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yeah I did two histories last year last semester |
Oh which one did you do |
Um world history and modern European |
How was that |
It's about from the beginning of the universe till now so |
Oh I was gonna do that actually instead of doing politics |
It's a bit hard to follow |
Are they it's eyes or not |
Do you wanna hear a joke |
Not if it's rude |
don't don't twist my words around |
No jokes then |
no no no don't |
So what d'you think of the state of the economy at the moment |
talk to me in politics |
Therefore we come to the conclusion |
Gee that took a long time didn't it |
What can they do |
you could sort of criticise the government and that but that's about it really |
You can't really change anything |
Oh don't think pessimistically though |
That's not being pessimistic |
You are being pessimistic |
Should be just something that controls the economy and that's it |
And what are you gonna call those people who actually control the economy |
and let people take care of themselves |
help their buddies |
Help their buddies |
So that's why I think government's full of shit |
Yeah but if we don't have any government |
and try to improve things |
Like wouldn't the power-hungries scumbags all go into those kind of um area as well |
but isn't that ideally what government's supposedly do like |
People don't want to choose either of them but they have to because they're the only ones there |
I'm going to take over |
Oh are you |
We have a new world order |
Get rid of America |
Oh gonna nuke America |
won't be any left |
Go to work shit around |
You know that |
Your an idealist |
I just believe that um |
What're you gonnna do after you graduate |
You started off with it |
to do really |
You have no passion for life |
What about me |
I'm not saying |
no no no no no no |
have no passion |
Yes you must have a passion |
I have none |
Don't you wanna be a movie star |
Yeah but you've gotta have a passion after that |
which shouldn't be very hard |
Where were you when the woman liberation started |
's got a few things to say about that |
so what do you think you'll have a family and |
Do you think you'll have children and that later on |
Do you think I'm mad |
Are you a Christian |
Well you believe in god |
It's alright for what |
I've got a joke |
What d'you call a gay dinosaur |
Oh no we've had that |
No we haven't |
No dirty jokes |
That wasn't dirty |
or a good place |
THE DIVERSITY ENIGMA by Tim Flannery photo photo photo One aspect of Australias diversity has puzzled me how do infertile places, like Western Australias heathlands and the Great Barrier Reef, support such an abundance of life I have long been fascinatted by the diversity of life on Earth, and the reasons why some environments support a greater number of species than others. An important factor in determining the number of species an environment can support is its productivity. Every environment has a characteristic rate of formation through photosynthesis of new plant material, which fuels the web of life within that environment. If the rate is high, the environment is said to be productive, and there is a widespread belief that such environments are home to a greater number of species than those resourcepoor environments where productivity is low. Although this hypothesis makes intuitive sense, ecologists are now questioning it. Indeed, some have pinpointed reasons suggesting that the reverse is or should be the norm. This article examines the relationship between productivity and diversity in three very different Australasian environments the heathlands of southwestern Western Australia, the Great Barrier Reef, and the rainforests of New Guinea. photo caption The heathlands of southwestern Western Australia support some of the most diverse and spectacular plant communities on Earth. The entire southwestern corner of Western Australia supports 10,00012,000 species of plants, with the number of species per square kilometre rivalling those found in the richest rainforests. Most of the worlds banksias, sundews Drosera, and all of its dryandras, to mention only a few, are found in this small region of Australia. Yet it is remarkable that the bulk of these species comes from relatively few families, such as the Proteaceae, the family containing species of Banksia, Dryandra, Grevillea and others. Thus many species of rather similar plants coexist. This is all the more surprising as the landscape of the southwest is, superficially at least, rather monotonous. Most of the area is covered by highly infertile sandsheets, and there are few mountain ranges or sharp topographic features to provide microhabitats that might facilitate speciation. Subtle differences in soil type do, however, support different plant communities. Many species in the region possess unusual adaptations to extreme soil infertility. The Western Australian Christmas Tree Nuytsia floribunda is a treesized mistletoe that gains nutrients by parasitising the roots of grasses and other plants. The carnivorous plants are particularly abundant. They represent well over half of all the carnivorous species found in Australia and two out of our seven genera, as well as the majority of two others, are found only in this small area. More than half the worlds species of sundews Drosera are endemic, as is the Western Australian Pitcher Plant Cephalotus follicularis, which is placed in its own family. Furthermore the bladderwort genus Polypompholyx is entirely restricted to the region as is one of the two rainbow plants genus Byblis. All of these plants have turned to carnivory to meet their nutrient needs they obtain nitrates and phosphates from insects, and they speak eloquently of the harsh constraints that the infertile soils of Western Australia places upon the flora. They add emphasis to the question of how so many different plant species could have evolved and come to coexist in such an infertile environment. Could the answer be in the very poverty of the environment itself David Tilman of the Department of Ecology, University of Minnesota, suggested in 1982 that, in environments where nutrients such as nitrates and phosphates are in plentiful supply, those species that are best at utilising these nutrients can outcompete all similar species. A prime example of such a species is ourselves. In areas where nitrates, photo caption phosphates, water and soil abound, we can destroy almost all other species through intensive agriculture, reducing the environment to a monoculture. In less productive areas, such as those used for grazing, our ability to destroy the species competing with us is less, although with modern technology we are improving that ability. In the most unproductive environments, humans are reduced to just another species among the multitudes, if they can exist at all. Tilman referred to such species as superspecies, but this term is already in established use in taxonomy where it has quite a different meaning. Perhaps the term exterminator species is more appropriate for, although emotive and used in other contexts, it does adequately describe their effect. Humans are just one exterminator species among many, and Tilman argues that it is only where exterminator species are excluded that many species can coexist. They do this by becoming specialists, exploiting subtle differences in the levels of critical resources such as water and nutrients in different areas. Thus, in the Western Australian heathlands, one species of Banksia may be able to survive in runoff areas where more nutrients are available than elsewhere. Another may survive in sand at the foot of dunes where water may accumulate. Yet another may caption survive in barren interdune areas because it can exist on very few nutrients. Because of the complex interplay of soils, nutrient levels and water availability, many combinations of resource availability are possible in a nutrientpoor landscape, leading to the evolution of many specialist species. One further aspect of Australias heathland has long puzzled me, and that is the spectacular heathland flowers, some of which are present throughout the year, and most of which drip with nectar. It seems anomalous that such apparent waste of effort should occur in such infertile areas. However, I think I have found a convincing explanation as to why this is so. Because of the diversity of plant species in the heathlands, the nearest potential sexual partner of any individual plant may be a long way off. This means that pollinators, such as insects, mammals and honeyeaters, must be used for effective pollination. Yet in a nutrientpoor environment such organisms, particularly the warmblooded ones, are likely to be scarce. Thus competition exists between plants for these few pollinators. It takes fewer nutrients for a plant to make nectar, than it does to produce new leaves. This is because only water, air and sunlight are needed to make sugar, while nutrients such as nitrates and phosphates are essential for the production of new plant tissue. Thus, where nutrients are limited, it makes sense for a heathland plant to have blooms that produce lots of nectar to outcompete its fellows for the attentions of the rare pollinators. This is because its ability to produce nectar is not as tightly constrained by low soil fertility. The presence of abundant nectar alone, however, may not increase the abundance of most pollinators. Their numbers in most cases may not be restricted by the amount of nectar but rather by protein, because most species need some proteinrich food such as insects in order to survive. And the number of insects present is probably limited by low soil primary productivity due to poor soils. The process can perhaps best be thought of as an arms race a literal war of the roses, where flower power wins the day. Some species avoid the arms race by flowering at times of the year when few caption photo other blooms are around, providing a continuous food supply to the pollinators. Thus in a seeming paradox, these very nutrientpoor soils that heaths grow on support an abundance of plant species with the most luxurious flowers. Upon these feed specialised pollinators, including the tiny ten grams Honeypossum Tarsipes rostratus, which is the only nonflying vertebrate to depend totally upon flowers for its food. So rich in nectar and pollen are the heaths of southwestern Australia that a Honeypossum can virtually feed every day of the year and, for much of the time, find its food requirements from an area of no more than 40 square metres. And all of this because the environment is so nutrientpoor A somewhat different example of great diversity is provided by the Great Barrier Reef. Coral organisms are animals that support photosynthetic algae inside their bodies. Such a strategy is most likely to have evolved in a very nutrientpoor situation, the ancestors of coral animals being unable to find enough food by themselves, and taking advantage of a relationship with plants to supplement their food supply. The relationship remains useful, for coral reefs grow only in the most nutrientpoor warm waters. The reefs provide a home for an enormous diversity of fishes, and it is interesting that the nutrients present in a coral reef environment are cycled through the living animals of the reef very rapidly, with very little loss. Thus a small amount of nutrient is made to go a long way. Unfortunately, the toorapid removal of parts of the system such as large fishes can have disastrous effects. Today, the relatively small commercial and recreational fisheries on the Great Barrier Reef are having a profound impact as predators, algal grazers and other types of fishes are removed from the environment. What happens if we enrich such a system We do not need to guess, for we are carrying out an immense experiment. Queensland sugar cane growers fertilise their fields with large quantities of nitrates and phosphates. During the wet season much of these are washed down rivers and into the sea, eventually finding their way onto the nearer parts of the reef. In consequence, a monoculture of algae takes over from the wonderful reef diversity, much in the way that people and their agriculture take over from heathland with an application of superphosphate. Although Tilmans hypothesis seems to work well for plants, and perhaps coldblooded creatures such as fish, there are difficulties in applying it to the larger, warmblooded creatures such as mammals. This is because these animals have high energy requirements and, in resourcepoor environments, there might be not enough resources for them to survive at all. Biologists from the CSIRO studying treedwelling marsupials mostly possum species in the eucalypt forests around Eden have found that 52 per cent of the forests contain no treedwelling mammals at all, and that 63 per cent of the treedwelling fauna is found in just nine per cent of the forests. They hypothesise that much of the forest is simply too nutrientpoor to support treedwelling marsupials, and that only the forests growing on better soils support large populations. In this case, however, matters are complicated by the eucalypts propensity to manufacture toxins when they grow on poorer soils. The eucalypts that grow on more fertile soil respond to the presence of leafeating possums simply by growing new leaves as the old ones are eaten. Eucalypts that grow on nutrientpoor soils, however, cannot do this because the lack of nutrients limits their growth. Instead they produce carbonbased toxins, especially tannins and phenolics, for much the same energetic reasons that the heathland plants produce nectar that is, they are cheap to produce, and are thus a less expensive way of dealing with leaf loss than by simply growing new leaves. The tannins and phenolics work by disrupting the acid balance in the digestive systems of the leafeaters, preventing them from digesting their food. Despite the fact that the most resourcepoor environments may have insufficient resources to support mammals, it may still be that environments with moderate resources might support more species than those with abundant resources, because of Tilmans proposed exterminator species effect. It is difficult caption photo to carry out comparisons of mammal communities in resourcerich and resourcepoor environments in Australia because of extinctions almost a third of Australian mammals have become extinct since humans arrived here and because of the fact that our few resourcerich environments have been so dramatically altered by Europeans. A better place for such comparisons would be the highlands of New Guinea, where very few to date only seven mammal extinctions have been documented over the past 40,000 years, and the highest diversities of Australian mammals up to 120 species in a small area occur. In particular, the areas of western and central New Guinea offer ideal comparisons because, while they are roughly similar in size and still harbour substantial areas of upland rainforest, they differ markedly in their soils. |
Ten Such is the ferocious garden growth of summer, Cairo asks Cec will he work an extra day each week to keep pace with the weeds. Now its school holidays, Clementine visits her school friend who also lives on the southside of the river. At Beths there is always summer thunder, always too far away. They spend their evenings with binoculars, watching the way bits of leg and body writhe across the drivein screen late at night when the Rrated films are showing. When Mrs Anderson comes in with snacks for them and asks what on earth they are doing, they answer innocently enough counting the ratio of sheet lightning to fork. Or, sometimes, they wander with pikelets spread with the cheap tinned jams Mrs Anderson buys, down the back to where Mr Anderson works. He is a sadseeming man and is it any wonder, Clementine thinks, whenever they stand watching him carve out dead names onto curves of marble. He often works past midnight under the warm night skies, ever anxious on behalf of the dead persons relatives to have the job complete. Mosquitoes can eat him alive and he doesnt appear to mind or notice. Or, in the daytime, Beth will lead Clementine to the corner shop for provisions and then into the bucket seats of her fathers sevenyearold Ford Falcon. Beth lies in the front, Clementine in the back. Her father parks it beneath an old camphor laurel so that there are always leaves to look up into. They lie on the black upholstery, silently imagining men so big beside them that limps would have to poke out the little triangle windows that whistle when the car is being driven. The two girls eat sweets there that come in rolls of cellophane. Made in America, says the very small writing. Tart Talks reads the much bigger lettering not because they are slightly sour, but because they are girl sweeties, always pink or pastelcoloured. With these, and the loose, twoforonecent Conversation Candies, Beth and Clementine construct weirdsounding, doubleweighted conversations. Camphor laurel berries rattle on the roof of the car. They lie there until all the sweets are gone, converstaions and titillations over, and become envious of each other in different ways. Clementine envies her friend her normal name Elizabeth that can be so conventionally shortened. Beth is in love with her friends skin, which is so brown and smooth and lean it makes her own look like porridge, she says. Nettles and nightshades grow in Beths garden and monster paspalums, threading through abandoned chips of marble and cement. Some kinds of marble are as ivory and smooth as old piano keys or wedding satin. Mrs Anderson does have her rose circle. Clementine knows she can always make her own mother laugh and exclaim when she comes home from Beths with tales of gardening peculiarities greater than their own. The Gummers are also busy in their garden, tidying and reshaping. Inspired by British topiary, Bunny has urged Dr Gummer into reshaping some of their old conifers. The one by the front door is meant to be some kind of ceremonial ball but ends up mushroomshaped. By Christmas Day, its regrowth is exploding into Clementines view like an atomic bomb going off. Lesser projects have been attempted and abandoned halfformed kangaroos in croton bushes. Christmas day is stinking hot. Alexandras peppermint creams, made to her deluxe recipe with slices of fresh mint, melt the moment she takes them from the fridge. They taste nice enough though. She offers them to the Gummers, who are sharing the Youngs Christmas lunch. Patrick arrived three days earlier in his Holden station wagon. He will stay with his brother until he finds a house to rent. Nobody knows what to do with their sticky fingers. Patrick licks his clean. Sky wipes hers on the back of her dress and Dr Gummer takes a large and immaculate handkerchief from his pocket. The girls are all in new dresses, of similar design and pattern. Their mother is going to extraordinary lengths to make the lunch table beautiful and no one is helping. Only Lettie keeps getting in the way. Cairo has planted candlesticks in wet sand in crystal bowls. She decorates the sand with small fresh flowers that are dead by the time Ventrys begun to carve the turkey. You look lovely, Grandma. Sky hovers around the faded finery of Letties dress. Thank you. And so do you. Can we sit next to each other at the table Of course we can. Lettie holds her granddaughters hand and moves around the table looking for their place names. Look, Mummys already put us together. The names are written in gold, in Cairos lavish hand, and have been laid into trails of maidenhair ferns. See the Christmas lights in the bunya pine Clementine says to Patrick when they are all seated at the table. Away from Coogee he looks more ordinary, more like his brother, but that is possibly only because his ponytail has been lost in deference to his brothers prejudices. The pink roses. Like Christmas lights. We think so anyway. They always come out for Christmas. They look dotted line papery, Patrick replies, dazed by the heat and the hot green look of the river and the town on the otherside of it to which he has, it seems to him now, so rashly committed himself. He has arrived not at some exotic end of the earth but in a conservative tail end of New South Wales. Nobody will visit me, he panics, and wishes himself anywhere but in the midst of a family of girls, his brother far from friendly alongside. Some more leg for you, Patrick Ventry offers. To the new arts officer. Cairo is lifting her glass at him. Go steady. Charlie doesnt join in the toast. Leave some turkey for the growing girls. He is feeling neglected by Cairo and wondering what he can do to remedy this. Rose and champagnecoloured jellies sit on silver platters at either end of the table. Patrick holds one up to the sun. What on earth Cairo Scented basil jellies. I found the recipe on a mail order seed pack. How unusual, says Charlie, who has seen them before at Cairos parties. Patrick keeps his held to the light. Sun jewels, he says and feels a sudden lifting of his heart. How ever did you get such delicate colours Cochineal Bunny Gummer guesses, but nobody takes any notice. Liquorice basils make the pinkier hues and the other is made with the leaves of holy basil. No cochineal at all, Bettina. Holy basil, laughs Sky in an imitation of Batman. What a beautiful idea. Patrick picks up his teaspoon, Can I have a taste Of course. Its savoury. Meant to go with the turkey and salads. Cairo spoons him some. It glistens and trembles beside his turkey and everyone is watching as he takes a taste on the end of his knife. Not allowed to lick your knife, Sky grins at him, already won over. Delicate Patrick smiles in such a way nobody is quite sure whether he means the jelly or the youngest daughter. He has a theatrical air rarely seen in most country towns. Everyone at the table except his brother, and Ventry who is oblivious, is already half in love with his boyishness and lazy eyes. Ventry casts his wife glances that hold more than affection. Cairos fennel in the salad will make him burp terribly later on but it doesnt really matter. And the man who has put her into such a good mood isnt at all as bad as hed imagined. Patrick Gummer looks quite respectable. And hes kind, helping Cairos mother and Sky to some more of the white meat they like best. Ventry begins to tell Patrick the story of how he once made all his girls go to church in jodhpurs before racing off to a show. Before Clementine grew so musical, he adds. Ooh, its lovely to have a bit of fowl, Lettie is saying. Then, Whats your name again Patrick. Paddy the Irishman Only a long time ago. Can see it in you though. Lovely blue eyes you and your brother both have. Patrick begins Clementine. The whole family is clamouring for the newcomers attention or Patrick would have told how one of his eyes is glass. Mr Gummer, you mean, corrects Ventry. No. He hates being called that, dont you Clementine squints her eyes at Patrick to avoid seeing the top of the atomic bomb topiary behind his head. Wouldnt answer to anything else. Im not a doctor. He shoots a bland grin over to his brother. Dont tell me you have to call him Doctor, do you Hows the flute playing going Charlie Gummer swallows his anger down with cool white wine. Clementine answers very well thank you, hating the stilted, uneasy sound of this expression that Cairo taught her is a suitable response for most questions. She eats cherries nervously to fend off any more personal questions. Sweetheart, dont steal all the cherries. Her mothers voice has a sudden and unexpected pitch of exasperation so that Clementine knows she cant expect her mother to elaborate her fluting achievements to date. Oh, she plays beautifully, Bunny says. We love to hear her practising in the afternoons. Dont we, Charlie Dr Gummer acts as though he hasnt heard the question. Clementines fingers fray away her serviette. Patrick But her voice trails away. Although his ponytail has gone he doesnt look like he belongs in this town. He is laughing now at how Bellini has found his toes to lick. She thinks youre a puppy. Clementine bends under the table to watch. Cairos irrational judgements of people which depend on how friendly her dogs are towards them have been taken a step further by Clementine. She assesses visitors by Bellinis reaction to their taste. She thinks youre delicious The dogs tongue laps up the rivulets of sweat under Patricks knee. Its those pongy old sandals you wear, suggests Charlie, and feels reassured when Cairo and Ventry both seem amused. What sort of dogs are they exactly Pig dogs No, say all the daughters. Staffordshire Bull Terriers. Sensual, isnt it Patrick laughs too as the licking continues. Oooahh, you can do that to me all day, puppy. Shes not the puppy, Sky tells him. Figgy, Fig, she calls over the real puppy and puts him in her lap. See how lovely he is Patrick leans over the table to pat him. His heads like a camera case, he says. Same shape. Ive always liked dogs. Charlie went in for the guinea pigs. Me too. Ive always been a dog lover, Clementine confides, because she has never seen Bellini lick a strangers legs so lovingly. I used to bark at the dogs, didnt I, Dad When I was a little girl Yes, you did. Ventry laughs and feels in need of a sleep. And is embarrassed when the mother dog begins to lick her puppys penis and Charlie makes a fellatio joke. By the time Bunnys annual and awful boiled fruit cake has been brought out, all the adults appear to be drunk. Cairo laughs a lot and slices the cake in a reckless way. It is so hot now the sand around the candles dries out and one by one the candles, which looked strange alight in the day, topple over. Timber, calls out Charles Gummer each time. Lettie wishes hed stop. It was the word her dead husband used to call out just before ejaculation. Something to do with his timbercutting past, Lettie always thought, or the way hed wield the axe in the woodchops at the show. Cairo, on her way to opening another bottle, is so worried to see her mother looking pained and frail that she stops for a moment to rest her fingers on the crepy skin of her mothers neck. The swell of weeds from the vacant lands beneath their house is momentarily overwhelming. |
S. D. Masland, 43 Rickard Road, UNANDERRA. N.S.W. 2526 Australia. Phone 042713526 October 10, 1994 Memb No. 1893906 Chief Executive Officer N.R.M.A., Locked Bag 1994, G.P.O. SYDNEY. 2001 Dear Sir, In the Sydney Morning Herald of Saturday 3rd September NRMA advertisements espousing the Yes option of the float and shares proposal states that During September youll receive a Proxy Voting Paper. WHY are we to receive a proxy voting paper Why are we not receiving a normal Postal Vote paper as is the case with normal voting procedure Will there be a CLEAR explanation of the difference between a directed proxy vote and an open proxy vote I am bewildered as to why a proxy vote has been chosen as the means for people to register their vote. Also in the same newspaper on the next page was another advertisement which I felt was misleading. If you dont act you wont get any shares is not quite true If I act and cast my vote regardless of what that vote is and 5l of 75 of the membership decide they do not want the NRMA to be turned into a listed company, I will not get any shares. On the contrary, if I do not act and 5l of the 75 of the membership of the NRMA vote to list the company, then according to earlier information given out by the Directors because I was a member of the NRMA as at the 16th March, 1994 then I will receive shares. Why this misconception Is this scare tactics to frighten us all into voting Yours sincerely, Mrs Diane Masland Memb. No. 1893906 S. D. Masland 43 Rickard Road, UNANDERRA. N.S.W. 2526 Australia. Phone 042713526 October 10, 1994 Memb No. 1893906 Chief Executive Officer, N.R.M.A., Locked Bag 1994, G.P.O. SYDNEY. 2001 Your fileMASLGE Dear Sir, Thank you for your prompt response to my letter. Some questions which were not answered and clarification of some other problems which I ask you to answer for me Is the ONLY reason for the proposed change to convert members indirect, inaccessible stake in NRMA into a direct, financial stake Were other avenues of sharing the wealth investigated If so what were the alternatives and why were they rejected Your letter mentions that the float would enable NRMA membersdotted lineto share the organisations wealth without eroding the NRMAs capital which cash giveaway would do. Is it not possible to continue to pursue the 64 Objects laid down in the Memorandum of Association without eroding capital The original brochure states the NRMA already make profits that are accumulating because we cant share them with members these ongoing profits should be used to better the lot of ALL Australian motorists including us members without giving FINANCIAL gain to individuals WHICH IS CONTRARY TO THE INTENT of the founders of the N.R.M.A.. How do you reconcile this proposal to give me a financial stake in the N.R.M.A. with the possibility of CASH bonuses andor cash for the sale my shares with the definite instruction in the Memorandum of Association paragraph 4 that no person will profit by their membership Have you explained clearly to members that the issuing of shares brings with it not only potential profit, but potential loss What will each shareholders liability be in case the company collapses Is it limited to 10 as it is under the existing structure Will these concerns been explained to ALL members together with the tax and pension implications in the prospectus What provision is being made for all those motorists who will join the NRMA from 6th March, 1994 Will share be kept in reserve specifically or will they have to buy shares from other members If, as your letter suggests, these shares will be so keenly guarded by members, this may be impossible. Will you please explain to me the meaning of the phrase Currently, NRMAs profits are locked up used in answer to L.G. Normans letter Can NRMAs profits currently be used for expansion of services and upgrading of equipment Your letter says that special permission was granted by the Australian Securities Commission to enable the proposed float to be openly debated. Why is the Board of Directors not giving full information on BOTH sides of the question Why is it depending entirely on members to write in to newspapers or the Open Road in the hope that their letters will be published, with the further hope that ALL members will read these letters Surely it behoves responsible leadership to fully inform members before asking for them to vote on such an important issue. What shortterm or longterm gains do the members of the current Board of Directors see for themselves in this proposal The original brochure when answering the question How will the NRMA be different as a listed company states only the ownership structure will change. In you letter to me you say that it is not the ownership of the NRMA that is under review. Could you explain that to me please Currently the members own the NRMA, even with a 5 limit on share holdings it is quite possible that future owners of the NRMA will not be members therefore destroying the theory that the share holders will always have the interests of the members at heart. Will share holders always be members, will all members always be shareholders With the freedom to trade shares this must be impossible to predict. Can you see my concern Were you able to give copies of my letter to each of the Directors as I requested Yours sincerely, Mrs Diane Masland. Memb. No. 1893906 S. D. Masland, 43 Rickard Road, UNANDERRA. N.S.W. 2526 Australia. Phone 042713526 July 27, 1994 Memb No. 1893906 Chief Executive Officer, N.R.M.A., Locked Bag 1994 G.P.O. SYDNEY. 2001 PLEASE GIVE A COPY OF THIS LETTER TO EACH OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS Dear Sir, I am very disappointed in the onesided approach which has been taken in giving members of the N.R.M.A. information about the proposed floating of the N.R.M.A. and herein give my own responses with some additional questions to which I would appreciate specific answers to the brochure which was posted to me NRMA SHARE THE FUTURE. Why is NRMA considering this change If it isnt broken dont fix it The NRMA has a proven record in high quality, low cost service to its members. You please read those who compiled this brochure where I use the word you state we want to change the structure to give access to that wealth to our members. This can be done equally efficiently, through a similar consultativevoting process, without opening opportunities for individuals to increase their control or vested interest in the organization. Has NRMA looked at other ways of sharing its wealth Here only one other option is mentioned. What other options were considered Why were each of these options rejected There are many ways in which this wealth could be used to benefit members Reduce membership fees increase the insurance rebates on ALL insurance policies held through NRMA and its subsidiaries continue to improve level of road service, particularly wait times and country services. These would take many years to erode the wealth which is locked up, but would benefit ALL members instantly and continually. OR ways to help the community could be considered driver and pedestrian education more money spent on research into accident prevention and in training drivers in better driving techniques grants to country shires and councils to upgrade roads or driver facilities such as rest stops. information centers etc. do as one member suggested in a letter to the Sydney Morning Herald, set up trust funds to encourage Australian research, science and enterprise. Some of these suggestions would require amendments to the Articles or constitution or whatever, but as this current advertising promotion is proving would not be an impossible achievement. But how will the new proposal actually share the wealth Yes, you are appealing to the minicapitalist in each of us, we would all be instantly wealthier in convertible assets and that is the main danger of this exercise shares are commodities to be bought and sold, members can sell them realizing a one of return, other members can buy them thus gaining more benefit over time, both financial and in influence over the company THE NRMA WILL GO FROM BEING A MUTUAL ORGANIZATION OF EQUAL MEMBERS to just another listed company on the stock exchange to be haggled over for profit and prestige, and the interests of the individual member will be of less importance that the financial interests of the share holders. How can NRMA afford to give away 2 billion In your printed answer to this question you have specified the very reason for concern sharesdotted line can be sold to others Will my shares affect my pension or my tax liability Is it realistic to expect the current Federal Government to make new rules to apply only to holders of NRMA shares If it does, there is no guarantee that the next government will not revere any special legislation.Rather than expect the Federal Government, Taxation Department and Social Security Department to alter their rules to suit the NRMA would it not be wiser, simpler and fairer on the rest of Australians for the NRMA to alter its own rules and regulations so that this excess money can be spent or allocated according to the wishes of the majority of current members Why will shares only be given to those who were members as at March 16 this year While agreeing that there had to be a cut off point, if the proposal does go ahead, what provision is being made for all those motorists who will join the NRMA from that date Will shares be kept in reserve specifically or will they have to buy shares What will the vote in October decide I shudder to think Surely this matter should be dealt with in similar fashion to a government referendum with equal time, space, money, exposure being spent on BOTH SIDES of the argument. How can members make an informed choice when the bulk of information is so rosily slanted to the lets do it choice This is unprofessional and unethical. And I am bitterly disappointed in the Board for allowing this bias. What shortterm or longterm gains do the members of the current Board of Directors see for themselves in this proposal Are they going to make immediate gain, or are they just better at playing the stock market than the average person How do you suggest I vote If the majority of those Directors who were present at the meeting where this proposal was passed were NOT in favour, then we wouldnt be at this stage of confusion. This is faintly tainted with dishonesty, people trust those whom they have put in power and will follow their lead. It is up to the integrity of the Directors to GIVE MEMBERS ALL DETAILS of both sides of this proposal. How will NRMA be different as a listed company In my view this is the granddaddy of the deceptive answers. THE OWNERSHIP SHOULD NOT CHANGE. Please answer this question for me Who owns the NRMA now To my understanding, I own it along with every other member.So in reality everything about the NRMA could change with listing. The owners will not necessarily be members, members will not necessarily be owners. The main aim of the company will be to make profits whether or not this entails providing road service. In fact, looking at the recent changes that have been implemented in giving road service i.e. limits on the number of calls which will be answered free of charge for a particular car, makes me think that if this is the least profit generating operation of the NRMA, it will gradually be phased out. Big earners like insurance will continue to grow. Under the proposal will all members of the NRMA always be share holders |
