Australia

PurpleChicken · Post by **PurpleChicken** » Tue Nov 15, 2005 2:47 am

You guys should try it - Kangaroo is beautiful. Must be eaten medium rare though so that it stays nice and tender. Highly recommend it!

Bella_Boo · Post by **Bella_Boo** » Tue Nov 15, 2005 2:49 am

PurpleChicken wrote: You guys should try it - Kangaroo is beautiful. Must be eaten medium rare though so that it stays nice and tender. Highly recommend it!

thats what dad said tooo

i will try it one day....

sherry · Post by **sherry** » Tue Nov 15, 2005 3:30 am

It is lovely actually, so it ostrich.

Bothwell · Post by **Bothwell** » Tue Nov 15, 2005 5:24 am

Soooo after scaring me to death with the biteies and stingies you are all negelecting to mention the terrorists. Australia is a truley huge country, vast in fact, I am visiting one small part of it, the Nuclear Reactor at Lucas Heights. Now in this huge continenet guess where the terrorist's target was, a pint to anyone who said Lucas heights Nuclear Reactor, look here Aussies if you dont want me to come just say there is now need to go to this trouble:D

PurpleChicken · Post by **PurpleChicken** » Tue Nov 15, 2005 5:37 am

Mmmm, bit of a scare in Brisbane yesterday too. Couple of bomb threat called in and stopped all the buses and trains.

But rest assured Bothwell, this isn't our way of keeping you away!! For all the creepy crawlies it is a beautiful country (I am a bit biased!) and I'm sure you'll love it. Are you going to get a chance to see anywhere else, or just Sydney??

Bothwell · Post by **Bothwell** » Tue Nov 15, 2005 5:43 am

No PC I am in Lucas Heights for a day and then a week at the conference centre in Darling Harbour. Obviously given the chance I would go Walkabout and emulate the great exploreers of that country by dying a painful and lingereing death in the outback:D

What are my chances of running into Rex Hunt?

PurpleChicken · Post by **PurpleChicken** » Tue Nov 15, 2005 5:47 am

Anything is possible - hang out in the good fishing spots, and kiss your catch before you throw it back, and you just never know. You may even run into our friend Steve Irwin (the crocodile hunter) if you're really lucky!!

Alfred · Post by **Alfred** » Tue Nov 15, 2005 3:10 pm

Bothwell wrote: Soooo after scaring me to death with the biteies and stingies you are all negelecting to mention the terrorists. Australia is a truley huge country, vast in fact, I am visiting one small part of it, the Nuclear Reactor at Lucas Heights. Now in this huge continenet guess where the terrorist's target was, a pint to anyone who said Lucas heights Nuclear Reactor, look here Aussies if you dont want me to come just say there is now need to go to this trouble:D

even if the terrorists did bomb the reactor the damage they would do wouldn't be that great.

for one the lucas heights reactor is a test reactor and can be shut off at a moments notice. and secondly you would have to get the temperature in the reactor up very high to cause any radioactive dispertion let alone trigger an explosion.

come on down.

Alfred · Post by **Alfred** » Tue Nov 15, 2005 10:33 pm

i have just been informed that you already know that...meh. was i close?

abbey · Post by **abbey** » Wed Nov 16, 2005 12:00 am

PurpleChicken wrote: Anything is possible - hang out in the good fishing spots, and kiss your catch before you throw it back, and you just never know. You may even run into our friend Steve Irwin (the crocodile hunter) if you're really lucky!!I love that guy, he really is fearless, a bit of a nutter but a fearless one!

Alfred · Post by **Alfred** » Wed Nov 16, 2005 2:10 am

this is the first time i've even heard his name mentioned in ages.

Bella_Boo · Post by **Bella_Boo** » Wed Nov 16, 2005 2:53 am

PurpleChicken wrote: Anything is possible - hang out in the good fishing spots, and kiss your catch before you throw it back, and you just never know. You may even run into our friend Steve Irwin (the crocodile hunter) if you're really lucky!!

Steve Irwin is now too commericalised - i miss the old Australia Zoo before he turned it into a commercial cash cow!

Alfred · Post by **Alfred** » Wed Nov 16, 2005 3:07 pm

yeah...but its still a pretty good zoo.

chonsigirl · Post by **chonsigirl** » Wed Nov 16, 2005 3:15 pm

Always looks cool on the show, blimey, she's a beauty! Even my kitty watches that show!

lady cop · Post by **lady cop** » Thu Nov 17, 2005 12:25 pm

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA don't go honey! ---------November 17, 2005.

