Nostr notes by Maude Nificent

yeah… i’m not a fan of being cold, but it’s the short days ...

2026-06-10T05:14:09Z

In reply to nevent1q…fcs3
_________________________

yeah… i’m not a fan of being cold, but it’s the short days i dislike most about winter

there’s nothing better than the smell of fresh, sundried sheets ...

2026-06-01T00:31:52Z

In reply to nevent1q…4ver
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there’s nothing better than the smell of fresh, sundried sheets

Looking for explanations… (npub1s5p…dhkx) Trish Roberts (npub1l84…h0y2) Chery (Great Australian Pods) (npub1j24…uwjc)

about a hundred years ago, having just finished putting my sheets ...

2026-06-01T00:24:50Z

In reply to nevent1q…z0r5
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about a hundred years ago,
having just finished putting my sheets on the line at the back of a block of flats,
i was enjoying a cuppa and looking out at the world from my 3rd floor balcony,
when i saw a young man on roller blades go zooming up the driveway
only to return a few minutes later, clutching my sheets, heading back down the drive, and hightailing it out of my life

it was not the first time/ location i’ve had stuff nicked (when you just lose your nickers and nothing else, it can be disconcerting)

for me, dryers are not power eating monsters, but a necessary evil.
— currently use one cos fren’s clothesline is decrepit and inaccessible.

Looking for explanations… (npub1s5p…dhkx) Trish Roberts (npub1l84…h0y2) Chery (Great Australian Pods) (npub1j24…uwjc)

“In Orwell's 1946 essay on politics and language he showed ...

2026-06-01T00:00:45Z

“In Orwell's 1946 essay on politics and language he showed how a captured mind stops generating sentences and starts assembling them from prefab parts. The phrases come pre-stacked - you reach for the slogan before you reach for the thought. He'd seen it on his own side, among people fighting for things he himself actually believed in. People fall for a "good" cause at the same rate they fall for a "bad" one. The test: can you state your own position in plain words you built yourself, right now, without any of the movement's stock phrases? If you can't, you may not actually hold the position. It may be holding you.”

https://www.joanwestenberg.com/be-thou-not-pilled/

i suspect a lot of them put their faith in an imaginary old white ...

2026-05-29T04:16:59Z

In reply to nevent1q…stvz
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i suspect a lot of them put their faith in an imaginary old white bloke with a beard who knows the solutions to everything

(Uncle Sam)

https://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/tanya-plibersek-calls-for-australian-children-to-take-pledge-of-allegiance/k3wjo9jky

kaffando (npub1hpe…v47a)

[@gerg](https://hachyderm.io/@gerg ) @npub19rc…m3mw ...

2026-05-27T19:44:29Z

In reply to nevent1q…y98x
_________________________

[@gerg](https://hachyderm.io/@gerg )
Wonderdog 🏳️‍🌈 (npub19rc…m3mw)
Michael Strasser (npub1ywv…l4wl)
Michæl La💤 (npub1nkg…vg23)
Trish Roberts (npub1l84…h0y2)
[@sister_ratched](https://toot.community/@sister_ratched )
[@anne_twain](https://theblower.au/@anne_twain )
et al

Further to yesterday’s snafu, let me start by agreeing that Matthew Flinders was the first bloke known to have circumnavigated the mainland, by sea, with his faithful companion Trim on board.

The question I had intended to ask, but failed to, was “who is the first person known to have circumnavigated the continent of Australia ON A PUSHBIKE”

Had I had my wits about me, (after looking for timelines relating to the evolution of bicycles) the dates I originally provided might have made sense.

The bloke’s name was Arthur Charles Jeston Richardson.
In 1899 Richardson set out to be the first to ride round the Australian continent. He left Perth on 5 June 1899, heading north, carrying 25 pounds (11 kg) of gear and a pistol. Heavy rain slowed his progress in Western Australia, and later in the north, where the black-soil plains were unrideable for several days. He had to push and carry his bicycle through sand and silt, encountering difficult interactions with some Indigenous Australians along the way. He arrived back in Perth on 4 February 1900 after travelling about 11,500 miles (18,500 km). Richardson's ride coincided with similar attempts by other Australian cyclists, as he finished ahead of three other Australian cyclists – Alex and Frank White, as well as Donald Mackay, who were simultaneously attempting to circumnavigate the continent in a counter-clockwise direction from Brisbane.

The correct decade would have been 1891-1900

——
I’ve enjoyed working out how I would like to approach this quiz, enjoyed learning new things, and making connections. Thank you everyone for joining in, and for your good humour.

💐

[@sister_ratched](https://toot.community/@sister_ratched ) ...

2026-05-27T06:05:14Z

In reply to nevent1q…gfcd
_________________________

[@sister_ratched](https://toot.community/@sister_ratched )

🥇

2026-05-27T05:14:28Z

In reply to nevent1q…zhx6
_________________________

🥇

#SerenityInOz— a quiz about Australian stuff — Wed 27 May, ...

2026-05-27T02:23:42Z

#SerenityInOz— a quiz about Australian stuff — Wed 27 May, 2026

(Please boost for reach, and try to CW your answers)
Answer(s) will be provided in a sub-toot when I post tomorrow’s question

———
Probably another question that is impossibly difficult…

:questionbox: who is the first person known to have circumnavigated the “continent of australia” ?

——
I’ve had to edit this question because, once again, my brain is not paying attention.

I’ve enjoyed learning new things every day with a sense of purpose, but I think I might need to take a break after this question.

Thank you very much to everyone who has joined in and played along, I appreciate you all.

(will still post the answer tomorrow)
💐

#SerenityInOz— a quiz about Australian stuff — Tues 26 May, ...

2026-05-26T01:17:54Z

#SerenityInOz— a quiz about Australian stuff — Tues 26 May, 2026

(Please boost for reach, and try to CW your answers)
Answer(s) will be provided in a sub-toot when I post tomorrow’s question

———

:questionbox: what’s my name?

i am an Australian music single released by Johnny Ashcroft in early 1960

i was awarded the first 45rpm Gold Record struck in Australia
and also became New Zealand’s first gold record

i’m also a movie of the same name released in 1973

based on the successful search for Steven Walls, a four-year-old boy from 'Tubbamurra', a farm near Guyra in NSW

For four days and three nights, in February 1960, William Stanley, an Aboriginal tracker, five thousand other people and seven aircraft searched the rugged New England Ranges for Steven
… and They found him alive and well.

———-
of course, we can’t touch many classic pieces of straylyana without the cringe factor; and i would like to acknowledge here that, despite what the lyrics suggest, this place was occupied a long time before white people arrived

“…A lad of just four summers, Stephen Walls, that is his name
And nobody doubts his courage, 'cause he's hardy and he's game
But there's danger in this country that man has seldom crossed…”
————————

today’s song title and story should not to be confused with…

Lost in the Bush
also a 1973 Australian film based on the true story of three siblings — the Duff children — who got lost in the Victorian bush for several days in 1864.
They were discovered through the help of some aboriginal trackers including
a man most commonly called Dick a Dick

this movie was commissioned by the Vic Education Department
whose 4th grade school reader had featured the story for generations
———-
in the 1954 docudrama Back of Beyond — a movie about Tom Kruse delivering mail in the outback, there is a totally fictional story of two lost children
(spoiler alert, they don’t survive)

——-
all of which is to say… lost children were a big deal in the white colonial imagination, and in school and other children’s books

which might help explain the success of Johnny Ashcroft’s 1960 song

——

3 minute clip from
The Back of Beyond The lost children (1954)
https://www.nfsa.gov.au/collection/item/the-back-of-beyond-the-lost-children-1954

it’s a hard one… but pssst… the suffix of the latin name is ...

2026-05-25T03:29:29Z

In reply to nevent1q…usdp
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it’s a hard one…
but pssst…
the suffix of the latin name is a big clue

#SerenityInOz— a quiz about Australian stuff — Mon 25 May, ...

2026-05-24T16:27:06Z

#SerenityInOz— a quiz about Australian stuff — Mon 25 May, 2026

(Please boost for reach, and try to CW your answers)
Answer(s) will be provided in a sub-toot when I post tomorrow’s question

———
A tongue in cheek entry on the Australian Museum Website describes the famous australian Drop Bear
giving it the binomial “Thylarctos Plummetus”

then describes an extinct genus of real marsupial called
*Thylacoleo*
able to climb trees and drop on prey
————
:questionbox: What is the COMMON name of Thylacoleo?

the answer has two words _________ _________

(soz - The answer “Drop Bear” will not score any points)

(real CLUES here are just a few highlights from what is a very detailed wikipedia article)

Thylacoleo (i.e. pouch lion) is an extinct genus of carnivorous marsupials that lived in Australia from the late Pliocene to the Late Pleistocene (until around 40,000 years ago)

They were the largest and last members of the family Thylacoleonidae, occupying the position of apex predator within Australian ecosystems.

The largest and last species, Thylacoleo carnifex, had an estimated average weight of 101 to 130 kg (223 to 287 lb),
approaching the weight of a modern lioness (Panthera leo)

is classified in the order Diprotodontia along with many other well-known marsupials such as kangaroos, possums, and the koala. It is further classified in its own family, the Thylacoleonidae, of which three genera and 11 species are recognised, all extinct

T. carnifex was a large carnivore, comparable to living big cats in size.
Measurements taken from a number of specimens show they averaged 101 to 130 kg (223 to 287 lb) in weight, although individuals as large as 124–160 kg (273–353 lb) might not have been uncommon, and the largest weight was of 128–164 kg (282–362 lb).
This would make it comparable to female lions and female tigers in general size

the species may have had some form of striped pattern based on rock art found in Arnhem Land which may depict the species, although this is uncertain

Pound for pound, T. carnifex had the strongest bite of any mammal species, living or extinct; a T. carnifex weighing 101 kg (223 lb) had a bite comparable to that of a 250 kg African lion, and research suggests that Thylacoleo could hunt and take prey much larger than itself

with a W, yes 🥇

2026-05-24T02:26:58Z

In reply to nevent1q…zhzh
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with a W, yes
🥇

money and principles and all that, but also just plain rude 🤬

2026-05-24T00:07:26Z

In reply to nevent1q…m98x
_________________________

money and principles and all that, but also just plain rude
🤬

#SerenityInOz— a quiz about Australian stuff — Sun 24 May, ...

2026-05-23T23:38:45Z

#SerenityInOz— a quiz about Australian stuff — Sun 24 May, 2026

(Please boost for reach, and try to CW your answers)
Answer(s) will be provided in a sub-toot when I post tomorrow’s question

——
:questionbox: what’s my name?

I am a town in Victoria, Australia,
founded as a gold-mining community in late 1862,
and at my peak, home to around 4,000 residents.
by 1914 there was a hush over the valley

i was initially known as Stringer’s Creek, for the convict Edward Stringer who pegged a gold claim here,
later my name was changed to that of the largest mine here
— in Norse mythology, it’s the name of a palace where the souls of slain warriors rest

i am in Gippsland
in a steep Valley
4 kms upstream of the junction of
Stringers Creek and the Thompson river,
in the great dividing range,

In late 1874 a visitor described my township as consisting “of a street about a mile long, situated at the foot of the mountains, with ranges running up almost perpendicular from south-east and west, and the first impression a visitor receives is that the houses are a number of birds' nests situated in the branches of trees, for they are built on the side of the ranges in every conceivable position

Gold panning and related techniques quickly exhausted all the alluvial (surface) deposits.
By late 1863 mining operations began as prospectors sought and then followed the underground veins of gold.
This could mean tunnelling into the steep valley walls,
as well as the more traditional digging downward.