CONFIDENTIAL To Dennis Hepburn 11 November, 1994 From Ian Chesterfield cc VMcC Subject Hong Kong Update The simpler we think, the more complex it becomes, however we are working through it. A complication I mentioned is the ongoing warranty obligations of BFP HK Ltd., particularly in the area of transit mixers. Also, we have the question of staff until and beyond 31 Dec 1994 and potential transit mixer business between now and then and thereafter. We have not changed the intent of the ongoing business, but until we can assess the real potential, I have decided to retain the Sales Manager Ricky through into I dont get carried away with huge transit mixer business just because the political game has got around to signing the Agreements. Work had been going on for at least the last 2 years but there will be ongoing potential of at least 30 sets through 1995 which is around HK8M. We shouldnt pass it up until we have had Vaughan and Arthur check it out. That will happen in December they will both be in HK as you pass through. If we see the potential, we need Ricky if we dont keep Ricky now we wont have him in December so Ive kept him. He is aware of the change in the business and the narrow focus and that if it doesnt pay he doesnt stay He understands the challenge. When Vaughan is in HK with Arthur, he will be meeting not only our 2 specific transit mixer builders, but their customers the users. We will be looking to determine whether there is customer service talent we can train at our cost if needs be to make them service self sufficient and educated to specify Eaton Trasmital. We can take the training to them in HK or bring them to Sydney. We have also had talks with Rheem in Brisbane and Zicom, their associate in Singapore who see good things in Hong Kong over the next 2 years. We can work this end in part from Brisbane. So our start up crew in Hong Kong will be Ricky Sales Manager Janice Administration Henry Stores Service Another advantage of retaining Ricky is that he is a polytechnic graduate and has excellent English if someone has to talk to Tony Bush Ricky can do it. We are in the process of advising the key customer group of the New Year changes and Arthur, Vaughan and Ricky will cover the waterfront before Christmas. Kind regards, To Dennis Hepburn 5 April, 1994 From Ian Chesterfield Subject Development Down Under Dear Dennis, I need to share with you our current situation since the last visit of Jorgen and our new goal of A100M hydraulic turnover. I have been very busy and I have a number of people keen to move and to move quickly. Since the slow down message a couple of weeks ago, I need to know How far I can go and how fast I have a number of areas of concern but they are interrelatedboth in relation to our Vickers potential and our secondary network plans and could also start our third opportunity non hydraulic industrial products. On the assumption that the green light for Meadows is on, we have our Parker start and presence in 2 strategic locations Newcastle and Wollongong and bonus opportunities at Gunnedah in North West NSW and another location in Sydney. You will recall we had a quick chat with Robert Archer of Archer Hydraulics. The situation now is he wants to sell. With a degree of urgency Robert wants out totally and that would be a good thing. He is the third generation and the classic situation seems to prevail so we would not want him to continue in the business. From the Vickers point of view, the acquisition of Archer would secure our Vickers place in Sydney. Their Vickers turnover is around 700Kannum one of Vickers bigger distributors. Vickers would like us to buy Archer. It would make the Sydney BFP YesNo decision not have to be made. Archer total turnover is around A4M and by the time John A. has finished the numbers, the EBIT our way will be around 200K. I believe we can make money through Archer and secure our national network. We could move our NSW sales operation into the Archer operation and end up with a A7M business. We could move the nonhydraulic activities of Archer air compressors, pneumatics and maybe even honed hydraulic tube sales into Villawood. I will fax you an acquisition evaluation sheet on Friday, 8 April. This will be a share purchase of the total business. The Brisbane situation is very interesting. Vickers are not happy with their total representation in the greater Brisbane area. BFP are OK but we range a bit far and wide. Mathers are not OK and may be made an OEM not a distributor. John Cooper, whose main business is in Mackay, is not really turned on in Brisbane. Vickers will change the status of Mathers if we step up our activity. I suggest that it needs more than just another couple of Field Sales Reps, it needs an additional location. We are working on a possibility Applied Hydraulics a non aligned hydraulics business just up the road from Simons. This would give us a very suitable second location at Eagle Farm. It has an Enerpac business base, a fair servicerepair business and current sales of about A2M. We are not up to acquisition evaluation yet, but we will need to move quickly to keep up with Vickers. There are 2 more opportunities in this region that would virtually tie up the Vickers business. One is Hiway Hydraulics 70km just south west of Brisbane and at the gateway to the Darling Downs which is a very significant agricultural area. They are a Vickers Q.A. and a neat business. We have the data now to prepare an acquisition evaluation sheet and they are keen to take the matter further. The other is Southport Hydraulics, about an hour south on the Gold Coast. This is a less than A1M opportunity but one that Vickers would like because we could displace Denison with Vickers at a rate of about A5M our sales. We have not made an approach yet. Moving down south to Victoria and to Geelong, an hour southwest of Melbourne, we have Controlled Hydraulics and Air Hydraulics. I say Controlled is not on as we cant pay enough to give 3 young guys enough after tax considering what they can make over the next 5 years. Air Hydraulics is significant in that it is based on Parker, has sales around A5M and 4 locations in Victoria. We will have an acquisition evaluation sheet complete next week. Finally in this current scenario, we have Integrated. They operate out of Coffs Harbour with offices in Bri, Syd and Mel. You know their product line up, we would expect ongoing sales at around A15Mannum and they want to sell. I rank the strategic significance of these acquisitions as follows Rank Business LocastionMain Brand Turnover 1 Meadow NSW Parker 15 2 Archer NSW Vickers 4 3 Applied Qld. Vickers 2 4 Air Hyd Vic. Parker 5 5 Integrated QNV 15 6 Hiway Qld. Vickers 3 7 Southport Qld. Vickers 5 5 Current BFP 26 5M and all this could cost between 15 and 20 million A. It could also all be done within the next 12 months. I would appreciate your thoughts and guidance in this matter. Kind regards, To Dennis Hepburn 25 March 1994 From Ian Chesterfield Subject Meadows Acquisition Dennis, Further to our discussion last evening and with reference to Tom Froburg fax 23 March 1994, I confirm that Meadow are not interested in a swift signing of the Letter of Intent and then a delay in determination of the effective date. If they dont get significant usable funds before 30 June 1994, I suspect they will tell us to go away and come back in 1012 months time. They will enjoy the next years profits, ask a higher price, and want settlement before 30 June, I understand that Jorgen needs to pursue his deal with Jim McKee and that this deal may be a lever I see it as a lever to illustrate to Jim that we are doing what we told him we would do and that is, get on with growing our Australian business. If we end up with Vickers in Australia with their maximum addtional 15M turnover, we will not achieve our goal of 100M turnover with Vickers alone. As I have said previously, some current Vickers distributors will defect because they see us as opposition and they will take on and sell other brand product. We could end up with 10M turnover. We will not make 100M turnover with any one brand name major manufacturer unless we bought out the entire Parker business in Australia. To reach our goal, we will need to buy some lumps like Meadow 15M and Integrated 17M and this will lead us inevitably into brand name conflict. Getting back to Meadow we can work to an effective date of 1 May It is then up to Meadow to organise their affairs to give us time to review the data in time to pay 65 of the funds in time for them to use them by 30 June, They have a current and accurate stock count and they have a current asset register and personnel records and they are not tardy with month end accounts. The biggest problem I see is us getting the initial funds. If we have to get them from National Australia Bank we will have to start running, if we get them from Ole Balle, we should not have a problem. John A. is working up a deal with NAB such that we have access to say A10M on Authority from JorgenOle, but that is not in place yet. Dennis, I look forward to your O.K. to proceed with speed. Kind regards, To Dennis Hepburn 3 March, 1994 From Ian Chesterfield Subject BFP Australia Growth Strategy If the aim is to gain 15 of the total hydraulics market of some 600M, then we need to build a business with sales of 90M say 100M. Other than our direct import products, our principal distribution brand name is Vickers with 1994 plan sales of A5M. Vickers pretend we have a partnership, but in fact play a very unilateral game and we are expected to comply. We may be Vickers biggest single distributor customer but in order to keep us in our place, they do not recognise us as a national business but compare us on a site by site basis with other Vickers distributors. Considering we are new to the Vickers business having only been serious for just over 2 years and considering that nearly all the opposition is ownermanaged by ex Vickers executives with years of experience and association, it is not unreasonable that on a site by site basis, we dont come first. However, Lucas was attractive to Vickers because it was a national distributor and we intend to continue to operate as such, even if Vickers did disenfranchise us in some locations. We do not have APRs to consider in Australia at this stage. Our ability to grow our business with Vickers as a major partneris hampered by the lack of availability of good businesslike Vickers distributors that are for sale and even if we took all the good ones, we would not reach 100M. There are good businesses for sale that represent other main line manufacturers particularly Parker and I consider we will have to develop a second distribution network based around businesses strong on another manufacturer say Parker. This does not present a problem to me and Vickers have been told by Jorgen Ajslev that we are going to grow with or without Vickers and Vickers know I am looking at non Vickers distribution companies. |
Manufacturers data on the LM1875 20W audio power amplifier IC As used in the amplifier module elsewhere in this issue, the LM1875 IC requires only a few external components to deliver 25W into 8 ohms,It has quite impressive specifications for its size, as well as inbuilt thermal short circuit protection. By Darren Yates The LM1875 Audio Amplifier IC from National Semiconductor is now a few years old but it is still one of the most costefficient devices available when it comes to simplicity and output power. The LM1875 comes in a 5lead TO220 package. The heatsink tab is connected to the negative supply rail of the amplifier ie, to pin 3. However, it must be isolated from the heatsink via a TO220 insulating kit otherwise earth loops are likely to be a problem. Incidentally, diagram caption even if this IC is not driving a load , it must be bolted to a heatsink as the quiescent current of 70mA is enough to cause the thermal protection circuitry to switch in more on that later. Main features The main features and specifications of the LM1875 are as follows bullet Up to 30W power output into 8 ohms bullet Typical harmonic distortion of 015 1kHz, 20W output bullet Short circuit protection bullet Supply voltage range of 2060V bullet 94dB supply rejection ratio bullet Inbuilt thermal protection bullet Low noise SN ratio in excess of 100dB bullet Open loop gain typically 90dB bullet 70mA typical quiescent current. The LM1875 can drive either 4ohm symbol or 8ohm symbol loads but it delivers slightly more power into 8ohm symbol loads. With 4ohm symbol loads, the maximum output power is 20W. Although the data sheets indicate that the device can deliver a maximum output power of 30W into 8ohm symbol, this is at its absolute maximum supply voltage of 60V. With practical power supplies, some allowance must be made for variations in mains voltage and therefore 25W is a more realistic rating. Single or dual rails The LM1875 can be operated from dual or single supply rails and the amplifier module project featured in this issue shows both supply arrangements. The pinout diagram can be seen in Fig. Fig.2 shows the internal circuit diagram of the IC. Two NPN devices, Q35 and Q39, are the output transistors. If you look closely, the emitter resistor for Q35 is split in half and this split feeds another NPN device, Q36, which monitors the output current on positive half cycles of the output signal. In fact, Q36 and Q37 form part of a loadline protection system which shuts down drive to the output stage if the diagram diagram caption loading conditions are excessive. Fig.3 shows the distortions vs output power for both 4ohm symbol and 8ohm symbol loads while Fig.4 depicts distortion as a function of frequency. As you might expect, the device has increased distortion at both ends of the audio spectrum. Power output Fig.5 shows the expected power output at 1 total harmonic distortion for supply rails of between plus and minus10V to plus or minus30V RL 8ohm symbol. Power supply rejection characteristics vs frequency are shown in Fig.Note the difference between the positive and negative rails, with the negative rail being some diagram 30dB or so worse at 20kHz. The maximum figure of 94dB is relative to a 0ohm symbol signal source resistance, a 4ohm symbol load and at a frequency of 1kHz. The inbuilt thermal protection activates when the die temperature reaches 175degreeC and shuts down the device, which remains off until the die cools down to 145degreeC. In the case of a continuous load or overdrive problem, if the die rises to 150degreeC the device will again shut down. The beauty of this is that if the fault is a oneoff event, the thermal circuitry will allow the die to heat up further than if it is a continuous fault. Figs.7 8 show details on the power output vs power dissipation for 4ohm symbol and 8ohm symbol loads. Notice how the device dissipation is much higher for 4ohm symbol loads. In fact, even with a 1degreeCW heatsink, the LM1875s internal thermal shutdown circuitry switches on once the power output reaches 20W. By this stage, the power dissipation has reached about 32W and the die temperature has surpassed the 175degreeC mark. With an 8ohm symbol load, the LM1875 will happily deliver 25W continuously without running the risk of thermal shutdown. Stability Most power amplifiers dont drive capacitive loads all that well and the LM1875 doesnt either. Long speaker leads can produce enough capacitance to drive some amplifiers into VHF oscillation. In this case, the manufacturers data sheets recommend that you add a Zobel network consisting of a 0,22micro symbolF capacitor and a 1ohm symbol resistor to the output. This has been included in the amplifier module in this months issue. As with most designs, PC board layout is important in minimising the noise and distortion components. Keeping the input signal away from the supply rails will help keep the distortion low.Review Magnet LS621 2way loudspeakers The magnet LS621 loudspeakers are a compact bass reflex system which will fit well into most lounge rooms. Magnet will be a loudspeaker brand name new to most Australians. It is a company based in Thailand which makes loudspeakers designed by engineers from Holland. The European link is claimed to give the speakers a natural sound which otherwise might not be there if they had been designed in the East. The LS621 system we reviewed is a compact 2way system based on a 165mm polypropylene woofer and a 25mm tweeter. The bass reflex enclosure is wedgeshaped, tapering from the bottom to the top to angle the front baffle in such a way as to give some photo timecorrection to the tweeter. That and the small frontal dimensions of the speaker combine to make it quite unobtrusive in appearance. Its dimensions are as follows 435mm high, 206mm wide, 312mm deep at the base and 275mm deep at the top, with the grille cloth frame. Actually, the cabinet is also slightly smaller than its measurements suggest. Internal volume is 15 litres. The enclosure is ported with a tube of 55mm internal diameter and surprisingly long at 220mm. That is probably part of the reason why the enclosure is tapered, to allow a long port without making the box too deep overall. The cabinets are finished in simulated walnut veneer with a black grille cloth. We removed the woofer to have a look at the internal details of the enclosure and found that, surprise, surprise, the woofer is not of Asian origin at all but made by Peerless of Denmark, although we dont know the model number. It is a wellmade unit with a large magnet and a neoprene rubber roll surround for the polypropylene cone. And having revealed that the woofer is of European origin, the ferrofluidcooled 25mm soft dome tweeter is too, made by Philips of Belgium. The two drivers are coupled together via quite a complex crossover network and this has an aircored inductor wound with heavy gauge enamelled copper wire and uses wirewound resistors and a mixture of plastic and nonpolarised electrolytic capacitors. The system is biwired so you can drive the tweeter and woofer with separate amplifiers, if you wish. The enclosure The enclosure is lined with bonded acetate fibre or a similar material and interestingly, there is an internal sloped shelf which undoubtedly adds to cabinet rigidity but we dont know if it serves any other purpose. The four terminal posts are deeply recessed in a panel at the rear of the enclosure. This makes it quite difficult to make wire connections to the terminals unless you have wires fitted with jacks. The terminal panels are so deeply recessed that the terminal posts do not protrude at all and this means you could set the cabinets right up flush to a wall, if desired. Frequency response of the enclosure is quoted as being from 40Hz to 22kHz within 1dB and 6dB. We do not have access to an anechoic chamber so we are unable to verify this claim although the response is quite smooth overall. At the base end there is usable response down to below 45Hz although if pushed hard the woofer does tend to frequency double. At the high end, the tweeter is a little prominent in the region of 7 8kHz and then tapers off a little above that although it is smooth right to the limits of audibility. Efficiency is quoted as 5dB at 1 watt and 1 metre and the unit is claimed to be suitable for amplifiers rated from 15 watts to 150 watts. Our impressions were that you would need an amplifier of at least 40 to 50 watts and that anything much over 100 watts on program would be too much. That is backed up by the stated maximum SPL sound pressure level of 106dB. On music, the Magnet LS621s give good account of themselves although the tweeter seems a little muted for our tastes. We found that they sound rather better with the grille cloth frames off and we think most people would listen to them this way. On voice, they sound very natural without any tendency to chestiness or emphasis of sibilants. Our overall impression was that they were very satisfying on classical music, especially chamber works, and they give a good account of themselves on jazz material. If you are a heavy rock fan, you will want bigger guns and it would not be fair to expect them to do the job. Recommended retail price of the Magnet LS621s is 1150 a pair and they are available from AOne Electronics, 432434 Kent St, Sydney, NSW 2000 phone 02 267 AOne has recently fitted out a sound lounge and to introduce the Magnets, they have them on sale at 950 a pair, so get in quickly. L.D.S. Tektronix TDS 320 100MHz digital scope In the last couple of years, digital scopes have been redefined presented with an ease of use undreamt of even with analog scopes. The Tektronix TDS 320 continues this process, combining a simplified menu of control features with a 500 megasamplessecond sampling rate and 100 MHz bandwidth. By LEO SIMPSON The big challenge to scope manufacturers these days is how to combine the everincreasing performance and potential complexity of features in a package that is intuitively easy to use. No longer do users want to refer to thick manuals to find out how to make a measurement they want to do it all simply by pushing some buttons on the front panel. Over last 18 months or so, we have reviewed a number of digital scopes and they have all had a different approach to solving the conflicting requirements of ease of use and flexibility of use. For its part, Tektronix has chosen yet another approach one which makes extensive use of soft buttons and pictorial menus. First impressions First impressions of the Tektronix TDS 320 scope are that it is quite a bulky unit, but one which is surprisingly light for its bulk. Overall dimensions of the unit, not including its handle, are 325mm wide, 165mm high and 470mm deep, including knobs and rear projections. Its mass is only 8kg which means that it is easily carried with its large handle. The front panel is uncluttered although it does carry quite a lot of buttons, when you count them all up there are 35 buttons and six knobs. The layout is logical though and you can clearly identify the main knobs for vertical sensitivity and time base. To the left of the vertical sensitivity knob are buttons to select channels 1 and 2 and others which become clear as soon as you press them Math, Ref 1 and Ref Math gives you the choice of CH1 CH2, CH1 CH2 and CH2 CH1, all selectable via soft buttons down the side of the screen. I should explain that many digital scopes nowadays make use of these soft buttons whereby the functions change depending on what control menu is being displayed on the screen. It actually sounds more complicated than it is to use and it is a highly practical way of providing lots of features without having huge numbers of buttons. |
Introduction We live today in an information society where technology regularly bombards each and every one of us. I believe, as a consequence, we are losing the common art of communicating talking to one another and telling stories. When I was a small boy nothing would excite me more than spending hours with my grandparents listening to them describe how life used to be dotted line it truly was a wonderful investment of time the interaction of young and old. One of the most powerful tools of communication is humour. The ability to laugh at oneself and lifes many sticky predicaments, is a valuable asset. I have discovered writing to be a therapeutic distraction. Many a long night spent pondering alone with my trusty fountain pen, searching for the right sequence of words to unlock the laugh. I actually became a writer by default. Very early in my television career it became apparent that few script writers were able to consistently capture my turn of phrase. So as a selfimposed discipline I began penning a weekly page for the Australasian Post. Over the course of two years 104 articles were completed. A selection of the best anecdotes formed How to Hypnotise Chooks a title which took much time to sell to the publisher. Incredibly it proved to be an enormous success. The positive verbal and written feedback encouraged me to write more. How to Tame Lions, How to Kiss a Crocodile and How to Puzzle a Python followed in quick succession. A warped Tasmanian sense of humour has certainly helped the flow of tales. dotted line I trust this collection of my favourite stories brings more than a chuckle or two and thanks again to everyone who supported my literary efforts with the past four titles. Words are not sufficient to express my gratitude. Max How to Kiss a Crocodile I WAS THE ONLY ONE OF OUR EXPEDITION PARTY TO HAVE INSURANCE AGAINST BEING EATEN BY A CROCODILE The more I think about it the more I ask the question. What was a fully grown Tasmanian, with a reasonable amount of commonsense, doing cruising around a crocodile infested billabong at 30 at night dotted line To make matters worse, I was in an aluminium vessel, barely better than an upturned VW car bonnet that used a sick lawnmower engine for propulsion Gee, it could have easily been my last goodbye. See ya later alligator or See ya in a while crocodile. This deathdefying, extraordinary event happened in September, Yours truly, Wide World of Sports producer, John Murray, our very talented camera man, Phil Hanna, and his assistant, Brad King, were invited to cover the 1988 Barramundi Classic, one of Australias most unique game fishing tournaments. Here was a great opportunity to step aboard the big bird in the sky and head off for some sunshine in the Northern Territory. Definitely too good to miss after a nippy Melbourne winter The event was to be contested along part of the meandering Mary River system some 300 kilometres south west of Darwin. Our accommodation for the stay was at a place called, appropriately, the Wildman River Safari Lodge situated on the Wildman River part of the waterway. This austere cluster of metal deck, louvre windows, concrete block and flywire screen structures was not exactly Sydneys Regent Hotel, but then again what could we expect hundreds of kilometres from nowhere Our task was to capture on video the week long competition for Channel Nines Wide World of Sports programme. The concept being to tell the story through the eyes of a fisherman. Now the best way to understand what goes on is to have a go. As honorary commodore of the twoman teams in thirty boats, I did. And in doing so I almost lived up to my Tooheys 2 commercial reputation as the worlds worst fisherman In fact, between the four of us we travelled 28,000 kilometres and caught only one fish in five days. I guess that fish had a right to feel unlucky he was in the wrong part of the river at the wrong time Whilst that hookup, tag, and release sequence of vision was an important part of our footage, the chance to shoot images of crocodiles in their natural habitat, under spotlight at night, was what made the Barra Classic a memorable one for all concerned. None of us could have predicted the drama that would unfold during our adventure in the balmy darkness under a vivid Milky Way. Our nocturnal expedition consisted of two craft and was coordinated by the rangers of the Northern Territory Fisheries Department. Dont get the idea for a moment that it was a hairbrained idea spawned by a wish to emulate the antics of Mick Dundee of Crocodile Dundee fame. No way We had a serious task. Wed heard about the notorious rogue saurian named Sweetheart, only the day before. She wasnt too fussy about eating humans or fragile tin can boats like ours. The story came from the manager of the Safari Lodge, Ray Alright, after a comforting, bellywarming port or three in the early a.m. A man of much experience, integrity and never one to exaggerate the truth, he willingly divulged that Sweetheart had snapped the bum out of his dinghy dotted line and didnt even chew the stem of the outboard motor before gulping the lot down Now thats whats called a cast iron constitution And clearly the tale suggested a very large mouth. Sweetheart was then quite a local identity, although she was to be caught by the rangers a few months later and moved to a reserve. A quick glance at the visitors book made this point. Mick Dundees cousin in comedy, Daryl Somers, the host of the top rating TV show Hey Hey Its Saturday, had lobbed at the lodge a few weeks earlier and had added his experiences to the Sweetheart legend. His personal note of warning in the visitors book was both blunt and colourful. There was no way we could avoid reading what Daz said. All I can say is thanks a lot, mate You certainly put the wind up and out of me and my team. That fateful night, I was assigned a seat in the middle of the tiny lead vessel dotted line and I use that term loosely. Honestly, it was barely three metres long and sat very, very low in the water. The precarious level of the plimsoll line had a fair bit to do with the bulk of my four minders, all strong, rugged angler types. Will, an intrepid barehanded croc catcher, hung continuously like a question mark over the bow with bulging eyeballs scanning the shiny, moonlit lily pads for those telltale eyes of old scaly. Standing up beside Will was our human lantern, holding a carbattery powered spotlight. He had the worst job in the crew. Apart from being our navigator he also became the easy target of thousands of mosquitoes. This had to be the ultimate test for a can of Aerogard There were so many mossies around that everytime he opened his mouth, which wasnt often, his tonsils became speckled with tiny insects. I knew he was breathing mostly through his nose, because so was I. Even with my ample hooter, it got clogged up very quickly. The only respite from being eaten alive by the biting squadron was to turn off the light, but then wed be in the dark dotted line and I definitely didnt want to be left in the dark Not here I was nearly seven years old before I could go to sleep with the light out. The only thing we planned to turn off was the outboard motor that barked painfully in our eardrums. Then we experienced an eerie feeling as we drifted, the light stabbing silently ahead of us. The other two crew members of our Boat One had their bums firmly planted on the rear seat. One had a hand on the tiller and an ear to what his mate was saying. In between the odd nervous cigarette, they both looked a bit toey. I think they were more concerned about appearing on national television for the first time than coming face to face with a rogue croc. I was the bloke who ought to have been nervous. No way known was I prepared for what was about to happen when Will zeroed in on the first crocodile for the night. From my safe seat, all I could see was the end of a scaly tail threshing about to one side of the dinghy. Will confidently shouted with the voice of experience as he struggled No, hes too big Immediately he let go of his target Away the startled croc bolted like a frightened goldfish. I reckon this one that got away was every bit as long as the boat, and most of that consisted of a powerful tail Nevertheless, with any croc theres still plenty of room for a full set of teeth. The theory is to stun them with the glare of the spotlight. Then grab them firmly around the mouth so they cant snap their powerful jaws. But the trick here is to ensure that you can actually get your hands around the buggers mouth one slight miscalculation and youre always going to be a little short when counting the fingers on each hand Im told that while their jaws can close with great tenacity, the opening muscles are much weaker. At night, with the aid of a spotlight, its very easy to judge how big these scaly monsters are dotted line by the distance between their eyes, which light up like shimmering, pale pink marbles. What a profile nostrils, eyes and ears all above the water line enabling the creature to breathe, see and hear whilst the majority of its body is hidden. The huge flattened tail makes up about half it body length. This is also a massive weapon. The back legs have webbed feet, which are useful in climbing muddy banks. The jagged teeth offer a firm grip on struggling prey. These snapping jaws and surprisingly fast reactions give our awesome Australian salties numerous teatime snacks along the waters edge. They are also very territorial and when pressed for space between the river bank and a dinghy, can become quite explosive. Its really frightening when what looks like a floating log suddenly erupts into action right before your eyes. It leaves a big, gaping hole in the water thats how fast they dive. It should be mentioned that anything a large crocodile sees in the water or on the land dotted line or even in a boat, is regarded as good, so their diet ranges from insects to kangaroos, cattle or people What a comforting thought. Anyway, there were no flies on my mate Will. The next time our boat got into the action, there was definitely no mistake. Clunk, just like a giant handcuff snapped around the crocs mouth dotted line and barely a ripple on the billabong. Extraordinary, Phil said ecstatically from the camera boat following. Beautiful stuff, he confided. His boat was slightly larger than ours with a flat bottom and rails of tubular pipe. The shape made it ideal for setting up the camera tripod and viewing over the side. Seven people were comfortably piled aboard this second boat, and not all related to Wide World of Sports. Chris Makepiece, the tournament director, was overseeing proceedings, along with Bob and Kathy Dennis, the husband and wife fishing team from Fort Smith, Arkansas. Would you believe Kathy was six months pregnant at the time Sitting back with a firm grip on the throttle was a true blue Territorian. A philosophical character who, in passing, mentioned how the crocodile that can be seen is not a worry, its the one you cant see, because hes a hunter All terrific information to have on board in the black of night, knowing that crocs mostly feed then and have splendid nighttime vision. For the moment though, we were floating around aimlessly in their back yard. |
Chapter 3 Cat Breeds Burmese HistoryMost breeders agree that the Burmese seen in Western countries today were derived from one female, Wong Mau, imported from Burma in the 1930s. As this was the only cat of its type in the West it was mated to a Siamese, then the progeny mated back. The Burmese has been recognised as a breed since the 1950s60s. It probably equals the Siamese as Australias most popuar, pedigreed, shorthaired cat. AppearanceBurmese are mediumsized cats, slim but heavier and rounder than Siamese. The coat is very short, silky and glossy the eyes shoudl be golden. There are ten colours brown, blue, lilac, chocolate, cream, red, lilaccream also called lilac torti, blue torti, chocolate torti and brown torti. TemperamentBurmese are described as being intelligent, affectionate cats, vocal but not as loud or demanding as Siamese, active, playful and inquisitive. Some can be trained to retrieve toys or balls of paper. Most Burmese are outgoing and accept strangers well. Breeders say aggression should not be a part of the Burmese makeup, so prospective buyers should inspect parents of a kitten for any aggressive tendencies. Certain lines seem to have a problem with this. Generally, this breed has a good temperament. Kittens and costLitters average five kittens, with litters of eight or nine kittens not uncommon. It is unusual for there to be kittening problems. The kittens tend to be very strong. Kittens can cost from 200 to HealthBurmese seem to be more susceptible to respiratory infections than crossbred cats. This means vaccinations against cat flu and feline enteritis are very important. Like many Oriental breeds, Burmese seem to be lactose intolerant and should not be given milk. Males can tend to spray even after being neutered, and the odd habit of eating wool appears to be more common in Burmese than other breeds. A lifespan of ten to twelve years should be expected, although cats up to fifteen years of age are reasonably common. Breeders warn they are wanderers if allowed and those tend to get hit by cars. ROAD TEST Housepet potentialMany Burmese will scratch the furniture if not provided with a scratching post. Some breeders trim their cats claws. Fleas should be no more of a problem than any other cat and are usually easier to spot in the silky coat. Ideal ownerBurmese can be good pets for families as they are reasonably well balanced and cope with children quite well, however, no cat will suffer extreme teasing. Many single people, retired or otherwise, find the Burmese a companion which will talk back to them. Someone who spends a lot of time away from the home should probably have a second cat, as they can get destructive if bored. SpaceexerciseAn ideal cat for the average home or flat, although they do like room to roam in if they are not allowed outside. They will exercise themselves. GroomingExtremely little. Hand stroking will remove any loose hairs and shedding is also minimal. Cost to feedA diet based on tinned food, cheese, some mince and dry biscuits should be adequate and cost the average pet owner between 5 and 10 a week. They shouldnt be fed solely on dry food, as this is mooted to cause kidney problems in males. For further information Burmese Society of Australasia Secretary, Hazel Rossiter 28 The Crescent Marayong NSW 2148 Telephone 02 671 4158 This society should be able to provide contacts for interstate inquiries. CORNISH REX The Cornish Rex is a very new breed of cat, occurring as a mutation in a litter of kittens in 1950 in Cornwall, England. The curlycoated kitten was mated back to its mother and several similarly coated kittens resulted. A breeding programme was established and nowadays the Cornish Rex is found throughout the world.The breed was named Cornish after the area of origin, while Rex refers to a similar mutation in Rex rabbits which have curled fur. Devon Rex cats appear very similar but are a separate breed, occurring through a different mutation. AppearanceCornish Rex cats have a short, wavy coat referred to as a marcel wave which gives the coat a crimped appearance. The gene results in the Cornish Rex lacking guard hairs but having very short and curly awn and down hairs. The whiskers are short and curly. The body is hard, muscular and slender with a long, whippy tail. The Cornish Rex has a Roman nose, and highset ears. Devon Rex cats have quite a short nose and prominent whisker pads. As the Cornish Rex breed is still developing, a wide range of colours is available. The most popular colours are black, smoke, white and white with Siamesepoint markings. TemperamentCornish Rexes are described as being animated and affectionate cats. They are very active and some breeders say individual cats can be hyperactive. Breeders say the Cornish Rex are easy to house train and some have been known to be trained to walk on a lead. Many are quite talkative, but with a voice softer than that of the Siamese. BreedingMany of the characteristics of the Cornish Rex relate visually or temperamentally to its breeding, as in order to introduce new colours Cornish Rex breeders can outcross their cats with any other cat breed. While New South Wales and Queensland breeders can also outcross to domestics, many other states do not accept an outcross with a domestic. The resulting litters are entered on an experimental register until the genes for coat and colour are established. If a Cornish Rex is crossed with another breed, the first generation usually has straight coats but carry the curly genes. The second generation when mated back to a Cornish Rex should have about 5050 straightcurly coats. After wavy coats have become established there are no throwbacks to straight coats if bred with other Cornish Rex wavycoated cats. Breeders discovered that the Cornish Rex and Devon Rex were two different breeds when straighthaired kittens resulted from a mating between the two. In other words, the gene governing the curly coat is different for each. Cornish Rex litters usually consist of three to four kittens. Caesarian births are uncommon and Cornish Rex queens are normally ideal mothers. Kittens cost around 150 to As this is not a common breed, prospective owners may need to join a waiting list for kittens. Housepet potentialLess hair is shed by the Cornish Rex than other shorthaired breeds, and much less than longhaired cats. While most allergies to cats are caused by a reaction to the saliva on the fur rather than actual dropped hair, the few people who are allergic to cat hair may find this breed more tolerable. Cornish Rex are active cats which would best suit a home with a garden in which to roam, but many will settle into life in a unit if allowed time to exercise outdoors. As mentioned, breeders say individual cats have been known to accept lead training. Health and lifespanThe lack of guard hairs in the Cornish Rex coat means new owners should be careful of sudden temperature changes by transferring their pet from very warm conditions e.g. inside the home to very cold conditions the backyard in winter, but generally the breed seems quite hardy. One advantage of the lack of guard hairs is that fur balls do not seem to be a problem with this breed. The characteristically crinkly eyebrows of the cat shoudl be checked weekly that they are not curling into the eye. If a hair appears to be irritating the eye, breeders recommend plucking it out with tweezers. The Cornish Rex seems to have benefited from the outcrossing colour programmes, producing a hardy, vigorous cat. Breeders estimate a lifespan of around fifteen years, possibly more. GroomingHand stroking is the recommended method of grooming, or a rub over with a velvet glove or comb through with a flea comb if desired. FeedingBreeders feed their cats a wide range of foods from commercial cat food and biscuits to grated cheese, cottage cheese, yoghurt and lean meat, with added calcium for kittens. It would cost about 5 to 8 a week to feed a Cornish Rex. For further information New South Wales Tracy Killick PO Box 802 Cronulla NSW 2230 Queensland Rex Cat Club of Queensland Liz Whitney 107 Lillian Avenue Salisbury QLD 4107 In other states contact your states feline control authority. MANX HistoryThere are many legends about how the Manx came to lose its tail, however, most breeders agree it was a mutation which occurred on the Isle of Man probably several hundred years ago. The natural water boundaries of the island restricted the spread of the breed as well as preventing much outside influence. Since this century, however, Manx have been taken worldwide and are recognisable and popular pets in the United States, United Kingdom and Australia, although never a common breed. AppearanceThere are basically four types of Manx, determined by their tail or lack of it bullet Rumpy no tail a dimple where the tail would normally start. This is the type of Manx to which breeders aspire. It is also likely to be the cat with the most deformities. bullet Rumpyriser very similar to a Rumpy except that if you stroked the cats back you would feel a little lump or kink at the base of the spine rather than a dimple. bullet Stumpy cats with a bunnytype of tail, short, knobbly and usually a little fluffy. Breeders will usually use these to cross with British Shorthairs to produce more Manx bullet Longies cats from a Manx litter with a tail. Other than the tail, the Manx is a fairly ordinary looking cat, able to be bred in any colour. There is a longhaired version called the Cymric. Older types of Manx had long back legs, which caused them to hop rather than run like other cats. Temperamenthousepet potentialThey are generally quite calm, placid cats which wont usually scratch furniture, climb curtains, call loudly or make general nuisances of themselves like some breeds can. They are fairly adaptable and can cope with being left alone for much of the day. Like any cat they will get along better with children if brought up with them. They arent wanderers as a rule and tend to be standoffish with strange people until they size them up. They are not known to be aggressive. Some are proven hunters. ROAD TEST HealthSome cat breeders and texts suggest that if the Manx mutation occurred today it would not be recognised, as the gene governing tailessness is linked to potentially serious deformities. Cat authorities are becoming less likely to recognise breeds which have genetic flaws. However, the Manx has been recognised and exhibited for years. Veterinary surgeons we consulted listed several problems, the majority of which related to neurological conditions. Spina bifida can occur and can range from a small dimple or sore on an otherwise healthy cat, to severe deformities causing the death of the kitten. Some Manx have problems with their bowels and bladders. This is often because the nerves in the spine control the bowel and bladder and any weakness affects its control. The problem can range from very minor i.e. the cat has a touchy tummy which can be controlled by diet to fairly serious, were the cat has such little control that it dribbles faeces or urine or dribbles when it is patted. One breeder said that any serious breeder would not sell a kitten like the latter, although the former condition is controllable. According to breeders, many Manx cats are hardy and healthy and can live to fifteen years of age. Deformities, if they do occur, are usually apparent at birth and the kittens are culled. Burkes Backyard strongly recommends dealing with a reputable breeder who is unlikely to sell you a kitten until it is at least twelve weeks old, by which time it should be trouble free. PopularityA popular breed in that theres always a waiting list for kittens. There are few breeders Australiawide. Breeding, litters and cost Only one parent has to be a Manx to produce Manx kittens. |
