Worlds most dangerous Stinging trees

Even though they don't hunt in packs, the Australian stinging trees are pretty vicious. The sting is delivered through tiny silicon hairs that cover the leaves and the fruit of the plant. You can think of the silicon hairs as tiny fibres of non-transparent glass.  The only way you can handle the leaves safely without getting stung, was to wear incredibly thick and bulky welding gloves. These silicon hairs penetrate your skin, and then break off. They're so tiny, that often the skin will close over the hairs. So sometimes, once you've been stung, you can't remove the stinging hairs.

There are six species of stinging tree in Australia, but only two of them are the tall woody types - the other four are lowish shrubs. They live along the East coast of Australia, from Cape York in the north, to Victoria in the south. They grow only if they get both strong sunlight, and protection from the wind. So you'll see them along tracks, the banks of creeks, and where the rainforest canopy has been broken by a falling branch or tree.

The silicon hairs cause pain, because they carry a neurotoxin. One scientist, Oelrichs, purified the poison and injected himself with it and suffered intense pain. He proved that the toxin, not the silicon hairs, caused the pain. If you have stabbed yourself with the hairs, you can release the neurotoxin from the hairs by heating or cooling your skin, or just touching it. This neurotoxin is very stable. Experiments have been done with hairs that were collected nearly a century ago, and they can still cause pain.

 Hydrochloric Acid treatment was worse than the pain of the dreaded Stinging Tree.

Humans feel something between mild irritation and intense pain and death. The pain comes immediately after touching the plant, and it gradually increases to a peak after about 20-30 minutes. The Dutch Botanist H. J. Winkler made the only official recording of Death By Stinging Tree, for a human. It was in New Guinea, back in the early 1920s. There have been other anecdotal stories from soldiers in WW II suffering intense pain, and of an officer shooting himself because of the unrelenting pain.
But you can suffer even if you don't touch the plant. The plants continuously shed their stinging hairs. Stay close to the stinging trees for more than an hour, and you can get an allergic reaction - intensely painful and continuous bouts of sneezing. You can even get nose bleeds from these silicon hairs floating in the air.
 

 
TREATMENT
The best way to get the hairs out of you, once you've accidentally got stuck on a stinging tree. Is to firstly not to even think about rubbing the affected area with the sap of nearby trees, or the ground-up roots of the tree that stung you. No, it was a student from James Cook University in Cairns who discovered the best way - you can remove these hairs with a hair-removal wax strip. In fact this is now the official recommendation in a Queensland ambulance journal.

Treatment is done by,dressing stings with a hydrochloric acid solution, before waxing the affected area of skin. Maybe this is effective, but it is also one way to cause excruciating pain, and you will never seen so many grown men screaming and crying!

Emily Browning

Emily Browning is an Australian actress, a Hollywood star, and fashion model, she is known for her role as Violet Baudelaire in the 2004 film Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events, as Anna Ivers in the 2009 film The Uninvited, and as Baby Doll in the 2011 action film Sucker Punch.

She also plays the lead in aussie Julia Leigh's Australian independent film Sleeping Beauty.

The stunningly beautiful 22 year old Aussie won the 2005 AFI International Award for Best Actress for her role in A Series of Unfortunate Events.

Emily Browning's acting career began at the age of eight, when she was noticed by a classmate's father at a school play and he recommended that she pursue acting as a profession.

Browning won an AFI Young Actor's Award in 2002 and was nominated for the same award in 1999 and 2003. She was also nominated for Broadcast Film Critics Association Critics' Choice Award for Best Young Performer and Young Artist Awards Best Performance in a Feature Film, Leading Young Actress (both 2005).

In Ms. Leigh’s “Sleeping Beauty,” the lead character,  Lucy (Emily Browning) is a young university student who takes a job as a Sleeping Beauty. In the Sleeping Beauty Chamber old men seek an erotic experience that requires Lucy’s absolute submission. This unsettling task starts to bleed into Lucy’s daily life and she develops an increasing need to know what happens to her when she is asleep.



Jane Campion, a Palm d’or winner in 1993 for “The Piano,” was Ms. Leigh’s mentor on “Sleeping Beauty” and helped find production partners.

The last tent boxers

The most famous of Australian tent boxing troupes, are Roy Bell’s, Jimmy Sharman’s and, Fred Brophy’s, which today is the last surviving tent boxing troupe in the world. Fred Brophy, who owns the Cracow Hotel in Queensland, still travels with his troupe across Australia with his wife, Sandi, and son, Fred Brophy Jnr- the world’s only fourth generation tent boxer.

