A Perfect Winters Day
 

Hi All
Yesterday was another perfect Australian Winter's day, sunny with the temperature around 16c. Spent the day burning out an old stump and boiling the billy on the embers.
Enjoy the view
Contented Bob

Gum Tree
 

On our property we have this beautiful old gum tree and if you look closely you can see a pair of pink galahs on a lower branch. I'm trying to tame these.

Galahs Close Up
 

Just in case you don't know what galahs look like, here is a close up. AAAAAAGGGGHHHHH shock horror!! We have mutant galahs. Imagine trying to tame these. Where's the shotgun.
Pest Exterminator Bob

Re: A Perfect Winters Day
 

But where are all the blitzes????

Salesman Bob:

Looks like a scene from either "Zulu", or "Breaker Morant".

BTW, I decided to put your Tim Tam commission cheque into my pension fund. Hope you don't mind.:D

Re: Galahs Close Up
 

Do your worst, Pest Exterminator Bob... these two are too ugly and indeed, diabolical, to be allowed to live. Carry on, sah. Our hearts are with you in your crusade against Evil.

Silly galahs
 

Why are the galah's faces pixellated? Have they done something illegal?

Re: Silly galahs
 

If you silly bunt had used a WINDOWS OS, they wouldn't be pixilated, just downright scary!

Re: A Perfect Winters Day
 

Hey Bob has your better half kicked you out?

Cause it looks like you have gone bush and living off the Galahs

poor poor bob :D

Emma

Re: A Perfect Winters Day
 

Looks like the scene where they tie Breaker Morrant into the chair and shoot him.....
I forget ..maybe they just sat him on the chair...filled him full of Char and Tim Tams and then shot him...
Yep....nice day....

Breaker Morant
 

To twist this thread a little more...
Funny you should mention the Boer War movie Breaker Morant, Alex...
I've been shooting a History Channel documentary (for Aust and NZ) about saving our historic buildings, and one of these was Redruth jail in Burra, South Australia.

It's relevance here? It was the setting for the court case in the Breaker Morant film. The doors of the prison were blown off in one scene. (They built false ones for the explosion)

For those who are interested in an account of the event the film was based on there are several sources online including this one.

It's a terrible indictment of British jurisprudence, that the trial transcripts of the Breaker Morant, et al, proceedings are still locked up and not available for public scrutiny.

I've watched the video more than a dozen times, and still get angry about the results.

It was a bit too late for Lord Kitchener to admit that he authorized killing of Boers wearing British uniforms, since the trial and sentencing was over and done with.

A former Editor of a local Toronto newspaper, the Toronto Sun, called "Breaker Morant" one of the most perfect productions that he had ever seen.

You'll have to send him a copy of "Year of the carrier" to change his opinion.

Keith, the South Australian connection with "The Breaker" also comes from his pre-Boer war work in the SA Riverina as a horse Breaker, where he got his nickname.

In accordance with Military custom of the time, executed soldiers did not appear on the Roll of Honour. When Lord Kitchener visited Bathurst, NSW in 1907 (For an Imperial Defence conference that led to the establishment of the Lithgow Small Arms Factory, but that's another story), he was abused and covered with rotten tomatoes in a very public scene by the Widow of Lt Peter Handcock, the other officer executed with Morant. As it was seen as poor sport to prosecute a widow, Kitchener backed down and Handcock's name was placed on the Bathurst War Memorial. This did not really set a precedent, as following the furore over the executions, the Australians took away the power from the British to execute an Australian soldier in in a British force in wartime and no more executions have taken place. NZ did not have the benefit of this learning experience and I believe some 5 Kiwis were shot by the Brits in WW1 for Desertion or Mutiny. It is only in the last 5 years that they have been pardoned and had their names placed on rolls of War Dead.

Mutant Galah
 

Hey Tim Tam Tony - did you recognise the right hand side Galah? What have you been up to??
Bob

Those pixels
 

Ahhh now I see it... Hmmmm... seems I've seen a beady-eyed marauding Galah somewhere too...