Another for the list: lizards can now be added to the list of venomous animals living in Australia.

Australia's lizards are venomous too

Australia is not only home to venomous snakes, spiders and jellyfish, now scientists have discovered that its lizards are venomous too.

For instance little bearded dragon lizards that cruise around the suburbs have classic rattlesnake venom, scientists report in the journal Nature.

But the venom is not dangerous to humans, Dr Bryan Fry from the University of Melbourne's Australian Venom Research Unit says, who led the international research team.

The lizards do not produce enough venom and what little they do is used to kill prey.

Dr Fry spent months in the Australian desert and tropics capturing, studying and milking dozens of lizards.

He and his colleagues then studied their toxins, DNA and evolution.

The researchers discovered that two common lizard lineages found in Australia, monitor lizards and iguania, have mouth glands that secrete venom toxins.

This was surprising as until now scientists had only found two lizard species around the world that produced venom, the gila monster and the Mexican beaded lizard.

Scientists had thought venom was mainly associated with snakes; about 2,500 out of the 3,000 snake species around the world are venomous.

Dr Fry says he had long questioned the common belief that it was a nasty bacteria that caused rapid swelling and prolonged bleeding after a lizard bite.

"This never sat right with me because happened far too quickly for it to be a bacteria," he said.

"So it got me thinking ... and once we started to have a look it turned out that the monitors actually had venom, and it was very similar to the venom you get in the gila monster and beaded lizard that you find in the Mexican and southern US deserts."

But Dr Fry stresses that the venom carried by the lizards is only to capture prey.

"Just because they're carrying small amounts of rattlesnake toxins doesn't mean they're going to be dangerous to humans," he said.

"And while the monitor lizards has much better developed glands and are more venomous, they are not dangerous to humans either.

"If you were a five or 10 gram mouse it would be different, but the venom from a monitor lizard is not going to kill a human being."

The similarity of the venom used by both snakes and lizards also suggests that snakes and lizards are much more closely related than people think, the scientists say.

They say that snakes evolved from relatively advanced lizards, rather than having evolved separately.

orangesox1 · Post by **orangesox1** » Thu Nov 17, 2005 2:01 pm

Goannas scare me, they are usually all over camp grounds in the National Parks. We also had one living around our street, my kids saw it up a tree across the road from our house one night.

They will also run up people who are standing still as they think the're trees, we see lots of these around here.

Is Bothwell still coming to OZ, he must be very brave;)

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lady cop · Post by **lady cop** » Thu Nov 17, 2005 4:54 pm

orangesox1 wrote:

Is Bothwell still coming to OZ, he must be very brave;)this man has seen combat, and jumped out of airplanes, and he refuses to pet an alligator! go figure. :rolleyes:

lady cop · Post by **lady cop** » Thu Nov 24, 2005 1:06 pm

thanksgiving day...Bothwell has just boarded flight to Oz, i will have to do an "adventures of Both in oz thread" as soon as he gets himself in trouble!:wah: let's see, that won't be until sometime after he lands on sat. oz time.

abbey · Post by **abbey** » Fri Nov 25, 2005 12:18 am

lady cop wrote: thanksgiving day...Bothwell has just boarded flight to Oz, i will have to do an "adventures of Both in oz thread" as soon as he gets himself in trouble!:wah: let's see, that won't be until sometime after he lands on sat. oz time. Send him my very best LC and tell him to give the possums a big hug from me :sneaky:

lady cop · Post by **lady cop** » Sat Nov 26, 2005 8:55 am

after 23 hours flying he has arrived in OZ, called me totally exhausted. he said he was checking his room for spiders and going right to sleep!

Bez · Post by **Bez** » Sat Nov 26, 2005 3:13 pm

Bothwell...you're up and about ! Have you slept off the 'Jet Lag' and avoided the spiders ? What's next on your itinerary ??

lady cop · Post by **lady cop** » Sat Nov 26, 2005 4:39 pm

Notes From Australia Bothwell .........off to a good start:rolleyes:

AussiePam · Post by **AussiePam** » Fri Jan 20, 2006 5:50 pm

Pam wanders in, a couple of snarling dingoes obediently at her heel, dragging a wasted croc and a brace of sorry-looking grey nurse sharks

Dogs!! Outside now!!!

