Author: bobmcgee

Blind man’s buff …

Our Kevni has certainly hit the ground running.

The populace were waiting for his predecessor with a baseball bat. We had a long shopping list that we would tick off as we enjoyed that delicious democratic moment. Oh, how I longed for it.

Kevni has a pretty good idea of what’s on the list and in an instant he has announced fixes for everything. The details, naturally, will have to come later. And, of course, we get to pay for it all later.

The trouble with most of what politicians do lies in the unintended consequences. Policy made in a rush, bargains struck in a hurry, are likely to have more than their fair share of side effects.

Oh, but how it’s galvanised the ABC. They were sounding quite down in the dumps before the latest palace coup, it’s a pleasure to hear them now, so up beat as they announce Abbott gaffes as fast as they can invent them. Every cloud …

And what a boon for the advertising industry. Every asylum seeker sitting down to breakfast in Indonesia only has to open their copy of the Age to know that they won’t be staying in Australia thanks to advertising paid for by the Australian taxpayer. Maybe that’s why the Age hasn’t made as much fuss about the new Labor asylum seeker policy as it did about the rather less draconian Howard policy of days gone by. Of course, only a cynic would point out that the advertising won’t reach the asylum seekers, it’s entirely about getting Labor re-elected.

Fleetcare, NLC and local car manufacturers are probably not so thrilled. Unintended consequences have caught up with them already.

Cyclone Kevni, whirling around, generating enormous wind. If you’re going to hit the ground running you really should take off the blindfold first.

Informed dissent …

At a time when we can have a homelessness bill like this …

Full marks to the Minister for Housing and Homelessness, Mark Butler, for keeping a straight face during his second reading speech. “This bill,” he told the house, “is aimed at increasing recognition and awareness of people who are homeless or at risk of homelessness.”

That is all there is to this spineless, sanctimonious statute — enlarged recognition and awareness raising. Its passing will be without consequence; homelessness will be as miserable an experience as it has always been, and the chances of finding a home will not have improved one jot. The act comes with no funding and no specific measures.

… it’s good to come across an article like this …

Awareness-raising campaigns impute to their advocates the values of intelligence, sensitivity, broadmindedness, sophistication and enlightenment. For that reason, the mission of raising awareness has become a key cultural resource for those who want to distinguish themselves from others. Awareness-raisers are invariably drawn towards inflating the behavioural and cultural distinctions between themselves and the rest of society; they are preoccupied with constructing a lifestyle that contrasts as sharply as possible to the lifestyles of their moral inferiors. What is really important about their lifestyles is not so much the values they exhort, but that they are different, in every detail, from the lives led by obese, junk-food eating, gas-guzzling, xenophobic and fundamentalist consumers of the tabloid press and junk culture.

I owe the very apt expression “informed dissent” to one of the commentators on the latter article. Thanks, mate.

Broome …

The Kimberley adventure brought us finally back to Broome. We finished the trip at the Broome Bird Observatory.

BBO

One of the trio still needed a few mangrove birds for his Aussie list and Little Crab Creek, not far from the observatory, would be the place to find them. A tour of Broome including the Port, the playing fields and the sewage works is birding heaven. Add the proximity of Roebuck Bay, which even over winter holds a wonderful trove of migratory waders, Pindan woodland and open plains and a hundred species in a day can be seen with relative ease. I gave a guarantee that I would deliver the White-breasted Whistler and the Dusky Gerygone.

The first morning saw us in the mangroves beating off the mozzies. The whistler duly surrendered and what’s more, the first one to parade for us was a beautiful male, usually much harder to find than the drabber females and young males. But no Dusky Gerygone. Then off to Nimilaica, Barred Creek and back up the Derby Road to Taylor’s lagoon. A great day, some great birds but …

Dawn of day two and we were back in the mangroves, swatting the mozzies, ignoring the White-breasted Whistler, the Broad-billed Flycatchers, Yellow White-eyes, Mangrove Grey Fantails, Sacred Kingfishers, Brahminy Kites and the rest, reputation is at stake, I have never dipped on the gerygone, ever.

The Dusky Gerygone is found only in the mangroves from about Broome, south west along the WA coast to about Shark Bay. Gerygones are little birds, often grey or brown or greyish-brown, distinguished by subtleties of eyebrow or tail tip, and amongst all these the Dusky is distinguished by its lack of distinction, no contrasting tail tip, the subtlest of eyebrows. The clinching detail is the pale iris! You need a good look.