Question 4b. The case of Hamilton v Hunter held that a mortgagor debtor is not able to dispose of property that is subject to a floating charge, in a manner in order to defeat the security holders security. The case therefore places a limit on the concept of the ordinary course of business. This is important because a debtor under a floating charge may deal with the property subject to the charge, free of the charge, in the ordinary course of business. Accordingly, because the debtor can deal relatively freely with the goods, it would be possible, as was attempted by the scheme manager in Hamilton, to defeat the security, thus rendering the chargee effectively an unsecured creditor. Therefore, the holder of a floating charge, if not for this limit, would be required to continually monitor the debtor to ensure that the property charged was not dealt with inconsistently with the charge. The essence of the floating charge, as noted above, is the ability of the debtor to deal with the charged goods in the ordinary course of business. In order to explain the conceptual basis for this, two theories have been put forward an implied licence, or a mortgage of future of assets. Neither theory can explain all aspects of the characteristics of floating charges. See article by Burns 1992 ablr 125 In Hamilton v Hunter, the implied licence theory was invoked, it being held that it is not compatible with such Q 4b a licence to allow the debtor to dispose of goods for the purpose of defeating the security. A transaction made to defeat a security will therefore be set aside, thus strengthening the security. In Tricontinental, it was held that the holder of a floating charge does not have a proprietary interest in the goods prior to crystallisation of the charge. Therefore, a security holder, is generally, unable to intervene to prevent the debtor under a floating charge from disposing of the property. However, in Re Margart Helsham cj in eq in the nsw Supreme Court, held that the charge holder did have a beneficial interest in the property under the charge prior to crystallisation. Therefore, by an injunction a charge holder can prevent improper dispositions of property. Hamilton v Hunter therefore provides an instance in which a charge holder can prevent a disposition of the goods under the charge. Once a receiver is appointed, a floating charge will crystallise and give the charge holder a proprietary interest in the goods under the charge. However, it is prior tounclear crystallisation that the holder of a floating charge is subject to the debtor dealing improperly with the goods. Question 6a In Tournier v National Provincial Union Bank of England, the English Court of Appeal per Bankes and Atkin ljj, Scrutton lj dissenting held that the bank owes a general duty of secrecy to its customers. This is not an absolute duty but a qualified duty. The duty of secrecy applies to knowledge which the bank acquired before the bankercustomer relationship was contemplated, or after it has ceased. It also applies to knowledge derived from other sources during the continuance of the relationship. However, Scrutton and Atkin ljj each said that a bank may disclose information about a customer in order to protect its own interests, but only when it is reasonably necessary. The Evidence Act 1898 nsw s 49 provides that a banker is not compellable to produce information about a customer if the bank is not a party to that litigation. However, this section has not been included in the Evidence Bill 1993 nsw. Nor was it in the 1991 Bill, or the Commonwealth Evidence Bill 1993 or in the alrc draft evidence Bill. This was confirmed to me by Marion Pascoe in the nsw Parliamentary Counsels Office 228 A further exception was not revealed in Bankers Trust v Shapira. A bank was ordered to disclose account details of a customer who was prima facie guilty of fraud, to enable the plaintiff access to its full equitable rights. Section 50 of the Evidence Act re provides a court may order a banker to produce documents. Similar provisions are in the Bills. Question 6b in Woods In Great Western Railway Co v London County Banking Co, it was held that in order to be a customer of a bank a person must have an account of some type. However in Woods v Martins Bank, it was held that a person who used a service provided by the bank, in this case the provision of financial advice, was a customer though he did not, at that stage have an account with the bank. The decision expressly relied on the fact that the bank held itself out as providing financial advice. Professor Cooray argues that Great Western Railway is confined to an interpretation under s 82 of the Bills of Exchange Act 1882 uk, as it was in However, a better view is that a customer of a bank is a person who uses a service that the bank holds itself out as providing. Therefore in Great Western Railway, the banks only business, as found, was to operate accounts. In Woods, the banks business included the provision of investment advice. Therefore, if it is part of the banks business to advise, then a person who seeks advice is owed a duty of care by the bank, and is a customer. Question 6d The initial remedy that is apparent from the facts, is an action for damages under the trade Practices Act or the Fair Trading Act for misleading and deceptive conduct. The representation made by Jerimiah was in trade or commerce, was false breach of s 53 and was misleading and deceptive s 52. Therefore damages under s 82, probably on a tort basis can be recovered. Alternatively an action for fraudulent misrepresentation could be used, based on the principles in Commercial Banking Co of Sydney v R H Brown Co. This case held that it is banking practice that it is understood that a bankers opinion will be relied upon. Thus as the statement was in fact false, made knowingly, then it can be inferred that an intention to deceive existed. Whereby Steve and Earnest acted upon it and thereby suffered damage. Of course Earnest and Steve have an action against for a quantum meruit against Bullwinkle Corp. They would also be able to sue upon an implied covenant to pay. Other bases would include conversion, detinue and possibly trespass. They would be able to recover damages, or because it is a work of art, equity could order specific performance or rescind the contract, because the good is special. damages. Steve would also have an action unclear in contract against Earnest because Earnest commissioned him to produce the sculpture. Question 5a An indemnity, as explained by Clarke J in Citicorp v Hendry involves a contract by which one party agrees to keep the other party harmless against a loss. A guarantee is a contract, whereby the promisor agrees to answer for the debt, default or miscarriage of another party who is to be primarily responsible to the promisee. The essential difference between an indemnity and a guarantee, is that an indemnity only involves two parties, whereas a guarantee involves three. The legal consequences of the distinction are is that a party who c indemnifies another is under a primary obligation to make good the other partys loss. In the case of a guarantee, the party giving the guarantee is subject to a secondary obligation. Accordingly, a guarantee will be avoided or unenforceable where the primary obligation is void. However an indemnity can still be enforced as long as the indemnified party suffers a loss. According in Citibank, the transaction which was expressed to be an indemnity, was held, after examining the substance to be a guarantee, and because the primary obligation was void as an al attempt to enforce a penalty then so was the guarantee also avoided. If the Court had held that it was an indemnity, the defendant would have had to have paid the loss suffered. Question 5b In cba v Amadio, the High Court held that a guarantee and mortgage were to be set aside, because it was unconscionable, considering the inequality between the parties that the bank be allowed to enforce its rights. In Nobile, a similar conclusion was reached, but it was added that the statements by the stronger party inducing the weaker party to enter into the guarantee and mortgage were in breach of ss 52 and 53 of the Trade Practices Act, which prohibit misleading and deceptive conduct, and false representations respectively. As regards commercial lenders, this means that they should always ensure that borrowers, particularly where they are private individuals, are fully appraised of the total effect of the documents they are being asked to sign. Commercial lenders will almost always be in a much stronger position than a borrower, in regard to knowledge of lending, effect of documents, subject of guaranteed debt etc. Exceptions might be if the borrower were a large corporation, which had the resources and bargaining power to counter the lenders. Because of the inequality in bargaining power, it would best if the weaker party were at least given, or told to obtain, independent advice as to the consequences of entering the transaction. This is a more feasible approach than expecting a commercial lender to act against its interests. Further because, banks who are usually the lender are only required to disclose unusual aspects, or elements not normally to be expected, they may not be thorough enough to enable the guarantor to decide what is in their own best interests. Question 3a The question of In determining whether the agreement containing the reservation of title is a registrable charge, the first step is to consider s 262 of the Corporations Law. Subsection 2622 then provides a charge arising by operation of law is not registrable. Therefore, if the agreement is a Romalpa clause, it is not registrable. However, as noted in Borden v Scottish Timber, one must consider what the parties intended to create, and if a charge was intended to be created, the document is registrable. A Romalpa clause provides that the property in goods is not to pass until the purchaser has paid the purchase price. The purchaser is accordingly, constituted as the sellers fiduciary agent, and is a bailee of the goods. However, it would appear that such a clause is only effective if the goods will not be mixed. Further, very clear words are required to constitute the buyer as a fiduciary agent. Accordingly, the main advantage is that a formal security does not have to be created and registered. This is because there is no transfer of title. The other option to consider is that discussed in cases such as Wilson v Kelland, Re Connolly Bros No 2 and Re Bunbury Foods. These cases held that where a company acquires goods subject to a charge, then they do the company does not acquire a full title to the goods, but rather receives an equity of redemption. However s 264 of the Corporations Law provides that where a company acquires property that is subject to a charge, being a charge that would have been registrable when it was created if it had been created by a company, the company must lodge a notice in accordance with s 2631. Question 3b The interest in the bales of leather The leather that has not been sol The charge Because Bootco is in liquidation, it must first be determined whether the agreement is registrable and if so, was it. If the agreement was registrable, but was not registered, then under s 266 of the Corporations Law Blue Cow will have no interest. It would appear that the parties intended to create a charge, and as Bootco was empowered to onsell both processed and unprocessed leather, together with a lack of clear words constituting Bootco a fiduciary, the agreement is a registrable charge. |
CONDUCTIVE, ELECTROACTIVE POLYMERS PROVIDING THE BASIS OF INTELLIGENT MATERIAL DEVELOPMENT Gordon G Wallace Chemistry Department University of Wollongong Synopsis Intelligent polymeric materials are capable of monitoring and controlling the chemical environment in which they are operational. The inherent properties of conductive, electroactive polymers are such that they provide an ideal basis for the development of such materials. These polymers can be made to specifically interact with target molecules they are capable of generating and processing electrical signals and finally they are capable of instigating chemical reactions by triggering the release of chemicals. Conductive, electroactive polymers can be prepared in a variety of physical forms including coatings, particles and membranes. Biographical Sketch Professor Gordon Wallace received his PhD degree from Deakin University for studies involving electrochemistry and chromatography. He has since established a research discipline in the area of Intelligent Polymeric Materials. Professor Wallace is currently Director, Polymer Systems Technology, Coorindator of the Intelligent Materials Research Program University of Wollongong. In todays academic environment Gordon Wallace may be described as a Material Electrochemist. BACKGROUND Polymers are known to provide the mechanical properties yet the light weight required to solve many of todays material application problems. The chemical and physical inertness of polymer Materials has led to their application in many areas of modern technology. For example, the use of polymers for packaging or protective coatings is based on the fact that they are chemically inert they do not interact with their chemical environment. In addition traditional polymers are highly insulating a property desirable for many applications. In recent years, however, a new generation of polymer materials has evolved. These materials are conductive, electroactive polymers. An excellent review of the properties of these polymers is available Skotheim, 1986. Such materials may have conductivities as high as metallic copper. In addition, the fact that they are electroactive produces a means of reversibly changing their chemical and physical properties. These materials are not inert in fact they are interactive they may be designed to interact with and respond to species in the chemical environment in which they are operational. For example, materials capable of selective chemical interactions have been developed and employed as the basis of molecular separation devices Wallace, 1989a. Those materials which are capable of generating an electrical signal as a result of such interactions have been employed as chemical sensors or biosensors Wallace, 1989b, Wallace, 1989c. Active polymers have also been developed for use in controlled or triggered release devices capable of delivering active chemical species. These materials can be made to respond to an external electrical impulse which initiates and controls the release of chemicals from the polymers Wallace, 1989d. Such materials have been used to create chemical delivery systems to release insecticides and even drugs. The concept of producing chemically active polymer materials which can interact with and monitor the chemical environment, with the ability to respond to the information provided is one being pursued in these laboratories. This ability to monitor predefined chemical parameters and respond to correct them, if necessary, attributes a crude level of intelligence to the material. This research group is in pursuit of Intelligent Polymeric Materials. WHY USE CONDUCTIVE ELECTROACTIVE POLYMERS Intelligent materials must be capable of selective chemical interactions if they are to detect and respond to appropriate chemicals in the operational environment. Conductive electroactive polymers may be synthesized in a variety of ways which allow the introduction of specific chemical properties. They are prepared according to Formulae The substrate, monomer and counterion C are chosen according to the application at hand. The chemical, electrochemical and the mechanical properties of the resultant polymer may be controlled by the judicious choice of these variables. Control of the chemical properties enables polymers capable of selective interactions to be engineered. Sorry I had to use that word somewhere. There are two approaches by which the ability to undergo selective interactions can be incorporated into the polymer. The first involves the incorporation of selected chemical reagents such as complexing agents, antibodies or enzymes into the polymer during synthesis. The second approach involves manipulation of the polymer backbone to enable molecular recognition to occur. In these laboratories we have shown that conductive, electroactive polymers have an additional unique feature it is possible to control interactions on their surface by application of small electrical potentials. The ability to control chemical processes such as ion exchange, complexation and hydrophobic interactions on conductive electroactive polymer surfaces by the application of potentials which are only in the order of millivolts has been demonstrated. This introduces a new dimension which can be used to ensure that only selected predefined chemical interactions occur on the polymer surface. In addition to ensuring that selected interactions occur, intelligent materials must be capable of generating an appropriate signal which relates information about such interactions. Conductive polymers are well suited to the generation and processing of such signals. Electrochemical processes such as oxidation or reduction and other electrical signals such as changes in capacitance or resistance are readily generated and monitored on these materials. Finally, intelligent materials must be capable of initiating appropriate chemical responses when required. It has already been demonstrated that certain chemical processes can be initiated either chemically or electrochemically on conducting polymers. For example we have used the application of external potentials to trigger chemical reactions in the development of online derivatisation devices. In these laboratories, it has been shown that chemical reactions on conducting polymers can be triggered by changes in the chemical environment andor by application of small electrical potentials. The status of conducting polymer research with a view to their use as Intelligent Materials will be discussed and the areas which require our future attention have been highlighted in this report. MONOMERS AVAILABLE A range of suitable monomers are available, off the shelf, shown below. These form the basis of most polymers. It is possible to add substituents to these base monomers to introduce specific chemical or electrochemical properties. Formulae SYNTHESIS OF ELECTROACTIVE CONDUCTIVE POLYMER The polymerisation process have been initiated either chemically or electrochemically, according to equation In the case of chemical oxidation stand alone polymer particles have been formed. Chemical polymerisation has also been used to coat nonconductive substances such as membranes or glass. However, chemical polymerisation is somewhat limited in that usually the counterion of the oxidant will be incorporated into the polymer. This restricts the range of chemical properties which can be engineered into the polymer. On the other hand electropolymerisation provides a means of incorporating a range of counterions into the polymer. Since with electropolymerisation no chemical oxidant is required the only stipulation is that the counter anion be soluble in the solvent and preferably be electroinactive at the potentials required to initiate polymerisation. The counterion is usually the anion of the supporting electrolyte employed. It is possible to coat even non conductive substrates using electropolymerisation. Figure 1 shows silica particles which has been coated electrochemically. It is also possible to employ solution additives which encourage the incorporation of nonionic chemical reagents into conducting polymer materials. In these laboratories various techniques have been employed to achieve the incorporation of various chemical species during polymer synthesis. The success of the synthesis program is measured in terms of the strict performance criteria required to ensure specific interactions, signal generationprocessing and controlled release to occur. Under each of these headings the achievements to date will be discussed. CHEMICAL INTERACTIONS ON CONDUCTIVE ELECTROACTIVE POLYMERS In the pursuit of intelligent materials it is imperative that selective predetermined chemical interactions take place on the polymer surface. This has been achieved by careful design and development of the polymeric material as discussed in the synthesis Program. In early work in these laboratories interactions on conducting polymers were explored using batch experiments wherein polymer coated electrodes were soaked in analyte solutions. It was verified in this work that reactions such as complexation, ion exchange and precipitation could easily be induced on appropriate polymer surfaces Wallace, 1988a. In the course of this work we have established that with conducting polymers a further degree of sophistication can be introduced and interactions can be controlled by the application of small electrical potentials Wallace, 1990a. The fact that this electrochemical control was reversible enabled fine tuning of interactions on the polymer surface. For example in the development of complexing polymers we have produced a material with contains dithiocarbamate groups. This material was used to complex mercury ions from solution and it was found that the application of a small potential markedly enhanced the rate of complexation Wallace, 1988b. This was not due to electrodeposition since the mercury ions were trapped chemically. Another example involved the use of ion exchange polymers to trap AuCI4. Once again the application of a potential to the polymeric material had a dramatic affect on the performance Wallace, 1990b. The ability to influence complicated processes such as those which occur during antibodyantigen interactions has also been demonstrated Wallace, 1990c. SIGNAL GENERATIONPROCESSING An integral part of Intelligent Material development is the generation of an electrical signal related to chemical interactions. It is on the basis of this signal that the material must make decisions regarding the quality of the chemical environment and whether or not corrective chemical actions are required. Since the polymer materials employed in this work are conductive, electrical signals are readily generated. For example after species interact at the electrode, and if a change in analyte oxidation state can be induced then either changes in potential or current flow can be used analytically. Such a mechanism is used in the detection of the gold chloride anion after preconcentration as discussed previously Wallace, 1990b. Current measurements are inherently more accurate and sensitive than potential measurements. Consequently, such measurements are favoured. However, the response does not have to be due to oxidation or reduction. For example, in the development of a chromium sensor Wallace, 1989c a response due to movement of dichromate ions out of the polymer and not due to a conventional electrochemical oxidationreduction process was obtained. This example illustrates that conductive polymers can be used to produce electrical signals not observed on conventional substrates. Other electrical signals such as changes in the capacitance or conductivity of polymers as interactions occur at the surface can also be used. Such techniques are not as inherently selective or sensitive as amperometry or voltammetry. However, the selectivity and sensitivity can be engineered into the polymeric modifier to ensure that only the target chemical interactions with the polymer. Such a procedure has been used in these laboratories development of various sensors. TRIGGERING CHEMICAL REACTIONS The intelligent material must be capable of accepting the electrical signal generated, processing it and initiating chemical responses if required. We have already discussed the use of electrical signals to control chemical interactions. In the extreme case chemical reactions can be initiated or closed down electrochemically by the application of appropriate potentials to conducting polymers. This process occurs according to Formulae For example, in these laboratories we have demonstrated the release of complexing agents, precipitating agents and even antibodies Table 1 all capable of acting as remedies to environmental problems. We have shown that the ability to trigger and control the rate of release depends on the chemical environment and on the properties of the polymer employed. The incorporation and release of simple anions small, highly charged is readily achieved. However, triggered release of more complicated species is not so readily achieved. Consequently we have been concerned with the development of techniques which enable the incorporation and release of more complicated reagents. This can be achieved by using additives which induce the required behaviour in the active material to be released. A SIMPLE INTELLIGENT MATERIAL The simplest form of an intelligent material involves the monitoring of a well defined chemical reaction which generates an electrical signal capable of directly triggering a chemical response when required. Such a situation occurs in corrosion of zincalum. Where the zinc corrosion generates an electrical signal. This electrical signal may then be used to trigger a chemical reaction which stops the corrosion. For example, in these laboratories we have employed a conducting polymer coating from which the release of a corrosion inhibitor can be triggered upon the onset of corrosion. |
FIFTEEN Women, Paid Work and Social Policy Lois Bryson The last two decades or so have seen significant changes in the position of Australian women in relation to both the economy and social policy. Womens increasing participation in the workforce is widely acknowledged, but there is less recognition that the changes are far more comprehensive. As well as changes in womens employment patterns, we have a major shift in the way women are responded to by the state, which impacts directly on what is traditionally seen as the private sphere of social life. Taken together, the changes amount to a fundamental restructuring of womens position in the society women are being directly absorbed into the class structure, rather than this relationship being essentially mediated by male kin. This chapter is concerned with these changes in their historical perspective. It focuses on womens position in the public world of work, and the definition of women within social policy. The connections between the changes in these areas are teased out and the implications discussed for our understanding of that ubiquitous feminist question is gender equality increasing. Womens Work in Historical Perspective Despite steadily increasing participation in paid employment, women still clearly occupy an inferior position in the workforce. To understand the gendered patterns of the world of paid work today it is necessary to seek clues from history, or rather, herstory. These clues make clear that it has not been cultural inertia which has kept women in the domestic sphere and their involvement in the labour market at a low level systematic political forces have operated. The historical evidence shows that women were actively excluded from the workforce1 and their independent economic activity within households was redefined as noneconomic. During the nineteenth century domestic labour was classified in official statistics as economic activity at the beginning of the twentieth century, it was redefined as noneconomic and expunged from the national accounts.2 From the time of colonisation to the beginning of the twentieth century and beyond, the poverty of most families ensured that virtually all members had to be economically active.3 Aboriginal women were also often involved in work, besides the significant economic activity they undertook in their traditional societies where they were responsible for the collection of about 80 per cent of the food.4 After colonisation many Aboriginal women were forced into domestic including sexual labour or work on properties, usually without financial remuneration. Women contributed to family finances through waged work outside the home which Edna Ryan has termed their visible breadwinning.5 In 1891 this involved about 37 per cent of women in Melbourne in the Sydney region, where there was less manufacturing, the figure was about 30 per cent.6 The census of 1891, however, classified only 17 per cent of women from New South Wales and 21 per cent from Victoria as breadwinners.7 A second strand of womens economic activity is identified by Ryan as invisible breadwinning. The visible and the invisible earners overlapped but the invisible women were more likely to be married and of mature age.8 The invisible economic activities consisted of women earning money wherever they could. Besides taking in lodgers or boarders, women worked to earn money by laundering, or sewing at home, going out to do sewing, domestic work or child minding teaching cultural accomplishments such as elocution, music, dancing, painting poultry keeping vegetable gardening cooking saleable edibles such as cakes and scones.9 From around the turn of the century, womens visible and invisible labour came to be progressively written out of economic history, as male unionists fought for and won a family wage for men. These unionists apparently believed that if they acknowledged the income earned by their wives, the case for higher wages would be undermined because the Arbitration Commission judges would take these earnings into account.10 Womens wages were lower, and their work was intermittent so it was, as Anne Curthoys has pointed out, important for workingclass women, as well as men, to secure the male wage from cheap competition.11 The unions might have taken the course of advocating equal pay to eliminate this possibility, but they did not choose to fight for this option. Gradually, through persistently denying their wives economic activity, union members were made to feel ashamed if they condoned it.12 Thus disapproval of womens employment and denial became a tradition, a myth distorting the true role of the history of women in Australia.13 A complementary facet of this process shows up in the construction of work in official statistics. Statisticians of the various states colluded with unionists by dividing the workforce into just two categories, breadwinners and dependants. Desley Deacon suggests that this was partly done in the interests of workingclass men.14 At the same time as married womens invisible employment was discouraged by male workers and denied by state statisticians, womens visible employment was being systematically restricted. Male unionists were intent on the exclusion of possible competition they managed to achieve a raft of restrictions to womens employment opportunities15 at the same time as they successfully excluded immigrant competition by means of the White Australia Policy. Arbitration Reports of the time show, during the period 1909 to 1912, women in New South Wales alone were prohibited from taking apprenticeships in more than twenty trades, including those of baker, butcher, pastrycook, and bootmaker. Some bans were industrywide, for example, in the iron trade. Even where women were allowed to enter, it was on far less favourable terms than their male counterparts.16 From the 1970s on, with the establishment of formal equal pay and the gradual introduction of antidiscrimination legislation, the extensive restrictions on womens employment have been progressively dismantled, clearing the way for women to participate in the workforce on a more equal gender basis. Recent Changes in Broad Outline Recent developments can be understood only in terms of the earlier patterns. What has been happening is a gradual undoing of past exclusions and the systematic absorption of women directly into the class structure as paid workersPreviously, at least from the turn of the twentieth century, the relationship of the majority of women to the economic system, and hence the class system, was mediated by male kin through their role as workers or, in a minority of cases, owners. Women are now moving into a more direct relationship to the class system as they take on the role of worker. While the process of change has been supported and indeed, promoted by the womens movement, it has been driven by economic imperatives, particularly the increasing demand for labour and, more recently, attempts to restructure and make more flexible the conditions of work in many industries. It can readily be suggested that the logic of capital is best served by a large workforce of people who consequentially have greater spending power, and who are prepared to work under conditions that suit employers interests.18 The changes have advantages for women insofar as they provide a degree of economic independence and place women squarely within the main structures of the society. They have disadvantages because women still occupy the least powerful positions in the employment structures, at the same time as they maintain major responsibility for the domestic sphere. Advantages and disadvantages notwithstanding, womens lives are being modernised. To be largely confined to the domestic sphere today, in contrast to peasant societies where the home is also the site of productions, means exclusion from the socially powerful economic sphere. Changes are not confined to the labour market. Many consequential strands of social policy can be pointed to as well. Social security provisions, for example, are moving away from defining women as mothers and wives, and moving towards defining them as workers. Policies in such areas as wages, education and training, childcare, equal employment opportunity and affirmative action have contributed to and accelerated the general trend. Women are thus gaining a place, albeit a secondary place, in the public domain, rather than largely being confined to the family sphere. The gradual convergence of mens and womens involvement in the labourforce and the manner in which they are defined by public policy can be encapsulated as a move for women away from private dependency, and from a marginal to a more central role in the economy. The process is by no means complete, but it is readily discernible in virtually all countries. The movement of women into paid employment has led to an increase in their general wellbeing. This is particularly evident in Third World countries where, broadly, the higher the rate of womens employment outside the home and the higher their education levels, the longer their lifeexpectancy.19 It should be noted that in Western societies, since the beginning of the process of industrialisation, poor single and married women have usually not had much option but to stay in the labourforce despite bad working conditions, restricted work opportunities and low rates of pay. Nonetheless, social policy treated women as if they were financial dependants. This is nowhere more evident than in womens award wages in Australia during the first half of the century. Womens wages were set at just over 50 per cent of the male rate, regardless of their responsibilities. All adult men received the full rate of the male family wage, whether or not they had a family. Single men were the major beneficiaries of this single women, especially those with dependants, were the great losers. The family wage component of award wages was abolished only in 20 Despite increasing female employment, there remains substantial financial dependence among partnered women. In the early 1980s the proportion of women in ten OECD countries who were totally financially dependent on their partners ranged from a low of 2 per cent in Sweden to a high of 2 per cent in the Netherlands. The Australian figure was 46 per cent in 1981, but dropped to 6 in Given that the proportion of women in employment has risen since then, this figure would no doubt be lower today. Only a minute proportion of women have achieved complete economic equality with their partners. This ranges from a high of 6 per cent in Sweden to a low of 6 per cent in Switzerland. Australia occupies one of the higher rankings, despite the fact that a modest 7 per cent of women are in positions of economic parity with their partners.21 Women certainly are being drawn into the labour market. But they are entering a secondary rather than a primary labour market, with poorly paid, often parttime, jobs a narrow range of occupations and, for mothers in particular, fragmented working lives. Both inside and outside the workforce, women are still subject to many impediments to equal power and equal resources. The restricted involvement of partnered women in the economy and their economic dependence is a major impediment to equality. As well, it remains a fundamental factor in the construction of family relationships. Decisions within families, particularly about who does the parenting, have been shown to be significantly influenced by the superior earning capacity of the male partner.22 Labourforce Participation When we turn to the major characteristics of womens participation in the labourforce, we find that mens and womens participation rates have been gradually moving closer together. This trend has been fed from two directions. There has been a gradual reduction in male participation rates at the same time as there has been an increase in the participation rate of women see Figure 1. Between 1981 and 1991 the overall rate of employment for men dropped from 77 per cent to 74 per cent it maintained a high level, well over 90 per cent, for those men in the age bracket where the rate of child dependency is highest.23 During the period between 1970 and 1986, while the labourforce rate for all men fell by 10 per cent, the rate for married women rose by 12 per cent from 2 per cent to 1 per cent.24 These trends have continued since. Although the overall labourforce participation rates for married and single women are at the same levels today, with married womens rates actually slightly higher, the age profile for married women shows a singular pattern and is clearly linked to family responsibilities. For males, the employment rate rises to age thirtyfour then plateaus to age fiftyfour. |