Due to the enormous expenses of underground gold mining, small claims operated by individuals or small groups soon folded, replaced by large companies

The crushing machinery used to extract the gold from the quartz-based ore required large amounts of energy, supplied largely by wood-burning steam engines. The need for fuel wood led to the hills being denuded for some considerable distance around town, timber tramways bringing freshly cut timber for the boilers. The associated costs of bringing wood from further and further away were a key factor in the economic problems which eventually ended mining here

at my peak i had all the usual features; pubs, library, mechanics institute, banks, stores, church, newspaper and school. the band rotunda was constructed in 1896

a narrow gauge rail line opened in 1910
— later used for the removal of old buildings out of town. the line was dismantled late in 1958
——
1998, I was the last mainland town in Australia to be connected to “a” reticulated electricity supply.

there has been some restoration work;
the long tunnel mine is open for tours, and Train rides are operated over a restored section of line

As of 2023, i have a population of about 20 permanent residents
though i have a large proportion of houses owned as holiday properties.

i attract large numbers of tourists and am a major focus of the regional tourism industry.

the pure genius of 🎶🎭 The Kransky Sisters ...

2026-05-23T00:31:22Z

In reply to nevent1q…mp06
_________________________

the pure genius of

🎶🎭 The Kransky Sisters

https://youtu.be/b_mB63zno9o?si=Ddon5bZz4VFVW4bg

today, people are talking about live music and i’m enjoying the ...

2026-05-23T00:24:20Z

today, people are talking about live music

and i’m enjoying the echoes …

🎶 Ooh La La
Goldfrapp
2005

https://youtu.be/uco-2V4ytYQ?si=kQRAJMahbMUwJZBi

#SerenityInOz— a quiz about Australian stuff — Sat 23 May, ...

2026-05-22T17:29:23Z

#SerenityInOz— a quiz about Australian stuff — Sat 23 May, 2026

(Please boost for reach, and try to CW your answers)
Answer(s) will be provided in a sub-toot when I post tomorrow’s question

——
:questionbox: what’s my name?

i am a major natural amphitheatre of mountains located 429 kilometres (267 mi) north of Adelaide, South Australia, Australia,
in the heart of the Ikara-Flinders Ranges National Park.

i was used for grazing from the mid-nineteenth century to the mid-twentieth century

and for cropping in the early twentieth century, even tho i am some 140 kilometres (87 mi) north of Goyder’s line. (Being in the shadow of some of the highest mountains of the Flinders, rainfall here is a little higher with snow even being very rarely known on St Mary Peak.)

Early amateur theories mistakenly suggested i was an ancient volcano, but i am, strictly speaking, a synclinal basin with the fold axis running NNW-SSE

from the outside, i appear as a single range of mountains

some very sensible person (not moi) has written in wikipedia:
[my name] is *dubiously* claimed to be an Aboriginal word meaning "place of bent fingers" and it has been suggested this may be a reference to either the mountains resembling the shape of a gently cupped hand or the freezing cold of the ranges in winter. However, the Indigenous Adnyamathanha people have no such word in their language and their name for me is Ikara which means "meeting place”

i am one of the most visited sites in the Flinders Ranges

Archaeological evidence such as rock engravings and artefacts suggests that the Adnyamathanha people have inhabited the area for millennia (up to 49,000 years), according to recent finds at the Warratyi rock shelter

x good morning, Jude 💐

2026-05-21T23:55:28Z

In reply to nevent1q…zd5w
_________________________

x
good morning, Jude 💐

#SerenityInOz— a quiz about Australian stuff — Fri 22 May, ...

2026-05-21T18:04:11Z

#SerenityInOz— a quiz about Australian stuff — Fri 22 May, 2026

(Please boost for reach, and try to CW your answers)
Answer(s) will be provided in a sub-toot when I post tomorrow’s question

——
:questionbox:

TRUE OR FALSE?
emu knees bend the opposite way to human knees

#SerenityInOz— a quiz about Australian stuff — Thursday 21 ...

2026-05-20T15:19:59Z

#SerenityInOz— a quiz about Australian stuff — Thursday 21 May, 2026

(Please boost for reach, and try to CW your answers)
Answer(s) will be provided in a sub-toot when I post tomorrow’s question

——

In late 1964 the author Monica Dickens was visiting Australia to promote her works.
It was reported in the Sydney Morning Herald on 30 November 1964 that during a book signing session in Sydney she had been approached by a woman who handed her a copy of her book and enquired, presumably in a broad Australian accent, "How much is it?"

Dickens reportedly misheard this as the name “_______ _____” which she should include in the inscription,
and thus was born the phenomenon of "Strine".
Strine filled the newspaper's letter columns and subsequently was the subject of a separate weekly article and, later, a series of humorous books by Afferbeck Lauder (pseudonym of Alastair Morrison).

:questionbox: What is Strine for “How Much Is It?”

🥇 🥇 (You spelled his name correctly👍🏻)

2026-05-19T05:08:29Z

In reply to nevent1q…cwde
_________________________

🥇
🥇 (You spelled his name correctly👍🏻)

#SerenityInOz— a quiz about Australian stuff — Tues 19 May, ...

2026-05-18T23:38:13Z

#SerenityInOz— a quiz about Australian stuff — Tues 19 May, 2026

(Please boost for reach, and try to CW your answers)
Answer(s) will be posted in a sub-toot when I provide tomorrow’s question
——
We begin today with a short story, nicely re-told by the Parliamentary Education Office:

In 1906 the Australian Parliament made a law that required employers to pay a tax on the products they sold unless they paid a ‘fair and reasonable wage’ to their workers.
In 1907, Hugh Victor McKay of the Sunshine Harvester Company applied to the Conciliation and Arbitration Court to stop paying this tax because he believed he paid his workers a fair wage. The Court had to consider what a fair and reasonable wage was.
Justice Higgins decided 7 shillings a day (£2/2 shillings per week) for an unskilled man was a 'fair and reasonable' wage to keep him, his wife and 3 children in 'frugal comfort'.
The Sunshine Harvester Company did not pay this wage and so had to keep paying the tax.
The company successfully appealed to the High Court of Australia but the idea of a 'minimum wage' was popular and soon applied to most male workers.

From Wikipedia:
Through a revolutionary piece of marketing, the Sunshine Harvester had gained a reputation as the first successful combine harvester in Australia. The factory became the largest in the Southern Hemisphere, and, in its early stages, McKay successfully increased the concentration and efficiency of the workers: ‘between 1907 and 1910-11, McKay’s workforce expanded from just over 400 to around 1500’.
McKay rapidly expanded the factory to become the largest manufacturing plant in Australia and, at its peak, it employed nearly 3,000 workers.

:questionbox: Where was the Sunshine Harvester factory located?
( the name of a suburb in Victoria)

:questionbox: The idea of a fair and reasonable wage based on the needs of the worker rather than the needs of the employer was effectively overturned by whose 2005 “WorkChoices” Legislation?

The Fair Work Act of 2009 changed the landscape yet again, and remains the primary federal legislative framework governing workplace relations

Postcodes were introduced in 1967 by the PMG (Postmaster ...

2026-05-18T23:20:36Z

In reply to nevent1q…chk0
_________________________

Postcodes were introduced in 1967 by the PMG (Postmaster General’s Department)

The Initial Digits representing states copied the Australian Radio Call Sign pattern
(probably established in 1914)
[They do NOT match Australian Military District codes, as some sources suggest]

The Postcode for the North Pole is 9999

omg you were a brave, brave person ! i was extremely late to the ...

2026-05-18T00:20:00Z

In reply to nevent1q…lcm3
_________________________

omg you were a brave, brave person !

i was extremely late to the birdsite, and quickly learned to 👀 around but keep my gob shut

mastodon is a far more human place to socialise

Headline: “Expecting an inheritance? What that’s likely to ...

2026-05-17T23:00:33Z

Headline:
“Expecting an inheritance? What that’s likely to mean for other financial entitlements”

this is not the clickbait someone thought it would be

picture of two healthy looking seniors speaking to an advisor. the man holds the important document and turns the page while the woman looks on passively 🙄

(years ago, i would see aged women catching the bus to the Heidelberg repat hospital, sometimes travelling for hours to visit their husbands. 40 degree heat, wearing the obligatory hat and coat. And a car in the garage at woop woop she was never allowed to drive, cos her husband took care of all that stuff. Wondering if they would ever work out what how he paid the bills it’s so confusing)
Will this infantilising, sexist crap never end?

most of us seniors know by now what we have inherited, and these are mostly aches and pains. (fren has really bad arthritis, and it’s fuck’n cruel, at times. she also has cardio-pulmonary problems because her mother was given Stilbesterol during pregnancy.)

getting rather tired of the “wealthy boomer” bullshit.
not all boomers are filthy rich,
and not all the filthy rich leeches of this world are boomers

#auspol #ShitJournalism
#FixSennalinkYouUselessTwats
#UniversalBasicIncomeWouldStopAllThisDemonisingAndSaveHeapsOnPunitiveAdminSystems

#SerenityInOz— a quiz about Australian stuff — Mon 18 May, ...

2026-05-17T22:29:46Z

#SerenityInOz— a quiz about Australian stuff — Mon 18 May, 2026

(Please boost for reach, and try to CW your answers)
——
About: The numerical codes for each state

:questionbox: The current system of Postcodes was introduced in what year?

When these postcodes were first introduced, the initial digit (with few exceptions) for each state’s code was as follows:
2 = NSW (and ACT)
3 = VIC
4 = QLD
5 = SA
6 = WA
7 = TAS
8 = NT
:questionbox: Where had this number scheme been used before?

:questionbox: What is the postcode of the North Pole?

1. Gilgai The town of Gilgai has a postcode of 2360 ...

2026-05-17T22:24:51Z

In reply to nevent1q…zcs5
_________________________

1. Gilgai
The town of Gilgai has a postcode of 2360
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gilgai
and the diagram came from a paper about micro-relief land-forms by John Dixon

2. Soakage

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soakage_(source_of_water)

also an interesting article https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/ancient-indigenous-songlines-match-long-sunken-landscape-off-australia1/

#SerenityInOz— a quiz about Australian stuff — Sun 17 May, ...

2026-05-17T01:14:10Z

#SerenityInOz— a quiz about Australian stuff — Sun 17 May, 2026

(Please boost for reach, and try to CW your answers)
——

:questionbox: what are my names ?

i am two different types of ground formation
creating small, ephemeral water sources for plants, fauna, and Indigenous travellers

NB neither of these falls into the category of “spring”

——-
my first type of water source has a name Borrowed from a Gamilaraay word meaning “small water hole”.

i am a small, ephemeral lake formed from a surface depression in expanding clay soils, also described as “a common feature in arid and semi arid environments where strong textural contrasts exist within soils and where the climate is characterised by pronounced seasonality of precipitation…[i can be formed] in soils with annual rainfalls ranging from less than 150mm to more than 150mm”

the ground formations can be of several different types, but a simple diagram of the basic idea is provided here for the curious quizophile

my pools are commonly a few metres across and less than 30 cm (12 in) deep but, in some instances, they may be several metres deep and up to 100 m (330 ft) across.

