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Indigenous Astronomy



Because the Australian Aboriginal culture is the oldest continuous culture in the world, it is possible that the Australian Aboriginal people may be the world's first astronomers.

One of the earliest records of indigenous astronomy was made by William Stanbridge, an Englishman who emigrated to Australia in 1841 and befriended the local Boorong people.

Some Aboriginal groups use the motions of celestial bodies for calendar purposes. Many attribute religious or mythological meanings to celestial bodies and phenomena. There is a diversity of astronomical traditions in Australia, each with its own particular expression of cosmology. However, there appear to be common themes and systems between the groups.




Duane Hamacher, a PhD candidate at Macquarie University in Sydney, found a bowl-shaped crater at Palm Valley, near Hermannsburg, about 130 km southwest of Alice Springs, by searching for it on Google Earth - after being tipped off by Aboriginal dreaming stories.

"Indigenous Australians tell lots of stories about stars falling out of the sky with a noise like thunder - and one of the stories gave a location in the Northern Territory," the astronomer told the Northern Territory News.

"I searched for it on Google Earth, but when I really found something looking like a crater I couldn't believe it.
"I was very hesitant with excitement as I thought I would look like an idiot if it was just something simple - but it wasn't.
It was a crater."
When visiting the site with a team of geophysicists and astrophysicists, Mr Hamacher and his team found evidence of Palm Valley being an ancient meteorite crater.



"We found shocked quartz, which is only produced by a substantial impact and its presence in the rock samples and the morphology of the structure are the major indicators that Palm Valley is a crater."
Mr Hamacher said the discovery of a connection between dreamtime stories and reality was an exciting one.

"Lots of Aboriginal dreamtime stories are associated with craters, meteorites and cosmic impacts and although some craters are millions of years old and people would not have been able to witness the impact, it seems as if traditional dreaming stories know about the crater's origin."

One of the stories - the one that local Arrernte people tell about a star that fell into a waterhole called Puka in the valley, where Kulaia, the serpent, lived - had led to the discovery of the ancient crater, which the team proposed to name Puka, but there were "many, many more", Mr Hamacher said.

"We found stories with descriptions of cosmic impacts and meteorite falls related to places in Arnhem Land - we assume there are more meteorite craters out there and science doesn't even know about their existence yet."

Artist: Gabriella Possum Nungurrayi


Milky Way Dreaming tells the mythological story of seven sisters, the stars of the constellation Taurus (Pleiades), being chased across the sky by a Jakamarra man

represented by the morning star in Orion’s Belt. He tries to catch them but the seven sisters continually elude him.



Stars and family relationships


Knowledge of the constellations or star formations also reflect the patterns for social relationships in some areas. Arrernte and Luritja 'skin groupings', which determine people's relationships to one another, are based on the constellations of the Southern Cross. The stars represent a man and a woman ideally suited in marriage, with their parents, children and other relations all marked out in the night sky.



For Warlpiri people, the ancestors broke the Milky Way (called Yiwarra) into individual stars that we see today. Some fragments fell to earth, creating sacred places. This story is re-told in paintings, song and dance as well as re-enacted in contemporary initiation ceremonies, where men wear white down on their bodies to represent the stars (Dianne Johnson, Macquarie Atlas of Indigenous Australia).



Thus, connections are made on a daily basis between ancestors, people, stars and land. The telling of the Dreaming stories reinforces knowledge about the constellations, social behaviour, land formations and sacred places.


Echidna Australian marsupial


Echidnas are small mammals that are covered with coarse hair and spines. The spines protect the animal from enemies.
Superficially they resemble the anteaters of South America and other spiny mammals like hedgehogs and porcupines. They have snouts which have the functiοns of both mouth and nose. Their snouts are elongated and slender.
Echidnas have a tiny mouth and a toothless jaw. They feed by tearing open soft logs, anthills and the like, and use their long, sticky tongue, which protrudes from their snout, to collect their prey.

Echidnas grow to be about 40 centimetres long. They weigh about 8 kilograms.
In the wild, an echidna can live for up to 16 years.

