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Author Topic: Australia by Tibrogargan January 2007 - present and 155216+ views later!  (Read 657511 times)
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Tibrogargan
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« Reply #1040 on: January 25, 2011, 08:08:46 PM »

Eclectic mix honoured on Australia Day

Wednesday, January 26, 2011 » 08:06am

A beret-wearing cook, an army chief, the last of the tent boxing showmen and a winemaker who almost denied us the pleasure of cask wine are just some of those honoured this Australia Day.

As always, the 2011 honours list represents a grab bag of talent from a range of fields and specialties, from fashion to politics and the public service to the usual suspects in sport.

There are well-known faces, such as Peter Costello, the man who would have liked to be prime minister but was Australia's longest-serving treasurer, and respected Chief of the Army Ken Gillespie.

Both were awarded the highest honours on Australia Day, being appointed Companions in the Order of Australia (AC) in the general and military divisions, respectively.

Queensland Governor Penelope Wensley was also appointed a Companion.

General Gillespie dedicated his award to his troops who helped out during the recent devastating Queensland floods.

'I couldn't be more proud of them,' he said.

'I'm at the top of this organisation and it's a great privilege, but it's a team effort that sees these things realised.'

While General Gillespie's rise through the ranks is a tribute to grit and determination, others on the honours list believe they made it purely by chance.

Ian Parmenter's signature 'bon appetit' sign-off became common parlance for thousands of Australians who got hooked on his five-minute cooking show, Consuming Passions.

The London-born ex-journalist and TV producer said he had no credentials for a presenting job, let alone one involving cooking, when he was approached to front the show in the early 1990s.

'I certainly never intended to be on camera - I always thought I'd scare children,' Parmenter said.

'I wasn't a professional cook, and I said to the bosses, 'What are you doing putting someone like me on camera?'

'I've got about 15 recipes to my credit, and you need more than that.'

But with 450 shows - which were syndicated overseas, including the UK - as well as several books to his name, Parmenter helped kickstart Australia's culinary awakening.

Nevertheless, being awarded a Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) came as a huge surprise.

'There was scorn heaped upon me in London when I left there, especially among journalists saying, What on earth are you doing leaving London to live in Australia?'

John Angove received a nod for his accomplishments in helping raise Australia's status as one of the top 10 wine-making countries in the world.

He now runs one of Australia's oldest family-run wineries, having taken over from an ancestor, a doctor who arrived from England in 1886 with bigger dreams.

Thomas Angove brought cask wine to the masses, though his 15-year-old son almost thwarted the plan by telling him Australians would find it unpalatable.

Angove has more than made up for the near-miss, having been recognised for his promotion of Australian wine overseas as well as development and research within the industry.

Fred Brophy is another colourful character to make the honours list, a legend in the receding world of tent boxing.

The fourth-generation showman, who held his final boxing tour only last year, has been honoured with a Medal of the Order of Australia.

More mainstream sports are well represented on the list, with former Wallaby Mark Loane recognised for his efforts on the rugby field as well as his contribution as an eye surgeon in remote indigenous communities.

Outspoken diplomat John Dauth, fashion designer Liz Davenport, former Australian Medical Association president Mukesh Haikerwal, and Sidney Myer, the entrepreneur who sparked dozens of Boxing Day sales, were also among the Australians recognised in 2011.

http://bigpondnews.com/articles/TopStories/2011/01/26/Eclectic_mix_honoured_on_Australia_Day_569021.html
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« Reply #1041 on: January 25, 2011, 08:13:18 PM »

We'll have a republic, says Australian of Year Simon McKeon

    * From: AAP
    * January 26, 2011 9:27AM

AN Australian republic is inevitable, so bring on the debate, says newly-anointed Australian of the Year Simon McKeon.

Mr McKeon used an Australia Day interview on Channel 9 to say Australians should debate the appropriateness of their flag, their anthem and the January 26 date for Australia Day.

But even more fundamental than these issues was the debate on whether Australia should become a republic, he said.

"I don't want to take away out links with the mother country at all, but the reality is we ought to be able to stand on our own two feet," he said.

"For me, I'm supportive of a change of flag but I'm more supportive of let's bring on the agenda of a very simple question: Do a clear majority of Australians support a republic or not?

"All the other issues that flow from that such as the model of a republic, the flag, the anthem, even the date that we celebrate today, for me they are secondary issues.

"They are important issues but they are secondary, there is only so much oxygen we can have at any one point in time to devote to this, but inevitably there will be a republic one day.