My colleague slapped another mozzie, I distinctly heard him muttering about trusting me instead of trying Streeter’s Jetty. Everybody gets them at Streeter’s Jetty.

A Yellow White-eye peeked out …

Yellow White-eye

Dime a dozen. Mangrove Golden Whistlers are much harder to find, I doubt that one has ever been dismissed as lightly as this one …

MGW

More muttering, then …

Dusky Gerygone

Reputation rescued.

100% …

Sadly, KTVU had produced a promo patting themselves on the back, boasting …

KTVU Channel 2 News owned this breaking news story with a number of firsts!

– First on-air.
– First on-line.
– First with alerts to mobile devices.
– First on Twitter & Facebook.
– First with aerial shots from KTVU NewsChopper 2.
– First with a live reporter from the scene.
– First live interview with anyone connected to someone on the flight.

Rosenthal is quoted in the promo: “Being first on air and on every platform in all aspects of our coverage was a great accomplishment, but being 100% accurate, effectively using our great sources and social media without putting a single piece of erroneous information on our air, is what we are most proud of as a newsroom.”

One minute a rooster, the next a feather duster …

Appropriate actions will be taken to ensure that such a serious error is not repeated.

The KTVU producer who tweeted “Oh sh*t” after the gaffe has since deleted his account. The station apologized for the error, noting that an NTSB official confirmed the names for them Friday morning.

It’s not clear how the hoax originated, and whether or not the intern created the fake names.

The TV station’s mistake is especially embarrassing considering that the Associated Press reported the correct names of the pilot and co-pilot on Wednesday.

The Asian American Journalists Association has released its own statement on the screw-up, saying: “Words cannot adequately express the outrage we … feel over KTVU’s on-air blunder that made a mockery of the Asiana Airlines tragedy and offended so many loyal viewers of the San Francisco Bay Area station.”

The plane crash killed three people and is under investigation.

Geological diversions …

After leaving the Bungles our first stop was the frontier town of Halls Creek where we bought some light beer and groceries.

Then it was off to China Wall which is about 6km away via the Duncan Highway.

China Wall

The more resistant quartz has weathered out of the softer surrounding rock to produce a miniature version of the Great Wall of China. It snakes through the country for several kilometres.

Maintaining the geological theme we then headed 150 km down the Tanamai to the Wolfe Creek Crater.

Wolfe Creek

Some time in the Pleistocene 50,000 tonnes worth of meteorite came to visit. It’s about 875 metres in diameter and 60 metres from the present crater floor to the rim.

As fascinating as these landforms are our motives were not entirely geological. The creek at China Wall is a known drinking spot for Painted Finch, which sadly we did not see, and one of our number had not seen Grey-fronted Honeyeater which we hoped to find on the Tanamai, and in that we were successful.

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The Bungle Bungles …

After leaving Home Valley it wasn’t long before our wheels hit the bitumen. I’m sure all four of them were very relieved but for the us on board it signalled a hiatus in the adventure. Straight ahead would have taken us to Kununurra but that held no attraction for us. We turned right onto the Great Northern Highway. The scenery is impressive but the country is drier than along the Gibb River Road. A couple of hours later we turned left to head for the Bungle Bungles in Purnululu National Park.

The park is open between April and December 15 provided the weather permits. The road in is moderately rugged. There are a few river crossings along its 50 km. It is not suitable for two wheel drive vehicles or caravans.The longtitudinal chassis members on this camper had fractured …

Chassis failure

Had they made it in they would have had two camping areas to choose from, the one to the south (Walardi) is closer to the more spectacular beehive formations, the larger northern site (Kurrajong) is handy for the Echidna Chasm. The distance between the camps is not great. Either could serve as a base for  both areas.

The Bungles are not only hard on camper vans, this is a place where you could easily wear out your camera …

Purnululu

The distinctive beehive-shaped towers of the Bungle Bungles are made up of sandstones and conglomerates that were deposited into the Ord Basin 375 to 350 million years ago. Uplift and erosion in more recent times (the last 20 million years) have produced what we see today. The horizontal bands are alternating layers that are more and less porous. Where the water penetrates algae can grow and produce a dark colour, the red bands are due to a covering of iron and manganese oxides.

Purnululu

There are short walks but for the more active let me recommend Whipsnake Gorge in the south and Echidna Chasm in the north. The light is best early and late, go extra early and beat the crowds. Carry water.

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