Only Jimmy Sharman’s troupe travelled for longer, starting his famous boxing troupe in Wagga Wagga in 1911 and touring the shows and country towns for six decades.

Tent boxing, an amusement commonly seen at agricultural shows throughout Australia between the 1920s and the 1960s is an old Australian tradition that is barely kept alive today. Born in England, now banned in America, the outback is today the only place such an attraction can survive.

A crowd gathered to watch Jimmy Sharman 's Boxing Troupe at the Ballarat Show

Jimmy Sharman's Boxing Troupe followed the show circuit through four states for six decades of working 11 months a year. In each town and city Sharman snr charged spectators to watch young black boxers teach half-cut local challengers to fight.


"Who'll take a glove?" and "A round or two for a pound or two" were famous Sharman catchcries.

Sharman jnr inherited what was "a bloody good business" a decade before his father died in 1965. He continued touring until 1971, when regulations barring boxers fighting more than once a week knocked the business out. In later years he reminisced about the show life. "They had so many freaks it wasn't funny," Sharman said. "There used to be Zimmy the Legless Wonder … Used to eat bananas under water … Zandau the Quarter Boy, Tam Tam the Leopard Man."

Australian Champion George Bracken's career started at Sharman's tents, he later progressed to professional boxing and went as far as contender for the British Empire Lightweight title.

George peaked his career in boxing when he beat Johnny Van Rensburg Aug 1959 after he had lost the British Empire Welterweight title to Aussie George Barnes in 1958.


Like his father, Sharman had one son, called James. Jim Sharman went into showbusiness but not the boxing tent. The Sydney theatre producer won world acclaim when he co-wrote and directed The Rocky Horror Picture Show in 1975.

Fred Brophy insists he will continue travelling with his tent boxing troupe, until he dies, even though the sport was banned in 1971 by the government, due to health concerns.




 

Bunyips

Australia like most countries, has a monster that we call The Bunyip or Kianpraty, it is a large mythical creature from Aboriginal mythology, said to lurk in swamps, billabongs, creeks, riverbeds, and waterholes. The origin of the word Bunyip has been
traced to the Wemba-Wemba or Wergaia language of Aboriginal people of South-Eastern Australia.
However, the Bunyip appears to have formed part of traditional Aboriginal beliefs and stories throughout Australia, although its name varied according to tribal nomenclature. In his 2001 book, writer Robert Holden identified at least nine regional variations for the creature known as the bunyip, across Aboriginal Australia. Various written accounts of bunyips were made by Europeans in the early and mid-19th century, as settlement spread across Australia.

One witness reported seeing the Bunyip as similar to an Elephant, even down to the trunk. One report states the Bunyip as being similar to a giraffe, with its long necks and tail. Others claim to have spotted the Bunyip as having claws and horns.

In the coastal town of Geelong, Victoria there was a report in July of 1845 of the finding of unfossilised bone on the banks of a small river. Apparently the bone formed part of the knee joint of an enormous animal. It was reported that a local Aboriginal person was shown the paper where he identified it straight away as a Bunyip bone.

He then proceeded to draw a picture of the Bunyip, which is reproduced here.

Another resident of Geelong claimed that his mother had been killed by a Bunyip at Barwon Lakes, just a few miles from Geelong. There are also reports of another local Geelong woman being killed at the Barwon River where the barge crossed to South Geelong.
Yet another local man was said to have shown several deep wounds on his breast which were made by the claws of a Bunyip he came across at the Barwon River.

Bunyip Claw wound

There are several noted disappearances of persons from Lake Modewarre, which many say were the work of the Bunyip.

Black Caviar racehorse

Black Caviar stretched her unbeaten run to 23 by winning the Lightning Stakes, breaking the course record which had stood for 25 years. It was the third time she had won the event.  On 21 February 2013 Black Caviar was inducted into the Australian Racing Hall of Fame. This was only the second time an active competitor has been so honoured.







.

Black Caviar has a Timeform ranking of 136.

The highest timeform ratings achieved by Australian horses are – Tulloch 138, Kingston Town 137 and Manikato 136 . I’m sure you’ve heard of them!

Black Caviar has been responsible for getting people back to the racetrack, and some would say, that will be her greatest achievment once she retires. 

Outback Charleville product  Peter Moody with daughter Breann, champion mare Black Caviar

Black Caviar

Black Caviar was purchased by Peter Moody under Moody Racing for $210,000 at the 2008 Inglis Melbourne Premier Yearling Sale at Oaklands Junction.



Breeding: By Bel Esprit out of Helsinge in 2006 (currently 4 years old).

