I’m sitting here in the “Balgo Hilton” waiting for someone to come back from where I’ve just been. We most likely passed each other on the road sometime yesterday as I struggled up the 530 kilometres of the torture that is known as the Tanami Track from Yuendumu up here to Wirrimanu – formerly known [...]
Birds, and birders, love shit. Or more particularly in Alice Springs, they both love the fact that in the driest part of the driest continent that the average daily household use of water is a profligate 1,500 litres a day.
It may just be because 2009 is the International Year of Astronomy, but to me there seems to be a greater willingness to engage or a broader interest in Indigenous Astronomical Knowledge among the mainstream astronomical science community than there is in many other scientific disciplines.
All about me lay the scattered, shattered remains - here the severed head, there a leg, stripped of flesh, next to the road another head, ten feet away a razor-taloned foot, wing and tail. Whatever had happened here had been brief and incredibly brutal.
There are over 1,500 species of "true blue" Australian native bees. Australian native bees can be black, yellow, red, metallic green or even black with blue polka dots!: Australian Native Bee Research Centre
Feral cats have been in Australia since European settlement. They live independently of humans and are found in all habitats ranging from rainforest to desert throughout the Northern Territory.
Someone suggested that we could call this leatherback camp dog "Jenny" as a tribute to Federal Indigenous Affairs Minister Jenny Macklin - but "Fluffy" is more suited to her undoubted charm and character.
I stopped, turned and bore witness to the death of this small wonder.
Acclimatisation societies were found throughout the British colonies of Australia, New Zealand, Canada and the US - being particularly influential in Australia and New Zealand in the latter half of the nineteenth century.
The successful man would be declared Tangata-Manu, would take the egg in his hand and lead a procession back to his homeland. Once in residence there he was tapu (taboo) for the next five months of his year long status, and allowed his nails to grow and wore a headdress of human hair.