Re: A Perfect Winters Day
 

What!?! No shrimp on the barbie! No Foster's lager! No great herds of koalas thundering past Ayer's Rock! And where's Jocko and his rugby balls? You're ruining my television inspired vision of Oz! What you have shown is Australia to be a serene, beautiful, verdant paradise. Hmm, do you think the TV ads may have been misleading?

Hi Sapper - the Australia above is the real one. The TV Ads are designed to keep the rest of the world out. Prawns, we eat so many of them they are getting boring. As for Fosters, that's a beer the Mexicans (Victorians) drink. We use it to flush our drains here. As for koalas, they are nasty tempered pissing animals that are denuding our native foliage. Everyone says cull them but the "experts" just sterilise them and relocate them. I know what I would do with my various calibres.

Thanks Keefy - keep an eye on the increasing Galah crap that will soon crown some Eltham based vehicles. However you do make a ripper DVD so you are partly forgiven.

Bob

The Breaker and "Scapegoats of the Empire"
 

I stumbled onto this thread whilst browsing and was captured by it, particularly the saving of the old courthouse where part of the film was shot.

I use "'Breaker' Morant" in my European history class, so I too have seen it nearly twenty times and will never tire of it. I think it teaches several lessons, not the least one about the role of the film editor in the creation of the finished product. The girls like it, and are properly incensed with it ends the way they know it will.

I was lucky enough to acquire a copy of "Scapegoats of the Empire" from my alas-now-departed friend who sold me my SMLE Mk.III*. Fascinating read on a number of levels.

Bob Potter

Bob:

Do you realize how rare and virtually unobtainable is "Scapegoats of Empire"?

I'd seriously consider giving my first born to the Arabs for a copy.

Can you encapsulate a short synopsis of what Whitton wrote?

Re: Breaker Morant
 

Keith:

Those stone walls in the background must have contained the cells and exercise yard, as depicted in the movie.

Did you get a chance to prowl about inside the building?

Inside
 

Yes, I did, Jon but I don't have stills as I was shooting video at that stage.

I certainly wouldn't like to have been detained there - I did go into one of the cells.

There's a courtyard but with such high walls it's pretty bleak.

Yes, Jon, I surely do . . . .
 

That's why I bargained a little to talk my friend out of it. He died about four months later so I am sheepishly selfish about doing it. On the other hand, when I go West my college library will inherit a treasure.

I'd love to summarize Witton's commentary but it has been ages since I read it and I cannot find the thing on my shelves. I did some rearranging awhile back and it seems to be AWOL.

I'll summarize when it surfaces.

Bob

P.S. Even this Yank knows that Diggers do not drink Fosters; they reserve it for the tourists. I stopped drinking it when it stopped being imported from Australia. Sorry, but the Canadian version is a pale substitute.:cheers:

Gladstone Gaol
 

Hi all
Here is a brief view of the Gaol. Another one of our Oz icons in South Australia.

http://www.postcards.sa.com.au/featu...tone_gaol.html

Bob

Re: Gladstone Gaol
 

"Gladstone Gaol in the mid north of South Australia, was first used to house "inebriates, debtors and other prisoners."

MLU'ers would feel right at home!

Re: Re: Gladstone Gaol
 

"Gladstone Gaol in the mid north of South Australia, was first used to house "inebriates, debtors and other prisoners."


So....How did the jailers differentiate the inmates from the population at large?

Well here is a barb out of left field. Expect a visit from my mate Walker, Texas Ranger, and if he is busy then
my trusted business partner Kartmann :fry: will oblige.
Bob

Hark ... I hear something ... its ... its ... my possible call to :fry: again ... have no fear, Pixie_Witch Ma :yappy: Kartmann shall be there :fry:

Something for JON :note:

http://www.biblio.com/search.php?aut...=0&y=0&stage=1

Is this the book you want? If so ... Keep the kid, just pay cash for the book! :cheers:

Ma :yappy:

Both Chuck and Kartmann will always be welcome a me casa, assuming. of course, they come bearing Tim-Tams!!

Carmen: Thanks for the link...I'll have to look into it more closely.

Less than $40.00 for a 240 pp reprint...sounds too good to be true.