I am also the name of a town in the northern tablelands region of NSW,
i have a population of 289
the area around the township is dotted with mine shafts that are unique in Australia. They are known as 'concertina shafts' because the seams of tin bearing ore were in a zigzag pattern and were mined accordingly. The precious stones found here include sapphires, rubies, and some diamonds.

i am possibly on Weraerai country (an area subject to repeated, punitive expeditions by white settlers)
————
the name of my second type of water source describes the way the water generally seeps into the sand, and is stored below, sometimes as part of an ephemeral river or creek.

travellers knowing the precise location of each “native well”
would scoop out the sand or mud using a coolamon or woomera,
often to a depth of several metres,
until clean water gathered in the base of the hole.

Wells were covered to keep them free from fouling by animals. This involved blocking the well with dead branches and uprooted trees. When the wells fell into disrepair, people would bail the well, using the coolamon to throw slush against the wall. This would set like a cement wash and help to hold loose sand, preventing it from falling into the water

the name of this second type of water source has been incorporated into several town or locality names by various white explorers and settlers, but are possibly less well known to today’s travellers

#SerenityInOz— a quiz about Australian stuff — Sat 16 May, ...

2026-05-15T21:04:10Z

#SerenityInOz— a quiz about Australian stuff — Sat 16 May, 2026

(Please boost for reach, and try to CW your answers)

:questionbox: I have two popular names, can you tell me what they are? Or even tell me one of them?

——
I am citrus australasica
a thorny understorey shrub or small tree of lowland subtropical rainforest in the coastal border region of Queensland and New South Wales, Australia.
I have edible fruits which are grown as a commercial crop

my fruit is a botanical berry,
cylindrical and tapered at both ends,
slightly curved and about 8 cm (3.1 in) long.
The skin is rough with numerous oil glands, and greenish yellow to pink.
my fruit contain numerous pale seeds about 7 mm (0.28 in) long

First Peoples living along the east coast of Australia used me for hydration and to treat skin infections and cuts.
My fruits contain the nutrients vitamin C, folate and potassium, as well as the antioxidants vitamin E and polyphenols, and research has shown the efficiency of vitamin C as a treatment for bacterial infections

Early settlers consumed the fruit and retained the trees when clearing for agriculture. Colonial botanists suggested that they should be cultivated, due to the lack of citrus alternatives

i have been popularised as a gourmet bushfood.
my globular juice vesicles (also known as pearls) can be used as a garnish or added to various recipes.
The fresh vesicles have the effect of a burst of effervescent tangy flavour as they are chewed. The juice is acidic and similar to that of a lime.
I have been used to make marmalade and pickles
my peel can be dried and used as a spice.

#SerenityInOz— a quiz about Australian stuff — Fri 15 May, ...

2026-05-14T23:55:57Z

#SerenityInOz— a quiz about Australian stuff — Fri 15 May, 2026

(Please boost for reach, and try to CW your answers)
——
A bunyip is a creature who lives near water, and preys on people who get too close

Today’s question is about a different mythical creature, sightings of whom don’t make any reference to water.

:questionbox: what’s my name?

I’m an australian folklore entity, said to live in the outback

am i australia’s version of bigfoot?

typically i’m described as a bipedal, hairy, and ape-like creature, standing upright at between 2.1 m (6 ft 11 in) and 3.6 m (12 ft).

Reports of my footprints describe them as significantly larger than a human's, but my tracks are inconsistent in shape and toe number.
my nose is described as wide and flat.
Descriptions of my behavior vary; some accounts depict me as timid and reclusive, while others suggest i can be violent or aggressive

am I Indigenous in origin? there are a couple of mentions of my existence in Indigenous stories — as related by white people, and wikipedia lists a third mention from an Indigenous source.
i seem to have captured the white community’s attention;
there are many recorded sightings, and i have many “fans”

demons and monsters are found in most cultures and corners of the earth

for the purposes of today’s quiz, my name is one that has been widely used or might be more widely known than others

the township of Kilcoy in Queensland has a big statue of me

i am a brand of “surprise-inside” chocolate

#SerenityInOz— a quiz about Australian stuff — Thursday 14 ...

2026-05-14T00:37:09Z

#SerenityInOz— a quiz about Australian stuff — Thursday 14 May, 2026

(Please boost for reach, and try to CW your answers)
——
I am a town in SE victoria

I am near the Princes Hwy, on the road to gippsland

I am named after a mythical creature which, according to Indigenous legend, lives in and around swampy areas. Mention of it is often found in Indigenous mythology around australia

The Bunurong people believe this creature is a spiritual being which lives near water and preys on humans who come too near
—-
The original Kooweerup Swamp comprised a region of some 6,000 acres (24 km2) stretching from Sawtells Inlet on Westernport Bay to the township that is me, in the north-east. The marsh like area was formed by the waters of the many rivers which flow down from the surrounding high country and which often created impenetrable swamplands.

The first settlers had great difficulty in cultivating the land where i’m situated, because of the dense stands of giant Melaleuca, or tea-tree, large Eucalyptus and Acacia melanoxylon, or blackwood trees, which lay under the surface. In 1827 William Hovell attempted to cross the swamp but found the scrub to be an impenetrable wilderness.

in 2021 my population was just over 3,000

🥇 🥇 🏅 not quite — even later than this

2026-05-13T03:06:52Z

In reply to nevent1q…82zy
_________________________

🥇
🥇
🏅 not quite — even later than this

#SerenityInOz— a quiz about Australian stuff — Wed 13 May, ...

2026-05-13T00:23:30Z

#SerenityInOz— a quiz about Australian stuff — Wed 13 May, 2026

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——

i was a New Zealand-born Australian woman when i was wrongly convicted in one of Australia's most publicised and notorious trials.

i was accused of killing my nine-week-old daughter, Azaria, while camping at Uluru (known then as Ayers Rock)
i maintained that i saw a dingo leave the tent where Azaria was sleeping.
The prosecution case was circumstantial and depended upon forensic evidence that was eventually found to be deeply flawed

:questionbox: what year did baby Azaria disappear?
:questionbox: what was my name at the time?

the press and media whipped up a storm worthy of a dozen troll farms, and public opinion was horribly divided on the issue of my likely guilt or innocence. It remains a shameful part of Australia’s history (though perhaps an indicator of “who we truly are” as a natiin)
It stands as a clear example of public and legal bias against woman accused of violent crime.

These events destroyed my marriage, and robbed my other children of something incalculable.

I was convicted in 1982
released from prison in 1986
pardoned in 1987
my conviction quashed in 1988

in 1992 the government paid me $1.3 million in compensation

a fourth inquest :questionbox: in what year?
found (as did the first inquest) that Azaria died "as a result of being attacked and taken by a dingo"
this was the year baby Azaria’s death certificate was finally corrected.

#SerenityInOz— a quiz about Australian stuff — Tuesday 12 ...

2026-05-11T23:01:57Z

#SerenityInOz— a quiz about Australian stuff — Tuesday 12 May, 2026

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——
i am a wide-brimmed felt or cloth hat most commonly worn as part of a military uniform, often, although not always, with a chinstrap.

i have been worn by military personnel from many different nations including Australia, Ireland, the United Kingdom, Canada, Nepal, India, New Zealand, Southern Rhodesia, France, the United States, the Confederate States, Germany and many others.

my name refers to the fact that one side droops down as opposed to the other which is pinned against the side of the crown.
This style of hat has been worn for many hundreds of years, especially during the English Civil War during the 17th century when it became associated with Royalists known as Cavaliers and became known as the Cavalier hat, but it was also fashionable for the upper and middle classes throughout Europe during that time

A shortage of cork helmets led to my widespread use amongst British Empire forces during the Second Boer War

Today I am primarily associated with Australia where i have become something of a national symbol.
My official designation in the Australian army is “hat khaki fur felt (KFF)”

:questionbox: what’s my common name?
——-
:questionbox: what’s the name of my headband?

the name originates from a Hindu word meaning a turban or thin scarf of muslin. Intended for insulation, it was a traditional Indian head-wrap, adapted by the British and worn in hot, sunny regions.

The current hatband has seven pleats, one for each state and one for the Australian Territories. It is made from light khaki coloured cotton … though there are some variations for different units of the services

——-
hats worn by members of the Armoured Corps are adorned with emu plumes.
This tradition originated with the Queensland Mounted Infantry during the great shearers’ strike in 1891. During this time, the Queensland Mounted Infantry were called out to aid the civil power.

In 1915, the Minister for Defence granted all units of the Australian Light Horse permission to wear the plume, which they referred to as ‘kangaroo feathers’.

——

The NZ version of the hat currently worn by the various corps and regiments of the New Zealand Army is known as the "Mounted Rifles Hat". The band is always khaki-green-khaki

—

TURBO CHOOK

2026-05-11T22:36:32Z

In reply to nevent1q…u0yr
_________________________

TURBO CHOOK

#SerenityInOz— a quiz about Australian stuff — Mon 11 May, ...

2026-05-10T17:10:56Z

#SerenityInOz— a quiz about Australian stuff — Mon 11 May, 2026

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The Tasmanian nativehen (Tribonyx mortierii)

is one of twelve species of birds endemic to Australia's island state of Tasmania.

:questionbox: what do most Tasmanians call it?

Tribonyx were formerly often lumped with the moorhens in the genus Gallinula, (Latin for Little Hen)
but differ visually by shorter, thicker and stubbier toes and bills,
and longer tails that lack the white signal pattern of typical moorhens
—-

The Tasmanian Native Hen is a flightless rail

Rails (avian family Rallidae) are a large, cosmopolitan family …
of small- to medium-sized terrestrial or semi-amphibious birds.
——

The species has 14 separate calls, ranging from low grunts to high pitched alarm calls as well as a see-sawing duet performed in unison, rising to a crescendo of harsh screeching notes
It also calls at night.

In 2021 the most common religions were: Christianity (43.9%) No ...

2026-05-10T16:44:24Z

In reply to nevent1q…xhns
_________________________

In 2021 the most common religions were:
Christianity (43.9%)
No religion (38.9%)
Islam (3.2%)
Hinduism (2.7%)
Buddhism (2.4%)

https://www.abs.gov.au/articles/religious-affiliation-australia

#SerenityInOz— a quiz about Australian stuff — Sun 10 May, ...

2026-05-09T15:34:33Z

#SerenityInOz— a quiz about Australian stuff — Sun 10 May, 2026

(Please boost for reach, and try to CW your answers)

——-
A quiz worthy of a sunday perhaps?
(drafted on Bunurong country)

In 2021, more people opted to answer the Census religion question (93.1%) than in 2016. (90.9%)

:questionbox:
can you guess percentages for each of the following categories?
(rounding up to whole numbers, the total will be just >100)

a point for each guess that is within a range of + or - 3
—-
In 2021 the most common responses to the religion question were:

1. Christianity
2. No religion
3. Islam
4. Hinduism
5. Buddhism

#SerenityInOz— a quiz about Australian stuff — Sat 9 May, ...

2026-05-08T17:14:28Z

#SerenityInOz— a quiz about Australian stuff — Sat 9 May, 2026

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———-
let’s face it, british justice has always been “barbaric”.
when australia was first “settled” there were more than 200 (less than 300) HANGING offences in britain
no wonder their prison hulks were overcrowded 🙄
——-
:questionbox: in 2026, how many australian states still have capital punishment?