Struth!! Why are you blokes and shielas all standing on the bar stools??? !!! Oh I see it's those little red and black snakies running loose on the floor!! Hang on - I'll stomp them for you!!! What a bunch of wusses.....

S T O M P !!!!!!!!!!

Okay. She'll be right as rain!!

Pam tosses down the morning's catch and takes a swig from a pocket flask of fermented funnel web juice. Lemme just dress this lot and I'll get the barbie going!!!

St Ives · Post by **St Ives** » Fri Jan 20, 2006 11:10 pm

I first came out to Oz in 1997 on a years' work exchange. The people we exchanged with gave me this advice - Of the 10 most venomous deadly criters in the world Oz has 9, check everything before you put it on or walk into

My daughter changed her miind, she refused point blank to come. Much bribery and promises later she did come.

At the end of the time we couldnt get her to go back to UK - go figure that.

Long story short - we all had the best year of our lives and most of us couldnt wait to come back. So far I am the only one who has made it

AussiePam · Post by **AussiePam** » Fri Jan 20, 2006 11:35 pm

Onya St Ives. A good decision. I must say I walk in the bush often and have very rarely seen a snake. Once down the south coast I did encounter a male funnelweb in rearing pre-jump position, on a wet garage wall with a nineyear old kid in the firing line. Dunno how I did it, but I took off a shoe, and clobbered that bugger, deadern a billabong in a drought. I still shiver a bit at the thought of what could have happened had I missed. I swim tons, and have never been at a beach where there was a shark alert. Nor have I ever been within hundred of miles of crocodiles. So the fear factor is just a wee bit exaggerated. Don't recall when anyone died from a funnelweb bite either. Though you certainly occasionally hear of bites. Good idea to check your shoes if you leave them outside or aren't wired in. Redback spiders are shy critters and not as dangerous as bees. When I wander in the woods in America, I hafta watch out for poison ivy, poison oak, poison sumac, timber rattlers, and even bears. Once had a black bear dig up the fire outside my tent on a camping expedition. Don't know what's scary in England - the occasional adder I guess, and ya wouldn't want to sit on a hedgehog.

St Ives · Post by **St Ives** » Fri Jan 20, 2006 11:42 pm

Lol yep best move I have made for sure

I used to be further up - Mackay - wonderful part. Swimming with Box Jellyfish, sharks etc

no worries

Had an intimate encounter with a red back here in Bris - and lived to tell the tale hehheee

It sure is a bit of heaven on earth here

AussiePam · Post by **AussiePam** » Sat Jan 21, 2006 12:06 am

I just read your profile StIves - we're both Virgos and share some other things too. I gotta go do Saturday evening type stuff now, but look forward to catching up with you, in a bit more depth, soon. Box jellyfish -ugh!! (I worked until recently in a med research place, as a computer person, not a scientist!, and was also a senior first aid officer - so had to learn how to treat stinger etc 'bites' not that we were anywhere near any, but it came with the St Johns Ambulance courses - narsty altogether!!). Have a lovely evening!

St Ives · Post by **St Ives** » Sat Jan 21, 2006 12:12 am

lol two virgo's hey

You sure have a wicked sense of humor and love the 'strine' you use - still learning it here

Look forward to more chats - have a great evening

AussiePam · Post by **AussiePam** » Sun Jan 22, 2006 4:18 pm

Good luck with the assignments, mrsK - and stay cooooool !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Alfred · Post by **Alfred** » Sun Jan 22, 2006 5:09 pm

a warm day in brizzy for a change.

as opposed to the hot streak of recent times.

orangesox1 · Post by **orangesox1** » Sun Jan 22, 2006 7:02 pm

Slightly cooler here to Alfred, only 35 I'd guess

Alfred · Post by **Alfred** » Sun Jan 22, 2006 11:05 pm

orangesox1 wrote: Slightly cooler here to Alfred, only 35 I'd guess

only... i can just imagine what people in other parts of the world would be thinking about 35 degrees.

Lon · Post by **Lon** » Sun Jan 22, 2006 11:13 pm

Alfred wrote: only... i can just imagine what people in other parts of the world would be thinking about 35 degrees.