They belong to the monotreme family of egg-laying mammals.
After mating, a female echidna digs a burrow, curls up her body, and lays one egg directly into her pouch. The egg hatches in about 10 days. Inside the pouch, the baby echidna drinks milk from its mother's body. When its spines start to grow, the baby leaves the pouch. The female will feed her baby until it's about 6 months old.





Aboriginal Music




Australian Aboriginal Music has formed  part of the social, cultural and ceremony, of Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, throughout their individual, and collective histories to this present day. The traditional forms of Australian Aboriginal Music, include many aspects of performance, and use of musical instruments, such as the  didgeridoo, Sticks, Boomerang clap sticks, hollow log drum, notched stick, bunches of seed pods, skin drum (whose head is made from lizard or goanna skin), or  using what is unique to the different regions, of Indigenous Australian groups. The culture of the Torres Strait Islanders is related to that of adjacent parts of New Guinea and so their music is also related.

Australian Aboriginal Music is a vital part of Indigenous Australians' cultural maintenance.

Here is a sample of the traditional music of the native people of Australia.
Enjoy this masterpiece of aboriginal folk music and the fascinating sound of the didgeridoo (the traditional aboriginal wooden "drone pipe")! This song was composed, and is performed and sung by Richard Walley, one of the greatest and most famous Australian Aboriginal composers and musicians.








 
  

Flying Foxes bats



Flying Foxes have been blamed recently, for the spread of a virus called the Hendra virus which has been confirmed as the cause of illness or death in horses, Biosecurity Queensland will manage the situation. It will quarantine the property where the outbreak has occurred and isolate any ill animals. It will conduct a full disease investigation and take measures to care for animals, prevent the risk to people, decontaminate the environment and safely dispose of infected horses that die.

Iam not the evil one! its those damn chemicals!

If fruit bats have always carried this disease, why was the first recorded outbreak in 1994? It is possible the deaths have gone undiagnosed? Have the fruit bats become more infectious for some reason? The macadamia industry has also recently been in the news for its use of agricultural chemicals that have been blamed for fish deformities in the Noosa River — could these chemicals impact fruit bats.



The most recent and rapid expansion of the disease this year also corresponds to major rainfall events and it is hard to link this with increased interaction with fruit bats — although it is claimed that the Hendra virus or antibodies have been found in “pooled” blood collected from mosquitoes in the Hendra case paddock in 1995.





Flying foxes pose no identified risk of passing Hendra virus directly to people. All human cases have resulted from close contact with infected horses. Of 140 people with close contact with flying foxes (including bat carers, wildlife rangers and research scientists), none showed any evidence of Hendra virus infection. Nonetheless, because of the risk of contracting the invariably fatal Australian bat lyssavirus from any Australian bats, members of the general public should not handle flying foxes or any other bats.

Flying Foxes were classified as ‘Vulnerable to extinction’ in The Action Plan for Australian Bats, and has since been protected across its range under Australian federal law. As of 2008 the species is listed as 'Vulnerable on the International Union for Conservation of Nature Red List of Threatened Species.




There has been much debate about the role of flying foxes in the spread of this disease. However, culling flying foxes is not an effective way to reduce Hendra virus risk according to Primary Industries. 

The following reasons are given:


Flying foxes are an important part of our natural environment

Flying foxes are widespread in Australia and, as they are highly mobile, it is not feasible to cull them

Culling or dispersing flying foxes in one location could simply transfer the issue to another location

There are far more effective steps people can take to reduce the risk of Hendra virus infection in horses and humans.


Flying-foxes are mammals and are members of the Pteropididae or fruit bat family. They have the largest body size of all bats. Four species of these mammals are native to mainland Australia: the Little Red Flying-fox, the Black Flying-fox, the Grey-headed Flying-fox and the Spectacled Flying-fox.



Flying-foxes are found throughout tropical and sub-tropical Asia and Australia and on islands of the Indian and western Pacific Oceans. The four Flying-fox species found in Australia occur mostly in northern and eastern temperate and sub-tropical coastal areas.






Flying-foxes prefer blossom, nectar, fruit and occasionally leaves of native plants, particularly eucalypts, tea-trees, grevilleas, figs and lilly pillys. Flying foxes will also take the fruit of cultivated trees, particularly during periods of shortage of their preferred food.






