ALL BLACKS, WHITEBAIT AND A HOT RACING TIP

My good friend Clermont Clarrie has reclaimed his bar stool position after a brief holiday in the Land of the Long White Cloud (or, as he refers to it after a quarantine clash with their Customs people, the Land of the Long Red Tape). Despite that, he burbles, he thinks kiwi-land the greatest and if we couldn't have Rugby's World Cup he's almost as glad that it went to the All Blacks. The Rugby was splendid, says CC, but one of his greatest holiday thrills was a day on Auckland's beautiful harbour fishing for snapper.  "And food!" he adds, "I discovered NZ whitebait and for my money it's far and away the greatest maritime product, even throwing in our Queensland mud crab. "Then again, there's that shellfish treat, toheroa soup, but for mine, the jury's still out on that one. An acquired taste." Clarrie got down among the horse-racing people at Trentham, near Wellington, and was urgently advised to watch the Australian progress of a brilliant NZ three-year-old, Manawanui. "Pass it on!" CC has urged me. Well, by the time this is printed race fans will already know if Manawanui, racing in Victoria, has lived up to his backers' claims.   Or must Clarrie again don his bar-room dunce's cap?

Here's a way for some Mackay residents to help out with their city's pressing accommodation problem and maybe make a little spare cash as well. Mackay Tourism is compiling a database of home-stays to offer visitors who can't find a hotel or motel room. It already has a file of 120 Mackay homes registered for home-stays but believes this can be greatly expanded---to everybody's mutual advantage. Residents who might be interested should contact the Mackay Regional Council.

Queensland Rail Travel is a group always on the lookout for ideas that will combine train travel with unusual activities and destinations. One of its latest has been a train trip...to Hamilton Island. The Sunlander left from Brisbane loaded with fine food and wine, stopped at Proserpine and then guests were ferried to the island. A celebrity chef and a winemaker looked after wining and dining requirements. More similar trips are planned by Queensland Rail Travel, including an Outback Master Class Tour to Barcaldine and Longreach next March.

Tours with a difference---that's the boast of Gladstone Visitor Information Centre (bookings 07 4872 9000). They take in things like Queensland's largest multi-commodity port, or one of the world's largest alumina refineries, or the State's largest power station. Gladstone's population (52,000 over the region) is expected to double by 2030 because of the awesome $72,231,431,000 investment value of projects recently completed, under construction, or under study.

Hotels in Cairns have already begun offering special-rate packages for November 14 next year when the city will apparently be the best place in the world to witness the scheduled total solar eclipse. A lot of visitors to the Sapphire Gemfields, an hour's drive west of Emerald, are unaware of the centre's "mining common", the last of its kind in Queensland. It was first established to allow the early miners a food supply while prospecting and locals can still own up to ten head of stock, with a maximum of 400 on the common. An agistment fee has to be paid to the shire council and a committee manages the common. The official population of the Gemfields is 1500, swelling to about 4,000 in the winter tourist season. Accommodation for visitors includes camping and caravan parks, stone cabins and 4-star units and cabins. Tourists can fossick in nominated areas and we recommend the very popular underground mine tour.

THEY'RE BATS ABOUT FLYING FOXES

Just lately, the residents of one of Bundy's sphere-of-influence townships---Gayndah---were bellowing in the public prints about the obnoxious presence in their midst of a colony of flying foxes. How similar is this to the Bargara residents' recent stories about the bat camp in their area.

       The Gayndah  complaints about the bats' nauseating stench and statements by a couple that they had to keep their children confined to playing indoors because of the bats brought Officialdom's usual answer to such cries: A variation of the old line, Tough, mate.
        Nothing we can do, chorused State and Federal spokespersons. Bats are protected.
        Well, it has never been a good enough answer to this bat problem when it comes to affecting livelihoods, as with the case of northern orchardists, or affecting lifestyle, as illustrated so blatantly in the Gayndah case.
        And now, there's an added dimension to such cases with the re-emergence of the Hendra virus, that bat-to-horse-to-human disease that has recently killed horses and infected humans in NSW and Queensland.
        The new urgency means that our laissez-faire government should be taking a new look at the bat business.
        Just one indication of officialdom's bland reaction that came up in discussion of the Gayndah plight: Someone said that if the bats were chased from Gaydah "they would just go elsewhere."
        True, but that "elsewhere" just might not be right in someone's front yard.
        It has now become too menacing for this sitting-on-hands policy to continue to prevail.

