Australian Beer

The history of Australian beer starts very early in Australia's colonial history. Captain Cook brought beer with him on his ship Endeavour as a means of preserving drinking water. On 1 August 1768 as Captain Cook was fitting out the Endeavour for its voyage, Nathaniel Hulme wrote to Joseph Banks recommending that he take -

Joseph Banks old $5.00 note

"a quantity of Molasses and Turpentine, in order to brew Beer with, for your daily drink, when your Water becomes bad. … Brewing Beer at sea will be peculiarly useful in case you should have stinking water on board; for I find by Experience that the smell of stinking water will be entirely destroyed by the process of fermentation."

— Letter to Joseph Banks 1768

Beer was still being consumed on board 2 years later in 1770 when Cook was the first European to discover the east coast of Australia.

The first (official) brewer in Australia was John Boston who brewed a beverage from Indian corn bittered with cape gooseberry leaves. It is likely though that beer was brewed unofficially much earlier. The first pub, the Mason Arms was opened in 1796 in Parramatta by James Larra, a freed convict.

James Squire was the first to successfully cultivate hops in 1804. The Government Gazette from 1806 mentions that he was awarded a cow from the government herd for his efforts. Squire also opened a pub and brewed beer.

Brewing rapidly expanded in all the Australian colonies. By 1871 there were 126 breweries in Victoria alone which at the time had a population of only 800,000.



Melbourne, 24 July 1953. The liquor licensing laws of the day obliged public bars to close at 6 p.m. The ensuing rush to the bar to beat the clock for a drink before heading home for dinner became known as the "six o'clock swill".

It's a sad fact of life but beer will never taste quite as good as it does in a pub.

Helping to ensure  that you might literally never leave your house again, a Japanese company have created the Beer Jug Jokki Hour, a glass that gives you the ability to add a pub-style head of foam to your beer.

The trick is to fill your mug 3/4 full or more and then press the non-battery operated switch to create a fresh head of foam.

All you need now is a healthy supply of your favourite brew, a pool table and a foul-smelling bathroom and you're pretty much set.

South Africans Abroad

 

 

Australia is the third most popular country for South Africans living abroad.
According to the latest statistics, there were roughly 159,020 South African-born expatriates living in Australia, making it the third most popular country for South Africans who live abroad.
The year-on-year increment has doubled between 2006/07 and 2009/13, with a little under 13,000 new permanent additions granted Australian visas (majority via the skilled route, 89% to be precise) in 2009/13.
Interestingly enough, the median age of South African-born migrants is 38 years old, while the labour force participation rate was 76%, which is considerably higher than the national average of 65%.
Contrary to popular belief, New South Wales was the most popular state for South Africa born residents in Australia at the time of the last Census in 2006.

In the 2012-13 Australian Commonwealth Budget announced in May, the government had good news for South Africans hoping to migrate to the country.  The financial plan outlined a targeted increase in numbers accepted on the Migration Program to support Australian regions and sectors with acute skills shortages.

The standout feature of the Budget was an increase of 5,000 places in the Migration Program from 185,000 places in 2011‑12 to 190,000 for 2012-13 made up of 129,250 skilled stream places, 60,185 family stream places and 565 special eligibility places.  Minister for Immigration and Citizenship Chris Bowen MP said the increase “comes in the context of significant skills gaps in both the short and medium term in certain sectors of our patchwork economy” and that skilled migrants “are complementing rather than competing with our domestic labour force.”
International removals company, Anglo Pacific, has already noticed a surge in enquiries for Australian 2012, up 15% to date for the same period in 2011.  The Company attributed this rise to the Australian Government’s other latest initiative – Skill Select.  Combine this with the increase in allocations on the Migration Program and Anglo Pacific could be in for a very busy year shipping personal belongings down under.

Gday Australia

G’day is a shortened form of ‘Good Day’ and it is the equivalent of ‘Hello. Mate means friend or buddy and it can be used to address your friend or a total stranger by saying G'day mate! So, everyone can be your mate in Australia.

We should all say G'day more often, in general. Just the simple act of smiling or laughing can make you happier.

But even better: say G'day to a stranger. Too often we brush past strangers without a glance, or a straight or scowling face. At best, we might give people a tolerant little smile, to show that we are not mean. Usually most of us try to avoid any eye contact at all.
Try this instead: look strangers in the eye, and give them a big G'day. In most cases, you’ll get a hello or G'day in return. The more you smile, the more smiles you’ll see in return.
End result? A happier world. So simple!



