Park Art August 2014

Afternoon of Friday 8/08/2014 @ 3.30 pa my Art club college & I were ready & waiting at Blackwater All Amenities Park, Blain Street.

We had answered a request for help to Assist the Council officer in indigenous art. This is funded with funds from Queensland Arts council for visual arts aimed to assist children in furthering & cultivating their culture via visual art.

When the officer showed up with ‘ food’ for a BBQ I was taken aback. My companion
did not share my concern.

Taking the situation in our stride and we set about helping in food preparation.
4 mothers arrived and did the cooking. At 5 pm I asked my companion to bring me home.
The food was ready to eat so Al told the Council’s social worker who had busied herself in hosing down another area of the park.

The football bounced off the toilet block as there We’re more children arriving
through the afternoon wanting a feed. No interest was shown in painting, drawing or pastels as no supplies of paper or pens and the Arts officer had driven off yet again.

I have given some thought since to how to approach the Art in the park in a months time.

Out of Afghanaistan NOw

Australian soldiers in Afghanistan are in shock after one of the local men they were tasked with training opened fire on them, killing three and wounding seven

Children still Work in Mines

Child labour in Kyrgyz coal mines By Natalia Antelava BBC Central Asia correspondent

Kylych says the $3 a day he earns is vital for his family Sharp pieces of coal fly across a narrow, dark, airless space as a man bangs the wall of the cave with his hammer. http://www.thewe.cc/weplanet/news/children/child_labor.htm

GLYPHOSATE

<!–

–>

The Land

Source: http://www.theland.com.au

GLYPHOSATE promotes some complex reactions among soil organisms, American scientist Bob Kremer says, but not enough is understood about these interactions to provide specific management advice.

Dr Kremer, a microbiologist with the USDA’s Agricultural Research Service (ARS), instead suggests that there are some general principles that farmers can apply if they are regular users of the chemical.

Occasional studies over more than two decades, mostly in the laboratory, have shown that glyphosate has a complicated relationship with soil life.

In the soil, the use of glyphosate can promote certain strains of the fusarium fungus, possibly because the chemical also stimulates some plants to release more sugars into the soil through root exudates.

Glyphosate has also been shown to inhibit beneficial forms of bacteria, including some of the rhizobium that live synergistically with legumes to produce nitrogen nodulation on roots.

In the plant, the chemical suppresses phytoalexins, the amino acids that plants produce in response to infection, and binds up and makes unavailable some of the key minerals the plant needs to maintain health.

Dr Kremer suspects that all these factors combined could encourage colonisation of crop plants by hostile organisms, like fusarium.

Problem is, very little field research has been done to follow up on laboratory observations, which appear also vary between crops, crop varieties and soil types.

“At field days, I tell farmers that we really haven’t linked big problems to the use of glyphosate,” Dr Kremer said.

“But we’re saying that if all these effects are happening in the field, there may be potential for problems with diseases and decreases in yield.”

If farmers want to manage for this possibility, they should be looking at minimising the possibility of extreme conditions under which glyphosate residues could tip the balance against the crop.

That includes maintaining good levels of all essential soil nutrients.

Her Favourite Dress

 

President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama ride in a golf cart an Inaugural ball 1/20/09

everyday_i_show: photos by Pete Souza

Embarrass the Staff..

How they should be dressed:  A smock for Shepherds – as they attend the SHEEPIES..

Cattleman concerned by erosion of landowners’ rights – State News – Agribusiness and General – Political – Stock Journal

 

 

Cattleman concerned by erosion of landowners’ rights

PETER Manual, a cattleman and businessman from South Australia, says the proposed carbon tax, abrupt Indonesian live cattle exports suspension and flimsy power sharing with the Greens and Independents are not the only reasons to change the Federal government or hold a fresh election.

He says the government is also using water and environmental issues as a means of controlling people.

Mr Manual became so concerned about environmental controls and over-regulation he joined with others who shared the same view as him and started the Food-producers and Landowners Action Group SA (FLAG).

FLAG resulted from concerns in SA about the government’s draft water allocation plans and potential impacts on sustainable food production in that State.

But they are also concerned about the gradual erosion of landowner rights, with Mr Manual saying his local Natural Resource Management Board possessed more powers than the SA police.

He cited several examples of fines or regulations imposed on farmers by environmental regulators, which contradicted or invaded their basic rights and strangled their business profitability, such as being forced to fence creeks.

