Essential facts about Australia – Part 1

After more than four degrees from state universities, and having reached the age that most of us wishful flower children never thought we would see, 60, and I dare you to laugh, I have concluded that we can only write from experience, really.

Now, what experience do I have with the continent of Australia. Australia is more than just a large, rather large, actually, island, actually. It is a continent and merits the peculiar honor of being studied as a separate land mass that developed its own peculiar humans and its own species of animals. Nowhere else do we find kangaroos, standing up on their hind legs, like humans or pygmy bears eating eucalyptus leaves. That is about all I know about Australia taken from common sources available to everybody who can read and cares to. But I am priviledged to have known Australians, from Australia, raised in Australia and visiting, like me, another country. We met in that other country and shared our vacation together as fellow travelers.

Australians have a delightful speech pattern and vocalization. It really must be heard to understand, but if one can recall hearing Gordon Brown of England, an octave or two higher, with a bunch of walnuts in their shell in his mouth, one gets the sound. My friends the Australians were physically fit to a fault without the muscle man look of female weight lifters seen in America. it showed that Australia must be a very healthy place to live. Their skin was without blemish and really perfect without that sometimes seen padding of fat that underlies most such healthy humans seen in America. They were generous to a fault with their time and their attention and their treating me to lunch and trips to other points of interest in that other country. Therefore, I can conclude that Australians are very well off and have never been made to feel the pinch of need or want and they can share because others have shared with them and that is how they are conditioned to live in Australia.

My friends, the Australians, were not nosy or overly anxious for addresses or telephone numbers. They were on vacation as we and they enjoyed the natives of the other country as much as we, but they did not need to be cloying or overly anxious in acquiring life long contacts.

That point is what I would like to close with. Life long contacts are not essential for Australians visiting other countries. Unlike Europeans and Americans, Australians are perfectly happy to be who they are and are not anxious to be intruded upon by nonAustralians.

Wild and wacky town festival ideas

Alice Springs is in the center of the Australian outback. It’s fame came from a book by Neville Shute, “A Town like Alice” a book everyone should read.

Alice is a small Northern Territory town on the road (Route 87) that bisects Australia North to South from Darwin to Adelaide and by all accounts is situated at the very center of the continent.

You can reach Alice directly from most cities in Australia by plane and then from Alice you can explore the outback by jeep, or take a bus to Uluru, Ayres Rock, the Olgas, and King’s Canyon. On the way to Uluru, an aboriginal station will sell you all the carvings and paintings of their people as well as serve a genuine Devonshire Cream Tea while macaws fly overhead. Australia is nothing but a place of contrasts. There are camel stations where you can ride the beasts and visit to emus and the kangaroos and eat an outback breakfast of eggs. There is plenty to do around Alice Springs and nothing will leave you quite the same.

The river through Alice Springs is the Todd and each year Alice celebrates the “Henley on Todd River Regatta” in October. It is styled on the British boat race, the Henley-on-Thames Regatta, where the rowing on a smooth and verdant Thames is of Olympic standard. The Henley-on-Thames Regatta is often the British Olympic trials venue.

However, in Alice there is one problem. There is generally no water in the Todd River. which would make the Henley-Regatta-on-Todd problematic to most people. In fact most times the bed of the Todd River is inhabited by Aboriginals sitting in groups xmoking and drinking.

However, lack of water is no problem to the Australians. They run their boats, standing in holes cut in the bottoms and carrying their boats by their arms. The bed of the river is pure sand about a foot deep, soft and yielding, so running in it is a real challenge and hilarious to boot. This regatta is a sight that cannot be experienced elsewhere.

As the Wikipedia correspondent puts it: “Watching seemingly sane people race in bottomless “eights”, “Oxford tubs”, “bath tubs” and yachts through the deep coarse sand of the Todd River provides a unique spectacle amongst world sporting events. The multi-event program attracts many local and international participants from the audience who often finish up on world TV news paddling canoes with sand shovels and in “land lubber” events like filling empty 44-gallon drums with sand.”

In addition. to the Regattac on this occasion Alice Springs stages other regular events.

The Surf Lifesaving Event is for a team of four. The “lifesaver” paddles or shovels the surf along the rails to pick up the damsel-in-distress. Both are then reeled back by the other two members of the team

Then there is the Battle-Boat Spectacular in which three battle boats, powered by four-wheel drives, churn through the sand bristling with flour mortars and high-powered water cannons. Can you imagine what it is like being hit by flour and water in a sandy environment?

However, these days are not considered Whacky. They are Australian and they are in Alice Springs and therefore they are unique.

After its all over the competitors retire to the numerous corrugated-iron roofed bars to drink their disappointments away and to celebrate the winners while local guitar and harmonica groups celebrate the winner.

This is the time to visit Alice Springs.

The similarities of Australians and Americans

So what does the USA have in common with Australia? Indeed, what do most Americans know about Australians? With cousins in St Louis, Illinois, Phoenix and Miami Beach this Australian can state that the answer is “not enough”.

