Macquarie Island declared pest-free.

[Swampy]

The World Heritage-listed Macquarie Island has been declared free of pests after a near seven-year campaign to eradicate it of rats, rabbits and mice.

Let's hope Komrade Julia doesn't go back.

[Sir John]

We must start urgent work on eliminating the pests in Canberra!


SJ

[hornet32]

The Authorities in OZ are busy tracking the activities of Prince George who is mingling with the subjects in NZ .

[Sir John]

RAH! RAH!

I can hardly wait until the future King of a fully (re)unified Empire arrives. After payment of all back taxes of course!


SJ

[hornet32]

It was noted without much concern some of the Pests were aborigines , the authorities in Canberra yes unfortunate that . but we could spare a few .

[premier1]

Studies of records written by early explorers including Captain Cook, but mostly from early settlers has resulted in two books, The Greatest Estate On Earth and Dark Emu Black Seeds. I have read the first and have the second on order. Contrary to the British colonial official reports the Australian Aborigines were for all intents and purposes farmers, and sourced food from wild sources such as fish. But the bush land of today is not representative of how it was before the late 1700s when the Aborigines were driven off their tribal lands in many parts of Australia.

We knew that the vegetation we see today was not the original vegetation, that was destroyed and replaced over 50-60,000 years after immigrants from what is now India and Pakistan arrived here. And the first white settlers referred to Australia as an estate, something like British estate parks, horses and wagons could be driven without needing to cut a path as the trees were well spaced and shrubs were contained in clumps with several native grasses growing in between that the Aborigines harvested for grain and used to attract wildlife such as Kangaroos which they killed as needed. They placed a long high net in a funnel shape and drove their prey into it where they speared selected animals.

There were some areas of dense bushland but most was semi-cleared and grassed. Obviously the desert areas remain as they were. And the rainforests too. Depending on the area climate the Aborigines wore little or no clothing or skins fashioned into warm clothing. Dwellings were very simple tree bark roof over stick frame, caves and in colder areas stone and mud huts.

As farmers they planted and harvested "bush tucker" from trees and bushes and in ground. They cared for their food supplies like farmers but their methods were more cultivating nature, making use of what they planted over time brought as seed from their original homeland. I read a comment about a traveller in India with friends all discussing how the area and waterhole they were at reminded them of Australia until an Elaphant with handler arrived.

The Aborigines marked water sources and even constructed small dams from stone, sticks and mud in many places to cope with the dry periods.

The book I have read was enlightening and after reading it I visited art galleries to view paintings from the 1700s and 1800s, as the book explained the bushland was quite different back then. What we see now apart from farmland is bushland that has been allowed to become overgrown in too many places and therefore providing fuel for very hot fires. The Aborigines regularly burnt bushland and grassland to provide fertiliser to the ground for all plants and because many of the trees need fire to reproduce, to get their seeds started.

I was pleased to learn that in the Western Australia north Aborigine Rangers are using ancient control techniques with modern equipment to manage the land, including for ranchers who are delighted to find that there is now more feed for their cattle and a much lower risk of uncontrolled fires. There remain areas that have been Aborigine managed but mainly in northern Australia, travellers note the constant drifting of smoke in the distance.

So contrary to what Australians have been taught the Aborigines are intelligent and do work, maybe not the drunks white man has created with "sit down money" or welfare payments but in their natural state they are industrious people. It was written that an Aborigine Australian could feed his family working many less hours than a white farmer could in the early colonial days. But the "dreamtime" or spiritual side is very important, a descendent from Aborigines told me when I discussed the book with him that put simply in English his ancestors considered Australia to be an ancestors graveyard that they were obliged to care for, to continue the tradition or anger the spirits who are around at night
watching.

To finish, I have visited an ancient Aborigine camp site on a friend's Sheep and Wheat farm in western NSW and it is fascinating, a small cave and a rocky outcrop with a permanent water hole. Wear marks in rocks where tools and weapons were made or maintained. Some drawings too. And in the Northern Territory I visited much larger ancient Aborigine camps with extensive cave areas.

Politicians and church people rewrite history and hide what they do not want us to know.

[premier1]

I got carried away, but I trust readers will be interested.

[hornet32]

Yes a bit long but interesting reassuring that the Empire could produce such enterprising subjects .