1 G.A. Wilkes and Australian Literature Elizabeth Webby In an interview recorded by Hazel de Berg in 1966, four years after he became the inaugural Professor of Australian Literature at the University of Sydney, G.A. Wilkes noted that he got the habit of reading fairly early .1 His first encounter with Australian authors came in his final year of high school when he began reading people like Henry Handel Richardson and Brennan . The two authors named were, significantly, to be the first on whom Wilkes carried out extensive original research. In an unusual move for the time late 1940s he chose to write his English Honours thesis on Henry Handel Richardson and, subsequently, his Masters on Christopher Brennan. During these early years at Sydney University, Wilkes also began his involvement with Southerly, Australias oldest literary quarterly, then being edited by another staff member, Guy Howarth. His first appearance in print there was in the third number for 1949, as a reviewer of the 1948 volumes of Australian Poetry and the Jindyworobak Anthology. Though only twentytwo, he had already adopted the measured and judicious tones that were to become familiar to generations of university students, noting that while the editors of these anthologies Judith Wright and Roland Robinson had dealt adequately with the verse of the periodicals...their selection from the poetry published in book form had not been so felicitous . p. 155 While none of his thesis on Henry Handel Richardson was published, Wilkes did review Nettie Palmers Henry Handel Richardson A Study 1950 in Southerly 1, 1951. As in many of his later reviews, he drew attention to the lack of scholarly exactitude, especially in Nettie Palmers failure to note sources for new information and to correct factually wrong details given in Richardsons autobiography. In 1950 G.A. Wilkes became editorial secretary of the English Association, Sydney Branch, the publishers of Southerly, and assisted with the editing of the journal during Howarths absence overseas in He also contributed articles on two other Australian women writers, The Progress of Eleanor Dark 3,1951 and The Novels of Katharine Susannah Prichard4,1953. While our understanding and appreciation of the work of both these novelists has been enlarged by subsequent criticism, especially from feminist perspectives, there would still be general agreement with many of Wilkess views, for example that Working Bullocks, Coonardoo and Intimate Strangers are central to Prichards achievement as a novelist. During the 1950s, however, G.A. Wilkess major contribution to Australian literary criticism and scholarship was undoubtedly his MA thesis on Brennan, resulting in the series of articles New Perspectives on Brennans Poetry, published in Southerly during 19523 and subsequently issued as a monograph. Wilkes also wrote a general account of Brennan and his work for The Union Book of 1952, published by Sydney University Union in celebration of the centenary of the University. Here he outlined the significant reinterpretation of Poems 1913 argued in more detail in his Southerly articles and book The 1913 volume, one cannot insist too often, is a continuum, demanding appraisal not as a mere collection of poems, but as a single entity. Brennan fashioned it, quite consciously, according to the principles of the symbolist livre composeacutedotted line p.164. Though critics continue to debate the value of Brennans contribution to Australian literature, this reading of Poems 1913 put forward by Wilkes in the early fifties remains the accepted one. He went on to publish several other articles and notes on Brennan during the fifties Brennan and Blake Southerly, 1,1954 The Writings of C.J. Brennan A Check List Meanjin, 2, 1956 Brennan and his Literary Affinities Australian Quarterly, 2, 1959 all showing the detailed scholarship which, while the norm in studies of English authors, had much less frequently been applied to Australian ones. In the 1966 de Berg interview, Wilkes noted that Australian literature differed from English in the sense that there are so many authors on whom no monograph exists, no biography has been written, no edition has been prepared, and the only way this can be done properly, I think, is by training people at the universities, research students, to do this kind of work . While there has been a considerable improvement in this situation over the past twentyfive years as Brian Kiernan notes in his essay in this collection, for example, we now have some substantial biographies of major writers much still needs to be done. Wilkess work on Brennan remains a model of the sort of meticulous and wideranging scholarship that is required. G.A. Wilkes continued to publish a significant number of articles on Brennan in the first half of the 1960s, culminating in his chapter in Geoffrey Duttons The Literature of Australia 1964. The decade following his appointment to the Chair of Australian Literature was, however, marked by a series of critical articles on other major Australian writers, nearly all published in Southerly, which he also began editing in These essays, on A.D. Hope, Judith Wright, Henry Lawson, R.D. FitzGerald, Joseph Furphy and Patrick White, were clearly related to the Honours courses on Australian literature which he was developing at Sydney University at the same time. So, too, were some overview articles on Australian literature and how it should be taught, such as A Course in Australian Poetry Poetry Magazine, 6, 1963 and The Development of Australian Literature, published in the Indian journal Literary Criterion 3, 1964. This work on establishing and making better known the canon of Australian literature culminated at the end of the 1960s in Australian Literature A Conspectus 1969, an expansion of a series of lectures given in 1967 for the Foundation for Australian Literary Studies at the then University College of Townsville.2 Here, partly no doubt because of the original threelecture format, Wilkes provided an alternative to the fourstage division of Australian literary history given in H.M. Greens pioneering A History of Australian Literature 1961 by consolidating Greens first two periods, 17891850 and 185090, into one Colonial Period to 1880. The decision to begin the Nationalist Period in 1880, rather than in 1890 as Green had, can be seen as part of the reappraisal of the significance of the 1890s begun by Wilkes in a 1956 lecture later printed as Literature in the Eighteen Nineties in Australia,3 and subsequently collected in Grahame Johnstons Australian Literary Criticism 1962. Here, while agreeing that many writers of the 1890s do make a vigorous use of Australian material, and their work is coloured by the political sentiment of the time , he goes on to argue that this was not the only kind of writing that was being done in the nineties...and may not have been the best writing that was being done. p.19 As well as Lawson and Furphy, this decade produced Brennan and Henry Handel Richardson, whose work is neither particularly Australian nor particularly political in the 1890s sense of these terms. Furthermore, Wilkes argued, Lawson and Furphy should be valued for the literary qualities rather than the nationalist or historical features of their work. Although he was appointed to the Challis Chair of English Literature in 1966, Wilkess work on Australian literature continued. During the 1960s and, more particularly, the 1970s, Wilkess earlier reappraisal of the 1890s led to a reassessment of nineteenthcentury Australian Literature. In the early sixties he had cooperated with A.G.Mitchell on an edition of J.F. Mortlocks Experiences of a convict transported for twentyone years 18645, published by Sydney University Press in The following year he told Hazel de Berg about some of the research involved in this, undertaken not just in Tasmania, but in London, Cambridge and California. He also spoke of his desire to see a series of Australian literary reprints that brought back into print some of the authors of the nineteenth century especially. This was eventually to come to fruition, if for an unfortunately limited season only, in the series Australian Literary Reprints issued by Sydney University Press during the 1970s with Wilkes as general editor. Wilkes also provided introductions to two of these, facsimile editions of Brennans Poems 1913 and Charles Tompsons Wild Notes from the Lyre of a Native Minstrel, originally published in Sydney in Other important nineteenthcentury texts brought back into print in this series were Rolf Boldrewoods The Miners Right, Marcus Clarkes Old Tales of a Young Country and Henry Kingsleys The Hillyars and the Burtons. In addition to his work on the Reprints series, Wilkes edited a collection of nineteenthcentury Australian poetry, concentrating on the work of Charles Harpur, Henry Kendall and Adam Lindsay Gordon, The Colonial Poets 1974. This, fortunately, has remained in print, enabling several generations of students to be introduced to at least some pretwentiethcentury Australian poetry. In an earlier article, The Emergence of the Australian Novel Hemisphere, April 1965 he had argued as in his 1956 lecture on the 1890s against a confusion of literary values with historical and nationalist ones . A further extension of this led to a questioning of just what, for the nineteenth century, constituted a genuinely Australian vision p.22 and to the conclusion To a surprising extent, the conception of the typical Australian that was becoming established in the earlier nineteenth century, and the dream of a Utopian future for the new southern continent entertained by an early poet like Harpur, anticipated ideals that the Nineties school came to think of as peculiar to itself. p.24 These ideas were further explored during the 1970s in a series of articles published in Southerly Kingsleys Geoffry Hamlyn A Study in Literary Survival 4,1972 Going Over the Terrain in a Different Way An Alternative View of Australian Literary History 2, 1975 and The Australian Legend Some Notes Towards Redefinition 3, 1977. The culmination of this strand of Wilkess contribution to the study of Australian literature came with The Stockyard and the Croquet Lawn Literary Evidence for Australias Cultural Development 1981. Here Wilkes argues against the binary oppositions which have so persistently coloured interpretations of Australias literary and cultural development the antithesis of the genteel and the robust, the refined and the crude, the old world and the new. There are, as he points out, other modes of literary nationalism than the antiEnglish one associated with the 1890s, just as there are alternative literary traditions to the realism so often seen as the Australian tradition. While Wilkes remains fairly conservative in the range of literature he draws on for evidence, ignoring nineteenthcentury drama and most womens writing for example, he does demonstrate the need for inclusive rather than exclusive definitions of Australias cultural identity. The need has become even more obvious in the decade since The Stockyard and the Croquet Lawn was published, as Aborigines, women and writers from nonEnglishspeaking backgrounds make increasingly important contributions to the corpus of Australian literature. In the fortyodd years since he began publishing, then, one can sum up G.A. Wilkess contribution to the understanding and assessment of Australias literature and literary culture under three broad headings. First, his pioneering research on Christopher Brennan demonstrated the value, and the need, of applying to Australian texts the kinds of scholarly assumptions and apparatuses that were then common in the study of English and American ones. Second, his detailed critical studies of major Australian authors, especially those increasingly set for study at schools and universities, led to a wider knowledge and appreciation of their work. And, third, his reappraisal of the significance of nineteenthcentury Australian literature demonstrated that colonial does not necessarily mean inferior or unAustralian writing. Though his work in these three areas was undertaken in a roughly chronological progression from first to third, they do, of course, all interconnect. Wilkess study of Brennan, for example, feeds into a reassessment of the significance of the 1890s, which leads in its turn to a reconsideration of earlier writing. The germ of The Stockyard and the Croquet Lawn can be found in the lecture on the 1890s given in Equally, Wilkes continued to publish on such major figures as Christopher Brennan, R.D. FitzGerald and Joseph Furphy well into the 1890s. His study of FitzGerald was published in 1981 as part of Oxford University Presss Australian Writers and their Works series, while Joseph Furphys Such is Life appeared in One new departure, however, was work in the area of Australian English, most notable in the production of A Dictionary of Australian Colloquialisms, first published in 1978, with a second edition in 1985 and a third in |
Law limits native title Canberra bid to ease Mabo fear By WALLACE BROWN national affairs editor in Canberra NATIVE title will be extinguished over residential, pastoral and tourism leases under federal Mabo legislation. In other cases, such as mining, Aborigines will not have automatic veto over the use of the land. But companies will be obliged to take part in a process in which a special tribunal will try to settle any disputed negotiations, and the federal or state government will have the final say. Compensation by governments to Aborigines will be capped. Existing Aboriginal reservations in tourism areas will be excepted under the new law. In Brisbane, Premier Wayne Goss welcomed news of the federal move. I hope they have taken into account the range of issues raised by the states in particular relating to mining leases, to problems with funding Aboriginal land councils, the revival of native title and validation of titles issued before 1975, he said. We will be asking for a copy of the legislation dotted line so we can start drafting our own legislation to validate existing titles in Queensland for instance Comalcos Weipa project. Mr Goss earlier vowed to protect Comalcos bauxite mining against claims of native title. Comalco said its 75 billion investment had been put at risk by native title claims. Australian Mining Industry Council executive director Lauchlan McIntosh said the exclusion of mining leases from developments which extinguished native title was absolute nonsense. He said the Federal Governments approach could lead to reduced investment. PhotoCaption Its a nonsense to suggest that you might move two thousand million tonnes of materials in a mine and it doesnt extinguish native title and yet if you build a few houses it does, Mr McIntosh said. Wheres the equity in all this We have to have a practical outcome you cant have a practical outcome if you have snippets of principles being leaked to the press. Aboriginal leaders said the legislation would jeopardise many land claims in Queensland. Activist Michael Mansell said pastoral claims in north Queensland, the Northern Territory and especially Western Australia were in doubt. Some of the these claims wont even get a hearing, he said. Mr Mansell said aborigines now had to attack the Government in the international arena and learn from black South Africans fight against apartheid. He said Aborigines would discuss seeking international support through trade sanctions, political boycotts and fighting Australias bid for the Olympics. He foreshadowed a big Aboriginal response to the about face. Foundation for Aboriginal and Islander Research Action coordinator Bob Weatherall said Aborigines would be disappointed. He said the decision inadvertently gave miners and pastoralists more rights and awarded minimal rights to Aborigines. The High Courts historic Mabo decision in June 1992 rejected the longheld principle of terra nullius that the land was not owned before British possession was declared 200 years ago. The decision recognises prior title by Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders. Federal Cabinet reached key decisions on Mabo legislation in six hours of discussions yesterday. The legislation, aimed at clarifying the complicated Mabo issue and reassuring people on all sides of the argument, will be introduced in Parliament by AttorneyGeneral Michael Lavarch in the Budget session starting on August In some instances the states may need to introduce complementary legislation but, under the Constitution, Commonwealth law supersedes state law. The sticking points with the states which Cabinet discussed yesterday are understood to include Aborigines rights to negotiation. Under the new law, companies must consult Aborigines before any activity begins on Aboriginal land. If no agreement is reached, a new tribunal will arbitrate. The Crown either the Federal Government or a state government will be able to override a tribunal decision if, in its opinion, the decision does not accord with the national interest. Where there is not yet acknowledged native title, state land management authorities will be able to issue grants of interest in the land in effect a potential lease, subject to the fact that the lessees may be required later to pay Aborigines compensation for native title. Compensation will be capped at the freehold value of the land, to be determined by the tribunal. But more than freehold value will be required if there is special Aboriginal attachment to the land. Sources said the proposed legislation would make it clear that Aborigines will not lose any existing land or rights. United Graziers Association of Queensland chief David Moore said his organisation welcomed the Governments move but said the problem was still far from solved. Mr Moore said landholders could still be liable for court costs involved in defending their leases against claims. He said federal legislation should take care not to override legislation already in place in Queensland. Queensland legislation recognises areas outside leases such as water courses, stock routes and water points, he said. Federal legislation should not ignore this. Cairns casino winner named BY ROB CULLINAN in Cairns A CONSORTIUM involving the Australian Olympic Committee has won preferred applicant status for the new Cairns casino a 160 million development to be built on the controversial Customs HouseAnzac Park site. State Treasurer Keith De Lacy announced yesterday that Cabinet had approved the Reef Consortium as the preferred applicant and that construction could begin on the project before the end of the year. Mr De Lacy said the Reef Consortium was required to pay an upfront fee of 36 million to pay for a new convention centre which would further boost Cairns status as a major tourist destination. Mr De Lacy will be holding talks with Cairns Mayor Kevin Byrne today and said an announcement on the convention centre would be made later in the week. But Ald Byrne and other community leaders yesterday expressed disappointment at the decision to build the casino and hotel on the Customs HouseAnzac Park site. Ald Byrne was joined by the National Trust, Aboriginal groups and the State Opposition in claiming the State Government had ignored the wishes of local interest groups. A spokesman for the Yirrganydji tribe said they would be seeking a Supreme Court injuction to prevent any work taking place on the site. The Yirrganydji people are in the process of preparing a Mabostyle claim for Anzac Park. Three tenders applied to build the casino on the controversial site with a fourth tender opting for a disused railway site on the fringe of the central business district. The Reef Consortium includes international casino operators Casinos Austria, hotel group Country Comfort Trust, the AOC, and Touraust Mangement Pty Ltd. Mr De Lacy said the proposal included restoring Customs House and doubling the size of Anzac Park through the addition of land from the Cairns Port Authority site opposite. I think youll find that most people in Cairns, when they look at the quality of the design, the sympathetic treatment to Customs House and the fact Anzac Park has not only been preserved but about doubled in size, that most of the concerns dotted line will evaporate, he said. Mr De Lacy said he was aware of Aboriginal interest in relation to Anzac Park and said that any issues arising from this would be resolved at the appropriate time in a way that was fair to all concerned. He said the successful consortium won preferred status on the basis of its design. The proposal involves a relatively lowrise, lowimpact building that will enhance the character of Cairns, he said. As well as an initial 45gaming table and 540machine casino, the complex will also include 130 fivestar hotel rooms and suites. The most outstanding feature of the building, however, will be a magnificent rooftop observatory featuring local rainforest plants. Mr De Lacy said the casino was due to open in May 4600 rail jobs to go Sweeteners for idle staff EXCLUSIVE By TONY KOCH A FURTHER 4600 Queensland Rail jobs will be shed in the next five years, confidential documents show. The attempt to make the department commercially competitive comes amid embarrassing details of idle railway staff who are not allowed to be sent where they are needed. In one case new employees were contracted for a rail project while workers in a nearby town had no work to do. The documents say that even after the shedding there will be an estimated 1364 surplus staff by 1998, costing 57 million in pay. Railway employees whose jobs have been swallowed up in recent government rail closures and rationalisation have refused to accept voluntary redundancy packages on offer. Queensland Rail is being advised to sweeten the deals or come up with more creative redundancy packages so employees will take the money and go. The department is running into problems because of the stated policy of Transport Minister David Hamill barring dismissals, forced retrenchments or forced relocations. Already dozens of railway employees in centres throughout Queensland including Maryborough, Toowoomba, Warwick and Wallangarra are doing nothing or are enrolled in TAFE courses learning skills such as smallengine maintenance in the hope they might start lawnmowing businesses. The employees cannot be moved to other centres. For example, Toowoomba has up to 20 redeployees employees who are paid but have no work to do. Just down the range from Toowoomba, the Ipswich to Rosewood line is being electrified but the work was not offered to them. Instead, employees have been especially contracted to do it. The department is considering offering some of its redeployees gainful employment working on roads for local authorities. But Queensland Rail would continue to pay their wages because of Mr Hamills commitment on no forced redeployment or retrenchment. Mr Hamill said last night that since the voluntary early retirement package was introduced in April 1991 there had been 3700 applications, of which about 3000 had been accepted. Despite any suggestion from anyone in the human resources area in QR, the Governments position is very clear that we will not be changing our policy position. VERs will be used, he said. If that means dotted line that QR goes through a period of carrying surplus staff, so be it. It is not the fault of these people that the railways have been run down or technological change is altering the number and nature of jobs available in QR. The staff problem has been worsened by Cabinets decision last week to close most of the spur lines in northern and western Queensland, putting in jeopardy up to 530 rail jobs including 70 train crew and 98 shunting staff. There are 126 jobs involved in the CharlevilleCunnamullaQuilpie closures alone. In Gayndah there are 26, Mitchell 18, Mareeba 43, Blackall 18 and Winton A confidential Queensland Rail document outlining the proposed strategies for the deployment and outplacement of surplus staff was prepared for QR human resources management head David Hemple as a briefing paper for QR chief Vince ORourke. It says Queensland Rail is currently facing a period of unprecedented largescale restructuring which will necessarily involve a number of positions being declared surplus. QR will be carrying additional salary and wages of 57 million by 1998, an unacceptable amount especially in light of the pressure dotted line to operate on a commercial basis. The only options currently available to QR management include natural attrition through resignation or retirement, or VERs. Schools warn of fee rises PARENTS of the 140,000 children in Queenslands private schools would face fee increases under State Government plans to cut funding, school groups warned last night. The funding cut, which Education Minister Pat Comben said would be less than half a percent, would represent at least 4 a student based on last years 9 million State Government funding of nongovernment schools. Mr Comben said yesterday the 199394 private shcools grant would be more than ever before. But a Federal government decision to slash 115 million from Queenslands share of states grants forced cuts to private schools funding. Association of Independent Schools of Queensland executive director Bradley Smith said funding cuts would lead to fee increases in the associations 115 member schools. It also would have an impact on struggling bush boarding schools already battling the rural crisis. |
Qumran, in the Wilderness of Judea, had been the place of exile of the Essenes since at least the second century BC. They were the old aristocrats, who longed for a return to the great days of Israel, when a David was on the throne and a Zadokite high priest was in the temple.1 While they waited and prayed for such a Restoration, their priests performed all the services in a courtyard on the barren plateau, acting as if it were a temple. The lay acolytes who had accompanied them into exile lived a monastic existence in the large building east ofthe aqueduct, devoting their lives to the service of the priests and to prayer. Every day, at ll a.m., the monks ceased their work and came to the large stepped cistern on the east side of their building. Taking off their working clothes and leaving only a loincloth, they went down into the water and had a long, refreshing bath.2 The cisterns, of which there were five with steps, were supplied with water directed through an aqueduct leading from the wady Qumran, a winter stream that filled them up once a year.3Taking a bath not only washed away sweat, but washed away sin, for the men must now be in a perfectly holy state. They were about to eat the holy food of priests, acting as if they themselves were priests. A Jewish priest had to be born into a special tribe, that of Levi. They enjoyed many privileges, especially the tithe system, by which ordinary men supported them fully giving them onetenth of their income, usually in the form of produce such as corn and grapes.4 When the old families of priests were expelled with the Davids, some devoted followers continued to bring them the tithes, believing that they were the only true priests blessed by God. It was this practice that distinguished village Essenes from other Jews. After they were exiled to Qumran, the tithe offerings made the difference between life and death. The priests and monks had water, from the deep round well that had been on the western side of the settlement since the eighth century BC but no food would grow in the barren wilderness, except a few vegetables near a spring three kilometres down the coast. Their supporters made the journey from the north, often from Galilee, to bring them the food. In return they were allowed to stay for a time, to receive instruction and to take part in the prayers. Tithe offerings should be eaten only by priests on behalf of God. But the worker monks needed to be fed also. So the practice grew up of admitting them to the meal of priests and treating them as honorary priests, in a state of acquired purity through their ritual baths. The meal was called the Purity, a term often found in the scrolls5, and it was used as a means of exercising discipline. If a monk broke any of the strict rules of behaviour, by disobedience to superiors, by bearing malice against a companion, even by guffawing loudly, he was excluded from the Purity for periods ranging from ten days to a year.6 The elements in the sacred meal consisted of bread and new wine. At the beginning they were blessed, the wine and bread together by the priest, then the bread alone by the levite.7 This meal has always been seen to resemble the Christian communion meal, and the history of the relation between the two groups shows that this was, in fact, its original form. The building at Qumran, and its related outposts down the coast of the Dead Sea, played a vital part in the events recorded in the pesher of the gospels. The Qumran buildings stood on an elongated plateau, separated by a narrow neck of land from a row of brown limestone cliffs in the background. They were in two clusters, separated by a wide corridor running northsouth, down which the aqueduct ran to feed the water systems. On the west side of the corridor, around the deep round well, was a group of small and larger rooms, including a long northsouth courtyard. On the east side a large square building, with a tower in its northwest corner, plainly acted as the main centre for monastic life. It was enclosed within what had been an ancient wall going back hundreds of years to the earlier Israelite settlement.8 Outside the wall on the south stood a long, wellproportioned hall running eastwest, and attached to it on its south a room called the pantry, as hundreds of dishes were piled up in it.9 This hall opened directly on to the esplanade, the long southern projection of the plateau. The esplanade terminated in steep cliffs rising directly from the bed of the wady Qumran below. Throughout the settlement was a number of rectangular cisterns with steps leading down to them, plainly used for ritual bathing the round well was sufficient for drinking water. One large cistern, outside the wall on the southwest side, had no steps within it. The buildings on the Qumran plateau, built from the stones with which the whole area is plentifully littered, were the main centre, constructed when the exiles came there in the second century BC. But in the Wilderness of Judea round about was a number of outposts of the monastery. Their location, if measured in Greek stadia, corresponds exactly to certain locations in the gospels. A stadion was 607 feet and five stadia l012 yards, or 2024 cubits, roughly a kilometre.10 Five stadia down from the neck of land leading to the main plateau stood a building whose few remains have been described by archaeologists.11 It came to be called the queens house, for reasons that will be seen later, and it occupied a significant place in the story of Jesus. About two kilometres further down, or three kilometres fifteen stadia from Qumran lie the ruins of Ain Feshkha on the shores of the Dead Sea itself. Now a favourite swimming resort for Israelis, the bases of the walls lie, half hidden in grass and shrubs, just off the main path. They include the remains of a fine Herodian door.12 Another fifteen stadia down the shoreline, past the great headland of Ras Feshkha, stand the ruins of another building, now called Khirbet ruin of Mazin, just a little north of the exit of the wady Kidron into the Dead Sea.13 This building is thus thirty stadia six kilometres from Qumran, and twentyfive from the queens house. It includes the remains of a great watergate, which must have stood at the end of a short channel leading up from the sea the distance to the sea is now a little over two hundred cubits one hundred yards. These distances may seem unimportant at first sight, but they become very relevant when a device used in the pesher is understood. After they had been exiled to the wilderness, the Essenes came to believe that they were establishing their own temple and Jerusalem at Qumran. They began to call it Jerusalem, in the way that expatriates name places in their new country after places in the homeland. To distinguish between the two, they drew on two forms of the name Jerusalem, and these were able to be reproduced in Greek. When the singular form of the word was used, the real Jerusalem was meant when the plural, it was the New Jerusalem, Qumran. The two forms of the name also served the purposes of secrecy when it became necessary. Qumran became a centre for those loyal to the traditional priests to visit. Councils were held there, and the government of the Essenes was centred at Qumran and its outposts. When a certain leader who was the bishop of Galilee came to Ain Feshkha for the seasonal councils held at the equinoxes and solstices, he brought Galilee with him, for in their understanding of the role of a bishop, he was so identified with his bishopric that it resided in his person. The Christian Church still follows the same principle. An archbishop takes as his surname the name of his city, for example, John London, so that, in a sense, wherever he is London is. When the bishop of Galilee was at Ain Feshkha, it was called Galilee. Ain Feshkha, which had been established as the place to which monks went when they were temporarily expelled from the monastery, was used at the time of their visits by men who had the status of outside celibates. The story includes such a leader who came from Samaria thus the building by the shore of the Dead Sea was Samaria while he was there. Mazin, further down beyond the headland, was used by men of lower status. Some of these were Essene villagers who met in Capernaum, on Lake Galilee. When they came to Mazin for the seasonal councils, it became Capernaum. The boat trips taken by Jesus and the disciples were on the Dead Sea, not on Lake Galilee. To go the three kilometres between Mazin and Ain Feshkha, it was easier to go by boat, as the headland of Ras Feshkha came right to the sea, forming a natural barrier. It was Mazin that was the Capernaum at twentyfive or thirty stadia according to a story in Johns gospel. This gospel is strangely inconsistent about locations it can be bafflingly vague about where things happened yet give exact distances in stadia where they do not seem to be needed. In one place it says that the disciples, rowing in a boat to Capernaum, travelled to a spot at twentyfive or thirty stadia.14 Mazin is thirty stadia from Qumran and twentyfive from the queens house, which acted as an outer boundary to Qumran. In another episode at Capernaum in John s gospel, a net of fish was dragged two hundred cubits one hundred yards to the shore. This was the length of the channel at Mazin, leading up to the watergate. Johns gospel also says that Bethany was fifteen stadia from Jerusalem, using the plural form of the name. Ain Feshkha is exactly this distance from Qumran. It reproduced the original Bethany, at about this distance east of Jerusalem, when the locations were moved to Qumran. The distances were related to hours of walking. The rate, in the hot dry conditions, was five stadia per hour. Thus it took one hour to go to the queens house, three to Ain Feshkha, and six to Mazin. The neck of land was the starting point of measurements because it was at the top of the chasm down which everyone had to walk to go south. The purity rules of the Temple Scroll, a product of Palestinian Essenes, show that when a man became unclean he had to stay away for varying lengths of time and wash himself and his clothes before coming back.15 At Ain Feshkha, the first outpost south, archaeologists found the remains of some shallow pools, with a white deposit over the bottom. Analysis proved it to be calcium carbonate. Beside the pools were paved terraces with cylindrical stones lying lengthwise.16 These arrangements can be accounted for as being used for the washing of clothes. Essenes rubbed their white linen garments with frankincense, a starch like substance consisting mainly of calcium carbonate.17 When they were washed the substance would come out, remaining on the bottom of the pool. The clothes would then be spread over the cylindrical stones to dry in the sun. Ain Feshkha was obviously the place to which monks went when they were expelled for episodes of uncleanness. It became also a place for celibates of the Diaspora, who because they did not live in the holy land, were classed as equal in status to such monks. Two further places in the wilderness were part of the monastic complex. One was the place now called Khirbet Mird or Hyrcania, nine kilometres inland, on about the same latitude as Ain Feshkha. |
Chapter Three RECONSTRUCTION REORIENTATION 19661993 Art was rarely considered to be a criticism of life or even of other art and was thought of as culture, an adjunct to gracious livingdotted lineMaterial wealth and the desire for culture also fostered the art prize. Many local government bodies, dotted lineprompted by citizens anxious to bring a measure of sweetness and light to their localities, provided moneys for annual art prizes1 Bernard Smith, Australian Painting 17881990, Oxford University Press, 1991, p.291 The establishment of the Manly Art Prize in 1962, and subsequent similar exhibitions, and the formations of an Auxilliary and an Art Group revitalised the Gallery to some extent, but what was needed was financial support. Manly Council became aware of the problems through Councillors Bannerman and Boyle, and their support was forthcoming in 1966, when plans were approved for the extension and renovation of the Art Gallery. This included an additional gallery, a storeroom, a new ceiling, an entrance through the Rubbo Annexe and improved lighting. The renovated building was opened on October 7th, An honorary Director, Mrs Clarice Thomas was appointed. Mrs Thomas is one of three daughters of the late John Young, cofounder of the Macquarie Galleries, Sydney, and had previously carried out restoration work on a number of paintings in the collection. She was to play a vital role in the reconstruction and reorientation years of Manly Art Gallery. Her work included the reestablishment of the collection and extended into areas of art administration which were developing in parallel with other small art institutions scattered throughout New South Wales, such as Broken Hill, Bathurst and Lismore. Such areas of administration included the shaping and establishment of workable policies covering acquisitions, exhibitions and the funding of public art institutions. These occurred as patronage of the arts gradually moved away from the individual to the Government between the 1940s and the early 1970s. When Clarice Thomas arrived at the Manly Art Gallery in 1966, the state of the Gallery represented a neglected and decaying 19th Century public institution. The Gallery itself consisted of a barn like building, now the main gallery, with pictures tiered up the walls reminiscent of an auction room. Various works were stacked on the kitchen floor, where she found a Grace Cossington Smith painting on a loose piece of canvas. Old photographs were uniformly framed in concertina style on the side walls. The entrance to the gallery was by a single door, and what now constitutes the Rubbo annexe was a small room on the harbourside of the main gallery in which paintings were stored. More works were held in Council Chambers and in the loft of the Council depot. A very old custodian sat next to the door. The cataloguing system consisted of a small list of pictures which was inaccurate many of the works had been crossed out as having gone to the tip or had been sold by tender.2 Heika CostinNeilsen, An Interview With Clarice Thomas, Art Write, Vol 1, Number 4, Dec. 1993 During her time with the Gallery the Art and Historical Collection was gathered together and properly catalogued after the almost irreparable neglect suffered throughout the postwar years. Mrs Thomas expertise in saving pictures gave the collection new life and new direction and an active exhibition programme followed. Between 1966 and 1983, the Manly Art Gallery developed an exhibitions programme of a standard which rivalled many Sydney galleries and galleries interstate. Reflecting both local and national developments in Australian art, these exhibitions covered new areas and included printmakers, quilters, ceramic artists, and the retrospectives of individual artists. Exhibitions of the collection were interspersed with loan and travelling exhibitions. Ladies of Fashion, an exhibition by Anne Schofield during this time was purchased by the National Art Gallery in Melbourne in its entirety. Printmakers exhibitions included a 1976 Print Council of Australia Touring Exhibition and work shown from the Sydney Printmakers and the Print Circle. An Exhibition of Canadian Quilts was held in This presented an early recognition of craft based art which was to be a significant part of the Gallerys content in later years, notably in the exhibiting of ceramics, and annual quilt exhibitions. An acquisition fund was established in 1967 which attracted a membership to support the Gallery later called the MAGM Society, and through the instigation of selling exhibitions further acquisitions could be made. Between 1967 and 1983 the Gallery acquired paintings which added prestige and substance to its collection, purchasing representative works by Michael Kmit, Desiderius Orban, Donald Friend, Godfrey Miller, Kevin Connor, Ralph Balson, Thomas Cleghorn, Rodney Milgate, Carl Plate and Clem Millward. Some purchases were made to fill areas in earlier periods buy artists such as Margaret Preston and Jean Appleton. The major purchase of the Annunciation by Tom Thompson was also made in Acquisitions were made adhering to the policy of intimate works for this small gallery, and Mrs Thomas acquired many works at her own expense, later being reimbursed by the Committee, demonstrating a strong commitment to the collection. These included a Sydney Long landscape and Fred Liests Salt Marshes. In 1968 the Manly Art Prize 19621984 was altered to become a selection exhibition at which purchases for the Gallery collection were selected by an art panel. Contemporary works by artists such as Hector Gilliland, Stan de Teliga, Guy Warren and Brian Dunlop were acquired through the Manly Art Prize. Aware that the Gallery had to overcome the stigma that Manly was across the harbour,although only seven miles from Sydney across the harbour can seem to be a long way when seeking media coverage for exhibitions,3 Clarice Thomas sought to develop the Gallery in a way which would make it unique to Sydney and also compliment other Sydney galleries. Heika CostinNeilsen, Notes on an Interview with Clarice Thomas, Manly Art Gallery Records, 1993 In 1968 the Gallery held its first ceramic exhibition which included one hundred and thirty items by invited potters. From this was purchased the first two pots of its collection, one by Peter Rushforth and the other by Hiroe Swen. Nowhere in Sydney could a permanent contemporary display of ceramics be seen, this was at the forefront of the crafts movement and was to become a unique collection. The ceramics collection grew steadily and its importance was further recognised in the establishment of the Lady Askin Ceramics Room, following the Lady Askin Bequest to the Gallery in This presently contains a permanent survey of ceramics tracing the development of studio work in Australia from the postwar years. From 1975 an annual ceramics exhibition was held which further contributed to the Gallery collection, including work by Derek Smith, Les Blakeborough, Jenny Orchard, Shiga Shigeo, Ian Mackay, Christine Ball and Peter Travis. By 1980 the Manly Art Gallerys Acquisition Policy had developed to include the following The established collection covering a broad spectrum from Martens and Piguenit, through Australian impressionism, to work of the Thirties and Forties, has broadly dictated the collecting pattern which is being pursued today. Because of the obvious educational value of these relatively small, intimate works that form the majority of the collection, the aim and policy is to unify, develop and extend it to cover more modern and contemporary areas with paintings of similar scale and significance, while also endeavouring to fill obvious gaps in the existing collection. Also, acquiring mostly relatively small works is a realistic policy as regards maneouvrability and accommodation in a small gallery, and with regard to the very limited funds for acquisition. Special attention is also being given to building the ceramic section, which is within the scope of our financial position and a definite need in the Sydney area.4 Manly Art Gallery Report to RGANSW, 1980, unpaginated The development of this policy signifies a defined direction for the art and ceramics collections and shows that the management of small public institutions maintained a regard for the educational value of works held within their collections. By the 1970s artists had come to be seen as part of an art market, the focus being on developing their careers through the cultivation of collectors. Terry Smith, in Australian Painting 17881990, describes this shift in focus as being due to the fact that The market took over from the artists societies the complex but crucial role of setting professional standards. photograph caption photograph caption Artists became part of what was known as a stable attached to particular commercial galleries and their work was tailored to what Terry Smith describes as appreciative audiences and the buying public. Small public art institutions such as Manly Art Gallery had no place in the commercial art market, and private patronage which previously had supported public galleries through gifts and bequests found it more profitable to invest in the marketplace. The Australian art market became a set of interlocking, interdependent institutions, and private and corporate sponsorship of the visual arts grew substantially. The greatest growth in arts patronage came, however, from governments. State government support continued to focus on the major capital city galleries, and expanded to a network of regional art galleries, especially in Victoria and New South Wales.5 Smith as in n.1, p.453 One of the most significant steps Clarice Thomas undertook in the administration of Manly Art Gallery was to include the Gallery as a founding member of the Regional Galleries Association of New South Wales, henceforth referred to as the RGANSW, which formed in This allowed the Gallery access to combined resources and to gain greater recognition through joint lobbying in the area of government funding. The origins of the Regional Galleries Association grew out of the perceived need of fifteen councils in New South Wales to gain greater recognition and support from government for their role as trustees of public art institutions, writes Michael Goss in Regional Galleries of New South Wales, a design, planning and development manual.6 Michael Goss, Regional Galleries of New South Wales a design, planning and development manual, RGANSW, 1987 As a result of such lobbying improvements occurred to the Gallery which would have been difficult to achieve by other means. In 1977 Manly Council financed the installation of further airconditioning and a year later the State Government provided for a new lighting system. These improvements brought the Gallery up to a standard desired for its collection. Although the acquisition fund established by Mrs Thomas in 1967 had instigated the ceramics collection, such selling exhibitions were not part of Manly Art Gallerys relationship with the RGANSW and, as of 1972, were no longer initiated. This limited growth of the collection in the short term. It was expected however, that the overall benefits of membership with the RGANSW ensured long term stability and permanency for the collection. A good collection takes at least a generation to form, while an art museum or gallery never stops evolving according to Goss. In hindsight, the RGANSW now clearly sees its role as that of a service organisation, and the decision not to initiate selling exhibitions during these three years seriously limited opportunities for acquisitions and the exhibiting of individual artists work, through oneman exhibitions. The new affluence of the Sixties had the consequence of an increase of solo exhibitions in commercial galleries, which came to take over from the annual exhibitions of the art societies, so significant up until the late Fifties.7 Smith as in n.1, p.292 Relying on government funds was a further consequence of this and Manly Art Gallery thus committed itself to becoming part of the official art culture which by the 1970s had come to dominate much art activity. This can be further seen in developments at Manly Art Gallery in the following years. The elaborate world of modernist practice, theory, criticism and connoisseurship, so recently triumphant, had ossified into an official art culture.8 ibid., p.453 Clarice Thomas management of the Manly Art Gallery was not developed in isolation and was reflective of the situation of other galleries in regional centres at the same time. Manly Art Gallery became part of the emergence in New South Wales of museums and galleries which were trustees of public art, with local government as their major patrons, during the 1970s and 1980s. Manly Art Gallery, therefore, also constituted part of what Michael Goss describes as a significant resource of inestimable national importance for the general public and practicing artist alike.9 Goss as in n.6, p.7 A grant from the Division of Cultural Activities, in 1981, to assist with the salary of a fulltime Director ensured the permanent care of the collection and a continuous programme of exhibitions. Mrs Thomas was appointed Director of Manly Art Gallery on March 17th, 1981, after serving as Honorary Director for fourteen years. A further grant from the State Government contributed towards the building of a Museum to adjoin the Gallery on the eastern side. These significant renovations provided, as well as the Museum, a new entrance and reception area, a kitchen and loading dock, to serve both Gallery and Museum, and the Rubbo annexe was doubled in size. The Art Gallery and Museum building was officially opened by the Premier, Mr. Neville Wran, on 13th September, 1982, by which time the complex had been officially named the Manly Art Gallery and Museum MAGM. The addition of an area to be used specifically as a Museum was largely the result of Council support through the vision and efforts of Ald. Joan Thorburn. The establishment of the Museum was not without difficulties. Originally conceived as a folk museum it was expected to house and exhibit memorabilia. Clarice Thomas was able to elevate the role of the museum by illuminating MAGMs regional based collections of beach culture and historical photographs. This gave the Museum a regional and historical role of significance. Given this context it would become unique to Sydney and had the potential to complement the Gallery. Under the Directorship of Clarice Thomas, MAGM saw the establishment and development of a number of acquisition policies, the essence of which are carried out by management today. |