And you know, for most Australians this is so sad since we know so very much about the USA. We follow your news and even your politics, watch you television shows and movies, glue ourselves to NASA events and dream about Disneyland.

By comparison, many an American calls us precisely what President Bush wrongly and accidentally called us yesterday – Austrians. Sorry but I do not speak Austrian.

Indeed, we speak the very same language spoken by Americans. Just listen to Mel Gibson, Ron Randel, Errol Flynn, Rod Taylor, Kylie Minogue, Russell Crowe and so many others who left our shores over the years for the USA.

Sure the accent is different but we read the same books as do you, served along side you in both world wars, in Vietnam and now in Iraq and we enjoy a good burger. OK for me that is not a Big Mac, but so many others go nuts over the golden arches with the “M”

Australia is roughly the same area as the USA but with a population roughly equal to New York. We are low in the Pacific basin, not that far from New Zealand but no where near Europe.

We love good food and a drink, or two although our beer is stronger than standard US beer. We produce world class wines, have won many an international sporting competition but lack a space program of our own.

At home we watch Dr Who and Star Trek on television, along with NCIS, Jim Lehrer, CSI New York, Crossing Jordan, Alias and the occasional Disney movie.

Infact Australians are so alike to Americans it is amazing.

Yet while we see and hear all about President Bush, Ted Kennedy, Hilary Clinton etc every night Americans very rarely ever hear anything about Australia and most of you would have no idea that we are just six states and two territories.

At present the Liberals are in government and they are closest to the Republican Party. By comparison Labor are closer to the Democrats. And politics in Australia is as dirty as it is in the USA.

But the best short term lesson that I can give an American on Australia is to suggest an internet search. You will be amazed with what you find and I would love to hear from some of yopu as to what you do find

So bye for now, and I will await your speels (writings)

Your Budget And Rising Petrol Prices In Australia

If you have a mortgage and are not struggling with the increasing cost of petrol … you are in the minority. And if you aren’t struggling now, how will you fare when the flow on effect of high petrol costs starts to increase the cost of living across the board. For many Australians the question of how to cover all their bills and maintain a decent standard of living for their families will soon become a pressing one.

As you struggle with this challenge, you may discover that your mortgage is actually the solution.

In recent months, oil prices have skyrocketed to $65 a barrel. This has resulted in the price of petrol rising above $1.30 a litre. This increase has been blamed on the recent hurricanes in the Gulf of Mexico and the resulting production delays.

Already this is beginning to bite the budgets of Australian families. In a BRW report, McDonalds chief executive Peter Bush revealed that McDonalds sales growth had dropped 5 % in just weeks. He attributes this sudden decline to Australians tightening their belts to afford the extra $30 to $40 a week to fill the family car. The same article cited a recent NRMA survey, which stated that 25% of NSW and ACT motorists have cut their spending on food and groceries as a result of the petrol hike.

Petrol prices have risen 30% this year; the cost of petrol being a major expense for most Australian families. In a media release from the University of Newcastle, Dr. Abbas Valadkhani said, “You don’t necessarily have to use a lot of petrol to be affected by the price rise.”

Apart from the direct effect we have already experienced, we will soon begin to suffer the flow on effects of the petrol hike. The cost of milk has already increased and a range of other industries such as transport, storage, forestry, fishing, agriculture and meat and all dairy products will have their costs increase due to the rising price of petrol. It is only a matter of time before these costs are passed on to us. If you think about it, there are few goods and services in the economy that don’t have fuel costs somewhere in their production and distribution chain.

Well, that’s the bad news. The good news is that many experts believe that this spike in petrol prices is temporary. It is a result of diminished production, due to natural disasters. Eventually, the damage will be repaired, supply will return to normal levels and the price will drop. However, that could be six months or a year from now and until then you need to keep paying for the petrol, pay your bills, pay for Christmas (only ten weeks away!) and pay your mortgage.

But are you paying the right mortgage? Are you using your mortgage to its fullest potential? With interest rates so low and the cost of living experiencing an unexpected and temporary spike, a logical means of maintaining your lifestyle, during this time, is to use your mortgage to offset this temporary fluctuation.

This may be the time to either take advantage of your home loans features, or change to a more flexible mortgage. For example, you can switch to a loan that has a redraw facility. This allows you to draw back extra payments you have made and use them to help you through this particularly stressful time.

If rising costs are getting on top of you, perhaps refinancing is the solution. You can roll all your debts into your home loan; car payments, credit cards etc., consolidating your debt and reducing your regular repayments, leaving more cash each week to combat this sudden increase in expenses. Instead of running up the credit cards, refinancing your home loan may be the most cost-effective and cheapest way to raise that extra money to help you through the next turbulent 6-12 months.

Using a mortgage-offset feature is another way to have that extra cash handy, but still minimise your interest. Let’s say you refinance and leave yourself $10,000 to help pay the bills for the next few months. If your loan is $100,000 and you have $10,000 in the offset account, the interest on your loan is only calculated on $90,000.

The current petrol crisis will eventually pass, but in the interim, why struggle to care for yourself and your family when the solution to your short term budget problems is sitting right there … in your home?