:questionbox: when was the last time someone was actually executed (as punishment for crime) in australia?

aah… so i just need to raise the issue of neuroplasticity, ...

2026-05-08T12:12:47Z

In reply to nevent1q…q8gg
_________________________

aah… so i just need to raise the issue of neuroplasticity, right?

i’ve only just trained her to tolerate subtitles 😆😆

👂 life with a fren who won’t wear hearing aids cos all she ...

2026-05-08T02:50:19Z

👂 life with a fren who won’t wear hearing aids cos all she can hear is her own breathing etc
(i think this partly an “on the spectrum issue” 🤔 i’m all “dinner is a time for conversation/communion” and she is all “turn the tv up i can hear myself chewing”)
—-
anyway, since she retired completely it has been relentlessly loud tv… 📺
not just the volume up but watching shows that are inherently loud.
i hide in my room to minimise the aggravation, but of course the walls are simply two sheets of plasterboard with an echo chamber between them…

anyway, last night i said i might emerge from my room and socialise if we could have the tv off for a while…

this morning has been lovely and quiet (silence is also a sound, i say)

then fren returns from op shop expedition for books to read, with a vinyl record. it’s a world record club 1950s masterpiece called “bless this house”.🙄
could i find this on my apple streaming service?

well yes, of course. it has been “re-mastered” but seriously not to my taste.
and it’s currently playing at a ridiculous volume so fren can hear it. 🙄

ongoing case of “the orange and the green” here, added to which i am not remotely religious at heart. (i do like catholic 🎶, gregorian chant etc, but not what i like to call her “pagan shit”. )

i did not know bizet had written an arrangement for agnus dei, and okay, it’s a traditional prayer from the tridentine mass but this score and orchestra version are still imo totally shit and over the top. every track sounds like the soundtrack at the denoument of a 1930s b&w movie

i have told fren it is infinitely better than her old gang show records. 🎭
i might be stretching the truth 😆

now we are singing onward christian soldiers 😆
her father always had his own lyrics to hymns, but her mother would not let him share them. nonetheless, fren (with her own special neurodivergent way of walking) is now showing me how her father would march up and down carrying a broom like the cross of jesus to mock the music fren’s mother was playing

much more fun than the tele

#SerenityInOz— a quiz about Australian stuff — Wed 6 May, ...

2026-05-05T16:13:01Z

#SerenityInOz— a quiz about Australian stuff — Wed 6 May, 2026

(Please boost for reach, and try to CW your answers)
———-

i am a species of the genus Echium native to western and southern Europe

i was introduced to australia as a garden plant sometime around 1850

i’m an annual herb which grows up to 120 cm high
with several erect stems that arise from a stout taproot and large rosette of leaves at the base
my stems and leaves are covered in hairs that can cause skin irritation if touched.

my trumpet-shaped flowers, up to 2–3 cm long, are pink in the bud and purple to blue when opened; occasionally white and pink flowers are seen.
mostly i am well known in australia as a noxious weed

i am highly competitive with other plants, and when i thrive carpet the landscape with purple flowers

i am toxic to some animals, though in times of drought or feed shortage have been known to save mobs of ruminants, thereby saving farms from bankruptcy

——
:questionbox: what are some of my common/ anglo names?

kuu kuu kardiya and the women who live on the ground* [Lee ...

2026-05-04T06:57:59Z

In reply to nevent1q…qa7l
_________________________

kuu kuu kardiya and the women who live on the ground*

[Lee Cataldi]

1

australian museum october 1982

behind the microphone
pale face and hair
I was almost sure          sitting
in the same row of desks for ten years
one doesn’t forget
the toss of the head

femocrat
black and gold dress          gold
handbag fat
as a bank account

meanwhile
in the draughty hall
the Warlpiri women wait
their painted breasts
delicate as earth

and into
the mismanaged white festival
miraculous and powerful
quavering
fine harmonies          the certain
feathery presences

the artists stop
discuss a point of style          the song
continues          it is
a continuum sometimes
they sing it aloud

the women move lightly          brown
skin black skirts in a ring
like a windbreak
          at dawn blue
smoke from cooking fires          bodies
stirring in blankets a warm
outcrop of earth

2

the white woman
comes out of the house          she says
          wash the clothes
          finish the job          wipe
          the children’s noses          we are
          taking these children away
          it’s for their own good

the women who live on the ground
disappear into the desert
stepping lightly
out of their regulation mission bloomers
their ragged jumble sale clothing

their voices fade as water
sinks back underground

jukurra jukurra they say
taking their children with them
into the heart of that furnace
where spirits rise whiter than clay

3

the women are in the school
with the children who
are learning to read
yirdi they say
wirlinyirnalu yanu marluku
we hunted for kangaroo
nganimpa karnalu walyangka nyina
we live on the ground

the white woman
riding her mop like a broomstick
screams about the building
          what a waste of time
they should be
          learning to spell must and ought
          they are filthy          look
          at their noses          look
          at the dust on the floor
          at the dust on the ground

outside the school the children
write warlpiri in the dust          write
kuukuu kardiya in the dust the hot wind
blows into eyes throats noses
into all the clean clothes

the women who live on the ground
watch the white women fade
after a few years
back into their motorcars
after one or two of those seasons in which
the spirits of the secret places
open their giant lungs
and burn the houses to ash

*The Women Who Live on the Ground: poems 1978–1988
(Ringwood, Vic: Penguin, 1990).

#SerenityInOz— a quiz about Australian stuff — Mon 4 May, ...

2026-05-04T00:32:48Z

#SerenityInOz— a quiz about Australian stuff — Mon 4 May, 2026

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:questionbox: What’s my common/ anglo name?

i am australia’s 3rd largest island
(after tasmania and melville island)

i am in the state of south australia
112 km SW of adelaide

in Kaurna language i am known as
karta pintinga (island of the dead)

my Indigenous population that once occupied my land,
as long as 16,000 years ago
(sometimes referred to as the Kartan people)
disappeared from the archaeological record sometime after i became an island

this followed the rising sea levels associated with the Last Glacial Period around 10,000 years ago.

i was subsequently settled intermittently by sealers and whalers in the early 19th century, and from 1836 on a permanent basis during the British colonisation of South Australia.
Since then my economy has been principally agricultural, with a southern rock lobster fishery, honey, eucalyptus oil, and with tourism growing in importance

natural features include caves, dunes, and a lagoon.

i am home to flinders chase national park

my english name was bestowed by matthew flinders

#SerenityInOz— a quiz about Australian stuff — Sun 3 May, ...

2026-05-02T23:30:24Z

#SerenityInOz— a quiz about Australian stuff — Sun 3 May, 2026

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:questionbox: What’s my common/ anglo name?

i am a carnivorous marsupial of the family Dasyuridae.
I was formerly present across mainland Australia, but became extinct there around 3,500 years ago;

i am now confined to the island of Tasmania.

The size of a small dog, i became the largest carnivorous marsupial in the world following the extinction of the thylacine in 1936.

I am related to quolls, and distantly related to the thylacine.
I am characterised by my stocky and muscular build, black fur, pungent odour, extremely loud and disturbing screech, keen sense of smell, and ferocity when feeding.

My large head and neck allow me to generate among the strongest bites per unit body mass of any extant predatory land mammal.
I hunt prey and scavenge on carrion.

would it help if i mentioned the name Lionel Murphy?

2026-05-02T00:07:10Z

In reply to nevent1q…gpge
_________________________

would it help if i mentioned the name Lionel Murphy?

neither had i — certainly not a gardener seems the stuff is ...

2026-05-02T00:03:45Z

In reply to nevent1q…42n6
_________________________

neither had i — certainly not a gardener

seems the stuff is everywhere, so i’m expecting it will be like the time i went to the UK and saw “black-faced-lambs” for what i thought was the first time

in a lovely old pub in scotland “black faced lamb” was on the menu, and as much as i enjoy eating lamb the menu description was almost enough to turn me vegan

back home once more, i started to notice the paddocks here are full of black faced lambs. they almost make me laugh as much as kookaburras do 😆

#SerenityInOz— a quiz about Australian stuff — Sat 2 May, ...

2026-05-01T18:09:11Z

#SerenityInOz— a quiz about Australian stuff — Sat 2 May, 2026

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In October 1983 the “Church of the New Faith” argued in the Supreme Court of Victoria that they should be exempt from that state’s payroll tax, because they were a religion.
The Supreme Court examined the history of the “Church of the New Faith” concluding the Church of the New Faith were NOT a religion, and did not qualify for the payroll tax exemption.

In December 1983 The Church of the New Faith appealed to the High Court of Australia.

All three judges in the case found that the Church of the New Faith WAS a religion.
Justices Mason and Brennan said:

“Charlatanism is a necessary price of religious freedom, and if a self-proclaimed teacher persuades others to believe in a religion which he propounds, lack of sincerity or integrity on his part is not incompatible with the religious character of the beliefs, practices and observances accepted by his followers”

but that:

“The question to which the evidence was directed was not whether the beliefs, practices and observances of the persons in ultimate command of the organization constituted a religion but whether those of the general group of adherents constituted a religion. The question which the parties resolved to litigate must be taken to be whether the beliefs, practices and observances which the general group of adherents accept is a religion.”

The High Court's decision, dismissing the earlier judgements, now serves as the current precedent for defining religious groups

…the Court went on to state that a religion did not have to be theistic, and that a religion involved both belief and behavior

:questionbox: by what name is the “Church of the New Faith" more commonly known?

Tangled Lignum https://www.vmfrp.com.au/news/tangledlignum/ ...

2026-05-01T18:01:29Z

In reply to nevent1q…eylm
_________________________

Tangled Lignum

https://www.vmfrp.com.au/news/tangledlignum/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duma_florulenta
——

6:24 am the sound of kookaburras outside impossible not to smile

2026-04-30T20:26:31Z

6:24 am

the sound of kookaburras outside

impossible not to smile

#SerenityInOz— a quiz about Australian stuff — Fri 1 May, ...

2026-04-30T20:15:47Z

#SerenityInOz— a quiz about Australian stuff — Fri 1 May, 2026

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:questionbox: what is the common /anglo name of this shrub?

Duma florulenta (synonym Muehlenbeckia florulenta),

is a robust, multi-stemmed shrub native to Australia, commonly found in floodplains, wetlands, and along watercourses.
Growing up to 2 meters tall, it forms dense, tangled thickets with slender, wiry branches and small, scale-like leaves.
Its thin, narrow leaves are 15–70 mm long and 2–10 mm wide.
The grey-green stems often end in a sharp point. The flowers are small and cream to yellowish, solitary or clustered along the branchlets and occurring through most of the year. The “fruit” is top-shaped, dry, and about 5 mm long.

The Wiradjuri name for the plant is gweeargal, and the Walmajarri name is Kirinykiriny, or Kurinykuriny.

this plant often appears leafless as the leaves are produced on younger growth but soon die off, especially in dry conditions. New leaves and shoots are rapidly produced in response to rainfall or flooding.
The plant has a very deep root system, penetrating the soil to at least 3 m in depth. It is highly tolerant of salinity and drought and may be used as an indicator of dryland soil salinity.