2 APPROVING TRAVEL 1 INTRODUCTION The first step in arranging official travel is a decision that there is a need for the journey. This prompts three important questions Who makes the decision What other matters need to be decided And, how should these decisions be recorded This chapter addresses the first two questions and Chapter 3 looks at the third. 2 PRIOR APPROVAL When a journey requires air travel or overnight accommodation, cost may be substantial. For such travel it is therefore essential to have a reliable means of controlling payments. A system which focuses attention entirely on approval of payments after the trip risks creating a rubber stamp for ad hoc decisions made earlier in the process. Control of the travel payments system will be most effective if it starts in the planning stage with documented approval before the journey commences. A good prior approval system has several advantages. ADVANTAGES OF PRIOR APPROVAL bulleteliminates ad hoc decisions bulletensures consistent application of travel policy bulletprovides better control of the travel arrangements in each case bulletimproves planning and coordination bulletestablishes limits for expenditure bulletensures the person travelling knows what is expected of them bulletprovides a basis for checking subsequent payments bulletassists in budget management Approval in writing before a journey commences should be mandatory. In most cases this will be a relatively simple procedure. If the written authority to travel encompasses approval for all aspects of the journey it can streamline processing of the arrangements. If exceptional circumstances are likely to arise, where prior written approval is impossible, then the policy should clearly specify the exceptions and how they apply. If anyone can approve official travel the system will be difficult to control. On the other hand, if approving officers are too few to cope with the volume of travel, or they are too remote to assess travel needs properly, informal and perhaps inappropriate practices are likely to develop to overcome the difficulties. A balance between these extremes is needed. To meet the practical needs of the organisation and preserve accountability, an appropriate number persons of suitable seniority should be delegated to approve travel. Provisions should also be made for approval by a more senior officer for travel by delegated officers, as it is inappropriate for them to approve their own travel. Recommendation 1 Require prior written approval by a delegated officer for all travel involving an overnight stay away from home base. Prohibit approval of own travel by delegated officers. Approval for travel by local councillors is the responsibility of Council and should be given by specific Council resolution prior to the journey. The resolution, recorded in the minutes, is therefore the authority to travel. Notwithstanding this difference in the approval process, the underlying principles in the recommendations which follow are applicable to travel involving overnight stay by councillors. 3 BUDGET MANAGEMENT AND DELEGATIONS When travel is approved public money is committed. Proper management of resources improves efficiency and helps to eliminate misuse. Some organisations compromise this by separating the approval process from control or awareness of the budget. Approving officers who are unaware of their travel budget allocation cannot make informed decisions when planning or approving journeys. Those who are fully informed about expenditure to date, availability of funds, and journey costs have a greater incentive to eliminate inefficiency or misuse of funds than those who are isolated from such budgetary imperatives. It is also essential that those responsible for approving travel be given appropriate financial delegation. Delegations, which usually apply to a particular position rather than to individuals, should be in writing and should specify expenditure limits. Manuals or instruments of delegation, which sometimes do not reflect actual practices, require regular review and revision to ensure they continue to serve the practical needs of the organisation. Recommendation 2 Ensure all approving officers have appropriate financial delegation and access to sufficient budget information to make informed decisions. Review delegations regularly to ensure they are practical and reflect actual requirements. Sometimes it is necessary for more than one officer to be involved in the approval process. For example, a recommending officer may examine the details of each applicationauthority to travel and sign it prior to consideration by the approving officer. In large organisations, processing a lot of travel, approving officers may be able to improve efficiency by delegating the confirmation of certain details in this way. However, whenever it is necessary for more than one to be involved in approval there is always a risk that each person in the chain will assume that someone else is checking the details more thoroughly than they do. It is therefore prudent to eliminate any overlap in function by separating responsibilities and clearly defining the role of each person in the process. The responsibilities of all officers involved in considering andor approving travel should be fully documented in policies and procedures. Recommendation 3 Clearly define and document the responsibilities of approving officers. Separate responsibilities where there is a need for more than one person to be involved in considering an applicationauthority to travel. 4 KEY APPROVAL QUESTIONS The need for travel is the first question to be considered by the approving officer. Some types of travel are part of an annual plan, or are so integral to the agencys functions that the need for the trip is established well in advance. Nevertheless, even with such preestablished commitments, shifting priorities and competing work demands may force review of the need for each journey. Once the need for travel is established, several other questions should be considered before a journey is approved. The key approval questions are set out below. Properly addressed, these questions can ensure the most effective use of resources and limit misuse of public money. KEY APPROVAL QUESTIONS bulletIs the trip necessary bulletWho should travel bulletWhat mode of transport is appropriate bulletIs an overnight stay necessary bulletHow much will the trip cost bulletAre sufficient funds available How carefully these questions are considered will depend on bulletthe attitude of the decision maker bulletthe design of the system. A good approval system requires conscientious and wellinformed approving officers and procedures which encourage and facilitate consideration of the key questions. The relative importance of these questions may vary depending on the circumstances in each organisation. Approval systems can be designed to reflect these priorities and to ensure that the most important issues are explicitly considered. This may be achieved by bulleteducating approving officers about the nature of their responsibilities bulletproviding clear guidelines for decision making bulletdesigning formsprocedures which facilitate proper decisions. Recommendation 4 Require that approving officers consider the key approval questions concerning necessity for travel and overnight stay, appropriate person and mode of transport, cost and availability of funds before approving travel. 5 GUIDELINES Guidelines can help approving officers to consider the key approval questions in a systematic and fair way, consistent with the policies and priorities of the organisation. Guidelines may range from simple principles to comprehensive criteria for selecting from a range of options. Necessity for travel Factors determining the necessity for a particular trip will depend on the functions and priorities of the organisation. Some general principles may be sufficient to encourage proper consideration of this question. Issues which might be relevant, for example, are Can the work be completed in another way Is there an officer available in the region who can do the job Would it be sufficient to send one or two rather than five officers to a conference Appropriate person to travel Often circumstances dictate the appropriate person for a particular journey. For example, the travel may relate to a specific project, or require someone with particular skills, or address the training needs of an individual. However, where there is frequent travel by a pool of similarly qualified officers, a number of factors might influence selection of the appropriate person. Matters which might be considered include nature of the task and the seniority, skills, and experience of available officers distance to be travelled ie residential address may be significant in some cases workloads and personal preferences of available officers number of trips already undertaken by each officer. Personal preferences are a legitimate consideration, so long as they do not operate unfairly or in conflict with the public interest. Family or study commitments, relatives or friends living in particular destinations, may influence an officers willingness to travel. However, personal preferences should not have priority over workrelated considerations. Policy guidelines can assist approving officers to ensure that the needs of the organisation are given priority and that opportunities to travel are fairly allocated among equally qualified officers. Mode of transport Policies often require travel by the most economic mode of transport, but delegates sometimes have insufficient details to make an informed assessment of this. Choosing the most economic mode of transport is not simply a matter of finding the cheapest fare. For example, time in transit and accommodation costs can influence the choice between travel by car or by air. When several officers are travelling to the same destination it may be more economical for them to travel together by car rather than by air. Sometimes the importance of getting an officer to the destination quickly will outweigh the cost of transport. Policy which specifies a preferred mode or modes of travel and requires officers to provide cost comparisons for any proposed alternatives including extra accommodation costs etc can help to ensure the most appropriate mode of transport is used. Guidelines can alert approving officers to some of the common traps and assist them to decide on the best way to travel in each case. Necessity for overnight stay If the destination is sufficiently close to an officers residence that it is practical to return home every evening then an overnight stay may be unnecessary. The need for overnight accommodation and the number of nights required will also be affected by how long the job is likely to take. In assessing this issue it is obviously important to take account of the reasonable comfort of the person travelling. Nevertheless, delegated approving officers should be encouraged to give special attention to situations where there is doubt that expenses will be properly incurred. Such cases may warrant refusal or reduction of an allowance for accommodation expenses. Recommendation 5 Establish guidelines for application of the key approval questions. 3 DOCUMENTING APPROVAL 1 INTRODUCTION Records of decisions are essential for keeping track of travel expenditure. Efficiency and control can be enhanced by well designed forms and other systems of documentation. The aim is to limit travel payments to properly authorised official journeys, to minimise illicit, duplicate, or excess payments, and to ensure incorrect payments are recovered. 2 AUTHORITY TO TRAVEL Methods of documenting the authority to travel vary considerably from diary entries to rosters, memoranda, forms, schedules of multiple assignments, or Council resolutions. Whatever method is used, the authority to travel should constitute the master record which governs all travel arrangements and payments for the journeys to which it applies. If there is no record of the original authority, or it is simply filed away and forgotten, control of travel payments will be severely undermined. If the system relies on retrospective approval, if any, improper payments can easily slip through. Making the authority to travel the master record helps to ensure that bullettravel arrangements comply with the authority bulletvariations to the original authority are documented bulletall payments are supported by a legitimate authority bulletduplicate payments are avoided bulletcancelled journeys are accounted for and any advances are recovered. A system which treats the authority to travel as a master record, does not necessarily require physical reference to the original document each time a payment is made, although this is one way to achieve the aims listed above. Alternative approaches might involve use of a registration system, or an electronic data base, as a means of crossreferencing transactions. Recommendation 6 Treat the authority to travel as the master record for control of all transactions for a particular journey. 3 FORMS DESIGN |
Victoria, grist for the election mill Some of the initiatives emerging from the Spring Street bunker of the newly installed Victorian Premier, Jeff Kennett, are welcome ones. Some are puzzling. Several are plain silly. It is important to differentiate between the good, the bad, and the ugly. To begin with, the move by the fledgling Governments Treasurer, Alan Stockdale, to apply the reins to a runaway budget lifting some artificially low State taxes, cutting capital expenditure, sacking 7,000 public servants were painful but necessary measures. Mr Stockdale has followed up his minibudget moves with other initiatives to bring to heel the blowout in costs for the States workers compensation scheme, running almost 2 billion in arrears. So far so good. Subsequent to the minibudget in Victoria, the new administration has been moving on other fronts, notably industrial relations. Here the moves are less clear, the motives blurred, the outcomes more farreaching for the whole of Australia. The move to end the 5 per cent holiday leave loading for State public servants contained in the minibudget makes good fiscal sense for a Government facing a major budget crisis in recessionary times. The separate motive to end penalty rates in Victoria, by decreeing that all hours of work be regarded as equal, is a step in the right direction of liberalising working hours. It will speed a process already well under way and long overdue in Australia towards implementing a more flexible working regime. Clearly, such a change will not come without problems. Treating all hours as equal for wage payment purposes equates an hour worked in business hours with one worked on a Sunday, as if there is no difference in the degree of effort or dislocation caused to the worker. The easy argument is that people are not obliged to undertake such shift work. If they dont want to work abnormal hours, someone else will. Harsh, but a realistic assessment of the state of the Australian labour market in the 1990s. Economic purists will argue that the market will set the price for such labour. If groups of people do not want to work at those hours, the price of labour will be bid up. In tough times such as at present the biddingup will not be great, if at all. In buoyant times, the price of labour on rotating night shift will be higher, as employers compete for labour. Problem what of the wide range of service areas, almost all within the public employment domain, which require 24hour attention Buses, trains, trams, ferries, hospitals, police, garbage collection, to name a few. Can such labour simply say No thanks, Id prefer to work weekday daytime hours And if it did successfully bid up its price, as the pure labour market theorists would presumably applaud, what of State and federal budgets In better times, the pressure would be intolerable, and something would give either quality of service, or budgetary responsibility. These conundrums aside, the move is in the right direction. So, too, is the initiative to hurry along the opportunity for business and its workforce to negotiate individual or workplace agreements. From March 1 next year, they will have to choose to opt back into the present system of awardbased regulation of work, rather than opt out to the more freewheeling enterprise negotiations. Outlawing compulsory unionism and the closed shop has been long in coming. And to allay the fears of some that the world is about to end, the Victorian Government has reaffirmed certain socalled safety net conditions a weeks sick leave, four weeks annual leave, maternity leave and a minimum hourly rate of pay based on the present award minimum applicable in each industry. If it was not for certain other changes, the package would deserve high praise. But the good sense of Kennett and his Industrial Relations Minister, Phil Gude, has deserted them on their crude attempts to prohibit or punish industrial action. If the new Victorian Government is as sure of its liberalising reforms, it should have carried them through. Instead, it has introduced several halfbaked, wouldbe Draconian approaches to industrial action. Limiting a picket line to a maximum of six at any workplace entrance is plain silly. Making industrial action illegal other than over health and safety issues while an award or agreement is in place, with a 5,000 damages action available against each employee involved in a dispute, suggests the Government is abandoning its liberalising stance in favour of hardline enforcement techniques more appropriate to totalitarian regimes elsewhere. Australia is a democracy. The right for an individual to offer his or her labour for hire, and withdraw that labour under certain conditions, is one of the tenets of the unclear of democracy Australia has become. This particular aspect of Kennetts proposed changes suggest he is uncomfortable with such notions of individual liberty. Predictably, the changes in Victoria are being seen as a model for the sort of changes which Dr Hewson and John Howard are planning for all Australia or at least those covered by federal awards. Not surprisingly, the federal Liberals are keeping at least some distance, in case the whole package has serious political fallout a wise move. Also predictably, the big guns from Labour including the Prime Minister, Paul Keating, and his Industrial Relations Minister, Senator Cook, are being wheeled out to portray the package as a heinous affront to the dignity of all Australian workers. Kennett is even crying foul at federal Labours plans to encourage the Victorian workforce to consider shifting its award protection from the State to the federal arena. All grist for the mill in this unusually important election year. Dawkins stunning flight of imagination Victoria may be plummeting in the credit ratings, and the A may be sinking out of sight, but Australian politicians are scoring top marks for brazenness. Yesterday, the Federal Treasurer, Mr Dawkins who should consider himself a lucky man to have kept his job during the stillunravelling Victorian loans scandal implied that the real fault lies with those who have revealed the truth about Victorias shocking debt shenanigans. Mr Dawkins said that since the news broke of the concealed 3 billion blowout in State debt, yields had risen by 20 points. So the actual cost of Liberal Party posturing is actually coming home to ordinary Victorian taxpayers as they see the Governments interest bill go up, he said. The attack on the secret loan blowout was a Liberal Party stunt, a divisive, destructive stunt. And the Victorian Labor spokesman on Industrial Relations, Mr Jim Kennan, complained yesterday that investors were being scared away from Victoria because of Mr Kennets industrial relations reforms. This is a real tribute to the imaginative powers of Victorias otherwise discredited Labor Party branch, conjuring up images of queues of investors readying themselves to leap aboard the Victorian economy revitalised under a returned Labor administration only to turn back in horror on learning that following the coalition victory they would now be prevented from paying holiday loadings and penalty rates. Mr Dawkinsimaginative effort is even more disconcerting, however. For it raises a stream of questions about quality of Treasury advice, about how the Treasury manipulates its political head, and about how Australia relates to its creditors. As the depth of Victorias problems became apparent after the Kennett Governments election, the ALP attempted to conceal its significance by focusing attention instead on Victorias industrial relations reform. The reform is in itself welcome, but in its present radical form it would not have been politically feasible if the State had not already been in penury. Mr Dawkins appears to believe that demanding honesty in public accounting is tantamount to talking the economy down of which the fall of the A below US69c yesterday may be seen as a further symptom. The very opposite is true. Confidence in data is crucial to market confidence. It is concealment which is bound to come undone sooner or later in an open democratic system that most undermines that confidence. The Treasurer is either naive or desperate to urge collusion on the coalition. Shoot the messenger is the classic guilty response, and in this case the messenger was primarily the Victorian AuditorGeneral, rather than the Liberals. What would Mr Dawkins do with an auditor who attached qualifications to a set of corporate accounts Suggest he was guilty of destroying the company if its shares took a consequent tumble The Treasurer has even resorted, after earlier attempts at explanation, to the Sir Yes, Minister Humphrey defence I was just obeying Treasury advice. The first problem with this is that the advice was misconceived. The Treasury warned that publicly revealing Victorias 3 billion breach of its borrowing limit, distancing the Commonwealth from the States borrowing arrangements, could have adverse market consequences. Thus nothing should be said about it. Further, such a move would force Victoria into a corner without addressing the fundamental problems. Instead, a major concern must be to protect the credibility of the Loan Council arrangements. That is, keep them confidential. It must be said that the Treasury was right in its analysis. The markets have not taken kindly to the news of Victorias woes. But they have exacted an extra measure of punishment because the element of concealment has added an extra measure of risk to the outstanding paper. However, the Treasury was precisely wrong in its prescription do very little, but with heavy breathing stentorian tones. In fact, it is the very degree of the debt that has both energised the new Government in its reform programme and is convincing most Victorians of the need to suffer pain now. It may not be much comfort to the poor Victorians, but the markets are blowing overdue fresh air through the system, which had grown fetid from mountains of unsustainable debt. The complicitous nature of the Treasury line with its implied realpolitik deference to the difficulty a Labor Federal Treasurer might have in exposing the sins of a State counterpart on the eve of a State election emphasises the value of regular changes of government. The second problem with Mr Dawkins Sir Humphrey defence is that he was under no obligation to accept the advice he was given. His release of the Treasurys line does not let him off the hook at all. Indeed, the public interest demanded, in this case, public accountability of an order that Mr Dawkins is only now willing to offer belatedly, after Labor has lost Victoria. The situation is analogous to that of a company breaching its debt covenant to a bank by failing to disclose offbalancesheet items. The repercussions would, rightly, be extremely serious. Such behaviour, when uncovered within the private sector, is frequently condemned as typical of the wayward, spendthrift 1980s against which people are now reacting by insisting on measured Government interventions in the economy. Power games in US Federal Reserve Through the 1970s and 1980s, Arthur Burns and Paul Volcker ran the US Federal Reserve like a personal fiefdom, building immense power and prestige through almost unilateral determination of the nations credit policies. Polls of leading Americans regularly put the Fed chairman as the second most powerful person in the US after the President, and there was little reason to think when Wall Street economist Dr Alan Greenspan took over in 1987 that he would be any less vigorous and visible. But according to a series of US reports, the Fed chairman has recently been outgunned by a hardline antiinflation group among the Feds 12 regional presidents. In October last year Dr Greenspan was reportedly deflected from his desire to cut shortterm interest rates by half a percentage point and the Fed compromised on a far smaller cut, even then only after the White House and Congress confirmed their fiveyear Budget plan. Then, in recent months, hardliners questioned Dr Greenspans use of longstanding precedent to unilaterally cut interest rates as the US recession deepened. The power struggle at the upper levels of the central bank is unresolved, but its consequences could be considerable. |
SAND, SHELL SEA The Green Turtles of Heron Island Sitting on the beach under a half moon we watch and wait. The occasional shadow of a tern flits restlessly across the sand. Waves lap gently only metres away. In a small hole before us, alternatively sleeping and shuffling, lie the objects of our vigil, the tiny pristine forms of baby green turtles. Incubating for around eight weeks in a nest deep in the sand, these turtles have just hatched from their shells. Now, having worked their way up to just below the surface of the sand, they lie stacked atop each other readying themselves for the start of their seaborn life. It is high tide so their beach dash isnt too taxing. Unlike the many hatchlings who make this journey when the sand cools at dusk, these newborns at least run the gamut of predators under the cover of dark. Suddenly, the turtles start to jostle one another more vigorously. Pushed up from below, they erupt forth in one dark gyrating mass. Scrambling furiously, they separate and some 120 baby turtles, flippers digging tenaciously in the sand, propel themselves down the beach. On occasion, some turtles are taken by birds on this initial land leg of their journey. Tonight however, human watchers ensure they all make it to safety, some even flattening the sand into a path along which the hatchlings travel at breakneck speed. Cued by the moonlit horizon, the hatchlings reach the water surprisingly quickly. Plunging in, they are lifted by the waves and it takes only a few strokes to learn how to use their flippers in the one rowing motioin. They disappear from view within a few seconds. Despite their astonishing instinct, survival will be and ongoing battle as more birds, predatory fish, rays and reef sharks await. Only 20 out of a hatch of 110 are likely to survive the swim across the reef lagoon. For the next five days they will swim at great speed, utilising their internalised egg yolk for energy. Only onein 5,000 hatchlings will survive to maturity a lifespan of 10 to 15 years. Of the worlds seven existing species of sea turtle, six are now listed as threatened or endangered, says Dr. Jeff Miller, Principal Conservation Officer with Queenslands Department of Environment and Heritage. They are experiencing a myriad of problems interfacing with human beings. In Australia, sea turtles have been protected since 1968 but in many neighbouring countries adult, young and unborn turtles are still being harvested. In other parts of the world, such as the Cayman Islands, man has wiped out entire populations. The 1994 nesting season saw over 266,750 hatchlings on Heron Island, off the coast of Rockhampton in caption photo Queensland. On one night as many as 110 females made their way up the beach to nest. Along with Capricorn and Bunker Islands, Heron Island is a significant rookery for green turtles and occasionally the loggerhead variety. Added to these species, there is a year round feeding population on the reef. For this reason and the added advantage of its logistical infrastructure the island has a tourist resort and marine research station Heron Island has become one of the main bases for the Queensland Turtle Research Project, headed by zoologist and turtle expert, Dr. Col Limpus. A priority in this research is finding out what Dr. Miller describes as the nonnegotiable aspects of sea turtles lives. To do this their life cycle must first be fully understood. You cant, says Dr. Miller, have good management without a solid base in biology. American zoologist and researcher, Nancy FitzSimmons, who is working on her PHD thesis with the Queensland Turtle Research Project and Dr. Limpus, says, Most of our research is really oriented toward a better management and better understanding so we can conserve them. FitzSimmons says a lot of turtles are killed in prawning nets, shark nets and floating garbage. The propellers of boats also pose a great danger to the creatures. They are international populations and go places where they are harvested. So we have to approach it on a really broad scale, says FitzSimmons. Turtle research involves not only tagging, genetic studies, constant surveying of migratory patterns and breeding and feeding populations, but also liaising with international bodies and research bases. It is genetics in which FitzSimmons specialises. Sitting in the shade of her improvised outdoor laboratory as she takes muscle samples from mutant hatchlings, the initial impression is of work that is far from glamorous. As she speaks though, an intriguing glimpse into the complex life of a turtle is revealed. FitzSimmons explains that a female green turtle will breed only once every 3 to 8 years. She will migrate a vast distance to her nesting beach, may mate with several males and then store the sperm for a number of months during which she lays 5 to 8 clutches of 110 eggs each. If you are going to travel all the way across the Coral Seas, says FitzSimmons, you certainly wouldnt want to mate with a male who didnt have very good sperm, so it makes sense that they would have multiple paternity of clutches. Inset piece If this is the case it has yet to be confirmed that every female has multiple partners0 then it would also assist the species in terms of their diminishing numbers and gene pool. Each time the female mates with several males, she is optimising the genetic diversity of the next generation. FitziImmons has spent most of this years nesting season on Heron Island. She took blood samples from nine females at the start of the season and relocated their eggs. Every time these females have come back to nest, she has tried to find them and relocate their next clutch. As females are accessible to researchers when they nest and repeatedly return to do so often on the same beach, there is much data on them. Less is known about male sea turtles, their migratory patterns and contributions to specific populations. FitzSimmons work will, in part, address this imbalance. Of the mitochondrial DNA, passed down from mother to mother, and the nuclear DNA, passed from both parents via the chromosomes, FitzSimmons is interested in the latter. By looking at a hatchlings nuclear DNA, she is able to ascertain how many males have fertilised each clutch and in what success ratio. FitzSimmons explains how nitochondrial DNA tells us that offspring are coming back to breed in the same region in which they were born. By looking at nuclear DNA instead,she says, I am able to look at the variation that males contribute to offspring as well. It makes good sense that a female would have found a nesting place that works but a male doesnt necessarily have the same traits. Do male offspring also come back to the same region they are born in or do they travel the ocean more widely It is known that many of the hatchlings researched at the moment will not be ready to breed for another 30 to 50 years. However, turtle research goes on. Having come a long way in the past 26 years, research coupled with tourism on Heron Island will ensure that ongoing work will continue to guarantee turtle survival. THE AFRICAN ELEPHANT TO CULL OR NOT TO CULL STORY AND PHOTOGRAPHS BY DAVE PATON photo caption NO ANIMAL HAS STIMULATED MORE HEATED debate within conservation circles than the elephant, for no animal has a greater impact on the environment. Elephants and humans share a parallel lifespan, rate of development, strong family structure and memory that is perhaps superior to our own. The question of how best to manage these animals or if they need to be managed at all evokes very mixed and strong feelings. To complicate the issue even further, ivory means money and, where money is involved, feelings run high. The socalled elephant problem stems from their gregarious nature and feeding habits. Elephants usually congregate in breeding herds which compromise adult females and their associated young including males to the age of puberty, ten to twelve years of age, or bachelor groups of males. Breeding herds may vary from two to 200 animals and are led by the oldest female known as the matriarch. Adult males are frequently found in breeding herds, but they are not a cohesive part of the group. Bachelor groups vary from solitary males to bull herds occasionally numbering up to 50 animals. Problems arise from the impact of the herds feeding habits. Elephants are mega herbivores large animals which eat plants on a massive scale. They are both grazers and browsers and feed on a wide variety of vegetable matter including grasses, leaves, twigs, bark, roots and fruits. They frequently break quite large trees in order to get at the leaves. An adult averages a daily food intake of 250 kilograms. Because of their feeding habits and gregarious nature, elephants have the capacity to excerpt quickly turn dense woodland into open grassland, especially in drought years. Elephants are natures bulldozers. Reduction of natural home ranges in Africa has been a major contributing factor to the elephant problem by leading to excessive densities of animals in localised areas. Other factors include reduced natural mortality, limited hunting pressure and tighter controls of illegal hunting. Elephants do not have effective natural predators, so natural dispersal could have played a major role as a selfregulatory mechanism for the elephant. With the provision of artificial water points and the control of fires, more food is now available to sustain elephant numbers above natural carrying capacities, especially in times of drought. Within a relatively short time, the elephant problem appeared in countries all over Africa which had large elephant populations. One of the best known cases is Tsavo National Park in Kenya. In 1970, with a severe drought and a large population of elephants, Tsavo underwent a radical transformation from woodland to scrub and grassland in a very short time. The authorities decided not to cull elephants to prevent this transformation and nature began to take its own control methods. With a reduction in food supply, birth rates were reduced. By this time food had become so scarce that many animals weakened and retreated to permanent water sources where food was very sparse. Malnutrition, along with declining levels of blood sugar, induced everincreasing lethargy until the elephants became comatose. They laid down, were too weak to get up and the end came quickly enmasse. This is one theory which may explain the legendary myth of the elephant graveyards. More than 9000 mainly female elephants perished in 1970 at Tsavo National Park. With greatly reduced elephant numbers, 20 years on, Tsavo is now slowly regenerating. Culling means killing normally with a rifle. It is not sport. Culling is a serious function of wildlife management. Culling is typically conducted by shooting an entire cow herd starting with the matriarch the dominant female. All animals, including calves are shot. During culling, a suitablysized group of elephants is located from the air and the ground party, of two or three hunters and their assistants, are then guided to the group by radio. Killing is quick and effective and the shooting is usually over within one minute. The killing is done so rapidly that the group does not disperse and the carcasses remain close to each other. The animals are then skinned and butchered. Dried elephant meat biltong is an important component of the rural peoples diet especially in the proteinstarved and tsetseflyinfested parts of Africa. The hide of each animal is removed in panels, stripped of excess flesh and fat, washed, and steeped in a bactericide. The hide is an extremely valuable byproduct of the elephant culling operation more valuable on average, in fact, than the ivory. Additional biological information is collected, eg reproductive status, age, condition and stomach contents, which is adding to the better understanding of the species as a whole. There is a very good reason for killing a whole herd. Firstly, elephants have a very strong family structure and share with humans the same sense of family and death. |
