do not worry too much about terrorism or the wars going on at present.  Not until it directly affects them.  We have compulsory voting in elections here and if we did not it would be interesting to see how many would actually drag themselves out to the polling booths.  Thinking people agree that terrorism needs to be halted somewhere, preferably not waiting until it gets on our doorstep.  Iraq seems to have gone awry and I think it is time the Iraquis started to do something more for themselves and not rely on US and allies for much longer.  Can see it heading into civil war though without some strong leadership.    Rant over!!!

[Tibrogargan]

Thank you Klaas.
In the top picture Tibrogargan is on the left of picture, Beerwah in the middle and Coonowrin on the right further in the distance.

[Sleuth]

G'Day Mate

[Tibrogargan]

BBL Monkey friends

[Tibrogargan]

G'Day Mate

G'day Sleuth - will you be here for a while?  Have to dash off now but back later   Would love to chat about Koalas and things

[mrs. red]

Tib...

Thanks for your answer!  I appreciate your frankness and it was interesting to hear that as far as immigration y'all seem to face the same problems that we have....

I loved the story... and those pictures are amazing!!

I will just listen to you and Slueth talk... I am sure that y'all will teach us all a lot!  I am looking forward to learning all about your country!!

[pdh3]

Tib - Welcome to SM! I am among the posters here who are fascinated by Australia. I plan to visit Down Under one day. Americans love Aussies, and we are very fond of the accent!
My question would be about the cattle stations and sheep stations. I just wondered what that way of life truly entails.
I'd also like to know how the Great Barrier Reef is faring.

[sb]

The snow on Christmas in the Southern Hemisphere is incredible. I have NEVER had a White Christmas, having grown up in Florida. I understand the reversal of the seasons though and I shake my head at the thought that people in Michigan have no snow, while those in the SUMMER season south of the Equator are getting snow. Wild.

[Tibrogargan]

Tib - Welcome to SM! I am among the posters here who are fascinated by Australia. I plan to visit Down Under one day. Americans love Aussies, and we are very fond of the accent!
My question would be about the cattle stations and sheep stations. I just wondered what that way of life truly entails.
I'd also like to know how the Great Barrier Reef is faring.

I will have to do a bit of researching into that as I have never lived in the outback - only in towns or outer suburbs of a city.  Will make it my next project.

[Tibrogargan]

The snow on Christmas in the Southern Hemisphere is incredible. I have NEVER had a White Christmas, having grown up in Florida. I understand the reversal of the seasons though and I shake my head at the thought that people in Michigan have no snow, while those in the SUMMER season south of the Equator are getting snow. Wild.

Makes you wonder.  We had bad weather here for Christmas weekend and some light snow on the mountains.  I remember about 30 years ago when living in Hobart city area we woke up to heavy snowfall all over the ground which lasted several hours on Christmas day.  Lovely but unseasonal.  We have very changeable weather and can get four seasons in one day.  They always joke that if you don't like the weather come back in half an hour and it will have changed.  

On our west coast which is very rugged with dense forests and some remote mining towns the locals used to say their weather forecast was done by the mountain that hovers over the township of Queenstown :  If you can see top of the mountain it is going to rain, if you can't see it then it is already raining.  You have to have a sense of humour to live over there.

[pdh3]

Tibro - from what I can tell, Aussies have a great sense of humor, and such a zest for life!
Don't worry about researching the Outback if it's a time consuming endeavor. I just have such a huge curiosity about what that life is like.
Australia is the most interesting country on Earth to me.

[Tibrogargan]

Tibro - from what I can tell, Aussies have a great sense of humor, and such a zest for life!
Don't worry about researching the Outback if it's a time consuming endeavor. I just have such a huge curiosity about what that life is like.
Australia is the most interesting country on Earth to me.

pdh3 - research was too strong a word     I have ideas of what life must be like on those big cattle runs but just wanted to read a bit to see I was on the right track.  Will post something here soon.  Having computer troubles today so if I am not around for a couple of days that is the reason, not the research        Thank you for your interest as I am enjoying sharing my lovely country with the Monkeys.