Mr McKeon, whose interests lie in Multiple Sclerosis research and indigenous rights, also spoke of his own battle against MS.

"I don't talk about it publicly and I haven't up until today talked about it publicly too much because I'm actually on easy street as far as MS is concerned," he said.

"I still have it, I experienced a couple of quite severe episodes around 10 years ago, I went blind for a little while, I was paralysed from the hip down for a little while as well.

"Since then I have been very blessed about being up the easy end of the MS spectrum.

"I'm really hardly affected nowadays and therefore I don't want to draw attention to myself because there are so many who are actually on a very hard road."

http://www.couriermail.com.au/news/well-have-a-republic-says-australian-of-year-simon-mckeon/story-e6freon6-1225994733423
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« Reply #1042 on: January 25, 2011, 08:17:48 PM »

Sailors Jessica Watson and Simon McKeon claim Australian of the Year honours

    * Andrew Carswell
    * From: The Courier-Mail
    * January 26, 2011 12:00AM

TWO sailors - one a famous world beater, the other a little-known world changer - are both Australian of the Year winners.

Jessica Watson had already won our hearts well before she guided her Ella's Pink Lady round Cape Horn, conquering raging 3.6m swells and sailing back into Sydney Harbour as a national hero.

Simon McKeon will be next.

This fellow world-record holding sailor, who sacrificed untold riches and corporate fame to help the poor and less fortunate, has finally received the public acclaim his previously private service deserved - the honour of the 2011 Australian of the Year.

If his reward came as a surprise, Watson's Young Australian of the Year prize did not.

It was a dead-set gimme, given her towering bravery in crossing the oceans of the globe all on her own and only sweet 16.

The moment her 34-foot sloop slipped out of Sydney Harbour, her bid to change the world had officially begun. Mr McKeon's bid was already well under way, and gaining considerable momentum.

If ever there was an Australian to alter the nation's collective antipathy towards investment bankers, Simon McKeon may be it.

He is the Macquarie Bank millionaire executive whose heart is bigger than his bounteous salary package.

Since shunning the Macquarie chief executive's role in 1994, passing up the biggest salary in the land, Mr McKeon has forged an indelible legacy of generosity that is unrivalled by his corporate peers.

The 55-year-old "social entrepreneur" splits his time between being Macquarie's Melbourne executive chairman, and alleviating Third World poverty, while championing scientific research, supporting research into multiple sclerosis (from which he suffers), and aiding remote indigenous communities.

He is calculating the financial benefits of a corporate acquisition one day, counselling heroin addicts face-to-face in St Kilda the next.

"I'm a junkie for gifted people driven by a cause and if I can help in some small way, then that's enough for me," he said.

"I'm more into quiet philanthropy rather than getting plaques on walls."

One man who is keen to have his voice heard is Professor Ron McCallum.

The blind Artarmon professor was last night honoured with the 2011 Senior Australian of the Year award for his tireless service as an equal rights campaigner.

While Prof McCallum makes life easier for people, Donald Ritchie actively saves lives.

As a self-appointed guardian of The Gap - Sydney's notorious suicide locale - the 84-year-old spends his days watching over the cliff spot, looking for people who might need help.

To date, he has coaxed 160 desperate people from the edge of the cliff, inviting them back to his home for a cup of tea, and a listening ear.

He is Australia's well deserved Local Hero for 2011.

http://www.couriermail.com.au/news/round-the-world-sailor-jessica-watson-is-young-australian-of-theyear/story-e6freon6-1225994457420
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« Reply #1043 on: January 25, 2011, 08:21:39 PM »

Jacki Weaver, Nicole Kidman and Geoffrey Rush up for Oscar title fight

    * By staff writers
    * From: NewsCore
    * January 26, 2011 6:41AM

AUSTRALIAN actor Jacki Weaver has emerged as a surprise Oscar contender alongside A-listers Nicole Kidman and Geoffrey Rush.

Weaver, who was considered an outside chance for a nomination for her performance as a crime matriarch in local film Animal Kingdom, is up for an Oscar for the very first time.

Weaver has previously won three AFI awards, her last one being in 1971 for the film Stork.

Geoffrey Rush was also nominated for Best Supporting Actor for The King's Speech and Nicole Kidman for best Actress in Rabbit Hole.

The King's Speech picked up 12 Oscar nominations in total, leading the way as Hollywood gets set for its big showdown at the Kodak Theatre next month.