Camps are places where the large flying-foxes gather during the day, sometimes in many thousands. Along the coast they may be in mangroves, further inland they are often in deep gullies or rainforest patches, and west of the Dividing Range they are usually along water-courses.


Eating and Cooking

Many species are threatened today with extinction, and in particular in the Pacific a number of flying fox species have died out as a result of over-harvesting for human consumption.

Varieties of fruit bats, including the sizable flying fox bat, are the most popular to eat. When it comes time to cook them up, ," famed chef Anthony Bourdain cautions traveling gastronomes of a particularly pungent smell that wafts from simmering bat. But the actual flavor should be far more benign. As with many mystery meats, bat reportedly tastes a lot like chicken. To rustle up one's own batty entrée, Bourdain says to season it with some peppers, onions or garlic (not unlike a roasted chicken recipe) to mitigate that strong scent.





Flying fox and Bat recipes

A big no no with cooking bats or flying foxes is to not steam or stew them they have a very pungent smell that is not pleasent when cooked these ways.


The best and tastiest way to cook bats is to throw them on a fire whole, this will burn the fur off, and give them a nice charred flavour.

Remove them from the flames and let fire burn down to just hot coals. cut the flying foxes into four or five pieces and place on wire grill over coals at this stage you can add salt or spices to your taste or just leave as is, I like just a bit of salt, cooking time is up to you, i like well done to get that crispy taste.

The heart of the Flying fox once cooked is delicious.

Enjoy






File snakes


Adults file snakes can grow up  to 8.25 ft (2.5 m) in length. They have amazingly loose skin and are known to prey on large fish, such as eel-tailed catfish. Females are usually larger than males and they have been known to give birth to up to 17 young.
The indigenous peoples of Northern Australia often hunt these snakes as they are quite common. As the snakes are near immobilized without the support of water the hunters merely throw each newly caught snake on the bank and continue hunting until they have enough, they are then thrown on hot  fire coals and buried for about 15 minutes.





Dingo




The Australian Dingo or Warrigal is an ancient, free roaming, primitive canine unique to the continent of Australia, specifically the outback. Its original ancestors are thought to have arrived with humans from southeast Asia thousands of years ago, when dogs were still relatively undomesticated and closer to their wild Asian Gray Wolf parent species, Canis lupus.

The fur of adult dingoes is short, bushy on the tail, and varies in thickness and length depending on the climate. The fur colour is mostly sandy to reddish brown, but can include tan patterns and be occasionally black, light brown, or white.


It is often wrongly asserted that dingoes do not bark. Compared to most other domestic dogs, the bark of a dingo is short and mono sounding.

80% of the diet of dingoes consist of 10 species, the Red Kangaroo, Swamp Wallaby, cattle, Dusky Rat, Magpie Goose, Common Brushtail Possum, Long-haired Rat, Agile Wallaby, European rabbit and the Common Wombat.
Today dingoes live in all kinds of habitats, including the snow-covered mountain forests of Eastern Australia, dry hot deserts of Central Australia, and Northern Australia's tropical forest wetlands.





Dingo Fence


The Dingo Fence or Dog Fence is a pest-exclusion fence that was built in Australia during the 1880s and finished in 1885, to keep dingoes out of the relatively fertile south-east part of the continent (where they had largely been exterminated) and protect the sheep flocks of southern Queensland. It is one of the longest structures in the world and is the world's longest fence.





It stretches 5,614 km (3,488 mi) from Jimbour on the Darling Downs near Dalby through thousands of kilometres of arid land ending west of Eyre peninsula on cliffs of the Nullarbor Plain above the Great Australian Bight(131° 40’ E),near Nundroo. It has been partly successful, though dingoes can still be found in parts of the southern states.



Although the fence has helped reduce losses of sheep to predators, this has been countered by holes in fences found in the 1990s to which dingo offspring have passed through and due to increased pasture competition from rabbits and kangaroos.

Today, the rate at which feral camel are smashing down sections of the fence is fast increasing in Southern Australia. Plans for restructuring the Dog fence to be taller and electric are under process.










