I was up in Cairns (Northern Queensland) for you non Aussies for 5 days from the 4th of Jan. We took a trip to the Daintree forest , where even the plants want to sting, maim or poison you if you give them the chance. The Cassowary ( <a class="postlink" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cassowary" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cassowary</a> ) that lives in the forest could also potentially rip you open with its claws. We could not go swimming at the beach there because it was "stinger" season , the water being host to Irukandji and Box Jellyfish and the river was host to fucking crocodiles. We then got out onto the Barrier Reef and I got seasick , but managed to do some snorkelling after filling up few "chuck bags" kindly supplied by the friendly staff on the boat. Even out on the reef we were recommended to wear lycra suits to protect against potential stingers. Australia is just one bad ass country.
Jesus Christ. Floods, fires, the deadliest jellyfish in the world, sharks, snakes, and spiders. Do you all get brimstone there, too? Also aren't you all overrun with, somehow, feral cats and rats at the same time?
However it's spelled, I still want one. I pose a challenge to all you in Australia, catch me one, send it fedex, and I will handsomely reward you.
As if I wanted to catch one of them, the males have a spur on their hind legs that is poisonous. Yes even a cute and cuddly platypus still wants to kill you. On another note the army has been called in to help and also I have heard that they are calling up the Reserve Responce Force as well to fly up there to help. So its not like the rest of australia is sitting around in front of the tv drinking beer.(ok maybe we are but some of us are still helping)
Yes, the animals love to kill in australia. As previously mentioned, hopefully the drop bears don't come out in full force with the water high and all.
Fierce and BELOVED dropbears. Our armed forces rely on the Crocodiles and Sharks to keep naval forces from reaching our northern shores, but the drop bears clean up anything they miss. Not many people know that several Japanese landing forces did make it to North Queensland during WWII, where they didn't make it past the dropbears.
Oh Get Fucked. Forecasting a cyclone in the next two weeks. Some guy has just called into the contact centers to let them know that he had two prop coffins on his back deck that he used at parties and shit as a gag - one of them with a manikin in it done up to look like a corpse. They're apparently floating off down the river now and he was concerned that people would see them and panic. Heh, the local football stadium is massively flooded. outside of the stadium, there is an incredibly iconic statue of one of the big national sporting heroes... The statue has been dressed for the weather.
One day later, and you can see the drop in the water of a meter or more (see same shots from yesterday on page 2 of this thread);
Let's just say, for argument's sake, that if World War III was fought under a gum tree all y'all rest of the world would be fucked. Yep, right before Australia Day apparently (which is our equivalent of 4th of July I guess, except we drink until we think we see fireworks... and have racial bashings). Going to be a fun few weeks. It's not just Queensland in the shit either. Just heard on the radio that there's flash flooding in Victoria. Any Mexicans down there got any news?
Question for the Aussies. Since its my understanding that you treat the Aboriginals in much the same way we did the Indians, have they discovered casinos yet?
They have, but the only game they seem to like to play is Two-up... that or the tried and true game of 'wait till some drunk white/asian guy leaves and beat the crap out of him for his money'. As for them running casino's... well id honestly like to see that, it'd be the only Casino in the world where the house loses continuously. You see Aboriginal culture generally has no concept of private ownership, what is 'yours' is also your families/tribes/communities. In their rural communities they are often given stores to run by the government that serve that community all the necessities it needs (except booze as these communities are supposed to be dry)... these stores regularly go bankrupt (the one in the aboriginal community near my home town went bankrupt every 3 months, like clockwork) as the whole community just comes in and takes what they need without paying. The government then gives them money to start a new store which promptly goes bankrupt again... Square peg, round hole... a tribal, nomadic culture like the Aboriginies just isn't suited to the western lifestyle whereas (and correct me if im wrong here) the American Indians weren't so nomadic and were able to adapt to these concepts a lot better than our native inhabitants have.
- Casinos are extremely regulated here by the government. They're taxed so far up the wazoo there is no way the government would let anyone run one unless they were guaranteed to be run properly and profitably. They're a massive cash cow. - Where there's a concentration of Aboriginal settlements there's generally insufficient population, infrastructure and services to support a casino. There's also very little transient traffic. If you're going that far out, you're going there and have a reason to go there...you're not passing through with spare cash. - If you think American Indians have problems with substance abuse, you haven't seen an Aboriginal settlement. Alcohol and solvent abuse is rampant. Petrol (gas) sniffing is a major problem. Local canteens that dispense alcohol are often literally concrete pillboxes with a hole in the side only big enough to push a slab of beer out of. Many communities are struggling with being made 'dry'. The practical outcome of this is that massive booze parties are now organised under the sign marking the entrance to said community. We won't even get on to the culturally fueled incidences of child abuse and rape. Casinos are right down the bottom of the list of suitable additions.
A fairly recent development is speed/meth abuse as well (at least in northern W.A.) which is pretty fucking scary, at least they used to get so drunk or spaced out on solvents they couldn't fight their way out of a wet paper bag (or just pass out) now they are all getting tweaked off their heads, drinking solidly throughout and running amok through the towns at night. My old mans not kept his gun loaded for years, but he does now. Whoever the bright spark that introduced that shit to these communities is he needs a swift kick in the fucking nuts. Anyway back on topic, anymore photos of the flooding Scootah/Nikki/anyone else?
Down in Melbourne you will see very few Aboriginal people. Probably because they were threatened being given a job. The whole Aboriginal situation has been one big mess from the day white man arrived or "invaded". Although in many respects they as a culture and people have been their own worst enemies. We are bound to get flooding in Melbourne and Victoria .. its been raining now for about three and a half days straight.
Sure: The right hand side of this image would be as bright as the left, had the power not been shut off. At this time of morning, this 6-lane road would normally be full of traffic moving at walking speed. Yesterday some college students had a game of cricket on it. I watched this guy for a few minutes expecting debris to jam his impeller and stall the engine, and hoping to see him drift downriver at 10 knots, but I guess he got lucky.