Elysian Plain and journey's end outside Broadmeadow rail station.

Sunset then evening on the XPT

Football fans and half of their fleet of buses waiting to take them to Sydney, maybe 50 buses or coaches. 
Gladys (Berejiklian) you could do better, think green, and organize a train service for the event.  Burn less fossil fuel.

GO THE KNIGHTS! The finals draw near. 

The XPT is a more sustainable way to travel.  Look at all the fossil fuel being carted around in the tanker outside on the highway.
Yesterday's scientific report on climate change tells it as it is. Cut carbon now!
Then the train on a viaduct cast a shadow. Viaduct - that's my word for it.

Taree and bushfire.

Would the XPT get through?  The 'smoke signals' were no good.  Could be touch and go. But we made it south.
Ships passing in the night. A goods train and container.

How can one make a little on the Aussie dollar while it is having another ralley today?  Travel to Europe or the US is one means of taking advantage of it although one risks getting shot at in some quarters with all those firearms in the community.
There are Travel cards but the buy back rate is not good enough for when the dollar eventually falls again -  assuming the US does actually recover and the 'Bot doesn't send us into recession. 

Run wild run free.
Abbott government.  Why do I feel less safe and less secure?  Threatened. It is only imagination.
Reactionary red necks in both state and federal spheres and in the pervasive Murdoch press here we go right back to the past.
Give us a break - safe and secure, responsible and staid government - just what I wanted.

Yeah no. We are supposed to be on the verge of the great leap forward.

Democracy?  I see evidence that voting decisions are based on vibes meaning some nebulous thing that is latched onto. Policies and achievements don't count with the masses. People remain impervious to the messages from stacks and stacks of media.  It is amazing to observe.

Ours is a post modern election.  All the usual policies are on the go, it has all been done before. The real scope exists for higher order ambitions.

In the meantime let the unthinking, self-centered, self-complacent, insular voters invoke Howard years and vote against a  prosperous renewable future; stand against carbon trading;
turn their back on climate change - not only turn their back but rubbish it;
gladly see foreign aid cut - at least our highly successful economy has the right priorities they say - and agree to squander the aid on punishing refugees invoking Ruddoch. Good one! It is back to the past.
  

Suburban grandeur

...a liberal is a person whose interests aren't at stake at the moment...

"Australians all let us rejoice"  No yes I say the country IS safe, is secure,
the economy is STRONG,
there is no EMERGENCY on our borders,
we have highways, we have carbon trading, we have a mining tax,
etc etc etc,  we have the makings of the best ever national broadband,
and just who is without DEBT? - it is all GOOD, the rhetoric is misplaced.

Well, I guess, unlike the old world, here we are in the phase of development evenso there must be more to life than the new highways and city express ways that figure in the political promises?
More cars more road transport and more carbon. More global warming.
Not even a slight nod to climate change, no carbon trading. References to Howard. So last century.
Economy as the be all and the end all of everything while we live in wonderful prosperity relative to this and that.
These politicians are the clever people, not me - give us a hint of complexity and imagination and culture.

Ladies first!  Wish my attention wasn't drawn to the way we use the word ladies while women is what's intended. Now I keep noticing it - ladies...the ladies will sing such and such.  Is it the word has a connotation, is not neutral.  We dont hear gentlemen in a similar way - Gentlemens shed... gentlemen singers...gentlemens shirts...now ladies now now...
the apostrophe gives trouble on this keyboard

Where is everyone heading? Newcastle Beach. Then the shadows from the multi story blocks begin early afternoon. Incidentally, the cafe was closed that summer's in winter day.
One computer went to e-waste. I liked the computer, it usually did what I wanted despite having a very tiny laughable amount of ram or whatever. At times it came to trying the safe mode and strange data to 'break into the system. You would need an old style computer to try and use dos that I wanted to try and there was one of those. As if.
Too late, ABC radio had a program from North America about the interest that exists in staying with an e-device that they feel at home with, of avoiding change for change sake, of the stacks of suspect e-waste that evolves and pollutes, of sites devoted to how to repair stuff and of test runs, of how the move to thinner lighter construction leads to breakage and glue is put in use that prevents opening the device and more and more it goes on.

Steps to Newcastle Beach. Still stand the test of time and high tides and council works - remarkable!

Compensation to victims is notable.  Now the Bali bombings are used to win an election...and refugees...all's fair in love and war?

Highly responsible, serious, wholesome and thorough - give us a break. And anti-sustainability and anti-carbon tax are so last century. As for trust.. trust..and more trust - come off it - we are beyond that.
Instead let us have some complexity, inspiration and the unknown from our leaders.
I'd be guilty of some of this but am not standing as prime minister and have no claim to fame. That's my excuse.

It goes without saying that it is difficult to make good policies on refugees.
But we are racists, by and large we are racists.
We hear pathetic election slogans about (refugee) boats and are using boats to win an election.  Our foremost political spin doctors are no better that Murdoch and the Daily Telegraph.

"I have a dream" anniversary and Migrant and Refugee Week are marked right now. Ironic.
ABC news states 40000 Irish came to Australia in 2011 and 2012 and 5000 settled for good. This report is not clear but it seems it is ok for the Irish or the numerous others, it is said, who overstay their visas, to escape interest and name calling. 
On another point, if  you are a very "good" Australian resident of heritage this or that, great difficulty will be encountered in getting a visa for a relative to visit for a holiday or in times of serious illness. So, visitors, keep that in mind, visas are not a given and could even change for Anglo saxons and Celts in our racist nation.

 

ODE TO AN AUSSIE

A tree living in the bush at Camooweal.

But just not an ordinary tree.

This is a Swampy Gum tree - another old man swampy!

You may note he is growing on rock.

Super hard country and very warm in summer.

 One also knows by the black scars he wears

that he has endured several ordeals by fire

yet he still has his own hair (leaves), white bark and aura of strength.

He is home to vast numbers of ants, beetles, spiders, lizards and birds

and shade to 'roos, catlle and man - he does not discriminate.

He provides excellent firewood to boil up, cook and heat.

He shines like the richest cedar when polished,

He is an Aussie through and through!

He is an astounding free gift from the universe!

photo: Carmel from Camooweal. writer: Starman  2013

Do you give a gonski?
Good Gonski school reform will be furthered by voting for the right party.
The policy was from Gillard et al.
Remember when?

Looking south to some rocks that are a familiar landmark.
Coal ships loom on our horizon.

 This is what's growing above the beach. Far left has been transformed from previous accommodation to do with the old Royal Newcastle hospital while the next one is apartments undergoing construction, I think, the one that has the hide to call itself The Royal or something or other.
Then, under the board walk?