Flooded … it provides a nesting platform for water birds keeping them close to food and away from predators. Meanwhile under the water, its tangled branches provide food and shelter for frogs and young fish during their vulnerable growing stage

… provides protected breeding habitat for native wildlife such as waterbirds, and shelter for small mammals and reptiles. it can also provide refuge for pest species such as feral pigs, foxes and rabbits.
It thrives in clay soils and tolerates full sun, making it an excellent choice for wetland restoration, erosion control, and biodiversity-focused projects.

The plant's preferred habitats include floodplains, swamps, gilgais and other intermittently flooded areas. In southern Australia it is often associated with stands of river red gum and black box.

During the long period when the Australian government took children from Indigenous parents the Walmajarri people hid themselves and their children within the dense tangle of these plants so that the police could not find them.

🥇🥇

2026-04-30T03:06:57Z

In reply to nevent1q…xugq
_________________________

🥇🥇

#SerenityInOz— a quiz about Australian stuff — Thu 30th ...

2026-04-29T17:23:36Z

#SerenityInOz— a quiz about Australian stuff — Thu 30th April, 2026

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——
PART 1 OF 2

today we are on our way to a little town in SA near “corner country” (where Qld, SA, and NSW meet)
:questionbox: can you guess the name of this town?

it’s on traditional land of the Yandruwandha and Yawarrawarrka people, who have inhabited the region for over 40,000 years, maintaining a deep connection to the Coongie Lakes and Cooper Creek

today’s town was originally named Hopetoun by white government, but the name never stuck
—-
in 1928 when the Australian Inland Mission opened a nursing home in this town, nursing staff travelled to Farina by train, then spent 3 days travelling the last 300 miles with the mail truck.
Elizabeth Burchill described part of the journey as she experienced it in 1932

CW — patronising/ racist language:

“The Cobbler?” Bill said. “It’s all sand—thirty miles of it—sand that actually moves and looks different every time a man goes over it! Some shearers named it in the first place, but the blacks dubbed it “Dead Finish” — the worst blooming mail track in Australia.”
“How old is it?” we asked.
“About 25 years. Drift sand and winds started it. It grew to a giant sandhill that broke into a lot of ridges. Old timers tell me that the Cobbler altered the whole face of the country.”

this part of the journey was made by camel… *
——
today the town is still fairly isolated.
Mick Roberts says:

Not long after pastoralists and their workers started to populate the … area in late 1882, a police outpost was set up on the banks of the Cooper Creek, followed closely by a general store. Soon after, in 1885, Howard Christopher Kearns of Farina lodged plans to build [a…] Hotel on the banks of the Cooper Creek…
[the] Hotel thrived as a refuge for drovers, pastoral workers and shearers who, believe it or not, used to ride their bicycles up and down the Strzelecki track looking for work.**
—-
Until 1901 the police station here was also the customs post for collecting duties on cattle brought overland from Queensland into South Australia

:questionbox: what changed in 1901?
——-
cont in part 2

#SerenityInOz— a quiz about Australian stuff — Mon 27 April, ...

2026-04-27T19:15:33Z

#SerenityInOz— a quiz about Australian stuff — Mon 27 April, 2026
CW - Wartime Incident - mentions death & suicide

(Please boost for reach, and try to CW your answers)
——
During WWII, australia interned enemy aliens and POWs in camps in SA, Vic, and NSW
Today’s question is about a major incident in one of those camps
Content Warning - mentions death/suicide
——
On 5 August 1944,
1,104 Japanese prisoners of war escaped from a POW camp near
:questionbox: What Town?
in New South Wales.

It was the largest prison escape of World War II, as well as one of the bloodiest. During the escape and ensuing manhunt, four Australian soldiers were killed and 231 Japanese soldiers were killed or committed suicide. The remaining escapees were re-captured and imprisoned.

Wikipedia tells us that
No. 12 Prisoner of War Compound (near this town in NSW)
was a major POW camp where 4,000 Axis military personnel and civilians were detained throughout World War II.
The prisoners here also included 2,000 Italians, Koreans and Taiwanese (who had served in the Japanese military) as well as Indonesian civilians, detained at the request of the Dutch East Indies government.

although POWs were treated in accordance with the 1929 Geneva Convention, relations between the Japanese POWs and the guards were poor, due largely to significant cultural differences.
A riot by Japanese POWs at Featherston prisoner of war camp in New Zealand, in February 1943, led to security being tightened at this NSW camp

Eventually the authorities at No 12 prisoner of war camp in NSW installed several Vickers and Lewis machine guns to augment the rifles carried by the members of the Australian Militia's 22nd Garrison Battalion, which was composed mostly of old or disabled veterans or young men considered physically unfit for front-line service.

——-
*The leaders of the breakout ordered the escapees not to attack Australian civilians, and none were killed or injured.

*All Survivors were recaptured within 10 days

The story has been told and retold in fiction and non-fiction books, movies, and a TV mini series

🥇 and a bonus 🏅for the 🍑

2026-04-26T00:25:43Z

In reply to nevent1q…jhd9
_________________________

🥇
and a bonus 🏅for the 🍑

#SerenityInOz— a quiz about Australian stuff — Sun 26 April, ...

2026-04-25T23:53:13Z

#SerenityInOz— a quiz about Australian stuff — Sun 26 April, 2026

(Please boost for reach, and try to CW your answers)
———-

i was an operatic lyric coloratura soprano
born in 1861, in richmond victoria
the eldest of seven children

i had perfect pitch
i studied singing and pianoforte

my father’s business supplied the bricks for melbourne’s exhibition building
part of my education was at presbyterian ladies college

after my mother’s death, father moved the family to queensland

where i enjoyed a modest success at first, as a singer
but father did not approve of my wish to have a singing career
i was married for a brief time,
and at Marian in Qld my only child, George Armstrong, was born. Two months after his birth I returned to my father’s house, I never went back.

i soon returned to melbourne to pursue a career as a professional singer

on first moving to london, i failed to make a great impression
so undertook more study in paris, finally succeeding there and in brussels

by 1888 was established as leading lyric soprano at covent garden in london

i made my new york debut in 1893

During the First World War, i raised large sums for war charities.
i returned to Australia frequently during the 20th century, singing in opera and concerts

in 1909 i bought (and later extended) a cottage at Coldstream in victoria
(Coombe cottage on victorian state hwy/route B300
which I left to my granddaughter,
who married into the Vestey family)

i was active in the teaching of singing at the Melbourne Conservatorium.

i continued to sing until the last months of my life and made a large number of "farewell" appearances.
my death, in 1931 in Australia, was news across the English-speaking world, and my funeral was a major national event. The Australian $100 note features my image.

:questionbox: what was my [stage] name?
:questionbox: what were my given and family names at birth?

💐

2026-04-25T07:57:45Z

In reply to nevent1q…sl7k
_________________________

💐

#SerenityInOz— a quiz about Australian stuff — Sat 25 April, ...

2026-04-24T15:59:41Z

#SerenityInOz— a quiz about Australian stuff — Sat 25 April, 2026

(Please boost for reach, and try to CW your answers

——
It should be no surprise there is a trans-Tasman dispute over which country — Australia or New Zealand — created the ANZAC biscuit

An Australian Dept Veteran’s Affairs (DVA) booklet claims
“During the First World War, people on the home front often sent parcels to the Anzacs to show their support. many of these packages included biscuits made from rolled oats, coconut, golden syrup and flour, which had high nutritional value and kept well while being transported overseas. These biscuits have come to be known as Anzac biscuits and are still popular in Australia today.”

“The Anzac biscuit is more than 100 years old so many recipe variations exist.
Ingredients
2 tablespoons butter or margarine
2 tablespoons golden syrup
1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda dissolved in 2 tablespoons boiling water
1 cup rolled oats
1 cup desiccated coconut
3/4 cup brown sugar
3/4 cup plain flour
Method
1. Heat oven to 160°C.
2. Melt butter (or margarine) and syrup.
3. Add dissolved bicarbonate of soda and water.
4. Mix dry ingredients in a bowl, add the liquid mixture and stir.
5. Place small balls of the mixture (about 1 teaspoon) onto a greased tray.
6. Bake for 20 minutes or until lightly brown.
7. Lift biscuits onto a cake cooling rack and wait for them to cool.”

——
Wikipedia tells us that, for a while, the name ANZAC BISCUITS was used for a range of different recipes, ingredients sometimes including eggs, raisins, oats, coconut, or even jam

There are now restrictions on the use of the name ANZAC, and the name ANZAC BISCUIT

:questionbox: what year did New Zealand become independent from New South Wales?

:questionbox: (so far as the authors of the wikipedia article know)
the first recipe
combining the title ANZAC BISCUITS with the list of standard ingredients used today
was not published til what year?

#SerenityInOz— a quiz about Australian stuff — Fri 24 April, ...

2026-04-23T14:58:07Z

#SerenityInOz— a quiz about Australian stuff — Fri 24 April, 2026

(Please boost for reach, and try to CW your answers

:questionbox: what’s my name?

I was an Arrernte man,
born in 1936 in Alice Springs
I began playing soccer in 1950 while living in Adelaide, and even tried out for some major English teams
& remained involved with soccer for most of my life

I married Eileen Munchenberg in 1961 and had two daughters (Hetti and Rachel), and a son (Adam)

I was the first Indigenous man to graduate from a tertiary institution,
(BA University of Sydney 1966)

perhaps i am most well known for the 1965
Freedom Ride – a bus tour through New South Wales
inspired by the US Civil Rights Freedom Ride campaign in 1961, and the anti-apartheid movement in South Africa
We aimed to to publicise acts of blatant discrimination
experienced by Indigenous people.

in Walgett A local RSL club refused entry to Aboriginal people, including ex-servicemen who participated in the two World Wars.

On 20 February 1965, we tried to enter the swimming pool at Moree, where the local council had barred Aboriginal people from swimming since its opening 40 years earlier.

In response to this action, the riders faced physical opposition from several hundred local white Australians, including community leaders, and were pelted with eggs and tomatoes. These events were broadcast across Australia, and under pressure from public opinion, the council eventually reversed the ban on Aboriginal swimmers.
we then moved on, but were followed by a line of cars, one of which collided with the rear of their bus, forcing us to return to Moree where they found the council had reneged on their previous decision. we protested once again, forcing the council to remove the ban once more.

In the lead-up to the 1967 referendum i was manager of the Foundation for Aboriginal Affairs,

In 1969 i began my career in Commonwealth government public service in what later became the Department of Aboriginal Affairs (DAA)

i was “given a year’s leave” from the public service after i spent a week with the Aboriginal Tent Embassy in 1975

My 1975 biography is called A Bastard Like Me

I was awarded an AO in 1987

at the time of my death in 200 i was the longest kidney transplant survivor in Australia.
In the period immediately following my death, i was known as Kumantjayi (surname), Kumantjayi being a name used to refer to a deceased person in Arrernte culture.

i was given a state funeral.

then there was the day my grandfather emptied the can/ buried the ...

2026-04-23T06:29:51Z

In reply to nevent1q…pl04
_________________________

then there was the day my grandfather emptied the can/ buried the contents…

(before my time, but a legend often repeated at family funerals)

cousins came to visit the farm and were playing chasey…

my uncles hurdled a fence into another paddock, then veered left…

cousins in hot pursuit travelled in a more direct line, landing in “that” burial site

——-
and no… there is nothing more disgusting than a can imo

if you can’t build a long-drop,
everyone should have their own spot in a paddock

🥇 this is not a french spelling test. all answers are heard ...