Dingoes and Aboriginal culture


Traditionally dogs have a privileged position in the aboriginal cultures of Australia (which the dingo may have adopted from the thylacine) and the dingo is a well known part of rock carvings and cave paintings. There are ceremonies (like a keen at the Cape York Peninsula in the form of howling) and dreamtime stories connected to the dingo, which were passed down through the generations. There are strong feelings that dingoes should not be killed and in some areas women are breast feeding young cubs.



Bilby bandicoots


Bilbies are desert-dwelling bandicoots about the size of a rabbit. They have large ears, a coat of soft, light grey and tan hair, and a very distinctive black and white tail.

In the late 18th century, Bilbies were hunted for their skins resulting in a large reduction in their population. Many Bilbies were also killed by traps and poison baits intended for rabbits.


Aboriginal Australians hunted Bilbies for food and for their skins, however this hunting is in no way responsible for the declining Bilby population.


Bilbies are slowly becoming endangered because of habitat loss and change as well as the competition with other animals. Feral cats pose a major threat to the bilby's survival, and it competes with rabbits for food. There is a national recovery plan being developed for saving these animals: this program includes breeding in captivity, monitoring populations, and reestablishing bilbies where they once lived.


Baby Bilbies 

If you spot a Bilby in the wild, please contact the websites below
Any info on sightings can help our bilby researchers.

You can help raise money to help put a stop to the steady decline of this delightful marsupial.  Visit these websites at  http://www.savethebilbyfund.com/ or http://www.bilbyrescue.com/



Banteng





These animals are promising beef producers. Gourmets consider banteng cuts among the finest of meats, and Indonesia cannot export enough to satisfy the demand in Hong Kong and Japan alone. The meat's outstanding characteristics are its tenderness and leanness. When the animals are maintained and finished under traditional village management, total fat content of the meat (both on a liveweight and carcass basis) is usually less than 4 percent. Little of the fat is deposited among the meat fibers (marbling).


The domesticated form of the banteng was first introduced to Australia in 1849 with the establishment of a British military outpost on the Cobourg Peninsula called Port Essington. Twenty animals were taken to the Western Arnhem Land, in current day Northern Territory, as a source of meat. A year after the outpost’s establishment, poor conditions including as crop failure and tropical disease led to its abandonment. With the departure of British troops, the banteng were released from their grazing pastures and allowed to form a feral population. By the 1960s, researchers realized that a population of about 1,500 individuals had developed in the tropical forests of the Cobourg Peninsula.

Since their introduction in 1849, the population has not strayed far from its initial point of domesticated life; all currently live within the Garig Gunak Barlu National Park. As of 2007, the initial population had grown from only 20 in 1849 to 8,000-10,000 and is used exclusively for sport hunting and Aboriginal subsistence hunters.

Australia Wide Safaris operate their Banteng safaris on Coburg Peninsular.
Banteng are a very unique animal of the bovine species and whilst they are a bovine, their similarity to cattle ends right there. They carry an impressive set of curved trophy horns, starting with a length per horn of 18"- 25" on a very big bull.






Australia Crocodile Safaris



Carmor Plains and Australia Wide Safaris are one of the few safari operators offering Crocodile harvesting.
Australia Wide Safaris own and manage Carmor Plains Wildlife Reserve. The 100,000 acre privately owned game reserve is a pristine area for native flora and fauna and game animals.

 They also offer Water Buffalo, Wild Boar, Water Fowl, Wild Goat, Banteng and Wild Cattle hunting






The Crocodile harvesting season is year round but best times are from late April to the end of November.
Transport to the game reserve can be by road or private air charter. They will pick you up at the airport upon your arrival or from your Hotel. Travelling time by road from Darwin to Carmor Plains is 2 and 1/2 hours. If you prefer they can charter a light aircraft for you from Darwin, direct to the hunting camp, flying time 25 minutes!



Population of Australia

A real size comparison of Australia and the United States and the U.K. in red

Indigenous Australians are the original inhabitants of the Australian continent and nearby islands. Indigenous Australians are distinguished as either Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islanders, who currently together make up about 2.7% of Australia's population.