AUSTRALIAS ENDANGERED COAST Dr. Andrew D. Short Director Coastal Studies Unit Department of Geography University of Sydney SYDNEY NSW 2006 Abstract Australia possesses 30,000 km of open coastline with an additional 90,000 km of shoreline lying in more protected estuaries and bays and surrounding the smaller islands. The entire coast is an extremely dynamic environment representing an interaction of the land, sea, air and biota that comprise each coastal system. The sheer size of Australias coast together with the range of climates and oceans to which it is exposed presents a tremendous variety of natural coastal systems and their ecological communities. All of these systems and communities are however geologically very new having adapted to the global warming between 18,000 and 6,500 years ago which saw sealevel rise over 120 m, drowning our continental shelf and forming the new coastline while Australias climates become warmer and wetter. Since the sea level and climates stabilised about 6,000 years ago our coast has been far from stable. During the past 6,000 years major changes continue to occur around the entire Australian coast. In order to understand the present Australian coast we must consider these past and present natural changes together with two new sources of change that threaten the coast namely man and man induced Greenhouse effect. INTRODUCTION Australia is the oldest of the continents with rocks dating back 450 million years and with fossil records of earths earliest life forms. For all but the most recent fraction of its long history, its evolution, movements and change were unobserved and uninfluenced by man. Throughout its evolution Australias coastline has changed dramatically in response to geological force such as plate movements, mountain building and vertical land movements as well as cyclical change in sealevel which has advanced and receded across the ancient shores thousands of times Jenkin, 1984. Most of this was also unobserved by man. The present coastline in contrast is geologically refreshingly young, having formed in Australia as elsewhere within the last 6 to 7,000 years Thom, 1984. Unlike our ancient land surface the formation of the present coast was observed by man. The aborigines would have followed the receding shoreline as sealevel fell to its lowest point 18,000 years ago. At that time the present continental shelf was dry land with the shoreline lying up to 120 m below present sealevel and up to several hundred kilometres seaward of its present location. Sydney Harbour was a deeply incised river valley, flowing to a low straight shoreline 20 km east of the heads. Bass Strait and the Gulf of Carpentaria were dry land as was the north west shelf, Torres Strait and the Great Barrier Reef. However having followed the receding shoreline to its lowest and most distant points the aborigines then retreated as in response to global warming and ice cap melting between 18,000 and 6,000 years ago as sealevel rose over 120 m at a rate averaging l m per century. The aborigines witnessed some of the most rapid and dramatic changes ever to occur to Australias coastline. They lived and moved with these changes utilizing the rich resource of the coastal wetlands, shoreline and ocean. Their sites marked by shell middens occur in abundance around the entire coast, and across northern Australia are still occupied by traditional occupants. When sealevel stabilised between 7 and 6,000 years ago much of the coast did not look like as we see it today, major changes continued and continue to occur. Once again the aborigines coexisted with these changes, that is, until The celebration of our bicentenary at this site two years ago also marked the 200th year of a change in mans appreciation of and utilization of the Australian coastline. 1788 marked the beginning of the second of three phases of man and the coast. The first began when the first inhabitants crossed Torres Strait and ended in 1788, the second extends from 1788 until this decade, the third is the purpose of this conference. In the remainder of this paper I will address each phase in terms of what has happened to the coast during phases 1 and 2, and what might or should happen as we enter phase THE COAST 10,000 YEARS AGO TO 1788 The physical evolution of the present Australian coastline began about 10,000 years ago when sealevel was still about 30 m below present. As sealevel advanced across the continental shelves surrounding Australia it flooded, exhumed and often reworked earlier sedimentary deposits left by the prior fall in sealevel and by rivers, deltas, lakes and soil formation. The nature of these deposits and what happened to them as sealevel rose depended on where they were located. For this exercise Australia can be divided very generally into the northern half and the southern half bisected along a line from the top of North West Cape to the top of Frazer Island. Northern Australia is typified by a warmer, wetter climate resulting in an abundance of rivers and supply of sediment to the coast. The coastline and continental shelf are at their lowest gradient and widest across the north. These same shelves cause the ocean tides to be amplified up to 100 times usually exceeding 3 m and reaching 11 m in the north west. In contrast to tides wave energy is relatively low owing to the low wind velocities and low occurrence of cyclones. The result is a coast which following the stabilization of sealevel 6,000 years ago rapidly filled in the drowned river valleys building substantial deltas and coastal plains fronted by either low energy beaches or tidal flats which are arranged and rearranged by the prevailing waves, tide and winds. Because of the tropical climate a rich coastal ecosystem including mangrove forests and corallinealgae reefs surround much of the coast. The coastline of southern Australia is dramatically different from the north. The climate is drier and cooler resulting in a low and across the south and west coast, often zero supply of continental sediment to the coast. The continental shelf is often steep particularly along the New South Wales, Tasmanian and parts of the south coast. The tides are low, always less than 2 m, whereas the waves are the biggest and most persistent in the world produced by continual cyclonic activity and often accompanied by strong winds. As sealevel rose across southern Australia it also flooded the shelf and valleys, however as it did so on the open coast the waves mobilized the shelf sediments driving them shoreward building beaches and barriers that kept pace with the rising sealevel. At the same time the possibly stronger winds mobilized this beach material blowing it inland as massive coastal dune fields. Even when sealevel was still below present, dunes tens to over 100 meters high were being built well above present sealevel down parts of the entire east coast and across most of the south and west coast up to North West Cape. The beaches and barriers that supplied these early dunes were themselves moved shoreward by the rising sealevel until sealevel stabilized across the south about 6,500 years ago. Once sealevel stabilized, one major cause of instability, the rising sealevel, ceased and with it the coast began to settle down to living with the present sealevel. What has happened since depends on location. In areas exposed to high winds and waves such as the Great Australian Bight and parts of the southwest and southeast coast the waves continued to mobilize the shelf sands moving them offshore, onshore and alongshore. The winds moved the onshore sands further inland as successive coastal dune systems. In these areas this continued until all shelf sediment was depleted resulting in erosion of all or most of the beaches such as along most of the eastern Great Australian Bight and exposed locations around the entire southern coast, including along the Sydney coast. Where sediment is still available it continues to more offshore, alongshore and onshore producing a highly dynamic shoreline. The only relatively stable parts are those where the sand is trapped in headland bound embayments such as many of the Sydney and south New South Wales coast beaches, and in the more protected estuarine systems. The estuaries themselves owe their origin to both the drowning by sealevel and the inability after 6,000 years for the rivers to fill in the drowned valleys. While they are protected they are however evolving as both marine and river sediments slowly infill from either end and as rich ecosystems occupy these favoured sites. Up to 1788 the Australian coast continued to evolve in response to all the above forces as well as the habits of the aboriginals. However their impact in the coastal zone was light and nonexistent deeper than low tide. The evolution and status of the Australian coast up to 1788 can be explained without need to invoke mans interference. THE COAST 17881990 The last 200 years have seen a rapidly and everchanging perspective and utilization of the Australian coast. In 1788 only one part of the Australian coast was of interest to European man, Botany Bay, soon switched for Sydney Harbour. Both are estuaries providing safe anchorage deep estuarine basin, freshwater rivers and streams and arable land flood plains. Every subsequent major Australian settlement chose estuaries the Derwent, the Yarra, the Brisbane, the Swan, the Torrens and so on. In those days the only good part of the Australian coast was a safe part a safe port, and preferably one with water and arable land. The beaches were dangerous and later prohibited, the dunes and barriers were unfertile and worthless, the cliffs only useful for lighthouses. Apart from the short lived and self destructive sealing industry little use was made of nonestuarine areas until this century. Because the estuaries and their ports were so vital for 19th and 20th century maritime Australia nothing stood in the way of their development. Shorelines, tidal flats and sand bars were filled, dredged and reclaimed to build Australian ports. The tidal flats, deltas and floodplains were ideal for growing crops and later industry, housing and airports. The effluent of all went straight into the estuary to hopefully go out with the ebbing tides. When this did not work as in Sydneys case it was piped further to the coastal cliffs at Bondi or as in Melbourne to the Weeribee swamps. During the 19th and particularly the 20th century we have increasingly modified or developed estuaries for shipping, industry, housing and recreation. The remainder of the coast remained relatively pristine until after World War II when the deserted beaches and barrier dunes became an increasingly prime site for our growing leisure time. Coastal housing boomed in Sydney and Melbourne, shacks occupied most of the low South Australian coast coastal camping grounds expanded to caravan parks and small coastal towns to retirement centres the invasion had begun coastal tourism and development took root on the Gold Coast and spiralled upwards and outwards with scores of tourist developments planned and complete now surrounding the coast. All this took place at a time when little was known about the coast, and even if it was it would be ignored, because the impact was development and development was good. We know now that impact means more than development. This is why we are here today. THE COAST 1990 AND BEYOND In this section I would like to look at the present status of the Australian coast the credit and debit side, and address the two biggest threats endangering the coast namely man and potential man induced Greenhouse changes. 1 The present problem It is very easy to prepare a list of all the man made problems around the Australian coast Table 1. They relate to both natural and man induced shoreline erosion such as along the Gold Coast Figure 1a and b, the Adelaide coast Figure 2a and 4, at Portland, Victoria Figure 3a and b, in Sydney Figure 4a and 6 and at Brunswick Heads Figure 5 to storm water and sewerage pollution such as here in Sydney Figure 6 to modification of most coastal ecosystems illustrated in all previous figures and Figure 7 to modification of coastal river catchments by land clearing, farming and dams in most coastal river systems, leading to increased siltation Figure 8 and modified discharge and estuarine salinities. |
down on the farm The farm is not easy to get to at 50 fathoms plus, but it sure is loaded up with critters to harvest. Fred Studden explains his super deep water fishing system. photo caption AS THE DAYS GROW SHORTER and cooler, fishing thoughts turn to the deep water. On my stretch of the coast, deepwater fishing is synonymous with The Farm. The Farm is a stretch of reef running parallel to the coast off Swansea on the nsw lower North Coast. The rather pastoral name comes from the early days when one of the marks used to locate the reef was a distinctive tomato farm on the coast. The light green of the tomato plants stood out from the dark green of the gum trees and made an easily distinguishable mark. Naturally, the spot was know as the Tomato Farm mark, which over the years became simply The Farm. While originally the name referred to only one section of the reef, common usage has expanded the name to generically cover just about all of the deepwater reefs from Swansea to Norah Head. These reefs are in water depths from 90 to 120 metres, and are in fact the old coastline that existed in the last ice age, some 10,000 years ago when the sea level was about 100 metres shallower than it is today. This line of reefs, or more correctly the dropover, is common to most of the coast of nsw and probably exists in many other places. From Swansea the reefs are just under ten nautical miles off the coast, and can be best described by imagining flying along the present coastline at 300 feet, looking down on the headlands, excerpt photo bays and beaches. The reefs are almost a mirror image of the coast, big dropovers, long stretches of gradually shelving sandy bottom, usually directly off coastal beaches and areas of broken reef extending for some distance behind the dropovers. Once past the dropover bottom, which is mud or muddy sand, gradually slopes away until it reaches the edge of the Continental Shelf, 20 to 25 nautical miles further east. This area is know locally as The Desert, which is an apt description, for nothing seems to live there. To fish deep water with some degree of success, requires special techniques or modifications of methods used in the shallower water. Gps has made the fishing of places this far offshore much more practical, as numerous trips in the past were aborted because the coast was obscured by cloud, mist or bushfire smoke. By using accurate compass courses and a reliable distance log it was often possible to find the reefs with little or no visibility, but once you arrived at your chosen spot it was impossible to move from there to another location. Fortunately, all this is in the past, and with a gps plotter stuffed full of waypoints it is possible to move around just as freely at night or in zero visibility as it is on a bright clear day. However, the single most important item of gear for deepwater fishing is not a gps, but a good sounder. Gps will put you onto the reef, but it is the sounder that will tell you if there are any fish there, where they are sitting and, with experience, what sort of fish they caption caption photo photo photo photo caption are. There is an old adage which says you get what you pay for, and this could not be a truer description of sounders for deep water work. The most desirable features for a sounder to be used for this type of fishing are definition, transducer cone angle and, to a lesser degree, output power. Definition is the sounders ability to define and separate small targets from each other and from the bottom. Closely related to definition is bottom expansion or zoom. Even the most moderately priced unit these days will have a zoom facility, which ideally should give a bottom picture section of about thirty metres. Any less than this magnification and it is difficult to see snapper tight on the bottom, any greater magnification and the wave motion of the boat makes the bottom so jagged it is almost impossible to make any sense out of the picture. Snapper are perhaps the most difficult of all fish to see on a sounder. At frequencies normally used in modern sounders, the echo from all fish will be photo largely made up of returns from their air sack, and snapper do not have a very large sack compared to other species. Also, snapper do not school up close together like baitfish, for the snapper is usually the predator not the prey. All of this makes them difficult to find on a sounder trace. A feature of many of the more sophisticated sounders is bottom lock. True bottom lock is the electronic feature which straightens out the bottom, displaying it as a straight line regardless of hills, hollows or waves. The only things which shows above the straight bottom line are fish. With no wave action to worry about, magnifications of as little as ten metres are possible, and practical. But while I find bottom lock great for detecting fish, it is difficult to identify species because the very electronic manipulation which makes it possible to have bottom lock seems to distorts the fish echoes and makes them difficult to sort out. Cone angle is the angle sound spreads out to when it comes from the transducer, rather like the beam of light from a flashlight. At 200 KHz the common frequency for most sounders, a excerpt photo narrow cone angle is considered to be 10 degrees or less, and a wide angle is about 20 degrees. A narrow cone angle in deep water is important for two reason. Firstly a wide angle cone spreads the signal over a very large area, about the area of a 20 metre circle at 100 metres, and thus the signal strength is greatly reduced and the echo return is weak. Fish displayed on the sounder screen could be anywhere in that 20 metre circle, not necessarily directly under the boat. With a narrow cone angle the probability of a strong echo return is dramatically improved and accurate positioning over fish is now possible. While the two factors of definition and cone angle are of utmost importance to sounder performance, output power will also have a bearing on effectiveness. Obviously, the unit must have enough power to sound to these depths, and unfortunately, many of the cheaper units will simply not do this. In fact, many are struggling at 30 metres. Published performance figures need careful scrutiny, units with an advertised depth capacity of 600 feet have a rider in small print saying under good conditions. One would have to presume that these good conditions are gin clear water with a mirror smooth sea, for most of these units will, in average practical fishing conditions, not sound to one quarter of this depth. Unfortunately, we seldom fish in good conditions. The best advise is to seek out a fishing mate who uses a sounder in these depths and can recommend a set, or go to a reputable dealer who has tested various sounders for performance in deep water. In the early days I used a Lowrance X15 graph sounder fitted with a narrow cone angle transducer nine degrees, and now use a jrcjfc850 colour video, excerpt dual frequency unit with a 10 degree cone angle on the KHz. This is a superb unit giving high definition and a clean bright picture. Next to finding fish the most important part is to anchor over them, and this can often be the most frustrating part of coming to grips with fishing deep water. Even the most experienced skipper will have days when nothing will go right, when after three or four attempts he will still not be just where he wants to be positioned. The first rule of anchoring in 100 metre plus water, is to have plenty of chain on the anchor four metres of 8mm chain is minium, and five metres is not too much. The second rule is to have plenty of anchor rope, at least 300 metres, but half as much again is a good rule of thumb. I use 8mm silver rope for my boat, a 5m Broadbill, which is heaps strong enough and fairly easy to handle. Storing so much rope can be a problem, and we use the bow rope system, which means we anchor and retrieve all from within the cockpit storing the rope, anchor and chain, in one of the large Nally fish boxes. For most things I do in the boat I work to a set pattern or sequence and I can explain this easily to other people, but with anchoring I find it to be instinctive and almost impossible to put into words. The key in knowing just how far to go ahead of the spot you are going to fish, and in what direction. In deep water the distance will be at least 100 metres, a lot more in windy conditions. It is of prime importance that the anchor and chain reaches the bottom before the boat starts to drift back and pull on the anchor, for in this depth and with so much anchor line out, the anchor will be lifted off the bottom or pulled along at a sharp angle which makes it almost impossible to hook in. We achieve this aim by going a little further into the wind and then turning the boat to be facing down wind and moving very slowly in that direction. The anchor is put over and the chain stretched out. The idea is to get the anchor to sink down towards the bottom in exactly the position is will lay when the boat takes up the slack rope. To ensure the anchor and chain will sink in the right configuration, I slowly circle the sinking anchor while the crew usually my wife, Yvonne, throws rope out of the box onto the water surface. With the boat slowly circling over the sinking anchor it is possible to see when the anchor reaches the bottom by noting when the rope is no longer pulled down. Silver rope floats and it now becomes a simple matter to lay out on the surface the right amount of rope to take you back over the right spot. The hard part is estimating how far to go up into the wind and how much rope to lay out. When learning this system it caption diagram is better to go too far into the wind, rather than not far enough, and then let plenty of rope out, With plenty of scope on the anchor you can take in or let out rope to fine tune your position. Many times, in fact I would say most times, there is a current of some sort and this will skew the boat and stop it from laying true to the wind. If you are only off the mark a little it may be possible to swing across by tying the rope off at an angle to the bow, a procedure called using a swing rope, but most times it means retrieving the anchor and starting all over again. However, before you do, note the compass bearing the boat is actually laying so next time you can use this bearing to steer to find the correct spot to drop the anchor. If you are using a GPS plotter, and have marked the spot on the screen where you dropped the anchor, this will prove invaluable as a reference point to work from for a correct drop. Pulling up by hand 200 to 300 metres of rope with an anchor and 4 metres of chain from 100 metres of water, is only for a masochist and those looking for a heart attack. The buoy system is simple and uses the boats motor to do all the hard work. |
Abstract Producing production quality information systems from conceptual descriptions is a time consuming process that employs many of the worlds programmers. Although most of this programming is fairly routine, the process has not been amenable to simple automation because conceptual models do not provide sufficient parameters to make all the implementation decisions that are required, and numerous special cases arise in practice. Most commercial CASE tools address these problems by essentially implementing a waterfall model in which the development proceeds from analysis through design, layout and coding phases in a partially automated manner, but the analystprogrammer must heavily edit each intermediate stage. This paper demonstrates that by recognizing the nature of information systems, it is possible to specify applications completely using a conceptual model that has been annotated with additional parameters that guide automated implementation. More importantly, it will be argued that a manageable number of annotations are sufficient to implement realistic applications, and an architecture will be described that enabled the authors commercial CASE tool, the Intelligent Developer to automated implementation without requiring complex theorem proving technology. Apart from addressing the problem of maintaining systems developed using a waterfall model, this approach makes it feasible to build conceptual libraries that reduce the interactions when reused modules are combined, and can also enable more sophisticated end users to tailor applications in a controlled manner. Keywords Information Systems, Conceptual Models, CASE, Extended NIAM, Reuse, User Interface Design 1 INTRODUCTION There has been considerable research into the development of sophisticated techniques that capture abstract requirements and refine them into functional prototypes. Good examples include the programmers apprentice Reubenstein and Waters 91 which is concerned with resolving informal descriptions that are ambiguous, inconsistent and incomplete by referencing a library of reusable clicheacutes, and the Daida project Jarke et al. 92 which uses advanced knowledge representation techniques Telos to capture general requirements and map them to conceptual and implementation descriptions. Daida also uses a general system of nonfunctional goals to determine optimum implementations. Both of these systems describe transactions using first order logic which requires advanced theorem proving technology. While designing detailed conceptual models may require human like intelligence that is difficult to reproduce, much of the cost of developing applications using conventional CASE technology is incurred in the writing and maintenance of 4GL code and end user documentation that implements these models. Tools such as Oracle 91, or described in Ovum 92 effectively implement a waterfall model in which tools partially automate the mapping from conceptual to logical models and then 4GL code, but the programmeranalyst must extensively edit each intermediate stage. This is an expensive process and makes the resultant applications difficult to maintain. This paper argues that by recognizing the limited types of operations that are commonly performed by information systems, it is possible to largely automate the implementation of production quality applications from annotated conceptual models using well understood reasoning technologies. As well as reducing the cost of implementing and maintaining information systems, this technology enables reusable conceptual library modules to be constructed and can also be used to empower more sophisticated end users to tailor information systems to suit e their individual needs in a well defined manner. The next section describes the types of decisions that need to be made, how rules can be used to automate them, and mechanisms to handle exceptions. The IFIP conference example IFIP 82 will then be used to give examples of specific annotations. Conceptual libraries will be introduced followed by techniques to manage potentially cluttered conceptual schemas. User editable schemas are discussed after an architecture to manage the rules has been described. 2 Decisions, Rules and Annotations The decisions that are required to implement information systems may be classified in terms of where they would be made in a waterfall model, which include bullet Generating Relational Schemas When denormalizations should be introduced whether derived facts attributes should be evaluated eagerly or lazily whether constraints should be maintained in the applications or an active database how data should be distributed over a network. bullet Outlining User Interfaces How many user interfaces there should be and the scope of each one determining which attributes should be manipulated together controlling end user access to sensitive data. bullet Detailing User Interfaces How many windows should be used how should the fields be laid out within each window which widgets1 should be used for each field how can nonform interfaces be used. bullet 4GL Coding How to code unclassified business rules and special cases. Many of these decisions can be made on the basis of well defined rules. For example, the decision to select an appropriate widget largely depends on the number of valid values a field may have a ding bat is good for two alternatives, radio buttons for up to four, thereafter a conventional text field is more appropriate. Another rule states that when a screen includes a foreign key, the attributes that identify the foreign entity to a user ie. the Descriptive ones should also be displayed if there is sufficient room. For example, students names would normally be displayed next to their number on a class list, rather than their age, say. At the relational level, the use of keyword tables to allow efficient searches for words within strings is a common reason to introduce denormalizations.2 The decision to use one could be made by the following rule If a column is used for subword searching, And the number of rows is greaterequal to 500, And searching is at least four times more common than updating, And this column is often used as the sole search criteria Then create a keyword table. Conceptual schemas and dynamic models provide the base parameters required by the rules. Some parameters such as an attributes data type form part of most modelling techniques while others may be introduced to the models using additional Annotations. Typical annotations indicate which attributes Describe foreign keys, how and when derived attributes are calculated, and when keyword searching is useful. Annotations can be loosely classified in terms of their conceptual purity as follows bullet Conceptual Constraints that are part of a NIAM model, such as uniqueness and exclusion constraints. bullet Conceptual Parameters that are independent of specific implementation techniques, but do not directly affect conceptual semantics. Examples include specifying which attributes are Descriptive, which uniqueness constraint defines the primary key, or whether a subtype is collapsible.3 bullet Overrides to the standard rules. These can be quite specific, for example, to specify that a particular attribute on a specific interface should be represented using radio buttons rather than the default ding bat. bullet Ad Hoc 4GL Code that can be attached to any attribute or interface. This classification is orthogonal to the waterfall approach used for decisions, and the more conceptual annotations may be used by several decisions. For example, an enumeration of the valid values an attribute may contain requires an integrity constraint to be created during table definition while also affecting the widget used in the user interface. While implementation rules can produce useful prototypes directly from Conceptual Constraints and Parameters, Override and Ad Hoc Code annotations enable analystprogrammers to override rules or to add arbitrary procedural extensions when developing production quality applications. Unusual modules could require numerous annotations,4 but in practice most modules either require no annotations or have specific, minor idiosyncrasies. Specifying these idiosyncrasies with impure annotations at the conceptual level is undesirable, but when the need arises it is much easier to maintain a few lines of ad hoc annotations in a conceptual model than to find and understand the few changed lines interspersed amongst hundreds of lines of generated 4GL code produced by a waterfall approach. Moreover, if the schema changes in ways unrelated to the overrides, the complete 4GL program can be easily regenerated.5 The effectiveness of this approach is dependent upon the ability of a manageable number of conceptual annotations to provide significant automation. If new special case annotations were required to effectively implement each new application module, the problem of designing a conceptual model would degenerate into that of understanding the meaning of innumerable different annotations. The authors experience with the Intelligent Developer ID Berglas 93b BHA 92, a commercial 4GL generator, shows that the following types of requirements account for the majority of 4GL code bullet Enabling rows to be selected, edited and reported within the basic relational structure. This is usually achieved through forms oriented interfaces that process related tables, with most of each forms fields corresponding directly to columns in the database. Complications include using nonstandard indexing systems such as keyword tables, and looking up Descriptive values for foreign keys. bullet Making salient derived data conveniently available, such as totals of detail rows. This is similar to the functionality provided by conventional views, but there are subtleties such as deciding whether to use lazy or eager evaluation, and if eager the use of delta rules6, or perhaps the derived data is a default that can be overridden. bullet Different users have different access to sensitive data. This is also similar to views whose queries can relate the accessed data to user profiles, but additional details need to be addressed, such as telling a user that they have no access rather than just pretending a row does not exist. bullet Triggering rules based on specific state transitions in a dynamic model. bullet Producing elegant user interfaces. This involves connecting windows together, providing convenient default values, context sensitive help, and designing reasonable form layouts. The types of requirements are limited because most of the processing involved in an information system can be described in terms of accessing, updating or disseminating the information that they contain using standard algorithms contained within a database manager. Most constraints on the data are of a standard type, such as referential integrity and uniqueness, while simple finite state machines can be used to provide dynamic constraints and trigger actions upon state transitions. The dozen specific types of annotations described in the following sections account for most individual annotations used in practice because they correspond to these requirements. Further, the data centred approach makes it unnecessary to detail many transactions such as Enroll a new student if they mainly involve accessing and editing data subject to constraints, in this case editing details about each student. By capturing common constraints and implying basic transactions, annotations reduce the need for formal specifications using languages like TaxisDL part of Daida. It is acceptable to specify remaining Ad Hoc definitions procedurally because there are not many of them in an information system, so the limitations of technologies that automatically refine formal specifications into production quality applications can be circumvented. 3 The IFIP Example The IFIP example defines an information system for managing conferences. Authors submit papers, which may have been invited to conferences. The information system should keep track of papers and authors, allocate the referees, produce exception reports of overdue papers etc. A typical Intelligent Developer style user interface is shown in figure 1, which could be used to submit papers. The user enters the Paper Nr of an existing paper, or creates a new paper record by allowing it to default to the next available number. When the ID of the conference being submitted to is entered the conference Name is shown to the user. The papers Title, Subjects and Authors may then be entered, the latter in scrolling regions. An acknowledgment is sent to the first author once the paper has been logged. If the user does not know the Conference ID, they may press the Select key to pop up the conference selection window shown in figure Conferences may then be selected by entering a fragment of a conference name or a period during which one may have been held. Although these interfaces are fairly simple and have a common structure, they take hundreds of lines to implement properly in a conventional 4GL. Figure 3 shows part of the corresponding NIAM or Object Role Modelling conceptual schema Nijssen and Halpin 89 or Halpin and Orlowska 91. Entities are circled, and facts, the relationship between them, are represented as rectangles. |
Question 4 the Australian workplace industrial relations survey The Australian Workplace Industrial Relations Survey awirs was a much need piece of research to fill the gaps in the understanding of how Australian workplaces are structed and operate. This is particularly so in the current climate where the trend is towards a workplace focus for Industrial Relations ir. The study encompassed a broad spectrum of industries, sectors and firm sizes where previous studies had been typically industry based. The survey examined first the characteristics of Australian workplaces with classification based on the traditional industry, size and sector groupings. Findings of note under this first pass investigation were included dash The degree of unionisation contrasts between large and smaller firms large firms being more highly unionised. dashThe contrast in degree of unionisation between the public and private sectors public being higher. dashThe different union densities in different industries with higher densities for example in mining and manufacturing and lower in retail, tourism and agriculture. dashThe trend towards declining union density was noted across the board. dashThe relative industrial peace, with a large proportion of workplaces never experiencing a strike action. The study moved on to examine the organisation of industrial relations at the workplace. The organisation of management, unions and the interaction between them in the industrial relations arena were examined. It was concluded in terms of management that managers are significantly influenced and restricted by corporate headquarters when the workplace is merely a division of a larger company. Management at the workplace was found to often be restricted by a lack of autonomy to conduct relations with employees and unions at the workplace level. awirs discovered that a large number of Australian socalled unionised workplaces lack a union delegate. It was also found that were such delegates exist they spend a majority of time dealing with individual issues rather than employeeunion business. The union was found not to be the line of communication between employee employer as usually expected. The level of interaction was found to be relatively low between union and management at the workplace level, further reinforcing the above point regarding lines of communication. External influences such as senior management, union officials, the Arbitrain Industrial Relations Commission and government were found to significantly influence the industrial relations interaction and agenda at the workplace. The awirs noted similarities in the nature of industrial relations between workplaces in different industries, sectors and in firms of various size. An alternative classification system was developed so that such firms could be grouped together. The classifications proposed were i Informal ii Unstructured Inactive iii Structured Inactive iv Reactive Bargainers v Active Bargainers. It was found that the majority of Australian workplaces fall into groups ii or iv. Such a more purposeful classification allows policy implications to be more easily considered in terms of types of workplaces rather than by incorrectly considering industry, sector or size groupings The awirs challenged a number of traditional assumptions about Australian industrial relations. An important finding was the extent of external influence on industrial relations. There is relatively little experience and expertise at the workplace level in both management and employeeunion camps. Therefore the assumption that we are ready for workplace bargaining and that it will be a magic pudding solution to improving our workplaces must be questioned. The survey highlighted that unions are not necessarily the main line of communication between employee and management. This relates to the question of union relevancy and the declining union density. It suggests that union effectiveness at the workplace level can be improved. The myth that Australia is a strikeridden country was dispelled by the survey. A significant proportion of workplaces had experienced little or no strike action. A significant number of overaward payments, other agreements and management practises that are outside the award system were uncovered. This questions the assumption that there is no flexibility or bargaining possible within the centralised system. Finally it was noted that a significant proportion of managers believed that there were a range of other impediments restricting their ability to implement workplace reforms and improve efficiency that were of more significance than industrial relations eg capital shortages, trade barriers, autonomy etc. The awirs will form an important basis for future policy making and further research into the Australian workplace. It has certainly raised a number of questions and challenged some long held myths. Question 1 technological change The last ten years have seen unprecedented contextual change in Australian industrial relations. Economic, political, social and technological change have all been rapid and significant in proportion. The latter of these, technological change has presented a major challenge to managers, unions and employees across a broad range of the Australian workplaces, from services to manufacturing to mining and others. Technology, in this context, is considered to represent the information, skills and experience to improve the methods by which we produce goods and services. It requires the scientific knowhow, the engineering ability to put this knowhow into action and the management capacity to organise the production operation. Clearly then, as we shall see later, the key to technological advancement is going to be the transfer of this knowledge, skills and experience amongst the workforce. The traditional union view, particularly in the 1970s, was been that technology wa not in the workers interest. It was thought to alienate the worker, reducing jobs, skill levels, working conditions and job satisfaction. Not surprisingly management view was traditionally to opposite. They held that technology brings more jobs, increased pay, more job satisfaction and increased skills levels. Where does one go from here other than conflict However, during the 1980s, and especially since the mid 80s, the union movement has, as part of its new unionism, economically responsible attitude, changed its view to a more favourable outlook on new technology. The actu has promoted the benefits of technology such as better job satisfaction, higher pay, more leisure time etc. This promotion is qualified by the need for management to consult and cooperate with unions in order to implement the technology in a way that will minimise disruption and maximise benefit to the employees. Any benefits, they believe, should be shared between the employer and employees. This need for consultation and was recognised by the Australian Industrial Relations Commission then Conciliation Arbitration Commission in what is known as their Termination, Change and Redundancy Decision in This decision required management to consult with the unions prior to implementation of technological change. Similar requirements are now built into federal and state awards. It is noteworthy, however, that such awards only require consultation prior to implementation. By this point the decision has usually been made. In general the implementation of technology at the Australian workplace, and therefore the adaptation by unions and management, has been impressive over the last ten years. A prime example is the Australian telecommunications industry where there has been rapid technological advances with little industrial unrest. Telecom have reached an agreement with workers and unions whereby the broad focus of issues is considered in the implementation of technology. Such issues include job satisfaction, customer and service and very importantly staff training as well as many others. Perhaps the areas where additional effort may be focussed in the years to come when implementing new technology are consultation and training. Consultation with the union movement at the early decision stage is quite often not a natural measure for management but can be highly effective in generating general acceptance of the proposal and efficient implementation methods. Providing the appropriate training for staff not only maximises the efficiency of the technology but improves job satisfaction and the whole host of benefits that go with it. Technology will be a lynch pin in the economic development of Australian industry. Smooth and efficient implementation is vital. The union attitude is favourable, it is now up to management to take the appropriate steps to take advantage of and maintain this opportunity. Question 2 the accord The Accord agreements have been central to alp policy over the past ten years. Following the recent election result it appears that they will continue to remain central to Australian policy also. The strengths of the Accord have been put forward by the union movement and alp consistently over the past ten years. The strengths have remained the same as the focus of the Accord has been consistent throughout that time. The Accord provides an incomes policy mechanism for the government. As such it provides an additional economic lever to help fight inflation. In fact, in 1982 when the first Accord was drafted it was intended as a means to fight inflation and unemployment at the same time. The Accord used the centralised industrial relations system to provide wage restraint through National Wage Case Decisions. This method, however, fell apart in the 1991 when a strong disagreement saw the airc refuse to support the Accord proposals. The future methods of implementing across the board wage policy is therefore under some doubt. The Accord has been a vehicle for dramatic social reform. By trading off wage increases the union movement has been able to achieve significant items on the social reform agenda. The union movement would argue that a strength of the Accord is that it gives the unions a voice in government. As Simon Crean said in his address to the 1989 actu Congress The Accord trades wages restraint for a voice in government . This is seen as particularly importance to the union movement following the experiences of declining standard of living throughout the 1970s. The Accord does have significant acceptance throughout Australia, both from unions and employers. It provides stability and there is a reluctance to switch to the more frantic negotiation necessary if a totally decentralised system were adopted. The Accord has been criticised by employer groups and the Liberal National Coalition Parties. It has been argued that although real wages have fallen wage indexation has led to excessive growth in money wages. They argue that the Accord provides too rigid a structure and that it inhibits the flexibility required to improve productivity at our workplaces. Centralised wage outcomes lack consideration of individual industry and company needs. Further criticisms by employer organisation and coalition parties include that it provides too much union power and that the jobs growth achieved is unsustainable. The Accord has also been criticised from within the union movement. Left wing factions believe that the Accord has overly restrained unions and reduced them to a monitoring and policing role. They also criticise the reduction in real wage levels it has brought about. There have been significant achievements under the Accord. On the economics side of the ledger one can consider the jobs growth throughout the 80s and the wage restraint a 10 reduction in real wages. It is argued that this has been central in the reduction of our inflation rate. However, claims of this nature are difficult to assess as a benchmark is not readily available other than other oecd countries. Undisputable are the enormous social gains achieved by the Accord. Womens issues, immigrants and social security provisions as well as superannuation have been dramatically reformed. QUESTION 1 The impact of technological change on Industrial Relations over the last 10 years has been profound. Technology has impacted on the workplace in the following areas a Improved production processes and technology have driven the costs down of manufactured items causing increasing competition in the global marketplace. The impact for IR is that we given that the Australian economy has been deregulated and we are now part of the global marketplace we must strive for productivity increases to compete. b Robotics and increasingly sophisticated machinery has revolutionised job roles in manufacturing industry. The impact on IR is that we now require a higher skill level of both worker and manager at the workplace. c There has been an increasing variation in types of materials used. The impact for IR is the requirement to ensure that Occupational Health and Safety is maintained at high levels and that sufficent training is given. |