2026-04-22T23:44:14Z

In reply to nevent1q…un66
_________________________

🥇
this is not a french spelling test. all answers are heard spoken in my head.

how does that saying go?…
there are 26 letters in the french alphabet and 42 of them are vowels…

(can recite parts of the rosary en français with a Warrnambool accent, but only the responses.
“What did you learn at school, Maude?”
“To do as little as possible”)

#SerenityInOz— a quiz about Australian stuff — Thurs 23 ...

2026-04-22T23:10:03Z

#SerenityInOz— a quiz about Australian stuff — Thurs 23 April, 2026

(Please boost for reach, and try to CW your answers

:questionbox: what’s my name?

i am a town in Northern France
in the somme departement, and
situated some 19 km due east of Amiens,

I have a hyphenated name

I have ties to australia
mainly because of World War I

The first tank-against-tank combat in history took place here on 24 April 1918, when three British Mark IVs fought three German A7Vs.
The Germans took my town, but that night and the next day i was recaptured by two brigades of the First Australian Imperial Force at a cost of some 1,200 Australian lives

In the interwar years, the city of Melbourne in Australia was a sponsor
and helped in my reconstruction
(as did as the State of Victoria more generally)

The Australian National Memorial near my township
is the main memorial to Australian military personnel killed on the Western Front during World War I.
The memorial lists 10,773 names of soldiers of the Australian Imperial Force with no known grave who were killed between 1916, when Australian forces arrived in France and Belgium, and the end of the war.

A dawn service is held here on Anzac Day

#SerenityInOz— a quiz about Australian stuff — Wed 22 April, ...

2026-04-21T21:15:49Z

#SerenityInOz— a quiz about Australian stuff — Wed 22 April, 2026

(Please boost for reach, and try to CW your answers

:questionbox: Who wrote this pome?
:questionbox: What’s the name of this pome?
——-
(the extract here is incomplete)
——
Wot's in a name? -- she sez . . . An' then she sighs,
An' clasps 'er little 'ands, an' rolls 'er eyes.
"A rose," she sez, "be any other name
Would smell the same.
Oh, w'erefore art you Romeo, young sir?
Chuck yer ole pot, an' change yer moniker!"

Doreen an' me, we bin to see a show --
The swell two-dollar touch. Bong tong, yeh know.
A chair apiece wiv velvit on the seat;
A slap-up treat.
The drarmer's writ be Shakespeare, years ago,
About a barmy goat called Romeo.

"Lady, be yonder moon I swear!" sez 'e.
An' then 'e climbs up on the balkiney;
An' there they smooge a treat, wiv pretty words
Like two love-birds.
I nudge Doreen. She whispers, "Ain't it grand!"
'Er eyes is shining an' I squeeze 'er 'and.

'Wot's in a name?" she sez. 'Struth, I dunno.
Billo is just as good as Romeo.
She may be Juli-er or Juli-et --
'E loves 'er yet.
If she's the tart 'e wants, then she's 'is queen,
Names never count ... But ar, I like "Doreen!"

A sweeter, dearer sound I never 'eard;
Ther's music 'angs around that little word,
Doreen! ... But wot was this I starts to say
About the play?
I'm off me beat. But when a bloke's in love
'Is thorts turns 'er way, like a 'omin' dove.

This Romeo 'e's lurkin' wiv a crew --
A dead tough crowd o' crooks -- called Montague.
'Is cliner's push -- wot's nicknamed Capulet --
They 'as 'em set.
Fair narks they are, jist like them back-street clicks,
Ixcep' they fights wiv skewers 'stid o' bricks.

Wot's in a name? Wot's in a string o' words?
They scraps in ole Verona wiv the'r swords,
An' never give a bloke a stray dog's chance,
An' that's Romance.
But when they deals it out wiv bricks an' boots
In Little Lon., they're low, degraded broots.

Wot's jist plain stoush wiv us, right 'ere to-day,
Is "valler" if yer fur enough away.
Some time, some writer bloke will do the trick
Wiv Ginger Mick,
Of Spadger's Lane.
'E'll be a Romeo,
When 'e's bin dead five 'undred years or so.

the contrast between the beginning and the 70s and the second ...

2026-04-21T09:55:34Z

In reply to nevent1q…h2kx
_________________________

the contrast between the beginning and the 70s and the second half was enormous — not surprising considering the number of important changes made by the whitlam government

along with laws promoting equality for women, non-anglos, for example, there was a widespread conviction in the community at large that these were good changes. compare this to the grudging mood in media, community and parlt surrounding things like The Voice or gay marriage…

so if people had less wealth, less technological advances at their disposal, this was not too great a burden, because we had HOPE - hope for the future, and trust in community values.

i can only speak as a white person, but i think australia was less racist than it is now. we were hardly egalitarian or aware, but at least we wanted to give a shit.

Despite the dismissal, it took a while for the mood to die completely. In 1986 across australia 300,000 people still took part in the (anti-nuclear) palm sunday peace march. It wasn’t illegal to inconvenience business people or newspaper moghuls. (I was very young during the 1962 cuban missile crisis, and spared any real fear we faced the risk of a nuclear winter)

It’s hard to pin down a single date when australia became digital — progress was piecemeal, uneven, and slow relative to larger economies. When you had a problem with a government department or business, you could usually speak to a real person, and have a chance of resolving it. Today, a major purchase or change often involves accepting the risk you’ll get dudded, and won’t be able to fix it.

Whitlam was not the cause of the stagflation /high interest rates at the end of the 70s; (it’s beginning again now, and this is hardly a progressive time).

Neo-Liberalism from the 80s on has destroyed western economies.
two significant features are the now yawning gap between the wealthiest classes, and the rest of us, and the nature of government expenditure.
The problem is never the size of government deficits, but how much govt spending actually contributes to our quality of life. The end of vietnam war required MASSIVE economic restructuring — instead of bombing the shit out of Indo China, we had to revert to spending on families, medicine, communities, and infrastructure. Today, we are back to square 1 where govt expenditure is just sucking money out of the economy (community) to fund
horrendous wars, and profit for its own sake (fossil fuels and prisons)

#AustralianHistory #Auspol

🥇

2026-04-20T22:41:56Z

In reply to nevent1q…my2v
_________________________

🥇

#SerenityInOz— a quiz about Australian stuff — Tues 21 April, ...

2026-04-20T14:45:49Z

#SerenityInOz— a quiz about Australian stuff — Tues 21 April, 2026

(Please boost for reach, and try to CW your answers

:questionbox: what’s my name?

I was born in somerset, england, in 1818
I arrived in adelaide in 1839
and advertised portrait work and local scenery, "executed to order".

One of my early works is a view of Hindley Street, Adelaide, which was published as a coloured print 1844.
my activities soon expanded to include street scenes and public events, including the departure of Charles Sturt's expedition for the interior on 8 October 1844.
My sketching tours of the districts surrounding Adelaide, produced a number of watercolours.

there was not a lot of demand for photography, so i sold my camera before leaving with John Horrocks' expedition northwards to the Flinders Ranges later in 1846.
While on this expedition i made the first sketch of these ranges

in organised an exhibition to sell the watercolours and pencil sketches of this fateful trip, but sales were slow and i was eventually forced to raffle them.
In 1849 i published Heads of the People, which contained 12 lithographic sketches of well-known South Australian colonists

In 1851 gold was discovered in Victoria and,
following a series of personal tragedies including bankruptcy and ill health,
i headed for the Mount Alexander gold fields, Victoria.
i was soon recording life on the gold fields and the emergence of substantial towns like those of Ballarat and Bendigo.
By August 1852 i had published a set of 24 lithographs of "Sketches of the Victoria Gold Diggings and Diggers As They Are".

1852 i moved to Melbourne where my exhibition of sketches and watercolours from the goldfields attracted so much attention that i was engaged to reproduce the works on lithographic stone
The entire set was republished in London.
In February 1853, i exhibited some watercolour drawings made from sketches done on the Horrocks expedition.

i spent most of the remainder of my life in melbourne, where further volumes of my lithographs were published
mostly i am remembered because the Melbourne Public Library (now state library of victoria) commissioned watercolours of life on the goldfields

my success did not last, and in 1880 i was buried in a pauper’s grave
in 1913 the historical society of victoria erected a gravestone over my remains, with my name and the legend “The artist of the goldfields”.

#SerenityInOz— a quiz about Australian stuff — Mon 20 April, ...

2026-04-19T15:08:48Z

#SerenityInOz— a quiz about Australian stuff — Mon 20 April, 2026

(Please boost for reach, and try to CW your answers

:questionbox: what’s my name?

I am now a heritage railway service
on narrow-gauge track
in the southern Flinders Ranges of SA
today i run between Quorn and Port Augusta
for a distance of 39 kms (24 miles)

my name is believed to come from the region being a traditional centre in the production of pituri, a mixture of leaves and ash chewed as a stimulant by First Nations people
(Quorn is on Nukunu country)

i was built initially to service mining in the Flinders Ranges, as part of the South Australian Railways' Port Augusta and Government Gums Railway.
i started in 1878 at Port Augusta,
proceeded through the Pass after which i am now named
and reached the initial terminus at Government Gums (now named Farina) in 1882.
The line was extended to Marree (then named Hergott Springs) in 1884 and Oodnadatta in 1891. In keeping with the intention to extend it to become a north–south transcontinental line, it was named the Great Northern Railway in 1882.
As well as serving the original Ghan line, i served as a feeder link for east west passengers on the Trans Australian Railway 1917-1937

my section of the Old Ghan had the steepest gradients of the whole route, necessitated by the refusal of decision makers to heed the advice of surveyors and engineers to stay west of the Flinders Ranges, giving priority instead to servicing promising copper prospects and expected agricultural wealth in the locality.
(imagine, if you will, Maude laughing as she types this, though i am not sure whether she is laughing at the stupidity that results from pandering to big business, or the hubris that created Farina - or both)

The steep grades through the pass
proved to be an expensive nuisance for the original operators
but today provide a treat for travellers
as locomotives work hard to ascend the grades

#SerenityInOz— a quiz about Australian stuff — Sun 19 April, ...

2026-04-18T15:29:18Z

#SerenityInOz— a quiz about Australian stuff — Sun 19 April, 2026

(Please boost for reach, and try to CW your answers

Mound-building termites are a group of termite species that live in mounds,
made of a combination of soil, termite saliva and dung.
Most of the mounds are in well-drained areas, and usually outlive the colonies themselves. Sometimes other colonies, of the same or different species, occupy a mound after the original builders' deaths.
———
Termite mounds are found in Africa, and South America as well as australia, but today’s questions concern two species of termites found only in Aus:

:questionbox: what are the common names of these two australian species of mound building termites?

The first is
Amitermes meridionalis
the common names of the mounds derive from the fact that their wedge-shaped mound is aligned with its main axis running north and south

The second is
Nasutitermes triodiae,
a grass-eating species found in Northern Territory,

Sometimes referred to as the spinifex termite it is also widely known by another name that describes the church-like structure of the mounds —
tall fortresses built of upright columns
that are hollow to allow for internal air circulation
columns are tough and able to withstand the rigors of wind, rain, heat, and hungry predators.
these mounds can reach up to 5 metres or more in height

of course you did imo all quizzes should have a two-tier scoring ...

2026-04-17T23:56:20Z

In reply to nevent1q…v3cq
_________________________

of course you did

imo all quizzes should have a two-tier scoring system…
🥈 if you know you know, and
🥇 if you can retrieve the answer from your hard drive

#SerenityInOz— a quiz about Australian stuff — Sat 18 April, ...