       Some of our local business people are doing something right---something very right indeed.
        Tinaberries, the concern that produces those most luscious strawberries, has been honoured by the prestigious national foodies magazine, “Delicious” , in its 2011 Produce Awards.
        The Cannes Lions Festival in France awarded a coveted gold lion to Sydney advertising agency Leo Burnett, for its latest Bundy Rum campaign (which features the familiar Bundy Bear).


       One of the latest cricketers to have his life recaptured in a biography is Sir Ian Botham and I for one will not cavil with the way its author, Londoner Simon Wilde, has called it simply, Ian Botham---and then portrays him as the most famous cricketer in the land; this, three decades after all that swashbuckling play that saw him called the greatest all-rounder since Grace.
        Botham hit both the high spots and hot water during his meritorious but sometimes madcap career and there are a few of us who will always recall with fondness his appearance at Salter’s Oval when he had been officially gagged by the English team management for injudicious public comments.
        He appeared at a clubhouse welcoming function with a  number of boisterous beers under his belt and a great wadding of his own tie firmly wedged in his bulging mouth.
        A sign hung around his neck: NO COMMENT


       I am in my fifth year of being custodian to a Moth orchid, a Phalenopsis, and to everyone's surprise it is still alive.
        This despite the fact that the only treatment this delicate and exotic flower receives is a glass of water every weekend bar those I don't forget. And it thrives mightily, flowering its head off for months at a time
        I mention the orchid because it is one of the more delightful presents received over various occasions in my life---but not the most unusual.
        That honour probably goes to the young crocodile we had years ago for a brief time before it chewed its way out of its cage, never to be seen again. Never mind. It rated extremely low on the friendship scale.
        Then too, we had a Plains Grey kangaroo, but it took a dislike to one of our nippers jumping on its tail and we gifted it to Lone Pine Sanctuary.
        Along life's trail there have been Labradors and turtles, a Burton's legless lizard (large for its species but singularly uncharming), the usual frogs and guinea pigs and even a carpet snake and, bless me, a cat that was our most unusual wedding present---a Siamese that made me a life-long fan of these elegant creatures and their mischievious cousins, the Birmese.

           
       Have you become aware of the State tax slug that's coming for house-buyers?
        Say you're buying a house for $350,000. Today  you will pay $3500 stamp duty to live in it.
       Next month, the charge goes up to $10,735.
        
            
       The newsletter of U3A Bundaberg warns :
        Should you receive a "Telstra Technician" call requesting you touch nine (9), zero (0), then hash (#) and hang up PLEASE DO NOT DO THIS as it allows the person to place a long distance call billed to your home phone number


       Oh dear! I'm sure you've heard of TV's Top Gear presenter Jeremy Clarkson. Someone doesn't like him very much and wrote to a national publication that "the man has the intelligence of a cream bun, the social conscience of Genghis Khan and the political savvy of Basil Fawlty."            