The film was nominated for Best Picture, along with such critical favourites as The Social Network, Toy Story 3, Black Swan and The Kids Are All Right.

In a morning that saw nearly all the favourites go through, there were still a few surprises.

Christopher Nolan, director of the technologically groundbreaking box office smash Inception, was left off the ballot.

Ryan Gosling, a Golden Globe nominee for his wrenching turn in Blue Valentine, was also left out - though co-star Michelle Williams muscled her way into a tough field for Best Actress.

She will face a stiff challenge against Natalie Portman's unhinged dancer in Black Swan and Annette Bening's portrayal of a lesbian mother trying to hold her family together in The Kids Are All Right.

And as always, Oscar held a few surprises for long shots.

John Hawkes stunned prognosticators with a Best Supporting Actor nomination for Winter's Bone, perhaps fuelled by co-star Jennifer Lawrence's widely-praised, Best Actress-nominated turn in the film.

And Oscar winner Javier Bardem snuck into the Best Actor race for Biutiful, where he has the unenviable task of taking on Jesse Eisenberg's performance as prickly Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, James Franco's daring mountain climber Aron Ralston and Colin Firth as King George VI.

Firth, who has swept nearly all the awards ceremonies leading up to Oscar, looks to be the Oscar favorite.

The nominations were announced by Mo'Nique - last year's Best Supporting Actress winner - and Tom Sherak, president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

The show, to be hosted by James Franco and Anne Hathaway, will be broadcast live February 27 on ABC from Hollywood.

Best Supporting Actress  nominees:

Amy Adams, The Fighter, Helena Bonham Carter, The King's Speech, Melissa Leo, The Fighter, Hailee Steinfeld, True Grit, Jacki Weaver, Animal Kingdom

Best Actor nominees:

Javier Bardem, Biutiful, Jesse Eisenberg, The Social Network, Colin Firth, The King's Speech, James Franco, 127 Hours, Jeff Bridges, True Grit

Best Picture nominees:

Black Swan, The Fighter, Inception, The Kids Are All Right, The King's Speech, 127 Hours, The Social Network, Toy Story 3, True Grit, Winter's Bone

Best Actress nominees:

Annette Bening, The Kids Are All Right, Nicole Kidman, Rabbit Hole, Jennifer Lawrence, Winter's Bone, Natalie Portman, Black Swan, Michelle Williams, Blue Valentine

Best Supporting Actor nominees:

Christian Bale, The Fighter, John Hawkes, Winter's Bone, Jeremy Renner, The Town, Mark Ruffalo, The Kids Are All Right, Geoffrey Rush, The King's Speech

Best Director nominees:

Darren Aronofsky, Black Swan, Joel and Ethan Coen, True Grit, David Fincher, The Social Network, Tom Hooper, The King's Speech, David O. Russell, The Fighter

http://www.couriermail.com.au/entertainment/confidential/jacki-weaver-nicole-kidman-and-geoffrey-rush-up-for-oscars/story-e6freq7o-1225994656726
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« Reply #1044 on: January 25, 2011, 09:13:38 PM »

Sailors Jessica Watson and Simon McKeon claim Australian of the Year honours

    * Andrew Carswell
    * From: The Courier-Mail
    * January 26, 2011 12:00AM

TWO sailors - one a famous world beater, the other a little-known world changer - are both Australian of the Year winners.

Jessica Watson had already won our hearts well before she guided her Ella's Pink Lady round Cape Horn, conquering raging 3.6m swells and sailing back into Sydney Harbour as a national hero.

Simon McKeon will be next.

This fellow world-record holding sailor, who sacrificed untold riches and corporate fame to help the poor and less fortunate, has finally received the public acclaim his previously private service deserved - the honour of the 2011 Australian of the Year.

If his reward came as a surprise, Watson's Young Australian of the Year prize did not.

It was a dead-set gimme, given her towering bravery in crossing the oceans of the globe all on her own and only sweet 16.

The moment her 34-foot sloop slipped out of Sydney Harbour, her bid to change the world had officially begun. Mr McKeon's bid was already well under way, and gaining considerable momentum.

If ever there was an Australian to alter the nation's collective antipathy towards investment bankers, Simon McKeon may be it.

He is the Macquarie Bank millionaire executive whose heart is bigger than his bounteous salary package.

Since shunning the Macquarie chief executive's role in 1994, passing up the biggest salary in the land, Mr McKeon has forged an indelible legacy of generosity that is unrivalled by his corporate peers.

