When you live remotely providing first aid at an accident is not a matter of if you might be called upon, but rather when. Recently the Bourke Walgett School of Distance Education P&C Association raised funds to hold a free St John’s Ambulance NSW First Aid course for parents, teachers, supervisors, governesses and other community members [...]
Sometimes fabulous ideas get stymied. And so it seems that the ‘Herd for Hope’ fundraiser that was set to see a herd of cattle being driven across the iconic Sydney Harbour Bridge has hit a major roadblock of the bureaucracy kind. With the event planned to raise much needed recognition for organ donation and set [...]
The outback has always evoked themes of struggle and survival, epitomised in tales of bush-rangers, drovers, rural women and lost children. Certainly any debate about National Identity usually gives consideration to rural Australian life, particularly as it is portrayed in painting, music, literature, film and most importantly, foods. To an extent rural Australia still helps [...]
There's always a story behind a story. When I began thinking about my seventh novel, River Run, I sat down with my parents to chat about the 1950s. I wanted to to write about this era as it's such a rich period in Australian history - Communism, the cold war, the aftermath of two world [...]
We hear about human rights all the time, but we don’t necessarily consider those rights in terms of being an everyday Australian, even more specifically Australians who live in regional, rural and remote parts of our continent. The Australian Human Rights Commission incorporates The Human Rights of Rural Australians. Having never given much thought to [...]
The Casterton Kelpie Association has been holding the Clark Rubber Australian Kelpie Muster in Casterton, VIC for 20 years. Over that period it has certainly become an iconic event with people travelling from all over Australia to buy or sell their working dogs at what is the Premier Working Dog Auction in Australia. Held over [...]
Once upon a time riding boots were rarely seen outside regional and rural areas in Australia. The elastic-sided boot was the boot of choice for men and women living and working/riding in the bush and invariably pointed to a good part of life spent in the saddle. A second pair of boots were often used [...]
Did the temporary ban on live cattle exports to Indonesia really lead to an increase in boat people arriving in Australia? So says Barnaby Joyce. Five years ago the uproar over footage filmed at an Indonesian abattoir led to the Labor government banning live cattle exports. It was a temporary measure to address the horror [...]
I love steak, particularly T-bone, preferably grass fed, not the mushy tasteless grain fed variety currently featuring on the shelves at Coles. But as a consumer and a producer Im in the hands of the Big 5, the giants who control the red meat processing industry, Woolworths, Coles, JBS Australia, Teys/Cargill and Nippon. Youd think [...]
Spotting the kamikaze kangaroo waiting roadside before it makes a dash across the path of an unsuspecting driver should be a national sport. In the north and north-west of NSW kangaroos are making an impact. A big impact. Growers fortunate to have crops in the ground are talking of plague-like numbers decimating their fields. Then [...]