Owners: (Neil) Wherrett Bloodstock P/L; Gary and Kerry Wilkie; Colin and Jannene Madden; Pam Hawkes; David & Jill Taylor.

Trainer: Peter Moody (age 43). Jockey: Luke Nolen (age 32).

 Earnings $7,104,936

Racing record: 23 wins from 23 starts.

Major wins (13 Group Ones):

CF Orr Stakes 1400 m at  Caulfield

2 X  VRC Patinack Farm (Linlithgow) Stakes 1200m at Flemington.

2x VRC Lightning Stakes 1000m at Flemington.

MVRC William Reid Stakes 1200m at Moonee Valley.

VRC Newmarket Handicap 1200m at Flemington.

AJC/ATC TJ Smith Stakes 1200m at Royal Randwick.

BTC cup 1200m Doomben

Robert Sangster stakes

Goodwood  Handicap

Diamond Jubilee Stakes ( Ascot England)

Black Caviar is an outstanding horse who is racing against very good company. She is currently rated both the best sprinter and the best horse in the world in 2010/11.

Black Caviar's mother was called Helsinge, was a small town in Denmark. Helsinge's mother was Scandinavia, where caviar comes from.
With the name settled, it was time to dream up a set of racing colours. Major part-owner Gary Wilkie put his daughter Shannon on the job and came up with black spots for caviar and pink salmon.

Her sectional splits in the Schillaci were amazing breaking 11 seconds in each 200m segment from the 600m to the 200m, then despite easing down posting the fastest last 200m at 11.55 seconds.

snake bite

How to treat a snakebite?

Fangs of Australian snakes are rather short compared to many other snakes from around the world.
A short fang will deliver the venom just under the skin, so unless you receive a bite into a vein then that is where the venom can be held.
To hold the venom in place you can use a pressure bandage,which you can purchase, from any chemist shop.

Most people don’t carry around a pressure bandage with them when they get bitten.
Pressure bandages are about as broad as your fist so if you don’t have one you can tear up a t-shirt or use some other material such as cotton underpants or socks would do fine,tighten with a stick or pen etc.

What you are to do next is hold the venom in place till you get to hospital.

For example if you are bitten on the leg, you can start to wrap around and over the bite area firmly a few times and then from the bite site you keep wrapping the bandage moving up the limb from the bite. You may have to tear up a few pieces of clothing to give you enough bandages. Of course, a bite on the hand would need less bandage material than that for a leg.

You must keep the limb still, as the pressure bandage will only work if the limb is kept still. Also make sure you keep the whole body still.

If you are wearing a finger ring and you have been bitten on the hand, get the finger ring off. If you don’t, do that then once the swelling starts then you may not get it off.
Call an ambulance or get someone to drive you to hospital. If someone can warn the hospital, that you are on the way, all the better.

In Australia with the exception of Tasmania it is not advisable to wash the bite area. In Tasmania and the Islands of Bass Strait there is only one type of antivenom that is needed and that is Tiger Snake Antivenom.
For Copperhead bites you only need Tiger antivenom. There is no such thing as Copperhead antivenom.

Tiger snake bite

Once on the mainland of Australia any one of the five antivenoms could be used. Australia is the only country in the world where we have a venom test to identify which venom is the culprit. It only takes a few minutes to identify which group your bite belongs to and if antivenom is needed they will know which one to use.

Remember you may not need antivenom. Most bites don’t require antivenom. However, you won’t know that in advance so it is wise to treat every bite as serious. If you have washed off the venom from the snakebite area, a blood or urine test could suffice. If the snake grouping still cannot be identified then there is what you might call Australian Universal Antivenom. This antivenom is correctly called the Polyvalent Antivenom; and it does cover all the dangerously venomous snakes of Australia.

It is not however wise, to rely on the polyvalent, it should only be used in emergencies; it is very expensive and it is a massive dose when compared to the specific antivenoms. Remember that specific antivenom is specific so, it is always better to use that wherever possible.


Just treat every bite sensibly and seriously and your chances of survival are excellent; and don’t ever think that you are going to become immune to snakebite. Technically you can become immune but it is not as simple as that.

In Australia we have some of the best antivenoms in the world and so by learning to use a pressure bandage and keeping still you have one of the best chances of surviving a deadly snake bite anywhere on the planet. There can always be a tragedy and tragedies should be very rare, so let’s keep it that way.

Nobody should die from snakebite in Australia.