The 55-year-old "social entrepreneur" splits his time between being Macquarie's Melbourne executive chairman, and alleviating Third World poverty, while championing scientific research, supporting research into multiple sclerosis (from which he suffers), and aiding remote indigenous communities.

He is calculating the financial benefits of a corporate acquisition one day, counselling heroin addicts face-to-face in St Kilda the next.

"I'm a junkie for gifted people driven by a cause and if I can help in some small way, then that's enough for me," he said.

"I'm more into quiet philanthropy rather than getting plaques on walls."

One man who is keen to have his voice heard is Professor Ron McCallum.

The blind Artarmon professor was last night honoured with the 2011 Senior Australian of the Year award for his tireless service as an equal rights campaigner.

While Prof McCallum makes life easier for people, Donald Ritchie actively saves lives.

As a self-appointed guardian of The Gap - Sydney's notorious suicide locale - the 84-year-old spends his days watching over the cliff spot, looking for people who might need help.

To date, he has coaxed 160 desperate people from the edge of the cliff, inviting them back to his home for a cup of tea, and a listening ear.

He is Australia's well deserved Local Hero for 2011.


http://www.couriermail.com.au/news/round-the-world-sailor-jessica-watson-is-young-australian-of-theyear/story-e6freon6-1225994457420
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I just love this. He is my personal hero.
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« Reply #1045 on: January 27, 2011, 03:48:10 AM »

Thought you may like to read more about this man, 4 Donks.

An angel walking among us at The Gap
Kate Benson Medical Reporter
August 1, 2009

HE IS the watchman of The Gap. A former life insurance salesman who in 45 years has officially rescued about 160 people intent on jumping from the cliffs at Watsons Bay, mostly from Gap Park, opposite his home high on Old South Head Road. Unofficially, that figure is closer to 400.

Some, at his urging, quietly gathered their shoes and wallets, neatly laid out on the rocks, and followed him home for breakfast. Others, tragically, struggled as he grabbed at their clothes before they slipped over the edge.

Still others later sent tokens of thanks, a magnum of champagne or an anonymous drawing slipped into his letter box, labelling him ‘‘an angel walking among us’’.

Don Ritchie, 82, spends much of his time reading newspapers, books and scanning the glistening expanse of ocean laid out before him. His days of climbing fences are gone and he admits some relief that most visitors now carry mobile phones and are quick to contact the police if they see a lone figure standing too close to the edge, too deep in contemplation.

For its part, Woollahra Council has been campaigning for $2.5 million to install higher fences, motion-sensitive lights, emergency phones and closed-circuit television cameras, but Mr Ritchie is ambivalent.

‘‘People will always come here. I don’t think it will ever stop,’’ he says, with a shrug.

 
Edit to snip article, per Forum Rules.  TY MuffyBee

http://www.smh.com.au/national/an-angel-walking-among-us-at-the-gap-20090731-e4f2.html
« Last Edit: January 27, 2011, 07:59:29 AM by MuffyBee » Logged



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« Reply #1046 on: January 27, 2011, 03:52:34 AM »

The Gap

by Robin Derricourt, 2008

The Gap

The Gap is the dip in the sandstone cliffs at South Head, below which extends a wavecut shelf. It is adjacent to Watsons Bay. Since the beginning of European settlement, The Gap has been a major destination for tourists, for whom it provided easy access to ocean views. Readily accessible by ferry and bus, The Gap was the terminal point of the tram route to Watsons Bay from 1909 to 1960. Since then the tram track has become a footpath.

Gap Park

Gap Park was established in 1887 as a public recreation area, although initially there were cottages within the park. The maintenance of the park for the safety and pleasure of visitors and residents was a recurrent cause of concern for the Vaucluse Council (1895–1948) and its predecessor and successor, Woollahra Council. Expenses ranged from maintaining visitor facilities to creating fencing with a visitor turnstile in 1900 to prevent cattle entering the area. [1] Photographs of the park in the early twentieth century show it denuded of vegetation, but modern management has restored mixed heath land vegetation, together with some non-local additions of Queensland rainforest flora and Norfolk pines.