– State News – Agribusiness and General – Political – Stock Journal

Weatherhead Family from Queensland Aust. to Canada

 

About the Weatherhead Family

John and Colleen and family hav e been farming for well over 25 years. John was born and raised on a dairy farm in Queensland Australia, and has really been farming all of his life- that’s a few years more than 25! Colleen worked on farms in Ontario while attending school and went on to study agriculture at the University of Guelph. Colleen and John farmed together in Queensland for about 13 years, before moving to Canada in 1995. They have been farming in eastern Ontario since then. Their three children have been actively involved in farming since they were born. Because of the diverse and manual intensive nature of the farm, the whole family has to work. We also try to employ local youth whenever possible. If you know of anyone who would like to work on an organic farm, please direct them our way. Colleen is the Women’s President of the National Farmers Union of Canada. The farm is an extension of her activism, which focuses on social justice around food, farming and land. We welcome visitors to our farm. Please call ahead. We are closed on Sunday.

Weatherhead Family

Alex Jones: "London riots as a pretext for an attack on the Internet…" – YouTube

 

History of Melbourne & Ramsdale Family

Like most Australian colonies the original reason for the British occupation of Victoria was the fear of possible French settlement. By the end of the eighteenth century the coast had been explored extensively by both British and French adventurers.
Reacting to a perceived French threat Lieutenant David Collins, accompanied by a party comprising both convicts and free settlers, landed on the shores of Port Phillip (near Sorrento on the Mornington Peninsular) in October 1803 and a short-lived colony was established.
By May 1804 Collins had gained permission to move the colony to Van Diemen’s Land and his brief attempt at settlement had been abandoned.
Through the 1810’s and 1820’s Port Phillip was regularly visited by whalers and sealers who worked the coast from Van Diemen’s Land (Tasmania) to South Australia.
The real impetus for permanent settlement came as a result of the land-based explorers who, having explored south from Sydney, had crossed the Murrumbidgee River and pushed on towards the southern coast. Hume and Hovell reached Port Phillip in 1824. They mistook it for Western Port and two years later, acting on their incorrect advice, a military and convict outpost was established on Western Port. It lasted thirteen months.
Around this time the entrepreneurial John Batman, who was living in Van Diemen’s Land, tried to gain approval from the Governor of New South Wales to settle the area around Western Port. He had been encouraged by reports that the land was fertile and the pastures rich. The Governor, fearing problems if a second colony was created, denied Batman permission.
This proved to be a hollow gesture. Eight years later, in November 1834, Edward Henty ignored the rulings of the New South Wales governor and settled at Portland Bay. In early 1835, spurred on by Henty’s example, Batman crossed Bass Strait and in June 1835 infamously ‘purchased‘ the land on the western shore of Port Phillip from the local Aborigines.
At this time Batman explored the shores of Port Phillip and chose a site for a village. Within a year the township of Melbourne began to grow on the banks of the Yarra River.
In 1837 the township of Melbourne was surveyed and named with magistrate, Captain William Lonsdale sent from Sydney to maintain law and order. The attempts to stop settlement had clearly failed and the administration of New South Wales was forced to deal with Victoria as a successful, and semi-autonomous, colony. This was converted into a reality in September 1839 when Charles La Trobe, the newly appointed Superintendent of the Port Phillip District, arrived from England. In his wake the colony established a separate police force, a customs office and, perhaps most importantly, a separate Lands Office.
By 1 July 1851, when the colony of Victoria was officially proclaimed, there were already more than 80 000 people living south of the Murray-Murrumbidgee and over six million sheep were being grazed on well-established properties. ‘’

History of Melbourne

According to Muriel Clampett’s book,  ‘ Whilom Wilderness’

The ‘Lady Nelson’ sailed through the unnamed heads of Port Phillip Bay, February 15th, 1802. Commanded by Lieutenant John Murray, she anchored near what is now known as Portsea.

Murray ordered a 25 day exploration of beach and land around the bay. The Union Jack was hoisted and under scant artillery fire the land was taken in the name of His Majesty King George 3rd  of England.

John Batman sailed from the Tamar River in the ‘Rebecca,’ and anchored on the Yarra Yarra River.

He purchased large tracts of land from the Aborigines. The deed of sale was signed by local native chiefs, June 1835, near the Merri River.

Fawkner arrived in October 1835,  Melbourne’s first Publican. 

Not to be recognized as official or legal.. by the Government of NSW.

‘’Three daughters of John & Elizabeth Ramsdale of Vermont in the Police State of Launceston V.D.L. came to Melbourne.  Jane was the first to arrive, with her husband, Horatio Cooper. She bore him 12 children, Elizabeth, norn 1838 was one of the earliest native born and heads the baptismal register of Scot’s Church..  Jane, was a fervent Wesleyan….’’

 

 

Rest in Peace?