OUT INTO THE WILD BLUE WILDERNESS

 It may well be the last true wilderness area of Australia: certainly, Cape York Peninsula's 137,000 square kilometres make it the largest.
        Twice the size of Tasmania, boasting the verdant and vivid greens of the native vegetation it has largely retained, and bounded only by the blue vastness of the sea, it is still an explorer's paradise with a permanent population of a mere 20,000 residents.
        Roads through the area have improved since the days when passage could be arduous if not downright perilous but you still can't expect trouble-free motoring in this tract of Australia.
        Thus, for less bare-chested adventurers the tour group is the answer: Let someone else worry about road conditions. And that's where you might well take a look at Outback Spirit Tours and its luxurious 4WD Mercedes Benz coaches, the kind of vehicles that can cope with all those creeks and gullies you'll encounter.
        The company's director, Andre Ellis, says the 12-day tours to the peninsula begin at Cairns with a night at the five-star Shangri La Hotel, then head to Port Douglas and Mossman before reaching the Daintree River.
        "Guests can enjoy a cruise across the Daintree, taking in the crocodiles that infest the river," says Mr Ellis, "then travel on to Daintree national park for an overnight stay at Cape Tribulation.
        "The tour includes a trip to Lakefield, Queensland's second largest national park, as well as to Weipa.
        "On the ninth day guests arrive at Pajinka on the extreme edge of our continent, and can also explore Horn Island and Thursday Island."
        Contact details: www.outbackspirittours.com.au <http://www.outbackspirittours.com.au>  

       On the other hand, a more family kind of vacation (we're thinking of the upcoming school holidays) might have you thinking of the Gold Coast and a unique getaway spot must surely be the Sea World Resort and Water Park, with its full size water slides, two lagoon pools and direct monorail access to Sea World.
        The resort advises it has started a new Kids' Club, with the latest XBox 360 games, entertainment and activities and its own movie theatre.
        Resort guests also are able to have an exclusive look at an early morning dolphin training session before Sea World opens.
        Bookings, 1800 074448.


       Public life and aspirations to be part of it aint everyone's cup of tea. Apropos of nothing really, we have to say we loved the story relayed by Toowoomba's daily paper, The Chronicle, about the man they interviewed who had unsuccessfully tried for a place on the city's regional council.
        Would he have another shot, they asked.
        His reply: "Would you want to get naked, leap into a fire and have rocks thrown at you? I think not."


       The Whitsunday Islands are bouncing back from the natural vicissitudes of earlier this year and bookings for coming months are back on track and even better than previous years, according to Tourism Queensland, which recently splashed out on a $10 million global tourism marketing campaign.

        A typical recovery among the 74 Whitsunday Islands officially known as the Cumberland group is that of Long Island, whose resort reopened last month after having been closed in February to refurbish its restaurant and repair facilities damaged by Cyclone Yasi.
        "I've heard nothing but praise about all the refurbishments," say Whitsunday’s tourism CEO Peter O'Reilly. "It will provide a great boost for tourism in the Mackay area."
        More information: www.longislandresort.com.au <http://www.longislandresort.com.au> .
        Meanwhile, here's the kind of deal the area is offering: At Airlie Beach, you can stay four nights for the price of three at the Grand Mercure Azure Sea from $239 a person. One br. apartment and a bottle of wine for dinner. Valid until September 23. Phone 1300 130 483.  



               The 51st annual Brisbane Boat Show will be held at the Brisbane Entertainment Centre August 25-28 and the organisers plan to make it  the biggest and most diverse yet.
        There'll be a sailing stage, of all things, as well as nautical fashion displays and swimwear exhibits for female watergoers as well as the latest in luxury boating (fancy a 37ft. Boston Whaler, anyone?), water sports,  seafood cooking tips and all the latest fishing gear and technologies.



       Those Japanese gardens established in several Queensland cities as part of that business of "twinning" between centres here and in Japan are proving a delight for tourists and residents alike and my favourite is the one formed in Ipswich. It has a truly tranquil feel.
        Anyway, Toowoomba and Takatsuki are celebrating the 20th anniversary of their twinning and local horticulturalist Brian Sams has organised a garden tour of Takatsuki as well as other Japanese cities in November.
        The gardens will include traditional stroll gardens, zen gardens, castle gardens, temple gardens and public gardens.
        For more information phone Brian at 4638 1584.
         