 

Sheilas

Today, women make up just over half of Australia’s total population. More women than men are now educated at secondary schools and universities, and more women than men graduate from university with bachelor degrees. In 2006, women accounted for 54.8 per cent of all tertiary education students and 47.5 per cent of all students enrolled in vocational education and training courses. The majority were enrolled in management and commerce, society and culture, and food, hospitality and personal services courses.
Almost 4.8 million women were in some form of paid employment.

In the late 19th century, as Australia entered a period of prosperity, employment opportunities for women started to increase. However, around half of the female workforce was still employed in domestic service for very little pay. Women started campaigning for a range of social and political reforms, including access to universities and the right to vote and stand for parliament. By 1881, they had gained entry to all three universities then in existence (Adelaide, Melbourne and Sydney). Between 1895 and 1908, all state governments granted women the vote and, from 1902, women had the right to stand for federal parliament and vote in federal elections.

By 1943, there were around 800 000 women in the workforce.

Australian Aboriginal women share an interdependent relationship with the men playing a dominant role in child rearing and food gathering and sharing the roles of healers, law makers, performers, painters and custodians of traditional ways. Women maintain their traditional knowledge through ceremony and more recently through their paintings.

Today, rather than being an insult, “Sheila” is widely regarded as a Aussie slang word for a woman.

An ‘alright sort of a sheila’ would therefore denote a pretty good woman!

Australia is very much a multicultural country, 25 per cent of Australians were born overseas; the five largest immigrant groups were those from the United Kingdom, New Zealand, Italy, Vietnam, and China.

Timeline


1895: Women vote for the first time in an Australian election (South Australia)


1902: Commonwealth Franchise Act passed, enabling all women (with the exception of Aboriginal women in some states) to stand for federal parliament and vote in federal elections.

1921: Edith Cowan above becomes the first woman elected to an Australian parliament (in Western Australia)

1943: Dame Enid Lyons and Senator Dorothy Tangney above become the first women elected to Federal Parliament

1947: Jessie Street appointed as the Australian representative to the newly established United Nations Commission on the Status of Women

1966: Bar on married women as permanent employees in the federal public service abolished

1969: Equal pay determination by the Commonwealth Conciliation and Arbitration Commission introduces the principle of ‘equal pay for work of equal value’

1983: Australia ratifies the UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women


1984: Federal Sex Discrimination Act passed, to implement the UN Convention domestically

1988: Prime Minister launches the first National Agenda for Women, based on the UN Nairobi Forward-Looking Strategies for the Advancement of Women

1989: Rosemary Follett becomes the first female head of a government in Australia when she is elected Chief Minister of the Australian Capital Territory

1992: Justice Elizabeth Evatt, President of the Australian Law Reform Commission, becomes the first Australian elected to the UN Human Rights Committee

1999: Equal Opportunity for Women in the Workplace Act introduced into parliament on 22 September, replacing the Affirmative Action Act 1986

2010: Australia's first female Prime Minister Julia Gillard.

Tasmanian Tigers

The Tasmanian Tiger, Thylacinus cynocephalus, was a large, carnivorous (meat-eating) marsupial that is probably extinct. It is not closely related to the tiger.

Habitat and Extinction: The Tasmanian Tiger lived in dry eucalyptus forests, wetlands, and grasslands in continental Australia, Tasmania, and New Guinea. It went extinct in mainland Australia about 2,000 years ago due to competition from dingoes. In Tasmania, the Tasmanian Tiger went extinct in 1936 after being killed in large numbers by sheep farmers who settled in Tasmania (the Tasmanian Tiger ate a lot of sheep). The last known Tasmanian Tiger, named Benjamin, died in captivity at the Hobart Zoo. Despite its supposed extinction, there are a few unconfirmed Tasmanian Tiger sightings each year in Tasmania.

   Anatomy: The Tasmanian Tiger was 6 feet (1.8 m) long, including the tail, and weighed about 65 pounds (30 kg). This mammal had light brown fur with a series of black stripes along the back from the base of the tail almost to the shoulders. The tail was long and stiff; it could not wag like the tail of a dog. The skull was large and its jaws could open 120 degrees, wider than any other mammal.   Diet: The Tasmanian Tiger was a carnivore who hunted at night and at dusk and dawn. It ate wallabies, rabbits, sheep, poultry, goats, and other animals. It was a solitary hunter who used its keen sense of smell to find its prey. Although it wasn't a fast runner, it had great stamina, and pursued its prey until the victim was exhausted.   Reproduction: Females had a rear-facing pouch in which the tiny immature young lived for many months, drinking the female's milk.

Big Cats

Sightings of exotic big cats in Australia began more than 100 years ago. The New South Wales State Government reported in 2003 that it was "more likely than not" that there was a colony of exotic big cats living in the bush near Sydney.

