"Wireless you say?"

First internet access since we left Hamelin Bay, almost the breadth of a sea girted land ago. Lots of entries to catch up on, but before then I just wanted to make a quick comment about the apparent digital divide in Outback Australia.

More accurately I should say the "Accessible Outback" - this being how Broken Hill, NSW describes itself. It is here, in The Junction Hotel in Broken Hill that I type this entry. The beer is cold, the wireless is fast and free, the barman has a sense of humor, the bar stools are comfortable and the tables clean. What more could you ask for? So, if you are in Broken Hill, and you are looking for wireless access, may I recommend heartily the Junction Hotel at 560 Argent Street.

Apart from The Junction however, a search in Broken Hill for accessible broadband is not without challenges. It goes something like this:

Me - "Hi. I saw your sign that says you have internet access."
"Yeah mate."
Me - "Great. Do you have wireless?
"Wireless? Yeah mate, we've got both AM and FM wireless out here."
Me - "Eerr...I mean wireless internet access. Do you have a wireless network?"
"Oh. No. Just those couple of machines over there you can use for $5 a minute. The Internet is down anyway."
Me - (Thinking - Oh no....must be those evil Russian hackers causing chaos. There must be mayhem out there as a generation goes Twitterless and students everywhere have to try to use an encyclopedia to finish their homework. And here I am in Broken Hill missing it all.) "Do you know anywhere in town that has access?"
"Ummmm.....you could try insert-name-here-of-business"

Then you could walk to said business, and have the whole conversation again. Five attempts later: Bingo. The Junction.

Gotta love it.

And what to make of Broken Hill's moniker as "The Accessible Outback". I figure it is sort of like "The outback that isn't quite the outback, but at least it is a bit easier to get to". Marketing genius. Pure, unadulterated marketing genius.

Esperance

Whilst in the coast town of Esperance the need to decompress and clear the mind after a day at the wheel compelled me to flick on the TV that was in the room. One particular news story caught my attention - the results of a recently completed survey of bird population in the country's South East state of Victoria. The survey was led by the Deakin University, and the for our feathered friends news isn't good. More than 80 species of native birds are seriously threatened. Many, including the kookaburra are facing extinction. At this point in the newscast I was becoming twitteringly interested.

Kookaburras.
Extinct?
I just couldn't wrap my laughing gear around the idea of putting those words in the same sentence.

Since landing in Australia the sound of the Kookaburra had soon sounded out from the branches of a tree in Perth's King Park. It is an iconic and bone chillingly familiar sound. It is one of the natural tunes that instantly grounds me as being in this wide, brown, sea girt land.

Extinct?

After the Deakin professor has said his bit, the interview then turned for reaction to a bald bloke who looked a lot like Peter Garrett - ex lead singer of Midnight Oil. However I realised as soon as he opened his mouth and started spouting off nonsensical drivel to the effect that the Federal Government was of course concerned and that it was already thinking of setting up an investigatory group to look at establishing a working committee to review the findings and that was anyway all a fault of the previous Howard Government due to their Eggs Overbird policy and blah, blah, blah, that he was in fact not Peter Garrett at all. At this stage I had to run into the kitchen to retrieve the fire extinguisher as my bed was burning, so I missed the rest of what the Peter Garrett clone had to say.

A newspaper report from The Age on the report's findings is here.

Kookaburras extinct, along with 79 other species. No-one's laughing Pete.

Observations of Australia

Arriving back in Australia after 11 years living overseas, I can't help but make some observations about the country that is again to be my home. The intervening decade-plus have brought some changes both in Australia, and to be fair - in the observer. One thing that strikes me so far though is how expensive Australia has become. For the Aussies reading this I have a message - "My fellow Australians - someone is having a lend of you!"

Aubergines - $9.90 a kilo
Baby courgettes - $14.00 a kilo
Bananas - $7.99 a kilo
A small jar of cashew butter - $7.99

And the vegetables are grown locally!

Blooming heck.