Kangaroo Shooting a shooters story

Warning this story contains graphic images that may offend people

Clubbed to death, stamped on or left to die from starvation

That is how Australia deals with 1.3 million joeys every year after their mothers are shot for their meat or skin. They are the by-products of the greatest massacre of wild animals in the world.
 
Excerpt from New York Journalist Jeff Simmermons blog  Iam not Lying
 
Female kangaroos, pose their own problems. Although easier to lift than male ‘roos or “boomers,” the does are often pregnant. And in those cases, the only humane thing to do for the joeys that can’t survive outside the pouch is to kill them on the spot, quickly and decisively. It can be an emotional challenge. Even for Craig, who accepted this part of the job decades ago.
 
 

The best methods for dispatching joeys include beheading them or stomping them beneath your boot. The bigger ones you grab by the back legs and smash against a nearby rock or even the truck’s tire. After we killed five or six ‘roos, Craig would stop to gut them, pulling the babies out to dispatch them en masse. After one such performance Craig peered at me through the swirling dust and sighed.“Mate, I’ve been doin’ this for fifty years, and this part always makes me feel like such a c**t.”

A Shooters Story

I was a professional kangaroo shooter 38 years ago. Now I spend an inordinate amount of time in the defence of animals that are doing poorly at the hands of humans.

You may ask as to what has led me to do a complete turnabout in my thinking, and expect some profound answer explaining that at such and such a moment in time the sky opened up and all of a sudden I saw the light. Sorry to disappoint, but it did not happen this way.

If there is any profundity in my "conversion", it is that I have come to the realization that we are all led down differing paths in life by our genetic make-up and the circumstance that we find ourselves in.

In my case, 38 years ago, the whole social, political and animal concern scene was vastly different to today's. There was a predominate attitude of human matters being at the fore of thought and a mish-mash of ideas when dealing with the other animals on the planet. On the one hand, personal pets were gaining in the welfare stakes, as were wild creatures that had "fluffy" appeal. On the other, domestic stock conditions were degrading rapidly into the factory farm situation that is still rampant to now.

This some decades of time saw European cities and other population centres around the Western World explode into greater awareness of the suffering of our "food". Unfortunately, socio/economic pressures, had rural climes, to a large extent, excluded from this expansion of a new way in thinking about the rest of nature.

In this distant past, the kangaroo was erroneously thought of as a pest that was diminishing the financial returns of those who depended on their income in outback areas.

This excuse was reasoning enough for kangaroos to be killed without compassion, for they were the enemy. Even so, I, and I would suggest, many other kangaroo shooters, were and are, very uneasy with the practice of having to kill Joey's on a never ending basis. It was not understood then, that the Joey-at-foot would also die in a state of terror by psychological deprivation, predation or starvation. Many kangaroo shooters now convince themselves that this joey escapes and lives happily ever after. Delusions of this sort are not uncommon in the industry and in governments and their acting agents.

Self-delusion played a big part in my experience as a kangaroo shooter but let me state here in the most unequivocal manner that is possible, to be able to self deceive is part and parcel of being human. There will be those that read this in a most judgmental way, comforting themselves with the thought that they could never had done such a thing as kangaroo shooting. Be very careful of that kind of thinking because it does not accord with the facts about the capacity of humanity to be inhumane to people and animals, given the right set of circumstance.

 Be very careful that you are not self-deluding yourself on this point, for if you are, you are just the person who could be a kangaroo shooter if the situation dictated it so.

I do come across this kind of condemnation but it so insignificant when compared to the mental anguish I put myself through on a daily basis as to be non-existent. This will be carried till the day I die.

Thoughts of the terrible wounding and as stated, the slaughter of the innocents and now with greater knowledge, thoughts of the at-foot-Joey's left to fend for themselves in their thousands. Thoughts of taking the lives of countless numbers of kangaroos for convenient reasons. Thoughts of being a part of the juggernaut that was and is altering the genetic make up of a marvellous animal. Thoughts of my part in vilifying the kangaroo with the end result of it not having the awed respect, as it should, of the Australian people. Every time there is a wanton act of cruelty to kangaroos, I must bear some of the blame.

I stopped being a kangaroo shooter for many reason, with the cruelty only one of the many.
The kangaroo is not a pest and it is only the greedy and the foolhardy who believe it is a resource to be used at whim.

Australia must re-define its stubbornly inadequate definition of what is compassion and in doing so reap the rewards of not only doing the right thing, but the very tangible benefits of the eco-tourist dollar.

No doubt, other kangaroo shooters will read this, so it seems appropriate to leave a message for them.