At different times the nearby facilities for visitors have included a Gap Hotel (c1858–1909) and a Gap Tavern (1961–97). A camera obscura established by Captain CA Colonna in its own octagonal building operated from the end of the nineteenth century until it was closed on grounds of military security in 1914. [2]

Suicides and accidental deaths

The Gap also has a long history as a suicide spot for Sydney, [3] given the easy access, combined with the flat wavecut ledge, and its dramatic location at the extreme edge of the city. A suicide was reported as early as 1863, that of Anne Harrison. She had lived at the Gap Hotel where her husband was licensee in the early 1860s. While there, her young nephew, who was visiting, accidentally fell to his death over The Gap. She seems to have developed depression and after they had moved to the other side of the city, she took a cab in the middle of the night back to the Gap Hotel. From there she walked to The Gap to take her own life. Since then, there have been many suicides at The Gap or the adjacent cliffs, but also numerous accidental deaths from walking on the cliff top, first recorded in 1868, or from fishermen and others climbing down to the rocks below. It became a location where someone wishing to disappear might pretend a suicide or accident, and has been used in possible murders made to look like suicides. Unrecorded are the numerous rescues by police, residents and visitors of people attempting suicide or having accidents.

A plaque near the Gap records the services of a German shepherd called Rexie who belonged to John Nagy, the owner of the Gap Tavern in the 1960s. She sensed potential suicides and would bark and run to draw attention to them. She is claimed to have saved over 30 lives.

Gap Bluff

Running north between The Gap and HMAS Watson is Gap Bluff, which became part of the Sydney Harbour National Park in 1982. [4] The School of Artillery/Gunnery was relocated here from Middle Head in 1894–95, both for training and for practice. The buildings used for training were extended in the late 1930s but the practice battery was made non-operational in 1938. [5] In 1941 the training centre was moved back to Middle Head and the buildings were used for other military purposes. The Navy’s Radar Communications Centre had extensive buildings at Gap Bluff, and national servicemen were accommodated on the site. After military use ceased, the site was handed over to National Parks in 1982. Surviving buildings include the former Officers’ Mess and Armoury.

References

Gap Park, Watsons Bay, Woollahra Local History Centre, Sydney, 2001, updated 2005

South Head – draft conservation management plan, National Parks and Wildlife Service, Sydney, 2007, http://www.nationalparks.nsw.gov.au/npws.nsf/Content/southhead_cmp_draft

P Oppenheim, The Fragile Forts: the fixed defences of Sydney Harbour 1788–1963, Australian Military History Publications, Loftus NSW, 2004

Notes
[1] Minutes, Vaucluse Council, 5 June 1900, p 15
[2] Gap Park, Watsons Bay, Woollahra Local History Centre, Sydney, 2001, updated 2005
[3] Claire McIntyre, On the edge: deaths at the Gap, Ginninderra Press, Charnwood ACT, 2001
[4] South Head – draft conservation management plan, National Parks and Wildlife Service, Sydney, 2007, http://www.nationalparks.nsw.gov.au/npws.nsf/Content/southhead_cmp_draft
[5] P Oppenheim, The Fragile Forts: the fixed defences of Sydney Harbour 1788–1963, Australian Military History Publications, Loftus NSW, 2004

http://www.dictionaryofsydney.org/entry/the_gap
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« Reply #1047 on: January 27, 2011, 04:01:13 AM »

Aussie accent to be recorded for history as part of Australia Day celebrations

    * From: AAP
    * January 26, 2011 2:48AM

MOST people, even Australians, think it's pretty darn confounding, but maaaaaaaaate, it's one of kind.

From the clipped imitations of upper-class English to the broad ocker drawl of the outback north, the Australian accent is recognised the world over.

Famous for its stretched vowels and rising inflection, the Australian accent will be preserved for posterity as part of a national initiative launched on Australia Day.

A joint university study will collect the accents of 1000 adults from all states and territories to showcase the diversity of intonations across the country.

Project coordinator Dr Dominique Estival of the University of Western Sydney (UWS) said the audio-visual database called AusTalk will be an enduring digital repository of contemporary speech.

"There has not been a collection of Australian English voices of this magnitude for 50 years and there has never before been a large-scale collection of audio and visual speech data in Australia," Dr Estival said.

 
Edit to snip article.  MuffyBee


http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/national/aussie-accent-recorded-for-history-for-australia-day/story-e6frf7l6-1225994613630

    What accent?  
« Last Edit: January 27, 2011, 08:06:37 AM by MuffyBee » Logged



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« Reply #1048 on: January 27, 2011, 04:04:55 AM »

Australian terms and references

First up, especially if you are an American or British tourist, DO NOT attempt to use Australian slang until you have lived here long enough to acquire it. We can tell what you are, you will get it wrong, and you will be considered a twit. The same advice applies to pretending to demonstrate your mastery of the Australian accent. If you try it, you will almost certainly give offence. Serious offence. You won't mean to, but you will offend.

