A pause during the race allowed the dredge to sail.  Its work in non-stop. The port has just gone to the highest bidder and Newcastle will received some share of the funds for 'revitalisation'!  Read change to the inner city rail line.  How ever could that be the ultimate priority?
And out with any local identity, old and daggy as it is, and in with a city of universal uniformity which could be redeemed by an inventive plan of certain flair.  Vintage 2014 in regular safe mode high rise will be plonked beside Hunter Street. We equate any big building with progress.

Racing on the Harbour. 
The events are probably something to do with privatisation of the Port!
Long term locals will lamely sit back while Gladdis et al  make all the real decisions about the Hunter.

Watching the boat races, Sunday, Port of Newcastle.

Take off and go left. Where we first arrived and today leave again and again.
And return.
Free trade but imagine trade in China going back to the Opium Wars  when Britain was hungry for trade say in silks and teas together with the import duties earned but China wanted to keep overall control of their trade and kept a closed door policy.  Opium from India came in via British merchants.
In 1839 in Canton the Chinese prohibited Opium and took actions that lead to attack by the British navy who were successful and China was compelled, mind you, to open more ports to trade - Shanghai and Hong Kong had their beginings. France applied pressure to win access for missionaries!
Inroads by the West led to second thoughts by the Chinese who tried to resist. The second Opium war in 1856 found the enemy right in Beijing.  Drastic incidents lead to a very punitive act when the Old Summer palace was burnt down by the British in the main.
While loss of life is of most concern, just imagine the Palace which had 350 splendid, opulent hectares of unique buildings and priceless treasures in a magical landscape.  All destroyed. The quaint unique palace that visitors see today, does not compare with the original.
Struggle by the Chinese did not end there and trade and dealings with the West were not for the faint hearted. The writer, Jung Chang, sheds light on this period in the book, Empress Dowager Cixi, published 2013. Jung Chang was featured on Nightlife on ABC radio. Her book is not sold in China.
  

Free trade agreement is anticipated between China and Australia. We can try.  China has quite a history about trade and hugh trouble. 

It is sad and difficult to celebrate at this 'shrine' to the beginning of our occupation of Australia.  The consequences for the Aborigines are truly terrible.

Closer to the place of the first European footprints.  Present day Kurnell.  At the foot of the monument.

This is where Captain Cook came ashore at Botany Bay during his voyage of discovery in the seventeen hundreds.

Up front in Brisbane.
Sydney had the colonial Rum Corp.  Today its the Wine Corp.  Corruption is a constant feature.

It is unbelievable that certain characters stand for election and that electors vote indiscrimminately for those who have absolutely nothing to offer apart from their own personal wheeling and dealing, rip offs and making more money to add to their existing fat bank balances. The electors are blind.
You find these MPs relaxing on the seats of parliament, hand out for a good salary, eager to get away to do the real business undertakings with the big end of town and with no passion for the welfare of the state and its people.
At the same time those MPs that are eager, innovative and hard working cop a lot of criticism.

Post-cyclone. Nature lurks in the streets of Townsville Queensland.

Massive sweet potato with purple 'flesh' from the new community garden growing near shopping centre Wallsend.  This variety claims more benefits for us than the other varieties with yellow or white interior. Flavour was good, colour....well...it's different.

What is it?  A museum piece.  In Townsville.  Guide rail off the Bruce Highway twisted by cyclonic flood waters. Oops. Wrong way Go back!

Is it two dinosaurs one of which is a road train in Queensland.  Are they fleeing south? And west. Darn, I was there just a month too soon to see the tail end of a cyclone, best from a safe distance.  Stress would be building north of Cairns where the people await the onslaught later today. I imagine surface water will find its way far and wide.

Wonder what they do in this workshop?  In Wallsend. Says it all.

After the match, Newcastle Knights, blue and red, won 20 nil, last time. This week a loss with the opposite 2/20. The money behind the team sounded in crisis. Mr N Tinkler. But that was last week The white fence is there to discourage pedestrian crowds from wandering across the road and it works in the main.  In one instance, on another busy road, some elderly and others continued to cross when just clear of the fence and I know of one who was hit a glancing blow by a motorist.
Free trade agreements happen.  Gooseberries or Kiwi fruit from France are on sale in Coles.  Is that how Renault cars are claiming a new share of our market? As they have done forever, on and off, on and off.  However, Renault is tied up with Mack trucks, Nissan, Korea and Eastern Europe for a start.    
 The French Peugeot company, which still has original family member shareholders, is shifting production from France and merged with Citroen a long time ago.  China would be a player overall.   

Strangler! Townsville.