18 Kimberley Avenue Lane Cove NSW 2066 25 October 1994 Dear Tony and Lorraine Thank you for your recent letter with the news of your activities you both are keeping very busy, which makes the days fly, as we remember from our more active days. We have sent off to HK with this letter a tape that is probably the best we have sent over it contains the movie Strictly Ballroom, which was on tele two nights ago and from which Pamela edited all of the commercials there must have been more commercials in length than film footage as they appeared. She was up and down like a brides nightie Allan had to put that in, as he couldnt recall hearing it before Sunday, when we had lunch at Paddy and Annes. We hope you wont be shocked, Lorraine, at such vulgarity And we hope you enjoy the movie. Also on the tape is part of Thats Entertainment, which we know you will enjoy just as much. Its quite nostalgic, and we loved it. You may recall in our last letter we told you about the kerfuffle the NRMA is going through. Well, the latest development is that the Federal Court found in favour of the NO directors, with costs, and agreed that the ballot paper was unfair in that it propagandized the YES vote and didnt give equal prominence to the NO vote. Of course the YES Directors are appealing against that decision. It has all cost the Association about 30 million so far, and looks like costing a few millions more before the YES Directors and their mates get their sticky fingers into the NRMA till, which in our view is what its all about. Some six months or so ago Allan was driving Pamela to her favourite bread shop at Chatswood. He stopped in a No Stopping zone at the end of the deadend street, let Pamela out of the car, and watched while she safely negotiated the cobbled walkway to the smoother surface of the plaza, then drove 50 metres or so back down the street to a vacant parking space, where he waited for her to return. While he was waiting, he noticed a Parking Officer walk past his car down the street, cross to the other side, and come back up again. He was a bit puzzled about this strange behaviour, but his puzzlement evaporated when two days later he received a 115 fine for stopping in a No Stopping zone. He paid the fine, as he had stopped in the zone, albeit for about two minutes, but after stewing about it for a few days, wrote a letter of protest to the North Shore Times, which was published, and after stewing for a few more days, decided to write to the Minister, Terry Griffiths, complaining about the Parking Officers conduct, and suggesting that the officer should be counselled. Anyway, to cut a long and boring story short, several exchanges of correspondence took place, with the Minister adopting an unsympathetic and totally negative attitude, which absolutely enraged Allan. So you will not be surprised that when Griffiths was more or less forced to resign from his position for having made repeated sexual advances to his female staff, Allan thought it would be appropriate to write him a brief note as follows You can imagine how pleased I was to learn of your resignation in disgrace from the hallowed office of Minister for Police, and how avidly I followed each denouement as you wriggled and squirmed in your futile attempts to extricate yourself from the situation in which you had landed yourself. My belief in the law of natural justice has now been reestablished. Todays Herald featured Griffiths again, with a prepublication story on the report by Carmel Niland on the matter of his sexual harassment of his staff, and with Fahey saying I no longer consider Mr Griffiths should remain a member of my team. So as you can imagine, its all happening, with us feeling no sorrow at all. Incidentally, Allan has since observed that it is impossible for a vehicle to turn around at the end of the deadend street without stopping in the No Stopping zone, reversing, and driving out, so logically, without a timeframe, the prohibition is senseless, and should really be changed to No Standing. But apart from thatdotted line Incidentally, Pamela has suggested we enclose a special Australian newspaper supplement on the Liberal Partys 50th birthday for you, Tony, as she thought you might be interested in reading it. So it will be in the cassette. Jan and young Matthew are evidently doing OK, as evinced from phonecalls Pamela has made we havent visited them yet, as we thought shed need some time to resettle herself and get organized. But apart from the above, theres no news, so with love and best wishes, well sign off and prepare this for mailing. Pamela Allan 18 Kimberley Avenue Lane Cove 2066 Australia 20 April 1994 Dear Tony and Lorraine, Just a brief note to accompany the next two episodes of the infamous House of Elliott herewith. Also on the tape to fill it up is the ABC news of the 19th April. We cant remember if theres anything startling on it apart from the MLA from the Blue Mountains being accused of making bomb threats the cops are also investigating whether he might be the perpetrator of a bombexplosion up there some time before. Also, wrapped around the cassette is a newspaper story about where you live we thought you might like to compare notes. We have been enjoying the most beautiful weather lately almost of the summer variety dotted line beautiful clear skies, fluffy clouds, and temperatures around the 23C mark. Great golf weather, Tony, were sure youd love a game Allan has been playing his regular Wednesday and Friday games at Moore Park, and is pleased to announce that he is out of the doldrums with his game which were sure will fascinate you. Minna is here at home right now shes come to pick up Pamela to take her to town for a leisurely dinner and to the ballet at the Opera House after that. Minna sends her fondest regards to you both, and hopes you are well and happy in the service, as do the writers of this epistle. Incidentally, thank you for your postcard advising that you have received the video via HK you might let us know if via HK is the way to send them, or should they be sent direct to Shanghai Pending your advice, well send them via HK. All the best to you both from sunny Lane Cove. Love from Pamela Allan 18 Kimberley Avenue Lane Cove NSW 2066 Australia 23 January 1994 Dear Tony and Lorraine, We suppose that you have been reading about the bushfires around Sydney, and perhaps seeing them on television, with scenes of leaping flames and firefighters trying to combat them and perhaps you were wondering whether the Grant family had been affected by them Fortunately the bushfires never came closer than a couple of kilometres to our house, and we were never reallyin any danger. Some of our friends were, though, and they described the 30metre walls of flame threatening their homes in spinechilling detail though fortunately the fire was subdued by the firemen in time to save their properties. Bruce Hamilton, whom you of course know, took Allan for a drive around his River Avenue, Lane Cove environs when it was all over, and the sight of the blackened ruins that the week before had been happy households was very sobering indeed. So the next day Allan took our chainsaw down to Bruces place, and they cleared a lot of the useless but dangerous shrubbery from around his house. That same weekend Bruce and Allan went up to Bruces riverside property at Wisemans Ferry to see what, if any, damage had been caused there by the fires, but luckily the fires had not been near his 20hectare holding. He has no buildings on the land, which consists of ten hectares of sandy and grassy river flat and ten hectares of fairly heavily timbered mountainside, and he would have been very disappointed if the fire had burned it all to ashes, particularly the river flat, on which he has planted about two hundred flowering trees which are very immature. Some of the nearby properties had been absolutely ravaged by the fires the scenes were of blackened desolation, with not a speck of greenery, nor an insect, nor a bird anywhere to be seen. They went home that day two very subdued men, we can assure you. What with Frances torrential rains, floods and ice, Californias awful earthquakes and our dreadful bushfires, and the wars that are going on here and there over the world, things are not very pleasant these days, are they They must get better, surely To now write of more pleasant things on Tuesday last it is now Friday, Pamela and I and our good friends Paddy and Anne decided that it would be a good idea to catch a ferry from Circular Quay and go to Parramatta it was Pamelas idea, actually, as we reminded her several times later, have a pleasant lunch there, and return to Circular Quay via the ferry. After all, we agreed, we never travel by public transport, and have never enjoyed the pleasures of doing lunch at sunny Parramatta the river should be picturesque the weather was fine and sunny and all that sort of thing. So we met at Circular Quay, bought our return tickets for the journey, and boarded the sleek Rivercat, along with what appeared to be the rest of the population of Sydney with their squalling brats. We were lucky enough to get four seats adjoining a window, and after a while the Cat took off, passing by the Opera House to the accompaniment of the tourists Oohs and Aahs, then moving under the Bridge and up the Parramatta River towards our destination. At first the scenery was quite pleasant, with palatial homes lining the river, and here and there treeclad parks and swards but the further we went the more ordinary it became, with disused factories and Government buildings, then stretches of mangroves, with the river gradually narrowing and becoming more and more prosaic. But all in all it was pleasant enough, until over the public address system came the unpleasant news that all passengers must disembark at Parramatta and return to the city by train as the ferry we were on would be filled by passengers who had been waiting an hour on the wharf for their return trip and the ferry that was supposed to take us back had broken down and would not be fixed for some hours. What a disaster we thought. But then we told ourselves that it had been some years since we had travelled by electric train, and that it would be quite an adventure anyway, and besides we had no option, did we so we agreed to go back to Circular Quay by train and have lunch there. Thereupon we climbed aboard the waiting bus that would take us to the station, which it did and we caught a train, which was covered with graffiti, including the seats, and which passed through suburbs whose buildings next to the lines were also covered with graffiti. Our middleclass souls were horrified by all of this, of course, but we agreed that this was the way the world was, and we had to accept it, having no option. After all, we said, prehistoric cave art was another form of graffiti, wasnt it and perhaps in 50 000 years people would pay real money to see todays graffiti I dont think we really convinced ourselves of this, actually. Anyway, after a change of trains we arrived back at Circular Quay to our relief there was no graffiti on the Opera House as far as we could see, where we went to an excellent little Italian restaurant and enjoyed a very tasty lunch. |
121m offer for Austereo inadequate By Simon Evans Directors of radio network Austereo Ltds board of directors have labelled the 121 million takeover bid by entertainment group Village Roadshow as inadequate despite its substantial premium to the issue price of the shares. Village, which operates the Triple M network, launched its takeover bid on Friday night with a 20 per share cash bid for Austereo, which listed on the Australian Stock Exchange in July following a 62 million float at 90c a share. Austereo chairman Bill Cooper said yesterday that Villages proposed offer was clearly inadequate, especially in light of the recent takeover offer by Australian Provincial Newspapers for Wesgo Ltd. APN launched a 106 million bid on September 12 for Wesgo, which operates eight radio stations in the eastern states. Austereo comprehensively leads Villages Triple M network in all the key indices in which broadcasting is judged audience delivery, revenue and trading profitability, Mr Cooper said. Village said its bid for Austereo is subject to approval by the Trade Practices Commission and is conditional on it gaining 1 per cent. Austereo shares closed on Friday at Mr Cooper said Austereo shareholders should take no action, pending receipt of formal offer documentation from Village. Austereo managing director Paul Thompson said yesterday the Village offer ignored four key issues. They were Austereos leadership in broadcasting, its plans to develop a second national network to complement its existing successful network, the potential for developing business in emerging technologies such as pay television and the value of synergies available to Village in any merger of the two companies assets. Speculation that Village would make a bid heightened about ten days when it revealed it had snapped up 1 per cent of Austereo to become its secondlargest shareholder. But last Thursday Austereo announced that British media company Associated Newspapers Holdings had taken a 10 per cent stake in the company following an 5 million share placement by the Adelaidebased broadcaster. The placement was widely viewed as a defensive strategy by Austereo. Mr Thompson said he expected that ANH would make a formal statement abut its position some time this week. Trade Practices Commission chairman Professor Alan Fels said on Friday night the TPC had been notified about the bid and it had been agreed that if the bid was successful Austereos GOLD104 station in Melbourne would have to be sold by Village. Austereo owns SAFM in Adelaide, 2DAYFM in Sydney, FOXFM and GOLD104 in Melbourne, B105FM in Brisbane and FM7 and 2CA in Canberra. US inflation fears spark new round of money market hysteria Bond selling wave By DAVID LUFF USfed inflation hysteria has jolted the Australian bond market again, prompting resignation that yields would climb to 11 per cent before Christmas. The pressure on Australian bond markets intensified further yesterday, with long bond yields now firmly entrenched above 10 per cent. Commonwealth 10year bond yields rocketed as high as 27 per cent before a late afternoon recovery pushed the mark to 08 per cent at the close. Yields closed 20 basis points higher on Fridays 93 per cent finish. The pressure on bonds was not restricted to the long end.Threeyear Commonwealth bond yields closed at 63 per cent, advancing on Fridays close of 50 per cent. Further 90day bank bill yields jumped sharply, leaping to 96 per cent from 91 per cent on Friday. The bondmarket selloff registered some collateral damage on the stockmarket. The markets All Ordinaries index staggered 9 points lower yesterday to finish at Most of the backlash came from worsethanexpected inflation statistics on Friday night which infected the US bond market before spilling over to the local scene. A fiveyear high for capacity utilisation data in August 7 per cent compared with a forecast 84 per cent inflamed fears of an inflation jump and triggered a frenzied selloff of US bonds. As expected, the Australian market mirrored the rout, but local bonds were punished more than their US counterparts. Citibank senior economist Stephen Koukoulas said Australias contribution to the giant flow of funds on a global basis exacerbated the impact of major bond movements. When the US sells off five basis points we sell of 10 or 15 thats the biggest problem, he said. Mr Koukoulas expected a period of consolidation during the next few weeks before culminating in another frenzied selloff. He said it would be surprising if yields continued to surge through the 11 per cent barrier because of the strength of the economy. It is very hard to see it going much higher than 11 per cent because the fundamental inflation story is not that bad, Mr Koukalis said. Schroders Australia senior economist Bernadette Fulton agreed yields will crash through 11 per cent but forecast it will pierce the mark in the next few weeks. Bond yields are virtually at 5 per cent and its not too hard to see them at 11 per cent within the next month, Ms Fulton said. Garry Lord from Bankers Trust said 11 per cent was a fair and reasonable target but he did not expect yields to rise much above that level. While most observers agreed the US Open Market Committee was likely to raise official cash rates before the end of the year, speculation has arisen over a further two interest rate hikes before Christmas. This will increase the pressure on the bond market. Ms Fulton said the market had effectively factored in one jump in US official rates but a second hike was not out of the question. The rumours have escalated in the wake of the poor statistics on Friday night. There are a number of people in the US who are arguing there could be an increase in rates following the committee meeting in September and on 15 November, Ms Fulton said. Presser disappointing By DAVID LUFF NINE Network Australia Ltd has lent its inprinciple support for a change of ownership at its Perth affiliate, Sunraysia Television Ltd. Senior Nine sources confirmed yesterday they were disappointed at the operating performance of Sunraysia which has been controlled by executive chairwoman Eva Presser for the past four years. However, they were adamant the Kerry Packercontrolled broadcaster would not materially intervene in the 60 million battle for Sunraysia. Sunraysia has consistently performed poorly in both operational and ratings terms in the four years of Ms Pressers tenure at the helm and stands out as the worst performing of the Nine affiliates. She clearly hasnt performed well theres no doubt about that, a senior Nine executive told the Daily Telegraph Mirror yesterday. You only have to look at their ratings to get an indication.. The source added there would certainly be room for improvement with a new direction introduced from a new management. The comments came as Ms Presser rejected a 60 million hostile bid for the broadcsater by Kerry Stokes Australian Capital Equity group. Ms Presser was adamant yesterday she would not sell her 47 per cent holding to Mr Stokes. The vehement rejection sparked a stunning 11 per cent climb in the price of Sunraysia shares. Shares soared 60c to a record high of 00 after Ms Presser criticised the Stokes bid pitched at The bid is uninvited, unnecessary, unwanted, unspectacular and my rejection is unequivocal, Ms Presser said. She branded the 60 million takeover bid as an attempt to destabilise the Nine Network itself. Qantas earnings take off Result boost for 2b float By DAVID LUFF A NET profit of 156 million by Qantas Airways Ltd in its latest financial year will erase doubts about its financial viability in the leadup to a 2 billion float, according to chairman Gary Pemberton. The result represents a 530 million turnaround on 1993 when 400 million in writeoffs stemming from the acquisition of Australian Airlines pushed the carrier to a 8 million loss. At an operational level the result was also vastly improved, with profit before tax and abnormal items jumping almost tenfold to a record 302 million from 9 million previously. Sales revenue firmed 13 per cent to 6 billion. The result was characterised by much larger earnings in the second half of the 199394 fiscal year, boding well for a further improvement in 1994 A net profit of 3 million was booked for the second half compared with 6 million in the first six months, contrary to the usual trading pattern. Mr Pemberton said the results were especially pleasing, coming as a prelude to the public float in the first half of next year. It demonstrates we are on line towards the target we have set ourselves, Mr Pemberton denied Qantas ever aimed for a 1315 per cent return on shareholders funds before launching the float. The carrier posted a 5 per cent return in 1994 The market would be looking for the signs of where we were going rather than where we had arrived to, he said. It would be expecting to see evidence that that was an achievable objective and I think this result is starting to get towards that. Productivity improved following an increase in capacity, offsetting a jump in costs associated with the higher passenger loads. Trimming the cost structure would remain a major priority with management staff with the carrier planning to slice 10 per cent off costs in the current year. Qantas will continue to do whatever is necessary to continue to improve our efficency, Mr Pemberton said. While more economic fleet use and a tangible contribution from the Australian Airlines purchase helped boost earnings, Mr Pemberton said a stronger market was the key to the revival. Passenger demand, for both domestic and international services, picked up significantly, with local business grabbing a marginally larger slice. While citing the healthier demand as a major factor in the result, Mr Pemberton said more efficient operations were a major contributor. Its been driven, certainly, by a strong market but unquestionably it also reflects an improvement in Qantas underlying performance, he said. A timetable for the float has not been worked out at this stage but Mr Pemberton indicated it would fall close to the Federal Budget in May next year. Qantas management had not been able to focus solely on the proposed float because of more strenuous market competition and new directions, Mr Pemberton said. Qantas could expect to post stronger profits in the current financial year. Country Roads 8m detour By JANE SCHULZE Country Road Ltd will set aside 8 million this year after its American executives deceived the company about the true cost of establishing its American stores, chief executive officer Mike Howell revealed yesterday. However, before this abnormal loss the company increased its aftertax operating profit to 25 million to July 31, up from 950,000 last year. The 8 million abnormal loss followed massive writeoffs which sent Country Road to a bottom line 29 million loss in the year to August Mr Howell said while recovery of lost money from the executives was a priority, the directors wanted to immediately account for the loss in the balance sheet. He said the company first discovered its American problems only two weeks ago. Its disappointing that it took so long to come out because it was obviously concealed from us, but when we did the reorganisations it had to come out, he said. The two or three people involved have since been removed he said. To our knowledge there has been no additional to the 8 million loss to the company or removal of assets, he said. Mr Howell said the closure of 22 stores in the US and Australia last year meant their sales increase had been marginal up 9 per cent to 244 million from 242 million. But now it ensures we are able to sell into markets where margins will be better, he said. Country Road declared a fully franked dividend of 5c, making a total of 4c for the year, up from last years 3c. However, the dividend reinvestment plan has been suspended as the company was very financial with unused capacity of 20 million, he said. |
By Jean Norman Illustration by Nigel Buchanan Men and women are not equal when it comes to Australias healthcare policy mens HeaLTH scanDaL Thirty years of feminism may have stressed the need for an equal society, but female gains have been at the expense of Australian male health care. An old feminist slogan says We dont want a bigger slice of the cake we want the whole damn bakery. In terms of health, women have taken the whole damn bakery while men enjoy the crumbs. Its an understatement to say that more money is spent on womens health than mens. Because in Australias case, more means a difference of tens of millions of dollars. One official reason why so much more of the health dollar goes to women is that because they live longer than men, theres always been more of them. Why Because they are more health conscious and their health is superior. Why Because the prevention of womens diseases and the promotion of womens health is important to the Government. Important to the tune of 24 million to the Cervical Cancer Awareness campaign over the last four years a campaign that has just been topped up with another 4 million for this year. Mens Health Important to the point that the recent Federal budget, reaffirming the Governments commitment to improving womens health, gave the National Womens Health Program 32 million. Womens health is so important that in New South Wales alone, 93 million has been set aside to provide specific funding for womens health. So important, in fact, that special Federal health funding of 29 million will be matched dollarfordollar by the states and territories this year dotted line and the whole sackload goes to the National Program for the Early Detection of Breast Cancer. Obviously womens health is important. But nowhere within the vastness of the Federal Health budget, or the juggernauts of eight State and territory health departments, is there even the mention of mens health, let alone a mens health budget. This may seem wrong, but rest assured, it is correct. In politically correct circles the nonexistence of mens health at the expense of womens is called positive discrimination. Positive Discrimination is the politically correct way of saying that we are all equal but some of us are women. And it pays not to disagree with the party line. One official from the Federal Department of Health told us Setting up affirmative health action for women is like starting a special whitesonly healthcare clinic in Alice Springs. But he didnt want his name used for fear of reprisal. Positive Discrimination is like that. An analysis of government health data shows that one gender is definitely disadvantaged. We know this gender is dying of cancer. The Australian Bureau of Statistics calls it morbidity due to malignant neoplasms and it kills more Australians than anything else. Most cancer victims get their death warrants via lung cancer, which kills three times as many men as women. The next most common cancer is that of the breast. Approximately 2,500 women die of it annually. Cancer of the prostate gland kills approximately 2000 men each year and, as its incidence increases, the death rate rises. Which cancer are you the most aware off While the Federal and State governments throw 58 million at the National Program for the Early Detection of Breast Cancer, a program that would attack the killer prostate cancer is still seen as inappropriate. The only reason more men dont die of prostate cancer, according to one specialist, is that they dont live long enough. The only way for a man to definitely avoid it is to die young, says Sydney Hospitals Dr Basil Donovan. Its a bit of a mystery because there hasnt been much research done into it. It receives nowhere near the attention nor respect it deserves as a male health issue. As with breast and cervical cancer, the key to treating male cancers lies in early detection. How many men, asks one doctor, are aware that a basic testes examination is a far more accurate and effective preemptive anticancer measure than the breast examination that women are taught from widespread advertising and education A nursing sister from a major STD clinic told Australian Penthouse shed been trying for months to get hold of leaflets showing men how to examine their own testes. excerpt Young men in their teens and twenties are the most at risk from cancer of the testicles but Ive been told theres no funds available. Testes selfexamination can be effectively taught in a matter of minutes, but there is not one education department in Australia that advocates or sponsors the teaching of testes selfexamination to high school boys. There are plenty of funds available to educate women about osteoporosis thanks to an exhaustive public health campaign there cant be a woman alive in Australia unaware that calcium rich foods help prevent the disease of bone deterioration. Osteoporosis weakens and thins the bones to the point where tripping over the cat could leave one in line for a hip replacement. The disease has become one of the female health issues but its as much a problem for elderly men who die far more frequently following a fall as it is for elderly women. If most men have even heard of it they assume its an old womens disease, largely because that is the only way it has ever been marketed. Many men are similarly unaware of the risks connected with vasectomy which range from testicular pain and erectile incapacity through to cancer. Equal numbers of men and women get skin cancer but twice as many men die from it. Women outlive men by an average of six years, perhaps partly because men are three times more likely to commit suicide. So who is disadvantaged The gender with the highest death rate, whose best tactical bet for preempting painful, drawnout diseases is to just die of something else anyway Or the statistically far healthier gender whove somehow gone from being half of the human species into a disadvantaged minority group with a massive slice of the health pie If one malespecific cancer kills practically as many men as the major female cancer kills women, wouldnt both diseases get equal research funding For an answer we went, logically enough, to the Federal Department of Health Youre doing a story about what Whats that The switchboard operator sounded as puzzled and aghast as if Australian Penthouse had phoned the department for help with an article about dinosaurs. Male health issue, we repeated. What on earth do you mean Never mind, could you connect us to the Womens Health section Which one Theres so many different areas of it. Eventually we were connected to the Health Minister, Senator Graham Richardsons office, where his spokesman said they absolutely reject any suggestion that men are being discriminated against. The reason there are special programs for womens health, the disadvantaged such as Aboriginals and so on, is not that were placing a greater priority than needed, but that in the past a lot of issues were ignored. To do a special remedial health program for men would suggest that men arent getting a good deal and there is nothing to suggest that. But several highranking Government health officials say theres a lot to suggest that male health is neglected. One official admits that the obvious gender bias in public health is becoming an issue inside the department A lot of people would find it outrageous and totally unacceptable for a male health clinic to be opened up, so why is there something targeted at purely one half of the species he asks. Nearly everyone is targeted in the health budget young, old, disabled, nonEnglish speaking persons, persons with HIV, womendotted lineThat leaves the white, English speaking dotted line middle Australian man untargeted. This nontargeting is what yet another senior DOH official thinks has led to 500,000 Australian men missing in action each year. From the age of zero, men die off at a much greater rate. It honestly reminds me of Flanders in the First World War. An argument thats been advanced by feminists and womens groups is that its mens own fault obsessive, stressed, workaholic, incommunicative, drinkers etc. that theyre more likely to die. Thats blaming the victim, says the senior official. She got raped because she wore a short skirt. He got AIDS because he was a poof. Its a politically incorrect argument that shouldnt be legitimate in human rights circles. But, he explains, when it comes to Homo Australis the attitude becomes Oh, bad luck men are just the weaker species dotted lineimagine if that argument were applied to a premature baby He doesnt even think ordinary women particularly benefit from the National Womens Health Program. They dont see themselves as disadvantaged and are exasperated at what is being done in their name. Obviously one must have obstetrics and gynaecology but these women cant see the point in special womens health centres to provide what should be general health care for both men and women. Its a radical feminist objective and its basically separatist. Pointing out that hes not in favour of male health clinics either, the Doctor asks Why separate the sexes I thought the whole idea was to eliminate sexual apartheid Radical feminist and Womens Electoral Lobby spokeswoman, Eva Cox, was incredulous when Australian Penthouse phoned her. What are you writing about Male health Oh, you mean theyre worried about their little appendages Explaining that as one of Australias best known feminists we assumed shed be in favour of equal rights, we asked her opinion of the clear disparity between the time and money given to female over male health issues. Oh, the poor little blossoms, she says. If Im sounding unsympathetic, its because I am. Im disconcerted by the sudden trend of men wanting to shove women over and become victims too. Men, she says, have been running the medical profession for over 500 years and if men arent looked after by the health system, then its noones fault, but their own. Australian Penthouse raised the subject of prostate and testicular cancer I know women live longer and all that stuff, she snaps. But men have stuffed it up and now they want to unstuff it up. They want us to feel sorry for them. It makes Eva Cox sick, she explains, that men are now whingeing and pretending to be victimsdotted line They can sort themselves out and stop expecting us to take care of them. This thinking is dangerous for men and women, warns Dr Donovan, who specialises in sexually transmitted diseases. As a venereaologist, I am opposed to singling out one sex for special attention. Its a recipe for disaster to treat just one half of the combination. There isnt much use, he explains, in having women aware of genital health, the need for regular smears and diseases such as chlamydia sexually transmitted, symptomless, common in both sexes and can cause infertility if men are being left out of the equation. Male health issues are seriously undercatered for, he says. Theres been an attempt to positively discriminate in favour of women but its forgotten that the health system has never actually been positively skewed towards men. He admits that people with, for example, genital cancers, often used to be frightened, given barely any explanation of what was happening and were uninformed of selfhelp or preventative measures. The situations been reversed for women but when it comes to men, not a lot has changed. As were all the medical professionals consulted for this article, Dr Donovan was at pains to stress hes not against womens health as such. Id just like to see a health service that didnt distinguish between the sexes. If you visit the health section of any large book store, most of the books are about or relating to women premenstrual tension, menopause, female depression, hormone replacement therapy, eating disorders, osteoporosis, fertility, infertility, female cancer, female orgasmdotted line |