Hey, no problem mate. I live in California from May to November and temps of 40C and higher are an every day occurence. BUT IT'S DRY. Very little humidity. In fact, I like playing golf in that heat. My Kiwi golf mates here in Christchurch are dying when the temp gets to 25 C.

orangesox1 · Post by **orangesox1** » Mon Jan 23, 2006 12:16 am

Lon wrote: Hey, no problem mate. I live in California from May to November and temps of 40C and higher are an every day occurence. BUT IT'S DRY. Very little humidity. In fact, I like playing golf in that heat. My Kiwi golf mates here in Christchurch are dying when the temp gets to 25 C.

It used to be dry here too, but it seems to be more humid these days, I can't stand it. I went swimming today in my neighbours pool, that was nice, I'm going every day.

I'm going out to garden now as the temps dropped.

AussiePam · Post by **AussiePam** » Mon Jan 23, 2006 12:36 am

I love snow. I love snow. I love snow. I love snow!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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Alfred · Post by **Alfred** » Mon Jan 23, 2006 2:51 pm

Lon wrote: Hey, no problem mate. I live in California from May to November and temps of 40C and higher are an every day occurence. BUT IT'S DRY. Very little humidity. In fact, I like playing golf in that heat. My Kiwi golf mates here in Christchurch are dying when the temp gets to 25 C.

its like that in Perth.

hot but dry.

AussiePam · Post by **AussiePam** » Mon Jan 23, 2006 2:57 pm

It just didnt' get cool here at all in Canberra last night. (At least where I am in Sydney I get a sea breeze). Turkish bath like. Nobody in the street here bothered to go to bed at all... and we're all kind of rung out this morning. I went off to the gym in the hope of drumming up some energy to tide me through the working day.. not sure that helped. Anyway, as I drove home it started to rain. That didn't last, but there's occasional thunder still. So who knows. Hope the bushfire areas get rained on.

What you all doing for Australia Day? I'm actually trying to learn the words of our National Anthem.. Grin.... belatedly.

Alfred · Post by **Alfred** » Mon Jan 23, 2006 2:59 pm

AussiePam wrote: It just didnt' get cool here at all in Canberra last night. (At least where I am in Sydney I get a sea breeze). Turkish bath like. Nobody in the street here bothered to go to bed at all... and we're all kind of rung out this morning. I went off to the gym in the hope of drumming up some energy to tide me through the working day.. not sure that helped. Anyway, as I drove home it started to rain. That didn't last, but there's occasional thunder still. So who knows. Hope the bushfire areas get rained on.

nature seems to have a way of being very selective about on who and when it rains.

just depends on mother natures mood i guess.

orangesox1 · Post by **orangesox1** » Mon Jan 23, 2006 5:03 pm

mrsK wrote: Sure does Alfred,all of Australia could do with a big soaking ,I am so sick of this drought:mad:

Not doing much for Australia Day,probably be to hot to do much of anything,might spend it with the grandkids:-6

Our town people all get together and have an Ozzie breakfast in the park, the Lions Club, CWA, and the SES all get together to put it on, I'm in the SES so I will have to be there at 6.30 am to help set up. It's always a great day with the town band playing and Citizen of the year awards given out.

Alfred · Post by **Alfred** » Mon Jan 23, 2006 11:10 pm

mrsK wrote: Sure does Alfred,all of Australia could do with a big soaking ,I am so sick of this drought:mad:

Not doing much for Australia Day,probably be to hot to do much of anything,might spend it with the grandkids:-6

brisbanes had a fair amount of rain, judging by the way the humidities climbing it won't be long before its back.

Australia day... going to see my cousins new house, long drive in an airconditioned car.

orangesox1 · Post by **orangesox1** » Mon Jan 23, 2006 11:50 pm

I'v been swimming every day in my neightbours pool. MrsK you must have a dam to go swimming in, do you?

AussiePam · Post by **AussiePam** » Tue Jan 24, 2006 3:14 pm

Weird here today in the Nation's capital. Chilly. Cold enough even to get hot air balloons in the air early on!! Australia Day is forecast hot though. At very least I'll toss some snags on the barbie, and sing Advance Australia Fair - now I've learnt the words. Grin. Have a great day, everyone!!!

Alfred · Post by **Alfred** » Wed Jan 25, 2006 2:14 pm

AussiePam wrote: Weird here today in the Nation's capital. Chilly. Cold enough even to get hot air balloons in the air early on!! Australia Day is forecast hot though. At very least I'll toss some snags on the barbie, and sing Advance Australia Fair - now I've learnt the words. Grin. Have a great day, everyone!!!

lucky me i'm in an airconed car for a while.