Just talk normally: Australians are not dumb country cousins, and you don't need to speak our language, because we understand yours perfectly well. Even if we can be hard to understand, we get your accent on television, radio and films, all the time, and we will understand just about all of what you say.

On the other hand, you do not speak our language. This is not so much a question of slang, it is a question of intonation, usage and cultural references. Sooner or later, you will be in trouble if you think you speak the same language.

In short, this section is not intended to help you pass yourself off as an Australian. You won't get away with it, so don't try — we don't eat foreigners. Be yourself and you will find us friendly and helpful, but understand that you are guests in another culture.

If you speak another language, you may have a problem. Yes, we have SBS which broadcasts mainly in community languages, both on television and radio, but we aren't all that hot on other languages. No announcements at train stations will be in other languages, no street signs will appear in major world languages (though you may see a few welcome signs and danger signs in other languages), and no museum signage will be in other languages, mainly because it is too hard working out what other languages should be covered, when we speak a variant of THE world language.

Australian accents

According to the experts, there are three Australian accents. One is broad (think Crocodile Dundee or Steve Irwin, and you won't be far off). Most Asustralians can speak this if they wish to, and some speak nothing else. Broad Australian is more common in the bush. The second version is referred to as general Australian, and this is typically what you will hear radio announcers using -- or newsreaders on television. Then there is a dying form, educated Australian, which sounds closer to Received English.

As it happens, I generally speak in that accent, though I can switch. Britons who have been in Australia for more than about ten months may mistake me for a fellow-Briton (albeit one who has 'gone native' just a tad), and Americans in Europe always take me for British, but in Britain, nobody takes me for anything but Australian.

Most of the time, we use general Australian, and I try to do so myself, but put me behind a microphone, and I revert. How do i know about this? Well, as a schoolboy in 1959, I was selected as part of a sample of 4000 Australians, used by Alex Mitchell to try to pick regional and other variations, and I was interviewed again, about ten years ago. What a pity we don't still have the original tapes!

Regional variations

There are a few terms that are regional, and some people think that Adelaide is starting to break out and develop its own vowels, but it is very hard for us to pick, so foreigners will have little chance unless they are highly trained -- I used to know a Hoosier who could do it.

http://members.ozemail.com.au/~macinnis/syd/language.htm
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« Reply #1049 on: January 27, 2011, 04:06:52 AM »

Australian terms

Slang, the vernacular, the peculiarly Australian form of English can be difficult to understand. Slang aside, there are the words that all Australians use in a special way, like "bush". Even those Australians who speak "educated" or "cultivated" English will talk about "the bush".

There are no forests or woods in Australia, just bush. When people disappear into the wilds, they "go bush" (or bushwalking), if they stray from the made path, they are bush-bashing. Thieves who roamed the bush were called bushrangers, and if somebody has come up to the "Smoke" (Sydney) from the bush, then he or she probably lives on a farm or in a country town. So you have to listen to the context.

The "cultivated" style of English is fancied by most Australians to be indistinguishable from English, and it is fairly close: after a few months in Australia, most English people lose the ability to tell whether or not a "cultivated" speaker is English or Australian. Americans have problems in distinguishing that accent from the English accent. This style of "speaking properly" seems to be getting less common, if only because most "cultivated" speakers can and do use at least one other form of more local accent.

The New Zealand accent is common in Australia, and can be hard to pick, even for an outsider who has been here for some time. Australians say it is easy: ask the suspected New Zealander to count to seven. For Kiwis, the number between five and seven is sux, and lists are lusts. It's a subtle difference, and not really important. The 'Kiwi accent' is apparently more common in those from the South Island.

There are two other distinct forms of English that we detect in our own speech. The "general Australian" is broader, and less "English", and it is more likely to contain references to manufactured products and cultural allusions and clever similes ("Vegemite", or "as mean as Hungry Tyson" or "as flash as a rat with a gold tooth"). "General Australian" usually involves less lip movement.

The broad Australian accent involves no lip movement at all (to keep flies out of the mouth, some say), more reliance on tones (perhaps because it carries over longer distances), and many impenetrable slang terms, including rhyming slang, often similar to (but differing from) Cockney rhyming slang. It is a gross error to see the Australian accent as deriving from Cockney, just because of a few fancied similarities in a few vowels and diphthongs (which many Australians wear on their feet).