GLADSTONE GOT 'THE ALASKAN SOLUTION'

       Funny people, these Alaskans: They once put through a law that said "it is the state policy that emergencies are held to a minimum and are rarely found to exist."
        Our George Street Poo-bahs have applied the same quixotic rule to Gladstone.
        How else to explain their behaviour over the disgraceful set of events that led to the temporary closing of that city's beautiful harbour?.
        Gladstone's fishermen, sickened by the diseased fish and crabs they were catching, called on the Government to close their fishing grounds for three years to avert a spread of the contamination. For this, they believed they were due for compensation.
        That was back in JUNE!
        The Government sat on its hands.
        Only after the commercial fishermen threatened to go public about the harbour's blind and ulcerated fish and crabs months later did the Government apply a temporary closure.
        By then, fishermen had become ill from handling the contaminated fish; also in hospital after handling the fish were the pregnant wife of a deckhand and their two children.
        Now, a very angry Gladstone wants a public inquiry into possible causes (including dredging disturbance)---AND it wants it in Gladstone, not away in what one observer termed "the La-La Land of George St."
        Or, dare we add, Alaska?

 
           
 

       Another chapter in the saga of attempts to bring competition into the Gladstone air travel business opens with  Virgin Australia starting a Gladstone-Brisbane service.

        It will be followed, says the company, by services to other parts of the regional market, next up being Moranbah, Emerald and Mount Isa.
        For its regional push Virgin has taken delivery of 18 new 68-seat ATR aircraft.
        "We're here for the long haul," said a Virgin spokesman, doubtless fully aware of the tough passage they'll be given by the existing carrier.

           

       Regional councils are hoping they'll have a better handle on pressing problems beginning to present themselves in Central Highland mining communities after a tour of Western Australia's resource-rich Pilbara region.
        The Central Highlands deputy mayor, Paul Bell, who is also Local Government Association Queensland president, said one big warning of things to come was the Pilbara fact that house prices there had shot up from $300,000 or so to $1.2 million and more.
        We need to move urgently," he said. "One answer might be to develop a council planning scheme that allows for high-density housing."

      

 Already there are significant pointers to accommodation problems.
        Mackay's motel tariffs are now among the highest in the country, with 4.5-star accommodation costing an average $290 a night.
        Average occupancy rate is 91 per cent.
        "Mackay is full all the time," said an industry spokesman. "Our mining boom is a major reason."     

       They had become a familiar sight around Emerald---the group of 24 Tongan workers who came to Craig Pressler's 2PH Farms in the recently ended Pacific Islander Workers Programme.
        Now they've gone back home, but all have indicated they would be delighted to return.
        The hugely successful  programme has provided a workforce for farms struggling to find labour and Mr Pressler says it is essential for the industry's survival.
        He fears the initiative could be dropped at the  end of the trial period in June, 2012.

       The Queensland town of Alpha may be tiny but it is at the centre of the largest deal ever signed between Australian and Indian parties.
        Gina Rinehart's Hancock Coal has confirmed it will sell most of its Galilee Basin holdings near Alpha to leading infrastructure developer GVK Group in a deal worth $1.2 billion.
        The announcement means nearly all the coal in the basin has now already been sold to Indian or Chinese parties---with mining not scheduled to start for another three years.
        Production for the global market is expected to be 84 million tonnes annually.

     
       In earlier days of Cooktown settlement, the crocodiles were so plentiful, writes correspondent Glen Cameron in a northern publication, that swimming was just not on  and if a horse or dog went down to drink in the Endeavour River above saltwater they were gone, taken by a croc.
        The settlers shot every croc they saw, the result being the crocs became very wary. Once, writes Glen, the aborigines spotted a big kumgart (crocodile) near the Cameron house, at McLeod's Creek, an Endeavour tributary.
        Glen's father and a neighbour went looking, but the croc. was submerged. Undaunted, the neighbour climbed out on a half-submerged log. He barked like a dog about a dozen times, then howled several times.
        Up came the big croc. in the centre of the stream and the neighbour fired. The croc. flew straight up out of the water, slashing with its tail and then sank.