During the period between 1788 and 1868, about 160,000 convicts were sent to Australia. What happened to them when they got to Australia depended on their skills or education, how they behaved themselves and some luck. The First Fleet carried 780 British convicts who landed in Botany Bay, New South Wales. Two more convict fleets arrived in 1790 and 1791, and the first free settlers didn' arrived until 1793. During this period, the colony of New South Wales was officially a penal colony comprising mainly of convicts, marines and the wives of the marines.


The majority of the 165,000 convicts transported to Australia were poor and illiterate, victims of the Poor Laws and social conditions in Georgian England. Eight out of ten prisoners were convicted for larceny of some description.



In the 2006 Australian Census residents were asked to describe their ancestry, in which up to two could be nominated. Proportionate to the Australian resident population, the most commonly nominated ancestries were.


Australian (37.13%)

English (31.65%)

Irish (9.08%)

Scottish (7.56%)

Italian (4.29%)

German (4.09%)

Chinese (3.37%)

Greek (1.84%)

Dutch (1.56%)

Indian (1.18%)

Lebanese (0.92%)

Vietnamese (0.87%)

Armenian (0.82%)

New Zealander (0.81%)

Filipino (0.81%)

Maltese (0.77%)

Croatian (0.59%)
Welsh (0.57%)

French (0.5%)

Serbian (0.48%)

Maori (0.47%)

Spanish (0.42%)

Macedonian (0.42%)

South African (0.4%)

Sinhalese (0.37%)

Hungarian (0.3%)

Russian (0.3%)

Turkish (0.3%)

American (0.28%)





Australia is a religiously diverse country and has no official religion.

The most commonly spoken languages other than English in Australia are Italian, Greek, German, Spanish, Vietnamese, Tagalog, Chinese languages, Indian languages, Arabic, Macedonian and Croatian, as well as numerous Australian Aboriginal languages



Witchetty Grub



The witchetty grub also spelled witchety grub or witjuti grub is a term used in Australia for the large, white, wood-eating larvae of several moths. Particularly it applies to the larva of the cossid moth Endoxyla leucomochla, which feeds on the roots of the Witchetty bush.

The grub is the most important insect food of the desert and was a staple in the diets of Aboriginal women and children.
I’ve tried one raw, they are very gooey and eggy and quite disgusting, but they can bite your tongue if you forget to bite their heads off. When cooked some say the flavour is variously described as almond-like or similar to peanut butter. Some popular recipes include Singed Witchetty Grubs and Witchetty Grub Soup.


Barbecued  Grubs

Barbecued, witchetties are often eaten as an appetizer. They are cooked over a fire on pieces of wire, rather like shasliks or satays. It takes about two minutes each side for the meat to become white and chewy and the skin crusty. Barbecued witchetties taste quite like chicken or prawns, serve with a peanut sauce.



Platypus





According to Aboriginal legend, the first platypus were born after a young female duck mated with a lonely and persuasive water-rat. The duck's offspring had their mother's bill and webbed feet and their father's four legs and handsome brown fur.

Early British colonists in Australia called the platypus a "water mole". Prior to the arrival of European settlers, Aboriginal people had many different names for the animal, including "boondaburra", "mallingong" and "tambreet".





A Dr Shaw, in his scientific description of 1799, gave the name Platypus anatinus, from Greek and Latin words meaning "flat-footed, duck-like".

While both male and female Platypuses are born with ankle spurs, only the male has spurs which produce a cocktail of venom. Platypus spurrings of people are rare, but the select group who have survived the trauma (often fishermen trying to free them) report pain strong enough to induce vomiting which can persist for days, weeks or even months.





Kangaroo inside a emu recipe



Roasted Emu stuffed with Kangaroo 
KANGAMU



Dont go cooking lamb or beef on Australia day use Kangaroo or Emu our Aussie Coat of Arms.
Chuck some Roo or Emu on the Barbie its lean its tasty and goes great with Beer and Bundy Rum not just Beer or Rum both together remember its Australia Day you have to get smashed.