Some of the slang terms can be traced to regional English usages, others are of unknown origin. The correct and safest procedure for any foreigner is to smile engagingly and look agreeable without actually agreeing to anything when slang is used in their presence. As a rule, unless you know people, if you use slang terms that the listener knows to be Australian (like 'dunny'), some Australians will assume you are being patronising. It's a pity, but that's the way it is.

So far as swearing is concerned, Australians use the same terms as other English-speakers, although with different frequencies. You should have no problem in recognising when you are being sworn at, but context and tone of voice are more important than content. A poor old bastard is an altogether different beast from a miserable bastard or a rotten bastard.

Then there are the aboriginal words, names for places, animals or things that are used quite unconsciously, like billabong, an oxbow lake in other places, or maybe tucker, which is food, and which may or may not be an aboriginal word, as well as bingey (stomach), dilly-bag and waddy.

Last of all, there are words that are used in Australia in some way that the scholars of Oxford know not, that you will never find in the Oxford English Dictionary. Just as the Americans needed their Webster's, so we now have our own Macquarie Dictionary that tells us (and others) what we mean. Try looking up "jam" in all three!

Australian place names

If you aren't an Australian, you will have problems with some of the names used here. The name that is either Larnston or Lawnston in Britain (the Cornish and the Devon men don't agree) is Launceston, pronounced Lawn-cess-tn, with the stress on the second syllable when it is in Tasmania. Call it anything else, and you are indelibly branded a New Chum.

Americans in particular have trouble with the various capitals. Melbourne is pronounced Melbn, and Brisbane is pronounced Brizbn: at least there is some regularity there. Canberra is a problem one that even Australians could not decide about. The legend runs that the Important Lady who declared Canberra open in 1913 was given the name on a piece of paper, and everybody waited to see how she pronounced it. Whatever the truth of that, we swallow the second syllable, so it becomes CANb'ruh, with the emphasis on the first syllable.

The large regional town, Wagga Wagga rhymes with logger logger, but it is usually called Wagga by those who don't live there.

Canowindra is pronounced "Canowndra", and Woolloomooloo is Wooluhmuhloo. The ending "-warra" or "-warrah" is pronounced "worrer". If you are American, keep in mind that we do not pronounce the final "r" - if you are from Maine, forget I mentioned it Smile

Most suburb names in Sydney are either British (English, Scottish or Irish), or of aboriginal origin. In the first two cases, pronunciation tends to be as it was in Britain, while aboriginal names were rendered into our alphabet according to no particular rules. When in doubt, write the name down.

http://members.ozemail.com.au/~macinnis/syd/language.htm
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« Reply #1050 on: January 27, 2011, 04:10:04 AM »

The previous two posts were from the same page hence the same link.

This is the main site and for anyone interested in Sydney it is an interesting selection to explore.

http://members.ozemail.com.au/~macinnis/syd/menu.htm

 
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« Reply #1051 on: January 27, 2011, 07:54:39 AM »

Hi Tibrogargan    I'm not sure if you'd seen the addition Klaasend posted yesterday to the Forum Rules, and posted in some of the forums:

http://scaredmonkeys.net/index.php?topic=8844.msg1295878#msg1295878
NOTICE:

Red has asked me to ask all of us in the forum NOT to copy and paste entire articles from sites, just post the link and PART of the article.  TIA.


I'm still having coffee and catching up on news and reading, but wanted to be sure you also had notification of the change.    


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« Reply #1052 on: January 27, 2011, 06:26:13 PM »

Thanks Muffy.  Yes I did see the notice on another thread but it was after I had made my posts.  It is a pity on one way as one of the reasons I enjoyed reading here as opposed to other well known MP sites was being able to read the whole articles instead of having to click to a second site, which would also mean another crop of their "bugs" on my computer.

I do hope my readers go to the article about Don Ritchie at

http://www.smh.com.au/national/an-angel-walking-among-us-at-the-gap-20090731-e4f2.html

as it also mentioned a dog which is credited with saving 30 would be suicides.
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« Reply #1053 on: January 27, 2011, 06:33:20 PM »

Muffy, I guess I will have to pass on your invitation to start a thread for Daniel Morcombe.  It is difficult to imagine the monkeys clicking on all the items that pertain to this case of the missing boy as it is some years since he disappeared as well as being in our country and not the USA.  I will put the main foundation site web address here for any that wish to read further.

I am also more than happy to answer any queries on this case and any other areas of interest about Australia.

http://www.danielmorcombe.com.au/
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« Reply #1054 on: January 28, 2011, 09:34:33 PM »

Thought you may like to read more about this man, 4 Donks.