LINDY CHAMBERLAIN AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY THROUGH MY EYES To broad shoulders, the freedom of the outback, a freedom kept at such high cost. A Great Scam Liz and John had to get dressed and Liz was to ring the house we were going to. John had to get the truck ready. I was to finish shutting my cases, then wake Stuart up. Wed let him sleep as long as possible, knowing he was tired. John gave us strict instructions not to turn on any lights as this would let the press know what was happening. I knew Stuart was in young Joshua Parrys room and the location of the bed, but not what other furniture was in the room, or where hed put his suitcases. It was pitch black in there. I had visions of Stuart hitting me over the head, mistaking me for an intruder when I tried to wake him, but when I spoke his name he woke immediately, fully alert. I quickly told him our plans he had ten minutes to get ready then left to help load my gear in the truck. Liz and I were so excited we had started to get the giggles. The quieter we tried to be, the more things we walked into or dropped in the dark. John reprimanding us made us giggle even more. Sure enough Stuart came down, hair combed, dressed and ready to go in the allotted ten minutes. Still in the dark, we crept outside. There was a street light close by, so we kept in the shadow of a huge banyan tree. John often had carpet cleaning or pest control jobs in office blocks at that hour of the morning, so it was not unusual for the truck to be moving at that time. Stuart was just as clumsy as Liz and I, and on the way to the truck we both nearly fell over a board lying in the middle of the path. Trying to tell one another to be quiet and say, Ouch softly made us nearly fall over again laughing. We felt like a band of conspirators. We finally jumped into the cab of the big pest control truck, donned pest control hats, and sat there trying to stifle our laughter while waiting for John not feeling half obvious Johns slogan was All our patients die we hoped we were going to be among the lucky ones that day. John waited until Liz had driven out of the gate in the other direction and watched while the reporters took the bait and followed her. As if on cue, Footsie arrived as Liz was pulling out the driveway, and followed also. He had thought he would drive past early and check everything was OK for the escape just in case he was needed as an extra decoy. It couldnt have been better timed. With the two cars going together the press was sure I was aboard. They gave chase. Liz had strict instructions from John not to drive beyond her capabilities. She was to lure the press as far away as possible so we could get clear. Then she was to return home. We had a quiet trip across town to a mystery destination, finally pulling up and unloading our gear into a guest flat under a high block house. Upstairs we were introduced to Greg and Jill Dawkins, who were kindly giving us shelter. We learnt that the flat had been specially built so that Michael and the children would have a new place to hide on visits as the press knew their regular accommodation, or in case we needed a place to escape to, like now. The flat had only just been finished and we were its first occupants. I was most grateful. Greg and Jill gave us a warm welcome. While we were talking, Footsie and Liz arrived. They had led the press a merry dance Liz had parked her car at home and then arrived with Footsie to see if we were OK. As neither the press nor John had returned to the Parrys by this stage, Liz had presumed John knew Footsies new plans. Meanwhile, John arrived home and found no Liz. He waited, unaware of Lizs movements, and began to fear that shed been kidnapped or something. Liz rang later to see he was OK, and he berated her for not following the plan as instructed. Liz was determined, however, to spend her last few hours with me it was the only time wed had together alone after nearly three years of weekly halfhour visits and Liz deserved that. We had a lovely breakfast with our hosts, then Liz and I went downstairs to the flat to get some sleep. Stuart had a room upstairs, and talked for a while longer, then went back to bed too. It was shortly after dawn. Liz and I were too excited to sleep for more than half an hour and finally realised we were both lying there trying not to wake each other. We started chatting again, despite the fact that that was all the sleep Id had that night. We talked and talked. When Stuart woke and came down to rouse us, he found us excited and ready to go. He had his camera, so we took photos and clowned around while waiting. The three of us were in top form. Back at the Parrys, the press scouts had returned. John got the boys breakfast and organised them for the day. He was relieved to note that the rest of the usual press contingent turned up. That meant our plan had worked. If the media had suspected anything they would have left by now for the new location. Plan two could go into action. To make the media continue to believe I was still there, people had to keep visiting. The cricket was on and Bob Donaldson was going to watch it with his boys. That was perfect, because he was the only other person in Darwin I knew as well as Liz. If he arrived with his family to watch the cricket at John and Lizs house, with a bit of luck the media would decide I was still there just having a quiet time with my closest friends before I left on the plane for home. It also meant there was someone to care for the three Parry boys until Liz and John got back. Seven boys watching cricket provided all the noise that was needed to convince the media they hadnt followed a hoax and that I hadnt left. So they waited, and waited, and waiteddotted line Mike Lester, knowing we were giving the press the slip, hung around to see what would happen. As the time arrived for us to leave for the airport and nothing happened, the crews grew more and more anxious. John left on his own and no one bothered with him. Pleased with the way things were going, he turned up to see what we were all doing. He still hadnt quite forgiven Liz, though Just before I left I was handed two large sheaves of gladioli and mixed flowers that had just been delivered. What on earth was I going to do with them They obviously werent going to last much more than the trip, and yet I wanted to take them with me. Stuart laughed and said he was sure I would think of something to do with them, so they went with me. We said goodbye to Liz and our hosts when Footsie returned, and piled into the vehicle to make our way to the airport. Paul Brain, now moved from the Alice to manage Ansett Industries in Western Australia, had said once before that if we needed any help he would be available. He can look quite fierce, and his karate experience and build are also offputting. We thought it was wise to have some security plus the arrangements for the trip dealt with as one. One phone call was enough for Paul. He hopped a plane to Darwin and was there for the trip to Sydney with us. He had arranged everything with the airport managers at each airport, and they were there waiting for us at each place. The trip went without a hitch. The reporters had decided to stake out the airport also there was one lone car under a tree near the entrance. As we passed we saw feet up in the drivers window. The cars occupant was obviously either reading or sleeping in the midday heat, and not watching the cargo bay or the trucks coming and going. We were able to go across there without hindrance. Paul had arranged for our luggage to be checked straight in, including a big picture they were worried might get damaged. I said to them, Look, its unfinished. I dont mind. Just send it through as it is, anyway. Finally, they said they would. We got the luggage checks and gave them to Stuart for collection at the other end, so I could be whisked away immediately. We then hopped back in the vehicle to drive to the plane. Once again we passed the reporter on guard. This time, however, he followed us, but could not get past the barrier. Mike told us later that his news team had had an emergency radio call I assume from him telling them we had done it again and were already at the airport. This sent them into a flat spin and a highspeed trip to get to the airport before the plane left. We drove up to the plane steps to board early Paul was in charge, and obviously quite at home. Suddenly Stuarts words about the flowers were prophetic. Other press were now swarming inside the terminal barriers and I still had to get up the plane steps. The flowers were the perfect cover, so the press were unable to take photographs of me. We had bills to pay they werent going to get useful photographs for nothing. I put both arms around the flowers and hid my face behind them. The media had no idea how slim I was because the dress I was wearing was the fairly flowing Aline postnatal dress Jenny Miller had bought me for Michaels graduation. With Paul standing between me and the press, plus the flowers, all they could see was a blue dress and legs. High Flying Stuart and I sat in the seats right at the front near the door. We couldnt have been in a worse place for initial boarding. We pulled the blind down so no one could see in the window. Paul was seated directly behind us so that he could keep an eye on things and stop anyone who came too close. The rest of the passengers boarded, including the press. Paul gave me a newspaper and said, Here, they might try with their cameras as they walk past, so put that in front of you. I hurriedly put up the newspaper just in time. I forgot I still had a lap full of things though. My legs were too short to reach the floor why are plane seats so high and the things started to slide off when I let them go to grab the newspaper. Reaction took over and I used the old prison sit one leg across my knee at right angles to hold them there forgetting that I now had to sit in a ladylike fashion. One of the photographers snapped a shot the result was a view of Lindas dress, leg up, petticoat showing, and a newspaper over her head. When the girls in prison saw that they were highly amused, saying, Thats the prison sit. Shes forgotten shes out now. I realised fairly quickly what I had done and was able to get Stuart to grab the stuff on my lap, so I could put my head behind the newspaper better and my leg down without anything else sliding. |
Donors must be identified Olsen From DAVID WASHINGTON CANBERRA The head of the Liberal Party committee on disclosure of political donations has called for stronger Government moves to enforce full disclosure. The call, by South Australian Senator John Olsen, flies in the face of concern by Liberal Party organisational figures that the disclosure provisions will have a disastrous effect on party finances. Senator Olsen said yesterday the Governments legislation should be improved, to close loopholes which allow the true source of donations to be disguised. Liberal Party divisions on the issue widened at the weekend, with the Opposition Leader, Dr Hewson, hitting back at the NSW Liberal Partys senior fundraiser over his criticism of the Oppositions decision to support full disclosure. The chairman of the NSW Liberal Partys central finance committee, Mr Bevan Bradbury, has reportedly written to Liberal MPs criticising the decision. His letter said disclosing the identity of donors would have a devastating effect on the Liberal Party. The impact on the inflow of funds to the party of legislation that requires the identity of donors be revealed will be horrendous and it will be immediate, the letter said. Dr Hewson said he could understand Mr Bradburys frustration but he must accept that he and the party organisation do not make the policies of the parliamentary party. He said the Coalition would work to ensure that the Governments draft legislation was fair and equitable. Senator Olsen, in a statement which will anger party officials such as Mr PhotoCaption Bradbury, called on the government to toughen its disclosure legislation. With this disclosure bill, there is not true disclosure, Senator Olsen said. This was because the last person or group to handle the donation before it was given to the party was disclosed as the donor, but the real donor could be completely different. Full of rhetoric Senator Olsen said the bill was full of rhetoric and fulsome wording aimed at creating the perception of action. But careful analysis shows the Government is committed, as always, to protecting the prime source of donations from its mates, perpetuating the deviousroundrobin of bags of cash weve heard so much about from the WA royal commission, he said. Senator Olsen said the Electoral Commission should be given the power to conduct spot audits, to ensure the true sources of donations were revealed. The Opposition would propose substantial amendments to the disclosure bill, including giving union members the right to decide whether their union dues should go to the ALP. Senator Olsen said the bill made no mention of unions disclosure of the millions of dollars in affiliation fees and other donations they passed on to the ALP every year. Yet a massive 44 per cent of union members 32 per cent Coalition, 12 per cent Democrat do not vote for the ALP, he said. Liberal Party officials are concerned that many financial backers will refuse to donate if their identities are revealed publicly. Last week, the Government introduced the bill to ban political advertising and enforce full disclosure of donations but it is yet to be debated. Summit rebuff to Bannon From Chief Political Writer LINDSAY OLNEY CANBERRA The call by the Premier, Mr Bannon, for a national summit on unemployment faces certain rejection by the Federal government. Despite varying degrees of support for a summit from other Labor premiers, the Government will agree to no more than a full discussion of unemployment at the annual Premiers Conference and Loan Council meeting on May The summit idea also faced opposition yesterday from employers and the ACTU. But Labor state premiers continued to support the push by Mr Bannon for the special conference. In BRISBANE, the Queensland Premier, Mr Goss, said Australia needed national policy changes, concrete public works programs and tax breaks for private industry to tackle the growing unemployment crisis. He said it was time for the Federal Government to look at some major national projects of public works. The Victorian Premier, Mrs Kirner, will contact other premiers in a bid to get agreement on a joint States push for national action on job creation. Mrs Kirner said she would contact the premiers before the May 31 Premiers Conference to establish an agreed agenda for the talks. Although no formal decision has been made about the summit, sources said the Prime Minister, Mr Hawke, was a bit cool on the idea. There was doubt about what such a summit could achieve and there were dangers it could become purely atalkfest. Yesterday, the Employment Minister, Mr Dawkins, attacked Mr Bannons proposals to bring forward major infrastructure projects such as the DarwinAlice Springs railway and the multifunction polls to boost employment and provide Austra Table Banks, business to blame Keating blockThe Treasurer, Mr Keating, told Parliament yesterday there was no doubt Australia had substantial economic difficulties, but it would pull out of the recession with lower interest rates. blockHe blamed the business and banking community for many of the economic problems. blockThis recession is deeper than official policy would have had it be, he said. blockMr Keating said banks were the only institutions able to conduct a credit squeeze and were now doing so to some sections of the community. lia with infrastruture resources to take advantage of the recovery. You certainly dont want to go ahead with crazy ideas like building unwanted railway lines betweeen Darwin and Alice Springs, he said. It would cost a fortune and is just not appropriate for our current circumstances. The summit proposal was condemned by the Opposition employment spokesman, Mr Howard, as a stupid gimmick. He said it would do no more than raise false expectations and would not help the growing unemployment problem. You cannot solve unemployment by talkfest, he said. Unemployment will go higher.M One of the biggest problems is that people lack confidence. If the Government showed some confidence maybe this would rub off on the economy. The Confederation of Australian Industry chief executive, Mr Ian Spicer, said he saw no good reason to have an unemployment summit at this time. What needs to be done is no mystery, he said. There should be no need to gather everyone together to decide to do the things that obviously need to be done without delay. Mr Spicer said the Federal Government had to look at its interest rates policy, support the recent national wage decision and restructure the tax system with the introduction of a consumption tax. The ACTU president, Mr Martin Ferguson, said the union movement was not interested in an unemployment summit, as it believed such a summit would be just another talkfest. Meanwhile, the consumer price index for the March quarter, to be released tomorrow, is expected to show that price rises slowed almost to a halt. With the Government counting on a low figure to ease the battering its credibility has received over unemployment, another drop in interest rates is thought to be inevitable. The Reserve Bank board met last week to discuss levels of interest rates and is believed to be poised to cut 5 per cent from offical rates. The major banks are expected to pass any fall on to mortgage rates almost immediately, bringing their lowest housing rates to 5 per cent or lower. Yesterday, the forecasting group BIS Shrapnel predicted housing rates would go to 13 per cent in the JulySeptember quarter, with rates unlikely to rise again for two years. It said banks would be keen to increase their home lending through lower rates and this would encourage new buyers into the market, promoting a recovery in the housing market in the September quarter. This indicated that general economic recovery would be slow in the second half of this year but would quicken in The consumer price index release is likely to show the lowest quarterly inflation rate in many years, and will put the annual inflation figure on track for a result of about 5 per cent or less. There have even been suggestions that the CPI for the quarter will actually fall. No more Umines ALP From LINDSAY OLNEY and DAVID WALKER The Labor Party has ducked the issue of changing its uranium policy and will not permit more mines to be developed at its national conference next month. The Prime Minister, Mr Hawke, who has described the existing threemine policy as illogical, is believed to have told backbenchers that a change would not justify the political aggravation of a conference row on uranium. The decision is expected to anger the mining industry and put the Government under further Opposition pressure for putting political considerations before the countrys economic imperatives. Party sources last night said the issue would be debated briefly at the June ALP conference but that the factions had agreed in advance that the policy would not change. A decision to retain the existing policy would contradict the recommendations of a party policy review committee, which said the policy should be overturned. Although Mr Hawke has not given a public view on the threemines policy for several years, it was understood he and other rightwing ALP figures favored a change to promote export earnings and increase developer confidence in the Government. But it is now believed that Mr Hawke sees no point in changing TableOpposition gaining support poll SYDNEY The federal Coalitions lead over the Hawke Labor Government has widened one percentage point to 17 per cent, according to the latest Morgan Gallup Poll. The poll, published in the Bulletin magazine, showed support for the Government remained on a record low of 32 per cent while support for the Opposition increased one point to 49 per cent. Approval of the way Mr Hawke was handling his job dropped one point to 38 per cent, while 54 per cent disapproved. Opposition Leader Dr Hewsons approval also dropped one point to 48 per cent, while 29 per cent disapproved. When electors were asked who would make the better prime minister, 44 per cent opted for Mr Hawke and 41 per cent said Dr Hewson. the policy, especially with a depressed world uranium market. Last night a spokesman for the Prime Minister would neither confirm nor deny the reports. However, he did say Mr Hawke had reached a position regarding uranium policy.Last night leftwing MPs claimed that leadership pressures had forced Mr. Hawke to adopt a nochange position although other MPs said that the main consideration was the generally low standing of the Government. In 1982 the ALP decided that uranium mining would be confined to Roxby Downs, Ranger and Narbalek, which has since closed. At the 1988 conference the party established a review committee on the policy. The committee decided, with a dissenting minority report, that expansion should be permitted. That report is now certain to be rejected by the conference. The ALPs national executive is due to consider the report on June 1, although this is now no more than a formality. Yesterday the convener of the Centre Left faction, Senator Michael Beahan, said he did not think there were sufficient numbers in the party to force a change. Senator Jim McKiernan, from the Left, said the faction would continue to fight to prevent any change and would not settle on anything less than a formal pronouncement that the push for expansion had been abandoned. Last night the Opposition spokesman on energy and resources, Mr Tim Fischer, said if Mr Hawke refused a change he would be walking away from his responsibilities to the national interest. The Prime Minister has repeatedly said that Labors policy is illogical, he said. Australia has missed another opportunity and is sending an extremely confused message to overseas interests who may be considering development projects in Australia. What may be good for the political unity of the ALP is an absolute disaster for the mining industry and Australia generally. A spokesman for Western Mining Corporation Ltd, which operates the only uranium mine in South Australia at Olympic Dant, said there was no major expectation of a change. Were steaming ahead pursuing new markets for our products, he said. |
624 streetname1 Avenue placename1 Bay.postcode1 26293 Hi, Many thanks familiarname1 for your thank you letter. I do hope the land an airfield takes off so that you two are not out of pocket for very long. The trouble with getting older is that if you invest in something financially it isnt much use if you have to wait 25 years for your return. So may you soon be the winners of latter or have your money back from the land or both. Even without work retirement is busy. Today we didnt even find time to go to the beach. I had to drive to the dentist this morning for a lengthy appointment followed by a small amount of shopping shopping pluslike ampersand photocopying. I wasnt home for very long before we had to leave again for our Spanish lesson. When we arrived home I prepared tomorrow nights dessert one of those 24 hour arrangements pluslike ampersand then it was time to leave for a lecture on cancer, mainly skin cancer, given by the local G.P. expert pluslike ampersand a Cancer Council representative. It looks like Ill find myself doing some volunteerwork for the Cancer Council presenting certificates to schools which hold their swimming carnivals at night for example. We have just arrived home and its Incidentally the lecture was magnificent pluslike ampersand accompanied by horrendous but fascinating slides. Actually I visited the lecturer 2 weeks ago pluslike ampersand had my skin checked. He said What a magnificent skin. What he really meant was I know youre face is sporting many crows feet pluslike ampersand your skin is like leather but you, you lucky devil, have a skin that can withstand the harmful effect of U.V. rays. Naturally the only words I quoted when I returned to forename1 were He said I have a magnificent skin. I still recall that when I attended a June Dally Watkins Course at the age of 19 the beautician said How old are you When I replied 19 she said You have the skin of a 25 yearold at least It really is grim to think that I have more crows feet than my sisterinlaw who is about to enter her 70th year well on July 14th that is. Sorry forename2 I think its the 11th. Our Spanish teacher is a delightful lady pluslike ampersand we love our Spanish lessons.forename3 surname2, our teacher, lived in Spain for 15 years. Recently the Spanish Govt. changed the regulations for Canadians pluslike ampersand Australians insisting that they lodge many thousands of dollars in a Govt. trust fund or something like that dollars forename3 didnt have. She sold her cottage pluslike ampersand returned to Australia. She is an artist pluslike ampersand a writer. She has had childrens stories published pluslike ampersand stories published in womens magazines. Ive decided there are a lot of multitalented people in placenameforename3 will be coming here because she wants to come to astronomy lessons pluslike ampersand I am the astronomy coordinator for the University of the 3rd Age, or U.A. Im sure if we had remained in placename3 we would not have become involved in the same way as we have here. Of course there would be other activities. The thing you miss most when you change your domicile is the friendship. Old friends which include your brother pluslike ampersand sisterinlaw can never be replaced. They have known you so long that there is no point in putting on an act to impress. You feel very comfortable with old friends knowing that they have realistic expectations. Because you have been rubbing shoulders for a long time you rarely misunderstand them pluslike ampersand they rarely misunderstand you. I dont think you can ever find this with new friends. Well perhaps you can but it is rare. Dont faint but I have written to a publisher about my proposed limerick book pluslike ampersand about my Yr 2 spelling worksheets pluslike ampersand he has replied saying he would like to see some samples. I became quite excited when his letter arrived. Of course I am no nearer to publication now than I was before I received the letter, but I couldnt help kidding myself just a little bit. When we climbed into bed last night I said to forename1, You know, there is one thing we have completely overlooked as an addition to our pension. Whats that said forenameThe royalties Ill receive from my publications, I said, which caused us both to laugh. Ill keep you posted. Did I tell you about my limerick book Forgive me if Im boring you with this a second time. When I wrote to the publisher I stated, The brilliance is not in the limericks I have written but in the idea I have devised which means that each limerick can be applied to 20 or 30 different names or something like that. I have written them pluslike ampersand am still writing them with the name inserted within the line pluslike ampersand not at the end of it, which means you slot any name into the space without altering the rhyme. They are written for young children Yrs 2 pluslike ampersand 3 basically pluslike ampersand the index will probably say One syllable boys namestwo syllable boys namesthree syllable boys namesOne syllable girls names ditto marks for 2 lines under last 3 words 2 3 pluslike ampersand perhaps Limericks appropriate to a girl or a boy by slotting in the name pluslike ampersand changing his to hers changing the pronoun Any ideas for the index would be appreciated. Any limericks would be appreciated too. With your permission familiarname1 Ill include the limerick you wrote about me There was a young girl called Frances Who was very fond of going to dances One night in the dark, she slipped in the park And came home with mud on her pantses . Can you believe that the pet name for Francesca in Spanish is Parke Dont ask me how to spell it The limericks I have written are on scraps of paper at the moment. Tomorrow pluslike ampersand Sunday I will type a few out pluslike ampersand send them off to the publisher. I went to the Community Centre today pluslike ampersand photocopied some of my spelling work sheets ready to post away. I have such a giaone lettertgiant sized ego that I am afraid someone will steal my limerick idea. When I wrote the S.O.S,book the brilliance on that occasion was not in the content but in the idea. Anyone could have written the book. It became the best seller for Met West. Infants Mistresses Publications at that time pluslike ampersand do you know that someone stole my idea pluslike ampersand produced it commercially. I guess this is why Im wary. forename2 how is your book progressing Are you any nearer publication Would one of the model aircraft magazines publish it They have the audience pluslike ampersand the printing facilities. Have you approached them Tomorrow night forename4 pluslike ampersand forename5 are coming for dinner with their 10 yearold son. I think I told you forename5s grandparents lived in placename3 pluslike ampersand were Christadelphians. forename5 went to placename4 Sunday School. forename4 is a Psychiatrist pluslike ampersand is involved with organisationnameforename5 is a barrel of dynamite. She has been running an antismoking seminar for the past 4 days pluslike ampersand was there tonight running the skin cancer lecture. She was interviewed on T.V.last night. On that occasion she was speaking about the antismoking seminar but that wasnt the first time we had seen her on tele. The snakes continue to be conspicuous by their absence pluslike ampersand I for one am not complaining. The goannas pluslike ampersand water dragons great swimmers continue to visit. We have one goanna with a stumpy tail. Do such creatures exist or would he have had it bitten off Mother duck has one duckling at the moment pluslike ampersand as it is not a tiny creature I have hopes that this one will survive. The duck population varies. For several weeks there were about 10 on the lagoon. This week there have been between 20 pluslike ampersand We havent seen Johnny Raper the drake, a large white domestic type drake for some months. He was named Johnny Raper by forename1 after we were told that he had drowned a goose on the next lagoon when he tried to mate with her. Someone should give him a pair of spectacles pluslike ampersand then perhaps he wouldnt make such ridiculous mistakes. Our library here has videos so I borrowed Pride pluslike ampersand Prejudice the Olivier Greer Garcon excuse spelling version pluslike ampersand I loved it. I read Sarum last week pluslike ampersand enjoyed it. Its a novel about the history of Salisbury in England. Sarum is the original name. I am appalled at how little reading I fit in. However I try to read the weekly guardian pluslike ampersand segments from the daily local paper. We watch the daily news from Britains ITN. news. Its on at 30 AM. No, we arent up at that time. forename1 puts it on video pluslike ampersand we watch it while were eating our muesli. It is now March 5th. Ill post this tomorrow. The total amount of interest on the account was Enclosed is a cheque for I tried to get details of the account but without paying a search fee of 50 they could only go back 12 months. Amazing isnt it. Not that it makes any difference to the total interest or the amount of tax I had to pay. The reason for my trip to the dentist well for a checkup but I had brushed the enamel off one of my eye teeth pluslike ampersand the tooth next to it. The whole top section on both teeth was brown Yuk. The teeth have now been treated. I will now start letter Suggest you keep the 700 in your own account for a while until you see how things develop in the Lands Department but please cash it soon or Ill be thinking I have 700 that I dont have Love, forename Letter lump sum teeth skin cancer mutants limerick posted writing grouptoastmaster 5thMarch Hi, The notes above are to remind me of items I wish to mention.large Zlike symbolnew paragraph marker The astronomy lessons will begin shortly. I have 23 interested pupils so far pluslike ampersand tomorrow there is a meeting of all the members of U3A so I may acquire a couple more. I am happy to run monthly viewings for In fact the smaller the group the better. large Zlike symbolnew paragraph marker Lump sum or pension. Looks like well definitely take the full pension. The financial experts fascinate me. Here am I with my dumb maths brain, but thanks be to Dad I am sometimes able to see through their rubbishy logic pluslike ampersand their half truths. Naturally they are interested only in pushing the lump sum option. At one meeting they put up a list of advantages of the lump sum over the pension pluslike ampersand listed one such advantage as Assetsto be passed on to your children Under pensions no assets to be passed on to childrenas pension ceases on death. So cheeky me jumped up pluslike ampersand said, Do you consider a house an asset Yes said the lecturer.Well I said, Most people have a house to pass on to their children quite a substantial asset I would suggest. Then there is the argument which I havent jumped up pluslike ampersand down about at a meeting but which occurred to me when I was reading the prospectus suggested plan for my retirement. They are always saying, And of course even though you do have the pension adjusted according to the CPI you should keep in mind that you will gain only 61 of the increase owing to the tax rate. Sounds good Makes you think the lump sum might be better And then it hitme So whats new Every time Ive had a salary increase for the past 20 years Ive ended up with only 50. With the pension Ill be 12 better of than formerly. I sent, no, I have my limericks pluslike ampersand the spellingreading word family scheme ready to send to the publisher addressed, samples completed pluslike ampersand in the envelope. Ill post it tomorrow. Wish me luck. There is a Writers group in the town which Ill consider joining. They meet once a month. large Zlike symbolnew paragraph marker At Toastmasters we have a joke master. Occasionally we are given definitions of words. I liked this one Being drunk when you feel sophisticated but you cant pronounce it. At the skin cancer lecture the Doctor said we should never have migrated to this region of the world. Its made for the dark people. He said there was a theory that the mutants whites moved away to the colder climates to survive. He also said that black people living in cold climates with not much sun suffer from rickets because their skin cant absorb the vitamin D. My next Toastmasters speechin a week pluslike ampersand half is At the end of the road, eternal silence. Ill talk about the experience in China when I saw men being led to their execution. |
Dearest Dianne 24 March 1993 Wheres your manners You said youd write after you moved away AND YOU HAVENT So Im writing to you first I guess thats why I am a communications graduate and you are not what does pharmacy teach you . So how are you going over in WA Whats the weather like, the streets, the water like And hows your job going Just fabulous, I hope. Hopefully by the time I finish this letter I will have some photos to include in here. I say this because I have cut my hair off again and dyed it very red, and now I feel almost hip and glossy again. Short hair shows off my eyes and brows better, I like to think it should, for all the pain I put up with plucking my eyebrows into gorgeous lines. Im trying to get them thin like the magazines a genius look Hows youre eyebrows going I still remember drawing them into place in the Westfields toilet. Dont press too heavy with that brow pencil Remember, lightly does it. Anyway, I think it will take me a while to finish this letter my fingers dont feel like typing, and after the megascreen I use at work my own little Mac is proving quite a pygmy. So let me fill you in. I am working still at Telecom in Parramatta, and really enjoying it even though I dont have much responsibility, creativity or even much of a prospect of lasting there with a great future its just a fillin job for more money and variety as I see it. But Im still there, Thursdays and Fridays. I left Grace Bros finally I am so glad to be out of there they really treated you like shit there, the hours and pay was lousy for the amount of crap you had to put up with was just not worth it. I missed the opening of Penriths grand store, but hey, if I do want anything from GBs I would go to another store just to show that the Penrith store is lousy. Im not working at the uni this year it was nice but I also felt it was time to leave uni Big news is that I am working parttime three day a week, MonTuesWed at Penrith City Council in the Promotions PR dept. I am wait for it the Economic Development Project Officer. Basically Im assisting in the Councils economic development plans attracting business and investment to Penrith. I am responsible for researching, designing, writing a promotional package including a folder, a series of information brochures and booklets. Sort of bigtime Ive been there three weeks now and its getting better each day. I also help out with their Japanese Sister Cities stuff Ive written their annual report finished that today and other reports and submissions for award competitions and so on. So now I have some money rolling in regularly, which is nice and secure. This means I can save lots more I like to try for about 100 200 a week. I can also spend more on big things I bought a new pair of sunglasses, I have some new shoes picked out, I bought a navy pinstripe and manstyle jacket for winter so now I want it to hurry up and be cold so I can wear it. I can also buy some music at the moment Im playing to death my REM Automatic for the People and the Pet Shop Boys Discography remember the PSBs I used to love their stuff and I still do. Its so very cool and english which a friend taped for me. I might get the Whitney Houston soundtrack, or I quite like Arrested Development, or maybe just one of those records that has a big collection of singles, because theres quite a few that I like at the moment ie Duran Duran, Lenny Kravitz, Jeremy Jordan. How about you I have to tell you I met a fantastic guy at the recent federal elections I worked at one of the polling stations Ive done it for the past three or four elections now and we worked together for a few of the hours and he was great. Gorgeous. Fab u lous Okay, so thats 730 words more than youve written, Dianne Get that pen out and WRITE TO ME NOW Dianne hi 52896 I got a letter from Dianne I read it last night or was it the night before Good to hear from you, dearest It was weird I must admit that I didnt really want to hear about your cousins diarrhoea, but hey, if thats the best news that youve got dotted line Its great that you live so close to the big city. Things really happen in Perth I always thought of it as a quiet place, but I guess that sort of changed when they got the Americas Cup over there. I loved you sentence though instead I stay at home, watch tv, get at and watch life pass me by . Can I tell you something Thats how I feel, too. Go to work, get home, stay home. Life is passing me by, too. I have found that all my friends have dried up either theyve gone travelling like you but I dont hold that against you, its just that I miss my friends being close by or they have really abandoned me. Two close friends correction, friends I thought were close just stopped talking to me. It took me a while to realise this. Kelli you know the one you went to school with Well I saw her in Parramatta one day, we organised to have lunch, she cancelled, and thats sort of the end of the story. Jason hmmm, even now I have really mixed ideas about this, about him. Kiri, my friend who has gone back to Greece, came home to Australia for about a week she phones me the night before shes due to fly back to Greece again and she tells me that Jason has gone overseas. He doesnt tell me, does he No. That hurt a bit. A lot I think that maybe if I was more of a friend you know, didnt try so hard to be more, that maybe we could have been better friends. But you dont know with people, do you Im starting to feel really hurt by other people, really paranoid. Theres my friend Justine from Grace Bros but we hardly talk now maybe see one another once a month and it never feels like it used too. But because Im feeling so paranoid, I think that maybe people are sensing this and dont want to be with me that its my fault Work is OK. I leave the council in a week or two it was only a four month contract, but like you said, its really valuable experience and Ill be able to walk away with something that I can say I did this. That makes me feel good Telecom is going ok, too, and I think they may offer me a fulltime PR job there soon. And a friend from the State Library of NSW where I did work experience while at uni is leaving and they have told me to look out for her job being advertised I should maybe apply for it The thought of working in the city is very appealing, even though working at council was good because it was close to home, getting out of home is a nicer thought right now. Maybe I can come and visit you for a week or so We can sit at home and get fat together Let me know what you think about it.You can show me Perth and it would be good travelling practice. OK Of course, I wouldnt come when Tony is over here. Can I tell you something You did ask me what I thought about your longdistance relationship. You may not want to hear this, but oh well. My friend Kiri, in Greece now and engaged to and Englishman first went back when I knew her in our second year at uni, met a great guy called Costas. There was beautiful, envious talk of romance, how the two of them wrote letters, talked on the phone, promised to always love one another and meet back in Greece some day. Does this sound familiar to you OK, about this time last year, Kiri did go back and they met and it just didnt feel the same in fact she said it was a really bad situation and she was angry she had wasted so much time on him because they just couldnt make it the same as it was when they were first in Greece together or as perfect and simple as their love letters. I remember us talking before she returned again and saying but what if you cant recapture what you had Or if you find that letters and phone calls are one thing but meeting again is a totally different She said that yes, that might happen. And now, unfortunately, it has happened. So, Dianne, enjoy it while you can, I guess, but be careful about these longdistance things. And if, when you meet again, its not all hearts and roses, dont try and force it to be what you remember it was like. Kiri said they tried that to try and ignore how bad it was and pretend it was good again, because it might be embarrassing to admit she flown all the way around the world to marry someone and now she didnt even like him anymore. But that was to hard, so they agreed it wasnt working and gave up. So be careful, OK I wouldnt want another of my friends hurt. As you can see from my photos, my hair is short and red do you like it I do although I want to get it cut even shorter. I havent made any clothes for about a moth or two now how lazy of me But I have lots of fabric that I have bought for when I will do some sewing nice long skirts. I like them they make you feel really elegant, much smarter than a short skirt I think sometimes. What about you Plus I saw the summer clothes are coming into store now. We havent had much of a winter over here, but its not so warm that I want to start thinking of my summer wardrobe already Im still cross stitching and Im thinking of moving onto making a tapestry cushion soon. Do you get a magazine that comes out every fortnight called Needlecraft It is very good and costs only 95. They have small embroidery kits to make bookmarks or potpourri sachets and great ways of teaching new techniques and ideas of things to make. You should have a look for it if you are still interested in your sewing and craftwork. Mum also bought me the Family Circle Cross Stitch bookmagazine, and its great. Over 70 stunning projects to tempt you , it says on the cover, and its 95 and distributed by Gordon Gotch in newsagents or supermarkets. Im going to see Super Mario Bros movie tomorrow, just for a giggle. And I cant wait to see Jurassic park and the Firm, because Ive read both of the books that the movies were based on. How about you Well, write soon. Let me know about the idea of me coming over for a week or so could be fun Dear Dianne 10 September 1993 Howdy Is it my turn to write or yours Mine, I think. |