2026-04-17T18:28:45Z

#SerenityInOz— a quiz about Australian stuff — Sat 18 April, 2026

(Please boost for reach, and try to CW your answers)

———
the “Goulburn School Strike of 1962” was a strike like no other,
and one which led to a significant change in federal policy…

:questionbox: what form did the strike take?
:questionbox: what precipitated the strike?
:questionbox: what changed as a result of the strike?

Wilfred Burchett ...

2026-04-17T18:25:50Z

In reply to nevent1q…r6qj
_________________________

Wilfred Burchett

https://parlinfo.aph.gov.au/parlInfo/search/display/display.w3p;query=Id%3A%22media%2Ftvprog%2Ftrxbu1224%22;src1=sm1

https://theconversation.com/seventy-years-after-hiroshima-who-was-australian-war-correspondent-wilfred-burchett-45965

a #SerenityInOz— a quiz about Australian stuff — Fri 17 ...

2026-04-17T00:17:43Z

a #SerenityInOz— a quiz about Australian stuff — Fri 17 April, 2026

(Please boost for reach, and try to CW your answers)

———
:questionbox: what’s my name?

i was a controversial reporter and author
born in clifton hill, melbourne, in 1911
to progressive parents

grew up in the country
went to agricultural college for a while
left school at 15
dabbled in languages

with my brother, Winston, set out for Europe by ship in 1936
working for a travel agency in London
resettling Jewish Refugees in Palestine and USA
met and married Erna Lewy
visited germany in 1938 before returning to australia

wrote letters to newspapers warning against the danger of German and Japanese militarism
After the declaration of war by England, became sought after as "one of the last Australians to leave Germany before the war”

1940 obtained accreditation with the Australian Associated Press to report on the revolt against the Vichy French in the South Pacific colony of New Caledonia.
reported from Asia til the end of the war
—
was the first Western journalist to visit Hiroshima after the atom bomb was dropped, writing

“In Hiroshima, 30 days after the first atomic bomb destroyed the city and shook the world, people are still dying, mysteriously and horribly – people who were uninjured by the cataclysm – from an unknown something which I can only describe as atomic plague. Hiroshima does not look like a bombed city. It looks as if a monster steamroller had passed over it and squashed it out of existence. I write these facts as dispassionately as I can in the hope that they will act as a warning to the world”

Elsewhere, military censorship was successful. Civilian casualties were downplayed and the deadly lingering effects of radiation were dismissed.[6] The New York Times published a front-page story with the headline 'No radioactivity in Hiroshima ruin

—
i remarried in 1949
later, reporting on eastern europe, then korea, moscow and china, continued to make claims and left wing comments displeasing to western authorities

In 1955, my British passport went missing, and the Australian and british Governments refused to issue a replacement
for years i got by with a vietnamese leave-pass, then castro gave me a cuban passport.
in 1972 whitlam gave me an australian passport.

in 1982 i moved to Bulagaria, and died in Sofia in 1983

#SerenityInOz— a quiz about Australian stuff — Thurs 16 ...

2026-04-15T14:38:25Z

#SerenityInOz— a quiz about Australian stuff — Thurs 16 April, 2026

(Please boost for reach, and try to CW your answers)

———
:questionbox: what’s my name?

I was born in 1902 in Noorat in rural Victoria

part one of my autobiography
published in 1955
is called I Can Jump Puddles

it tells of my Edwardian era childhood,
growing up in a world of horses and swaggies
and contracting polio at the age of 6

#SerenityInOz— a quiz about Australian stuff — Wed 15 April, ...

2026-04-14T14:24:08Z

#SerenityInOz— a quiz about Australian stuff — Wed 15 April, 2026

(Please boost for reach, and try to CW your answers)

———
:questionbox: what’s the australian name for a lake resulting from this phenomenon?

i am a lake formed when a meandering river erodes through the neck of one of its meanders. This takes place because meanders tend to grow and become more curved over time. The river then follows a shorter course that bypasses the meander.
The entrances to the abandoned meander eventually silt up, forming a lake.
these lakes are stillwater lakes, with no current flowing through them, which causes the lake bed to gradually accumulate silt, becoming a bog or swamp and then evaporating completely.

#SerenityInOz— a quiz about Australian stuff — Tues 14 April, ...

2026-04-13T14:47:19Z

#SerenityInOz— a quiz about Australian stuff — Tues 14 April, 2026

(Please boost for reach, and try to CW your answers)

———
:questionbox: what’s my anglo name?

i am a town in queensland

my name is a date, though in official documents my name is spelled out in words

i was built on the site of the second landing in Australia by James Cook and the crew of the bark HMS Endeavour (and their first landing in what is now the state of Queensland).

i am the closest access point to the great barrier reef

my population is growing - in 2021 it was 125

i am situated on a peninsula, with the Coral Sea and Bustard Bay on three sides.
———-
an excerpt from Warra Warra Wai, by Darren Rix And Craig Cormick (2024) about when the crew of the Endeavour stopped in the area they called Bustard Bay;

Meanwhile, the men who’d gone fishing were totally unsuccessful in catching any fish, but they were able to return to the ship with the bustard they had shot. It was cooked for the officers and naturalists dinner and banks declared it "far the best… that we have eaten since we left England" and it was this bustard that clearly stuck so firmly in Cook's mind, above anything else they saw that day, because he renamed the place bustard Bay.

The land that the men of the Endeavour thought sandy and barren was able to well provide for the Gurang clan of the Gooreng Gooreng people. Many plants provided foods across the seasons of the year, often things the Europeans did not even recognise as food. The fruit of the mangrove trees, for example, was eaten by being pounded, rinsed and then baked into a damper.

The men employed many methods in the capture of animals and birds for their food, never taking more than they needed. Such lore included the knowledge that booroo (kangaroos) disliked travelling over freshly burned grass, so large areas were burned and hunters then concealed themselves entries in the small unburnt areas, over which the animals would then travel. Bustard were also captured using fire. A circle of grass was fired around them and as they became confused in the smoke, they were easier to catch. All a part of fire knowledge.

Fish were caught lines using fish hooks made from shells, or in stone fish traps or by using fish poisons. Two of the most effective poisons, plentiful in coastal areas, were cockatoo apple and the red ash. The popped bark and leaves were placed in the water and the fish were dead in about 20 minutes. The bark of some other trees only stupefied but did not kill the fish.

#SerenityInOz— a quiz about Australian stuff — Mon 13 April, ...

2026-04-12T18:44:56Z

#SerenityInOz— a quiz about Australian stuff — Mon 13 April, 2026

(Please boost for reach, and try to CW your answers)

———
:questionbox: what’s my anglo name?

i am the name of a region centred around Meningie in south australia
i am also the name of a coastal lagoon in south australia
and i am also the name of a national park in south australia
about 156 km south east of adelaide

the national park protects a coastal lagoon ecosystem
situated on Ngarrindjeri country, and my anglo name is presumably derived from a Ngarrindjeri word meaning neck, or long and narrow

the western end of the lagoon is near the mouth of the murray river
(near hindmarsh island)
and i extend south east along the younghusband peninsula

the beach on the coastal side is the longest beach in australia

i am a place of enormous biodiversity,
and especially well known as the setting for colin thiele’s 1964 novel storm boy, a 1976 movie based on that novel and a 2019 remake of the movie

The largest pelican rookery in Australia is in this region at Jack Point, just off the Princes Highway and about 7 km (4.3 mi) north of Salt Creek.

🥇

2026-04-12T04:20:08Z

In reply to nevent1q…k2mx
_________________________

🥇

#SerenityInOz— a quiz about Australian stuff — Sun 12 April, ...

2026-04-12T00:17:45Z

#SerenityInOz— a quiz about Australian stuff — Sun 12 April, 2026

(Please boost for reach, and try to CW your answers)

———
wikipedia tells me

A cockatoo is any of the 21 species of parrots belonging to the family Cacatuidae, the only family in the superfamily Cacatuoidea.

The family has a mainly Australasian distribution, ranging from the Philippines and the eastern Indonesian islands of Wallacea to New Guinea, the Solomon Islands and Australia.
Cockatoos are recognisable by their prominent crests and curved bills

Cockatoos prefer to eat seeds, tubers, corms, fruit, flowers, and insects. They often feed in large flocks, particularly when ground-feeding. Cockatoos are monogamous and nest in tree hollows.

:questionbox: which type of cockatoo am i? (what’s my common name)

i am native to New Guinea, the Aru Islands and the Cape York Peninsula in Queensland,

i have a crest of long feathers atop its head, with a very large and strong, sharply-hooked black beak (with which it can easily open nuts and seeds), and prominent bright-red cheek patches

at 55 to 60 cm (22 to 24 in) in length and a weight of 910–1,200 g (2.01–2.65 lb).
i *may* be the largest cockatoo species and largest parrot in Australia.. . or close to it

i have one of the largest bills of any parrot (only the hyacinth macaw's is larger). This powerful bill enables me not only to eat very hard nuts and seeds, but also enables males to break off thick (about 1 in (2.5 cm)) sticks from live trees to use for a drumming display.

The male has a larger beak than the female.
The beak is unusual, as the lower and upper mandibles do not meet for much of its length, allowing the tongue to hold a nut against the top mandible while the lower mandible works to open it. i have a distinctive red cheek patch that changes colour when i am alarmed or excited.

#SerenityInOz— a quiz about Australian stuff — Sat 11 April, ...

2026-04-10T17:14:09Z

#SerenityInOz— a quiz about Australian stuff — Sat 11 April, 2026

(Please boost for reach, and try to CW your answers)

———
wikipedia tells me there are several different plants sometimes called Billygoat Plum — but today’s answer is an alternative common name, which seems to refer to one plant only

—- based on the botanical name, and the Indigenous uses of the plant,
:questionbox: what is the common name of this plant?

(clue -it’s not a *plum* 😉)

the botanical name is Planchonia Careya

Distribution: Across northern tropical Australia and down the east coast to about Fraser Island, in open forests and woodlands.

Planchonia careya is a small tree, 4-10 metres high, which is briefly deciduous in the dry season. Bark is grey, rough, slightly corky and fissured. Leaves are egg-shaped or spatula-shaped, tapering to the base, shiny light green above, dull beneath, softly leathery, margins having rounded teeth, 2.5-10 cm x 3-6 cm. The leaves turn rusty-orange before falling.

The flowers of are large, white and fleshy with numerous pink and white stamens 5-6 cm long. Flowering is quite prolific but not readily apparent as the flowers open in the evening and usually fall by morning. Flowering period is July to October.
The fruit is green, egg-shaped and smooth to 9 cm x 4 cm.
Seeds are contained in a fibrous, cheesy flesh and the fruit was popular with Indigenous people.
The fruit — which tastes similar to quince — is readily eaten by cockatoos and goats.

Indigenous Australians …
*pulverized the inner bark of this species and added it to small water bodies to act as a fish toxin, allowing fish to be easily collected from the surface of the water. (This is known to have been a practice used at Cleveland Bay.

*The roots of the species were also used as a fish toxin (at Bustard Bay, 650 kms south of cleveland bay)

* boiled the inner bark of this species in water and the resulting liquid was used as an antiseptic wash for open cuts and sores.