An angel walking among us at The Gap
Kate Benson Medical Reporter
August 1, 2009

HE IS the watchman of The Gap. A former life insurance salesman who in 45 years has officially rescued about 160 people intent on jumping from the cliffs at Watsons Bay, mostly from Gap Park, opposite his home high on Old South Head Road. Unofficially, that figure is closer to 400.

Some, at his urging, quietly gathered their shoes and wallets, neatly laid out on the rocks, and followed him home for breakfast. Others, tragically, struggled as he grabbed at their clothes before they slipped over the edge.

Still others later sent tokens of thanks, a magnum of champagne or an anonymous drawing slipped into his letter box, labelling him ‘‘an angel walking among us’’.

Don Ritchie, 82, spends much of his time reading newspapers, books and scanning the glistening expanse of ocean laid out before him. His days of climbing fences are gone and he admits some relief that most visitors now carry mobile phones and are quick to contact the police if they see a lone figure standing too close to the edge, too deep in contemplation.

For its part, Woollahra Council has been campaigning for $2.5 million to install higher fences, motion-sensitive lights, emergency phones and closed-circuit television cameras, but Mr Ritchie is ambivalent.

‘‘People will always come here. I don’t think it will ever stop,’’ he says, with a shrug.

 
Edit to snip article, per Forum Rules.  TY MuffyBee

http://www.smh.com.au/national/an-angel-walking-among-us-at-the-gap-20090731-e4f2.html

I read the entire article and this man is truly a hero. Thanks..it is heartwarming.
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« Reply #1055 on: January 29, 2011, 11:12:02 AM »

Muffy, I guess I will have to pass on your invitation to start a thread for Daniel Morcombe.  It is difficult to imagine the monkeys clicking on all the items that pertain to this case of the missing boy as it is some years since he disappeared as well as being in our country and not the USA.  I will put the main foundation site web address here for any that wish to read further.

I am also more than happy to answer any queries on this case and any other areas of interest about Australia.

http://www.danielmorcombe.com.au/

BBM

Thank you Tib!   

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« Reply #1056 on: February 01, 2011, 07:10:32 PM »

30,000 evacuated from Cairns as city braces for a pounding from Cyclone Yasi

    * by Jodie Munro OBrien
    * From: The Courier-Mail
    * February 02, 2011 9:50AM

TROPICAL Cyclone Yasi has been upgraded to a life-threatening category five storm with wind gusts of up to 320km/hr expected in some areas.

Cyclone Yasi is now expected to cross the coast in the Innisfail area about midnight, according to the latest update from the Bureau of Meterology.

 Meteorologists expect the impact of Cyclone Yasi to be "more life threatening than any experienced during recent generations."

Senior bureau forecaster Gordon Banks told the ABC Yasi could take at least 24 hours to weaken after it makes landfall.

"There's still potential for it to become stronger ... as a strong category five we could see wind gusts in excess of 320km/h, which is just horrific," he said.

Premier Anna Bligh says the expected arrival of Yasi on a high tide is the worst possible news.

She says the storm surge is likely to be devastating along a vast stretch of the north Queensland coast.

"This is the most severe, most catastrophic storm that has ever hit our coast," she told the ABC.

"We've seen a number of worst case scenarios come together."

Meteorologists are warning coastal residents between Cairns and Ayr of an extremely dangerous sea level rise, or storm tide, as the cyclone approaches, crosses the coast and moves inland.

The ocean is predicted to rise to a dangerously high level above the normal tide, with strong currents, dangerous waves and flooding of low lying areas extending some way inland.

Damaging winds, with gusts to 90 km/hr that are currently developing on coastal islands, are forecast to develop about the coast by late this morning and about the tropical interior overnight, according to the BOM's latest update, released at 8am today.

>snipped.

http://www.couriermail.com.au/news/queensland-facing-a-deadly-event-with-cyclone-yasi-anna-bligh/story-e6freon6-1225997904763


Cairns is about 800 miles north of Brisbane.
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« Reply #1057 on: February 01, 2011, 11:24:45 PM »

   This is just terrible news. 
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« Reply #1058 on: February 01, 2011, 11:49:21 PM »

Keeping your country in my prayers and that the storm weakens instead of strengthens.
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Happy Spring


« Reply #1059 on: February 01, 2011, 11:55:35 PM »

Been reading about the storm Tibrogargan. Prayers for all the people in it's path. Prayers for your country. May you and all the people be safe during this terrible storm. an angelic monkey
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