 

From left: Peter Handcock and Harry ‘Breaker’ Morant just prior to their deaths, and surgeon Johnson, Frederick Hunt and Englishmen Alfred Taylor and Henry Picton. Photo: Archives

Lieutenant Harry “Breaker” Morant moments before he was executed by a British military firing squad. February 27, 1902.

ALONG with Ned Kelly’s famous last words, ”Such is life”, The Breaker’s final sentence remains one of Australia’s most defining quotes. It was delivered less than 14 months after Federation, as Harry ”Breaker” Morant and fellow lieutenant Peter Joseph Handcock were executed by a British military system that ignored Australia’s newly won sovereignty.

The federal government responded by passing the Defence Act, which ensured no Australian soldier could be executed in similar circumstances. It was an important step in establishing true international independence.

The Breaker Morant case is shrouded in political expediency, cynical pragmatism and a cover-up involving the destruction of key legal documents, including court-martial transcripts.

Rest in Peace?

On his return to Africa in April 1901, Lieutenant Morant enlisted with the newly formed Bushveldt Carbineers, a mainly Australian force raised in South Africa, to fight the Boers in Northern Transvaal on their own terms. No unit was more feared by the Boers than the Bushveldt Carbineers. On August 5, 1901, Capt. Hunt and 17 Carbineers rushed a Boer farmhouse and were surprised to find four times as many Boers as expected. During the attack both Capain Hunt and Sergeant Eland were killed.

According to a witness and corroborated by others, Hunt, who was only wounded, was killed and mutilated, his neck broken, his face stamped upon with hob-nailed boots and his legs slashed with a knife. His body had also been stripped completely of clothes. An enraged and grieving Morant exacted his revenge by executing Visser, a Boer found wearing Hunt’s clothes, and some other Boer prisoners. A German missionary named Hesse was also killed after Morant had suspicions about his motives in speaking with Boer prisoners.

Seven Carbineers, including Lieutenants Morant, thirty years old Peter Joseph Handcock and twenty-seven years old George Ramsdale Witton, were charged with shooting Boer prisoners and the German missionary. Major Thomas, an inexperienced Australian lawyer from Tenterfield, New South Wales, was appointed to defend the Australians. The court-martial began in January 1902. Morant showed nothing but contempt for his judges and accusers. He freely admitted shooting the Boers and justified his actions on the ground that Kitchener himself had given instructions that no prisoners were to be taken. During the court proceedings, the Boers attacked Pietersburg where the trial was being held. The accused men fought bravely and the Boer attack was defeated. It made no difference to the outcome of the trial. The three Australians were found guilty of the murders of the Boers but were acquitted of the murder of the German missionary. Morant and Handcock’s death sentences were signed by Lord Kitchener on 4 February 1902. George Ramsdale Witton’s death sentence was reduced to life in prison.

Game to the last, Morant and Hancock refused to be blindfolded and went before the firing squad at the old Pretoria gaol, Pietersburg in the early morning of 27 February 1902. Hancock’s wife, who lived in Bathurst with her three children, only found out from the newspapers that her husband had been shot. Kitchener later admitted, in writing, that he had issued orders to kill Boers wearing English uniforms!! George Ramsdale Witton went to prison on the Isle of Wight, and after serving nearly three years, his life sentence was overturned by the British House of Commons on August 11, 1905. In 1907, Lieutenant George Ramsdale Witton published his book Scapegoats of the Empire: The True Story of Breaker Morant’s Bushveldt Carbineers (Sydney: Angus and Robertson Publishers, 1907; ISBN: 0207146667; December 1982). A new edition was published in 2004 and the book is now available to read online at The Australian Boer War Memorial. Very few copies of the 1907 edition exist today because, according to one story, the Australian Government considered that its contents could implicate Lord Kitchener and had all copies seized. His biography may be read online at Lieutenant George Witton: Ancestor Details

“The Bushveldt Carbineers and the Pietersburg Light Horse”
by William Woolmore

Lieutenant George Ramsdale Witton

Lieutenants Morant, Handcock and George Ramsdale Witton were charged with shooting or instigating others to shoot eight Boers on 23 August 1901. The “eight Boers” court martial began on 3 February 1902. The facts were generally not disputed by the defence. Lieutenant George Ramsdale Witton’s statement reads as follows:

“I had received my commission as a Lieutenant about six weeks before the 23rd August. I was told what the orders about Boers were as received from Captain Hunt, and I took it they were correct; I did whatever I was told, and raised no objection one way or the other, as it is customary to obey orders.

Captain Hunt and Lieutenant Morant were great friends, and I supposed that all orders were correct that Captain Hunt gave. He was greatly relied upon by all when he came to reform matters at Spelonken, after Captain Robertson left.

On 23rd August one of the Boers rushed at me to seize my carbine, and I shot at him to keep him off.”