[Tibrogargan]

Life on an Australian Cattle Station.

In the early 1800s many of the new free settlers were given selections of land which they had to take up then improve and develop within five years of the grant or lose it. I have read that the size of the holdings were determined by the amount of land the prospective owner could ride around by horseback within 24 hours. This is impossible to imagine in the case of the larger stations which measure tens of thousands of acres spread over many hundreds of square miles.

Life in those days was very primitive and hard. As well as the vagaries of nature such as floods, drought and bushfires, they had to contend with life threatening injuries from accidents, illness, isolation and stark loneliness. The isolation would have been less of a problem for the men who spent up to many months in the company of other stockmen (cowboys) on long cattle drives where they had to find and muster their cattle which had such large areas in which to stray and hide. These droving runs gave rise to many of our Australian words : “Smoko” = taking a short break; boiling the billy = making a “cuppa” tea and other expressions of camp life under the stars. This is where mateship originated and is the basis upon which our great Nation was founded and which was cemented into our heritage at Gallipoli with the landing of the Anzac forces now commemorated each year on 25 April, known as Anzac Day.

Women were left at the homestead, which would have often still been just a log hut, with any children still too young to accompany the men on the droving run. The women had to contend with all the above drawbacks as well as having to defend their children and themselves from poisonous snakes, feral animals, wandering aboriginals and any other dubious strangers. These women were usually young and fresh out from the “old country” as they called Great Britain, and their strength, perseverance and stoicism is legendary. Raises questions as to being considered the weaker sex. There was very little contact with their neighbours who lived so far away that it would take several days to journey there by horse drawn buggy. Mostly their only source of mail and human contact was with the Indian hawkers who traveled regularly around the isolated areas with their wares similar to gypsy tinkers. They would have had no idea what their new life would entail but once here had to make the best of it and certainly raised generations of patriotic and tough Aussies. The coming of the pedal wireless and correspondence schools enabled the children access to outside influences in addition to their home schooling and when they reached the higher grades were sent away to the cities and sometimes back to England for boarding school. The “Royal Flying Doctor Service” was set up and brought medical care and advice to the furthest outposts. Then with the advent of the telephone and now satellite communications and of course the internet the isolation has markedly decreased.

Work on these stations with their long, hot and dusty days is still very hard. A working day starts at dawn and continues until dark. Activities include mustering and yarding the cattle, still on horseback or by motor bike, branding, ear marking, de-horning, drenching and vaccinating. Horse care is all important and horse stealing is a very serious crime. Cattle duffing (rustling) is also a crime. Other work around the station include checking and mending many miles of fencing, welding gates, checking the many water bores where the cattle drink, and maintenance work on the building and machinery. Most of these workers boast they can repair anything with a length of fencing wire and a pair of pliers. Now mail and provisions arrive at least once a week often by light aircraft, and travel around the property is by utility truck (pick-up) motor bike, light plane and helicopter.

Homesteads are large buildings and surrounded by many staff houses and other farm out buildings. Looks like a small isolated township from the air. Social life has greatly improved with dances, concerts, picnic races (horse races and sometimes camel races) rodeos, camp drafts and campfire get togethers. Now many your people sign up for 1 or 2 year terms to learn to be a jackaroo or a jillaroo just for the experience. Many of them are from overseas and it must be a culture shock for some of them. It is now said that nearly half the station workers are women.

Life on a sheep station would be much the same except for the obvious differences as in the type of countryside and the yearly advent of the shearing season. All sheep stations have their large shearing shed fully equipped and the traveling bands of shearers make their way around the properties to do the shearing. The “ringer” is the one who shears the most sheep in a days work and it is eagerly contested. They are a tough hard working bunch of people and will easily go on strike or leave the property if the amenities are not up to their standard and they are particularly fussy over the standard of their meals. A good shearers cook is worth his/her weight in gold and is the best recommendation when seeking a cooking job in the towns.

Nowadays more and more of these cattle and sheep stations are offering holidays for tourists where you can enjoy the way of life and in some cases even join in the property chores