*placed the heated leaves of this species over mosquito and sandfly bites to relieve irritation.

*used the flowers of this species as decorations.

Enjoyed #watching “The Undoing” (a 6 part mini series on HBO) ...

2026-04-09T17:12:33Z

Enjoyed #watching “The Undoing” (a 6 part mini series on HBO) made in 2020

synopsis:
A modern twist to a classical "whodunnit" tale,
the life of a wealthy New York therapist turns upside down after she and her family get involved with a murder case.

cast includes Donald Sutherland, Nicole Kidman, Hugh Grant
also features Matilda De Angelis (who plays Lidia Poet in the netflix series)

i’m not a committed fan of whodunnits, but this one was a cut above average.
can’t say much about why without spoilers…
that one of the main characters is a therapist provides a clue that this is more about what makes people tick than about weaponry and the usual forensic hoo-ha.

also, it was set amongst a privileged class of people in NY, and it’s always enjoyable telling some characters on the tele they are “horrible” people, or even “w⚓️s”

————————-
not part of the story, but always of interest to me is the attitudes some people/ characters have to money:
the donald sutherland character in “the undoing” has an “old money” vibe about him, which is a refreshing change from stories about excessively greedy corporate power types.

the rule “first generation makes it, second generation spends it, third generation loses it” is supported by data (the internet told me so it must be true 🤔…) 70% of wealthy families lose their money by second generation, 90% by the third”

“The phenomenon is globally recognized, known as "Shirtsleeves to shirtsleeves in three generations" (English), "Fu bu guo san dai" (Chinese: wealth does not pass three generations), or "Grandfather in a tent, father in a palace, son in a tent" (Pashto).

#SerenityInOz— a quiz about Australian stuff — Fri 10 April, ...

2026-04-09T16:07:29Z

#SerenityInOz— a quiz about Australian stuff — Fri 10 April, 2026

(Please boost for reach, and try to CW your answers)

———

Alf Traeger, was born near Dimboola, 1895
and raised in Adelaide

At the age of 12, he built a telephone from the farmhouse to a shed, making all of the components himself.

He had built his own radio transmitter before graduation from the South Australian School of Mines and Industries, where he studied mechanical and electrical engineering

During the 1920s, he was contacted by John Flynn
hoping to find a way for remote families
using radio equipment
to access medical treatment

Traeger worked on a transceiver for the network, which had to be small, cheap, durable and easy to operate. He found that a person could drive the generator using bicycle pedals, and he built his transceiver into a box. His famous "pedal wireless" used a pedal-operated generator
He divided his time between his workshop and the outback, where he also taught radio operating and Morse code

In 1933 Traeger invented a typewriter Morse keyboard as an accessory to the pedal sets, widely used before the invention of telephony

The Traeger Transceivers company exported radios to a number of countries: in 1962 pedal sets were sold to Nigeria; in 1970 an educational radio network was sold to Canada. Traeger continued inventing: he designed a turbine-driven car and used solar power to convert salt water to fresh water

today’s :questionbox: what is the name of the school that used pedal radios?
and :questionbox: what year were the first school lessons officially delivered from the Royal Flying Doctor Service base in Alice Springs

strange characters in names… 🤔 apostrophe ?

2026-04-09T04:07:03Z

In reply to nevent1q…76rm
_________________________

strange characters in names… 🤔

apostrophe ?

we chose well, eh?

2026-04-09T02:01:41Z

In reply to nevent1q…k3gn
_________________________

we chose well, eh?

interesting. talking to my cousin the other day about parents’ ...

2026-04-09T02:00:13Z

In reply to nevent1q…kj6y
_________________________

interesting.

talking to my cousin the other day about parents’ generation in our family, and i’m beginning to realise just how much of what her parents did/said was driven by their catholicism

i remember saluting mannix on st patricks day as we all marched past the cathedral, but did not understand much about him until later…

1963 was a depressing year for the nuns at school… first mannix died, then the catholic president of the usa. heavy times. 😆

[@sister_ratched](https://toot.community/@sister_ratched )

it’s quite possible. most images i have of santamaria show him ...

2026-04-09T01:53:17Z

In reply to nevent1q…kesy
_________________________

it’s quite possible.

most images i have of santamaria show him in an office at home, surrounded by stacks of newspapers. his ncc newsletter (i can’t remember the name) was always carefully filled with references to newspaper articles (i.e. yes, X really said that, check it out!)

i loved to look at different points of view to try and understand what lives inside the heads of people who see the world differently

i do remember my mother always turned the TV volume to zero whenever bob menzies commandeered the air waves for some important address to the nation

cos there really was not much to watch on the tele… and if you ...

2026-04-09T01:00:46Z

In reply to nevent1q…0up0
_________________________

cos there really was not much to watch on the tele…

and if you think of it as comedy, it was great entertainment.
(sometimes when i read back my own writing i can hear santamaria’s own personal style of sentence construction in my ear, and then i am quickly motivated to edit and re-write 😆)

i don’t think there was ever a more earnest person on tv, i’ll give him that.

good question forgive me for cut and paste of AI stuff.. but “ ...

2026-04-09T00:40:55Z

In reply to nevent1q…sv8h
_________________________

good question

forgive me for cut and paste of AI stuff.. but
“ Bob Santamaria’s long-running television program, Point of View, was primarily funded and sponsored by the National Civic Council (NCC).
Key details regarding the program's funding and origins include:
Media Support: The program was born after Sir Frank Packer, the owner of the Nine Network and a supporter of the Liberal Party, offered Santamaria an ongoing slot.
Subsidised Costs: Packer initially provided the airtime at a heavily subsidised rate of £10 a week to avoid broadcast regulations that would have otherwise classified it as a prohibitively expensive political advertisement. Some sources later described this arrangement as Packer giving Santamaria free air time on the Nine Network.
The NCC's Role: While Packer provided the platform, the NCC—the political organisation Santamaria founded and led—paid for the production and presentation of the commentary, which ran for over three decades.
“

it makes sense.
until mannix popped the clog, the DLP was a major force in aust politics

if i understand correctly what you are talking about…. this ...

2026-04-09T00:04:32Z

In reply to nevent1q…r7hm
_________________________

if i understand correctly what you are talking about….

this might help you navigate without a home button

(personally, i wish the world still ran on fountain pens and carbon paper, and i especially hate having to return to kindy level every time some piece of technology makes a leap-forward.)

alternatively here is a very short video clip with demonstrations…

the home screen example is near the end-

https://youtube.com/shorts/674dVZizwr4?

late edit. i have never used siri, and keep it turned off on all devices.
if i use the microphone function (usually to dictate draft of an alt text while staring at a picture) i always have to edit because the system does not understand much of what i say. if i had to rely on siri i would be up shot creek good and proper.

“Point of View” Sunday morning TV viewing was a desert, ...

2026-04-08T23:49:58Z

In reply to nevent1q…xnk7
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“Point of View”

Sunday morning TV viewing was a desert, though i think he had better time slots in the beginning. 🤔
He had a huge influence on lots of people.

🥇

2026-04-08T23:41:26Z

In reply to nevent1q…yt42
_________________________

🥇

#SerenityInOz— a quiz about Australian stuff — Thurs 9 April, ...

2026-04-08T15:16:12Z

#SerenityInOz— a quiz about Australian stuff — Thurs 9 April, 2026

(Please boost for reach, and try to CW your answers)

———
:questionbox: what is my name?

born 1864 in County Cork

ordained as a catholic priest in 1890

i moved to australia 1913
as coadjutor [assistant/ next in line] Archbishop of melbourne
and became archbishop in 1917
serving in that role for 46 years

my militant advocacy on behalf of a separate Roman Catholic school system, in defiance of the general acceptance of a secular school system, made me immediately a figure of controversy

In 1914, when Australia entered World War I on the side of the UK
i denounced the war as "just a sordid trade war",
& was labelled a traitor.

When the Australian Labor Party govt of Billy Hughes tried to introduce conscription for the war,
i campaigned against it

i spoke out more frequently about the 1917 referendum, which was also defeated. This campaign included a speech before a huge crowd of perhaps 100,000 at the Richmond Racecourse (which was provided by John Wren)

When the Labor Party split over conscription, i supported the Catholic-dominated anti-conscription faction

i opposed the Easter Rising in 1916 and always condemned the use of force by Irish nationalists. i also counselled Irish Catholic australians to stay out of Irish politics…

[yada yada yada]

i predicted the 1915 Treaty of Versailles, would lead to a greater war than the one just ended…

the british tried to keep me from visiting english cities with a large irish population, and there were efforts to stop me returning to australia

In the 1920s spoke against the Industrial Workers of the World and the Communist Party of Australia.

i was leader of the largest ethnic minority in melbourne
and lived at Raheen, in kew

After 1941, authorised Bob Santamaria to form the Catholic Social Studies Movement, aka "The Movement", to organise in the unions and defeat the Communists.
by 1949 it had taken control of the Victorian branch of the Labor Party

i spoke against the white australia policy

although i saw communism as a threat to the church, i opposed - as totalitarian - Menzie’s 1951 referendum to ban communism

when the Labor party split again i supported the new democratic labor party, (DLP) & allowed religious to openly support them
in 1957 the vatican ruled “the movement” should not interfere in politics

By the 1960s the distinct identity of the Irish community in Melbourne was fading, and Irish Catholics were increasingly outnumbered by Italian, Croatian, Polish, Maltese and other postwar immigrant Catholic communities.
i remained active and in full authority, but was no longer a central figure in the city's politics.

I died in 1963, a few months shy of my 100th birthday

song title: I don’t like it song lyrics: my shopping trolley… ...

2026-04-08T15:02:20Z

In reply to nevent1q…r3vs
_________________________

song title: I don’t like it

song lyrics: my shopping trolley… murdered

https://youtu.be/rfK9XMEgUkM

ohno… falling into a bookshop is a real wealth hazard feel ...

2026-04-08T08:03:41Z

In reply to nevent1q…dwhh
_________________________

ohno… falling into a bookshop is a real wealth hazard

feel better soon
😆

ooh, thank you… these are going straight to the poolroom!

2026-04-08T07:04:28Z

In reply to nevent1q…6qug
_________________________

ooh, thank you… these are going straight to the poolroom!

scraping number 3 “name that tune” ...

2026-04-07T23:49:46Z

scraping number 3

“name that tune”

scraping number 2 ...

2026-04-07T23:43:00Z

scraping number 2

asia pacific region generally not some blind alliance to a ...

2026-04-07T17:04:26Z

In reply to nevent1q…9774
_________________________

asia pacific region generally

not some blind alliance to a country, but alliance to a decent set of values

#SerenityInOz— a quiz about Australian stuff — Wed 8 April, ...

2026-04-07T16:37:43Z

#SerenityInOz— a quiz about Australian stuff — Wed 8 April, 2026

(Please boost for reach, and try to CW your answers)

———
:questionbox: what is my name?

i am an australian hit song released in 1998
recorded by Simon Hunt
my official music video features lip syncing by Pauline Pantsdown

Pauline doesn’t like it, but i peaked at number 10 on the ARIA charts

:questionbox: what happened to my shopping trolley?????
———

what… were they excommunicated? seriously though… i was never ...

2026-04-07T08:47:33Z

In reply to nevent1q…hphm
_________________________

what… were they excommunicated?

seriously though… i was never sporty, and also smacking the ball with my hand hurt the one time i tried it 😆