Gippsland phantom cat

In the Gippsland region of south-eastern Victoria, the origin of the cats is claimed to be American World War II airmen who brought cougars with them as mascots and released them in the Australian Bush. Photographic evidence is often difficult to interpret.

Grampians puma

A study by Deakin University concluded that a big cat population in the Grampians mountain range is "beyond reasonable doubt".

Blue Mountains Panther

The Blue Mountains Panther is a phantom cat reported in sightings in the Blue Mountains area, west of Sydney, New South Wales for over a century. Speculation about the Blue Mountains Panther includes the theory that it is descended from either circus or zoo escapees, or is a descendant of a military mascot.
Video footage showing a large black cat near Lithgow was examined by a group of seven zoo, museum, parks and agriculture staff, who concluded that it was a large domestic cat (2–3 times normal size) based partly on its morphology and partly on the behaviour of a nearby normal-sized domestic cat.

Tantanoola Tiger

The region around Tantanoola, a town in the south-east of South Australia was supposed to have been the stalking ground of The Tantanoola Tiger during the late nineteenth century. In 1895 an animal believed to be the Tantanoola Tiger was shot and identified as an Assyrian wolf. It was stuffed and remains on display in the Tantanoola Hotel.

A few bits of circumstantial evidence suggest to some that feral cats in Australia are now reaching enormous sizes, equivalent to that of a small leopard

Sunshine Coast big cats

There have been some claims that "Big Cats" have stalked the hinterland of the Sunshine Coast  Queensland since early in the 19th century. These claims have been met with scepticism.

Worlds longest Fish

 

 

This one is a really strange looking fish. Growing to 17 metres in length this would have to be the worlds longest fish. The oarfish prefers deep oceanic waters but is sometimes found in estuaries and bays and washed up on beaches during violent storms and heavy swells. It is long and slender and a shiny silver colour with a orange dorsal fin,and is one of  the worlds longest fish.


In days past, it was believed that a swimming oarfish would 'row' with its pelvic fins in a circular motion, hence the common name.  Unfortunately folk tales aren't always true.  The strange pelvic fins are now believed to be used for taste perception not locomotion

Allegedly this Photograph shows US servicemen in Laos during the Vietnam War with a captured Mekong Dragon, Phaya Naga, Mekong Naga or enormously overgrown eel. It is widely circulated in Laos. However, the photograph was actually taken in 1996 and shows a Giant Oarfish, found on the shore of the Pacific Ocean near San Diego, California. This extremely rare specimen was 23 ft (7.0 m) long and weighed 300 lb (140 kg).



An Oarfish on the beach at Busselton, Western Australia, 8 November 2003. The fish was spotted at dusk on consecutive days. On the second day it beached itself but was returned to the water by onlookers. The fish swam away, apparently unharmed.




 

Wombats Aussie Badger

Wombats have a lack of fear meaning that they may display acts of aggression if provoked, or if they are simply in a bad mood. Its sheer weight makes a charging wild wombat capable of knocking an average-sized adult over, and their sharp teeth and powerful jaws can inflict severe wounds.

Wombats are marsupials and herbivores; their diet consists mostly of grasses, sedges, herbs, bark and roots.

The name wombat comes from the aborigines that originally inhabited the Sydney area. Wombats were often called badgers by early settlers because of their size and habit. Because of this, localities such as Badger Creek, Victoria and Badger Corner, Tasmania were named after the wombat.

Wombats dig extensive burrow systems with rodent-like front teeth and powerful claws. One distinctive adaptation of wombats is their backwards pouch. The advantage of a backwards-facing pouch is that when digging, the wombat does not gather dirt in its pouch over its young. Although mainly crepuscular and nocturnal, wombats also venture out to feed on cool or overcast days. They are not commonly seen, but leave ample evidence of their passage, treating fences as minor inconveniences to be gone through or under, and leaving distinctive cubic faeces.

Wombat Stew

As the Wombat is a huge keg of prime muscle with a high fat content, there could be a lucrative trade in raising them for the abattoir.

However farming them is difficult as if they are enclosed, they will tunnel their way to freedom. Like fellow escape artists the Kangaroo and the Echidna, any enclosure of a Wombat requires a much greater financial investment than that required of a cow, horse or sheep. Such an investment would unlikely deliver a return as so few Australians would be willing to eat them.

source:Convict Creations






Wombat Casserole

1.5kg Wombat meat
1 can stewed tomatoes
1 can cream of mushroom soup
1 pkg. baby carrots
6 potatoes, quartered
1 small pkg. lentils
1 can tomato juice
Sliced celery
Onions
Green beans
Method:

Place all ingredients in casserole dish and cover with foil. Bake at 180 degrees celsius for 12 hours. Eat hearty.

Wombats are a protected species throughout Australia