In this book ...Nature is as important to children as food and sleep....the message is about the connection to nature and the crucial part it plays in develop(ment)....for a generation of todays children the pleasures of free-range childhood are missing and their indoor habits contribute to epidemic obesity attention-deficit disorder, isolation and childhood depression....SAVING OUR CHILDREN FROM NATURE-DEFICIT DISORDER. Atlantic Books London 2009 2010
'A cri de coeur for our children'... Margaret Stead, Guardian.

Nature and crisis....Song bird ownership, trading and competition is a large undertaking in Indonesia. Forest birds are endangered.  The forest goes silent.
The program, Earshot, on ABC Radio National, 11 Sep 2017, The Silent Forest, reveals more.  The program is available on media if you are brave enough.
I made an effort to be aware of bird life in Indonesia and while some were seen many a time it slipped my memory but no big numbers were there like in those instances where we have to use spikes to discourage them nesting on the front of city buildings or where they will literally steal food as you are about to take a bite. By and large, city birds are a different matter to wild birds.

Road Trip

Walking on water.  A salt lake. Lake Hart S A. By the highway in the Woomera Prohibited Area of early atomic testing by UK, in the main.

The ABC (Au) is taking it for granted there is a whole lot of interest in THE elections live now this Wednesday morning onwards. A number of their journalists are on the ground all over. What you see is what you get. Hours and hours of it. Nothing rigged in ABC coverage!
  Hope the broadcaster has not overspent and there is something left in the budget, say for a new science show or an Australian drama.
Never the less, the results will be interesting.   

  One and a half dogs. Our best friend?
Too good to be true.  Too much to ask.  A fools paradise  Too good to last. Free to air media TV and radio without ads or self promos.
Cut backs to the ABC and SBS. The international service upended.
Do we need to follow the actions of other governments that are tied to free enterprise? Growth and more growth.
 Do our own thing.  Be content with sustainability.
 If we simply follow others then what about climate change policy?  Pre-Abbott we were among the leaders.

A bizarre Christmas decoration in Newcastle.
Nevertheless, it is a reminder that the orangutans could be extinct within fifty years and more about them can be seen tonight on the ABC1 TV  when Joanne Lumley meets the amazing, cheeky orangutans in Borneo.
The animals are also found in North Sumatera, Indonesia, where some rescue services operate such as that beside the river at picturesque Bukit Lewang.
Loss of the animal's jungle playground and food source makes for insurmountable difficulties.

High above the Pacific Ocean and the Tasman Sea is the volunteer coastal patrol on The Hill. Behind there are old WW2 defences. (Contact with 'the enemy' has been documented.) By and large, the present day patrol is for recreational boating.
Below. Long ago, The Australian Broadcasting Corporation vacated this address in Newcomen street and moved west. Although some say they have moved to the left! If so, not left of left.

A lot of people handed in their used plastic water bottles in exchange for a durable water bottle in response to an initiative by ABC Radio in Newcastle. Fun and creative arrangements were then made from the bottles and the lids and will be auctioned as a fund raiser. Bottled water is an unsustainable luxury and the waste is polluting.
The folk in the town of Bundanoon have decided to stop selling or using bottled water.

Jets football and South Korea. Currently from the Art Gallery of NSW, the above is (a small section of the screen) The ten symbols of longevity (Shipjangseng-do) from 1800s.

Traditional motifs are drawn from the four kingdoms: celestial, earthly, animal and vegetable and such works are often mounted on screens (folding and several meters high). Long life, health happiness and peace were the ideals of the time. Korean Dreams Paintings & screens of the Joseon Dynasty. The Lee Ufan Collection in the Musee Guimet, Paris. Below is a nice little screen souvenir from a Korean museum.

Now to important matters. The Newcastle United Jets play Ulsan in South Korea tonight in the Asian Championships and a win or draw is vital. Local ABC radio is on location and all will be revealed on air.
News of the Jets and their achievments are part and parcel of the local scene rather than that of me as a female looking at males or, rather, at a group of footballer males, at others - maybe.

These documents are in poor condition but relate to injustice over the "Stolen Wages" where the Aborigines, in all of the states, went unpaid or underpaid for their employment.

Below is a form from the Protector of Aboriginals which is an agreement about an Aboriginal stockman from Woorabinda Aboriginal Settlement who went to a grazing property in 1942 to work for two pound per week of which fifteen shillings was pocket money and one pound five shillings was paid, in trust, to the Superintendent at Woorabinda. A receipt covers those payments made by the employer in instalments.

However, Aborigines found that it was difficult to claim such wages. They did not necessarily understand the procedure and it is claimed that deposits were siphoned off. Thumb prints and pass books were unmanageable They feel cheated.
They worked in many roles such as those of domestics and farm hands. As young teenagers they were ordered out of the missions into the workplace to fend for themselves in instances that are reported and were heard recently on ABC radio. This occured up until the ninteen sixties and beyond.
The Woorabinda settlement still operates in Queensland; we looked last time we were in the area.

Charles Darwin visited these Blue Mountains, west of Sydney, according to a program on ABC Radio National. At that time he heard theories that these inspiring gorges were the result of erosion some 180 million years ago. After the sightseeing he sailed away on the good ship Beagle to see more of the country and he turned 27 in Hobart. Darwin's commemorative year has begun this 2009.
Our beliefs are full of contradictions. Evolution or creationism? A priority could well be a belief in non-violence in real life in the here and now and a stand against over-the-top violence in blockbuster movies.

Another naive presentation: 'pondering the bear market'.
Entertainment is a very successful way of making money. The Wiggles merchandise is seen here on Blinky Bill and the Wiggles have successfully combined music and theories of child development in their videos, TV and live shows. Nursery rhymes and folk music are their medium which is presented in a curiously naive yet winning style. In the beginning they had links with the ABC

Cockatoo. B1 & B2 & friends from 'Bananas In Pyjamas' produced by the ABC.

For a long time now MinTieS have been well-known mint sweets. This Cockatoo looks as if it has been on something stronger!

J Bradshaw said on ABC radio that the neural fibres interconnecting the two sides of the brain are far less evident in Australian marsupials than in other mammals.....

This 'roo is reading from May Gibbs: 'Boronia Babies' first published by Angus and Robertson in 1922.