THOUGHTS ON THE BUNNY RABBIT Rabbits had begun to breed in plague proportions in Tasmania as early as 1827. The Colonial Times and Tasmanian Advertiser reported: ‘…the common rabbit is becoming so numerous throughout the colony, that they are running about on some large estates by the
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HOW THE DRAMA BEGAN Well one day I was sitting in a planter pot talking to Pauline’s little goose when we heard a funny noise. Goose peered down at something, so I did too. Whoops, nearly over-balanced and ended up on my head! And do you
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BARING IT ALL IN THE BLACK FOREST While visiting the Black Forest my partner Rob and I discover there is more to the region than chocolate cake and cuckoo clocks. Our holiday apartment is owned by the Klumpp family, who are as sturdily hearty as their name
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Hello, Editor Des here! Well Pauline was going to do some research at the State Library in Sydney so I went along too. I thought I might start trying to find my ancestors. Just hope I don’t turn out to be related to Paddington or Pooh…especially Paddington.
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HELLO DOWN THERE FROM EDITOR DES….AKA ME! OK…to celebrate my birthday I thought I would tell you a little bit about myself. I was actually born in China, but I think my parents sold me ( I know, how could they part with someone so
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TALL TALES, EMPTY TANKS – AN AUSTRALIAN ODYSSEY On late night radio an elderly man talked about catching giant Murray cod on chicken eggs; ‘I thread a fish hook through the shell of a raw egg then I hard boil it,’ he assured the dubious host. His
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Hello, You know how Pauline Conolly posts rather showoffy pictures of her garden? Well I’m about to take her down a peg or two, hahaha. Made a little bicycle tour the other day and by gum there are some pretty dire ‘blots’ ! Here I go down
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A TOUR OF TASMANIA VIA ITS MAGICAL CAVES After an absence of many years, my partner Rob and I returned to Tasmania, where we both grew up. While we were staying on the North West Coast we went to see Gunns Plains caves. My first visit was
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A LEAP OF SHAME I once asked a British backpacker; ‘What strikes you as the biggest difference between London and Sydney? As it was summer I half expected him to say; ‘The amount of visible female flesh in Sydney’ . However, he surprised me with; ‘Your city
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My interest in John Mortlock was aroused when I discovered that his journey as a convict paralleled that of my own relatives, the Shadbolts. WHERE THERE’S A WILL…… John Frederick Mortlock was born in Cambridge on August 8, 1809. His father, Frederick Cheetham Mortlock, had been a
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