Aussie Meat Pie (Roo Pie)

1kg Kangaroo mince 
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 medium brown onion, finely chopped
2 rashers fatty bacon, rind trimmed chopped small
2 tablespoons tomato paste
2 tablespoons plain flour
2 cups salt-reduced beef stock
1 tablespoon fresh thyme leaves
4 sheets frozen ready-rolled shortcrust pastry, partially thawed, halved diagonally
2 sheets frozen ready-rolled puff pastry, partially thawed, quartered
1 egg, lightly beaten
Tomato sauce,


 Cook Roo mince, bacon and onion in a frying pan for 8 to 10 minutes or till brown.


Add tomato paste and flour. Cook, stirring, for 1 minute or until combined. Add stock and thyme. Stir to combine.
Bring to the boil. Reduce heat to medium-low.
Simmer for 30 minutes or until sauce has thickened and meat is tender. Season with pepper. Remove from heat.
Preheat oven to 200°C/180°C fan-forced. Line eight 7.5cm round pie moulds with shortcrust pastry. Trim excess.
Fill cases with kangaroo mixture. Top with puff pastry. Trim excess. Press edges together with a fork to seal.
Using a small sharp knife, cut a small cross in pie tops. Brush with egg. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes or until golden. Serve with tomatoe sauce

Enjoy with a shit load of Beer and a bottle of Bundy 






Emu Burgers

3 kg minced Emu
2 bacon rashers 
1 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon pepper
6 large onion slices
1 teaspoon dry mustard
1/2 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
3 hamburger buns
Bbq Sauce
Beetroot
Tomatoe
Lettuce
Pineapple
8 Bundy and cokes



Combine Emu, worcestershire sauce, dry mustard and salt and pepper, mixing well. Shape into six patties and chuck on barbie with the onion and bacon. melt some cheese on the burgers when nearly cooked.
Toast buns on barbie, chuck on the emu burger, bacon, bbq sauce beetroot, tomatoe, lettuce, pineapple,(leave off what you dont like) and serve with heaps of nice cold cans of Bundie and coke
Makes 6 servings.




Welcome to country ceremony

Ceremonies and protocols are an important part of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander culture. Incorporating ceremonies into Australia Day activities allows the wider community to share in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander culture, and promote a stronger sense of shared nationhood. Such ceremonies include Welcome to Country to welcome visitors into a community and Smoking Ceremonies to clear impurities from the land or sea.

how to make a damper







Dampers and various types of bread were baked in the ashes. Care was taken to only use the correct type of wood from which the ashes were obtained. Some woods imparted an unpleasant taste or even caused irritation or discomfort to the users. most wattles seemed to have been successfully used for baking in the ashes, yielding a fine ash that did not cause irritation.
 
 

 
 
Wattle seed Damper
 
4 cups of self raising flour
2  teaspoons of salt
1 teaspoon sugar ( If you want)
90g of butter
3 tablespoons of roasted ground wattle seed
3/4  cup of milk ( if your camping and dont have milk just use water)
3/4  cup of water

Combine all ingrediants together, then kneed the dough for a bit, then roll into a ball ,and then flatten it a bit, so it looks like a thick flying saucer.

Throw onto hot ashes and cover with ashes, damper will take about 20-30 minutes.

Spread with whatever you like when cooked.( i like heaps of butter and vegemite).


Herb and Cheese Damper ( Sheila`s Damper)

1 cup (160g) wholemeal self-raising flour

1 cup (150g) white self-raising flour
60g unsalted butter, softened
1/2 cup (40g) grated tasty cheese
1/4 cup chopped oregano leaves
3/4 cup (185ml) milk, plus extra to glaze
1 tbs grated parmesan


You can do this one like the one above and chuck it in the fire.

But for you sheila`s  Shape into a round loaf and place on a greased baking tray. Brush top with milk and sprinkle with parmesan. Bake for 30 minutes in oven or until loaf sounds hollow when tapped. Serve warm
with a glass of champagne or a cup of tea.

Mud Crabs

Mud Crabs are marine and estuarine coastal dwellers that can tolerate low salinity for extended periods, preferring shallow water with...