If you can see past the self-delusion of what you are doing to other sentient and suffering capable creatures, for the sake of your future mind, do not wait for kangaroo shooting to be discarded as a remnant of our brutish past, as it will, but choose to get out now. The rest of your life will thank you for this very wise action.

This I guarantee.




David Nicholls

Write to David Nicholls with your support at the email address below.


ExKangarooShooter@hotmail.com

Australia's leaders hide behind a protective wall of propaganda and irresponsible legislation, so that a few may gain from the death of a species.


Australia has the highest rate of extinctions in the world but there appears to be no shame, only apathy about this appalling record.

Lionel Rose Australian Boxing Legend

Lionel Rose the eldest of nine children and Australian Boxing Legend, died on 8 May 2011 aged 62 after an illness which lasted for several months.
Few Australian sportsmen captured the attention of the nation quite like Lionel Rose,  Lionel was a true legend of boxing, and a icon amongst the aboriginal community, and a hero to all Australians.

Lionel Rose grew up in hardship, learning to box from his father, Roy, a useful fighter on the tent-show circuit. According to the boxing historian Grantlee Kieza, Lionel Rose "sparred with rags on his hands in a ring made from fencing wire stretched between trees".

He came under the tutelage of Frank Oates, a Warragul trainer (whose daughter Jenny he later married). He won the Australian amateur flyweight title at age 15.


Lionel Rose began his professional boxing career, outpointing Mario Magriss over eight rounds. This fight was in Warragul, but the majority of Rose's fights were to be held in Melbourne. Along the way he was helped by Jack and Shirley Rennie, in whose Melbourne home he stayed, training every day in their backyard gym.

Lionel Rose challenged Fighting Harada for the world's bantamweight title (picture above) on 26 February 1968, in Tokyo. Rose made history by becoming the first Aboriginal to be a world champion boxer when he defeated Harada in a 15-round decision.. This win made Rose an instant national hero in Australia, and an icon among Aboriginals. A public reception at Melbourne Town Hall was witnessed by a crowd of more than 250,000. ( I dont think Anthony Mundine would get that kind of support, maybe 20 people at most)

On 2 July of that year, he returned to Tokyo to retain his title with a 15 round decision win over Takao Sakurai. 

On 6 December, he met Chucho Castillo at the Inglewood Forum in Inglewood, California. Rose beat Castillo by decision,( picture below) but the points verdict in favour of him infuriated many in the pro-Castillo crowd, and a riot began: 14 fans and fight referee Dick Young were hospitalised for injuries received.

Even Elvis Presley wanted to meet him, when Rose defended his title in California later that year, requesting to meet him.

"I was in awe of him, but he said he was in awe of me," Rose recounted of the meeting in an interview.

Lionel Rose compiled a record of 42 wins and 11 losses as a professional boxer, with 12 wins by knockout.


Lionel Rose was Australian of the Year in 1968, the first Aboriginal to be awarded the honour. The same year he was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE).

In retirement, Lionel Rose became a successful businessman. He was able to manage his money and make good financial decisions, and he enjoyed the monetary benefits his career brought him. Rose was showcased in 2002 in the The Ring section 'Where are they now?'.


During his off time from boxing in the 1970s, Rose embarked on a successful singing career in Australia having hits with "I Thank You" ( Listen Here ) and "Please Remember Me" in 1970. The song "I Thank You" was a nationwide hit.

Rose remains one of only four Australian-born fighters to win a world title overseas.
Jeff Harding and Jimmy Carruthers also achieved the feat, while the latest came on the same day as Rose's death, with Daniel Geale defeating German champion Sebastian Sylvester for the IBF middleweight title.

A person like Lionel Rose, who becomes a hero and a legend in his sport is commonly the simplest and obscurest of men.

Chris Hemsworth Aussie actor

Australia's new God Chris Hemsworth (born 11 August 1983) is an Australian actor best known for playing the role of Kim Hyde in the Australian soap opera Home and Away and the Marvel Comics character Thor in Thor. Hemsworth will portray Thor again in the upcoming film The Avengers.

Thor was released on April 21, 2011 in Australia and on May 6, 2011 in the United States. Thor was also released in 3D and IMAX 3D. The film stars Aussie spunk Chris Hemsworth, Natalie Portman, Tom Hiddleston, Anthony Hopkins, and Stellan Skarsgård with Kenneth Branagh directing a script by Ashley Edward Miller, Zack Stentz, and Don Payne.

Thor is based on the Norse mythological deity of the same name. Director Kenneth Branagh and Marvel Studios chief Kevin Feige chose Hemsworth after a back-and-forth process in which the 27-year-old actor was initially dropped from consideration and then given a second chance to read for the part.