Bush Stone-curlew

Bush Stone-curlew

Burhinus grallarius

Where I was recently (Northern Australia - Darwin) the Stone Bush Curlew fills the night with his ghostly cries. The Aboriginals have it that these birds will steal your soul with their wailing. It is not my imagination that these creatures are closing in on me. Their habitat is being destroyed all around the block where I am parked and they seem to be moving closer for refuge. They haven't stolen my soul yet (so far as I can ascertain) perhaps they don't want it? It hasn't proven much utility for me so far either I must admit.

 https://www.bitchute.com/video/q4e2uL6YUrKX/

 

Camoolweal

 

Mt Isa.

 

 

Duck Lice is particularly horrifying. A type of schistosomiasis apparently. Shudder. 

Cloncurry Saleyards

Got chatting to a pair of cow cockies unloading a truck. What great pair of blokes! They took me through and showed me the process of unloading the cattle, weighing and penning them.  It is 10 years ago since last I was in Cloncurry, chasing copper. The then Labor Government got spooked by a expose video showing cattle being mistreated in Indonesia and slapped an instant ban on all live cattle exports. 

Local farmers were not happy.

Just this week a class action against the government has been concluded just half of a half Billion dollars. Farmers copped it then - taxpayers cop it now. The then Prime Minister is currently sharing notes with the current Shadow American Vice President in how to play the "vagina card" if ever criticized. 

Our Jules is doing quite nicely thank you very much.

Cloncurry Area

Timed the bread maker to be baking a fresh loaf when the sun is overhead. Beer in the Engels fridge. Local beef is the best. Those are Termite hills by the way.

 

Kynuna -21.5795808, 141.9216887

 Brolga on the mooch.

Barcaldine

 

Augathella Queensland

Miles to Darwin

https://wctrip.co/au/341584/1492837543

Goondiwindi

Parkes

Telescope Tyres were magnificent with my flat tyre. Couldnt be happier. Love the old fashioned Bush Customer Service ethos. 

Forbes NSW

Melbourne

A week of sub zero mornings. We are still under "lockdown".

Vietnamese Folk Music

When I was a young man I was involved in the reception of Vietnamese Refugees in Greylands Migrant Centre Perth. I later worked as First Mate / Diver on a Pearl Boat based in Exmouth and farming pearl shell in the Montebellos Islands. All the crew were recent arrived refugees. I was blown away by what great guys they were. My biggest problem was they were reticent to treat me as an equal. I out ranked them for sure, but I need to trust them to countermand me if I asked them to do something stupid by mistake. We soon worked out how things stood.

At night they listened to incredible female vocals which were initially strange to my ear. I grew to love those songs - the style of music at any rate. I never found out who the actual performers were.

I recently decided to research up on this subject.

Here are some names suggested by  Vietnamese Community in Australia: Victorian Chapter. 

Lòng mẹ -  This seems quite western.

Chiều Tây Đô Lam Phuong- This is more like it.

I would be interested in helping with Cultural Research in this field. 

I have qualls in Electronics and Geology.

Experience in Community Radio and TV doing Technical Production , Research and Voice overs.  

I am currently traveling around as a Grey Nomad in my converted truck. I will be setting up a voice recording studio.

Penguin.

Penguins always lend a jolly tone to proceedings and this spot goes to emphasize this point.

The Penguins are nesting and they make a sound between a turkey and a very robust frog. Sounds like a call and response. A train comes along a few times a day and blows its horn as it rattles along the tracks. Not much more you can ask for really.

Fuel Starvation.

An intermittent fault finally needed reckoning with.

All rather dreary, but I found a workshop where they let you work with thier guy on tools as a T/A. Sort of thing you find out bush. Its good to know exactly what got done.

We went from the fuel filler to the injector block and steam cleaned, blew compressed air, replaced hoses and filters. ~touch wood~ no more fuel feed issues hence forth. Really good bloke I got to work with. Very Tasmanian. At "smoko" they all smoked. Outstanding workmanship from the welding and fab team. 

From Fuel Cap to injector block, all flushed and inspected. Apart from a slightly perished and kinked hose, no real "smoking gun" was found.

These guys had a really distinctive accent. Boss is on the right. Other chap was my colleague (offsider - actually he did most of it.) Very interesting CV - off shore Oil and Gas. Very Old SKool the pair of them.

Early indications are that the fault is fixed.