Flinders Highway A6 Queensland has urban legends about unsolved crimes.
The Burdekin River which the A6 crosses near Macrossan is featured at http://www.bonzle.com .... rail lines were warped and helpless when hit by floodwaters. But I can't make a link to these specific historical photos.

Premium fuel, 182.8 cents a litre, independent service station central Queensland. More expensive then in Newcastle.   Library probably in Hughenden.  Rail line and a red soil culvert.

In Queensland, the Burdekin river or similar on getting closer to Townsville and the coast.  Unlike southern rivers this river has extensive wide flat sandy wet and dry areas possibly less than a third of which is pictured. Full flood would be something else. Townsville is reached at the end of the day with a full moon and the wide open plains left behind us.   Across this very long corridore, along the Flinders Highway in northern Queensland the population is insignificant in number and it is quite a task to provide what they've got.

Capricorian sunshine feels alright early in the day.  Townsville.
A big yell out for our government services and we are probably very fortunate. I can skite, like others before, that I've just had 5 hours and 9 mins of invasive surgery and a few days later am home again pottering around. So far so good!

Townsville in the deep north has colonial vestiges and this tree of the tropics. And humidity plus. 
SBS TV aired The Tree of Life and whatever else it is hughly nostalgic. Just what is nostalgia? 
Is also in tune with Kurri Kurri's retro weekend locally.

A closer look at a windmill  and a unique shelter in main street Charters Towers Hughenden. Queenslandicius.  The horse trough is another feature.

 Still 'lost' in central Queenslandicius. Communication.  A suitable sim card and correct mobile are a must. Conventional phone towers are established all along much of the way.  True high speed broadband, as promoted by the Gillard government, would be hugh in these communities. 

Abbottosaurus Australcapitalterritoricus

Terrifying!

In the town of Richmond is 'Krono' Kronosaurus queenslandicus - a  10 metre, giant marine reptile.
'The great inland sea which covered the Richmond landscape with 40 metres of water 110 million years ago has left behind an intriguing story of the marine creatures from the Cretaceous Period...'
The museum and the free fossil hunting sites are a must see.  Next time.  A winter visit to Kronosaurus Korner is a possibility.

The road to the East coast goes along the flat country in Queensland and crosses hundreds of dry and wet creek beds. Water flows south during the tropical-north wet season probably.That occurs late in the second half of the year off hand. So road and rail construction had its challenges.
For the Sabbath, today, the very ancient book of Exodus has Moses striking a rock so that water would flow out and that was a big relief because he was beginning to think the people would stone him if there was no water.  I read, once again, how living water is a metaphor for the devine...and for if there's an emptyness... was that know long long ago...it's a very old story....Queensland is a land far more ancient than Exodus....     

Travel east for 12 hours or south east for 24 hours till you hit the Pacific. Only by Greyhound will you chance upon seeing a dianosaur. 

The wide brown land seen from Virgin.  The search for debris in the Indian Ocean would need clearer widows than is usual.

The whole town of Mount Isa hardly stands out well. Where is the mount in Mount Isa?  It has a significant history of mining activity.

Links with Hunter Valley namely another mining town of Mount Isa and another Beaumont Street in very different surrounds.  It is just a matter of about 5500 ks to get there and back. The mine is at the 90 year mark.

The countryside in NW Queensland near the NT border is fresh and green following rain.  Never the less, the rest area was bare and I bet that red soil means trouble if there is any rain at all.  It sticks like glue. Can't say it was busy.

Dawn on our planet with another planet high in the sky. On 15 March 2014 Nth Australia

There is more to Indonesia than the Bali experience. 

In memory of Starman 1930 - 2014

Church of the Latter Day Saints in Sydney suburb.  The property is pleasant with a very very long hedge.  It probably took half and hour to travel its extent because of bumper to bumper traffic.  After one and a half to two hours in the traffic jam we pulled into Maccas - no let up - it was fast food chaos amid renovations and the chicken wraps were OK. 

On King

Coffee and sweet treats and more, all fresh, from a new venue in King Street with green paintwork and a few doors from the corner of Watt Street. Sweet treats and condiments are literally baked right there and are very morish. 

Regal Theatre has reopened after years of effort and will show only the best - indie films, art house, foreign, conventional and docos.
This is Chris Noonan, the Academy Award nominated director of Babe, taking questions while Babe was revisited during the weekend.
The famous choc tops were handed out during this free showing of a fine classic tale - (with a twist!)        
The Oscars degenerated into terribleness during those frequent interludes with the blond.  All the worse for I was only waiting and waiting to see Cate. I really need to keep my intolerance in check.

King street again. Something like the sixties in Eastern Europe in appearance? What will Putin do? Doing. It's unbelievable. Boycott the Para olympics in Russia. And more. Would Putin even notice that? And I would like to think well of Russian culture in its bleakness.