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10 kts surfaced, 20+ kts submerged.

Yes, it's hard to see it at this point. They'd need to employ some experienced professional operators to organise the party structure for a start. Their problem is that to become a large effective opposition, they'd have to evolve and become basically what their new supporters are currently fleeing from. That might make some of them do the reverse trip back again. One very recent poll asked a hypothetical question on voting intention if Pauline Hanson announced her retirement and left the party and the One Nation vote almost halved.

I can relate to life on a submarine. At work we had dongas with two to a room, bunks 500mm wide and 0.6 square metres of floor space per two man room. But at least we were out of them for sixteen hours every day.

This is local news from this morning, the weather has taken a turn for the worse this afternoon. https://www.watoday.com.au/national/western-australia/wa-storm-leaves-thousands-without-power-across-the-state-20260531-p602e9.html https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-05-31/intense-storm-hits-wa-thousands-without-power/106741236 It's not being helped much by the current full moon causing high tides. So with the storm surge, a lot of places along the Swan River are under water.

If it said “in memorial” under the image I would accept it.

It's well worth it. I'm a bit biased as my all time favourite movie genre is submarine movies, but for any technically minded person it's got heaps of interest. They were a British design if my memory is correct.

No Willie, I've never been through it, although I've been through the Maritime Museum. I've been told numerous times it's quite interesting - to us, as blokes, anyway. SWMBO would never go through it, she is quite claustrophobic.

onetrack, have you been on the HMAS Ovens? I did the tour when I was over there eleven years ago, very interesting inside.

Gee, I never knew the Collins subs were so slow. By the time they got to the war zone, the war would be over. Small autonomous subs must be the future. Each one would be much lower cost, losing one of them would only be a fraction of the cost of losing an AUKUS sub - and sub crews are getting harder and harder to find. No-one wants to be crammed into a steel tube for weeks at a time, living in cramped conditions, and knowing that any genuine war fighting - or even a mistake or malfunction, could mean the end of their lives in a horrible manner.

Three subs, whether used or not, don't seem enough to provide an effective defence, even if we eventually get them. You could barely maintain one consistently on station. I assume we're hoping the US will locate some of theirs here once we've built the necessary facilities. On the other hand the AUKUS design, if it ever gets built, is massive and will take years to get all the bugs ironed out of it. We'll probably be the ones stuck with doing most of the testing. Being designed jointly between Australia, the UK and the US it will probably not suit anyone. Reminds me of an old joke about what a camel is - a horse designed by a committee.

I doubt very much whether ON has the leadership to run an effective, sizeable Opposition party. "Boof" Joyce is a dill, Pauline is just a stirrer with no concrete plans for Australia, worthy of consideration, and many of their choices for political representation largely end up being duds, often changing sides, turning out to have an unsavoury past, or just throwing in the towel.

The Canadians lost over $500M in the mid-1990's on a Defence acquisition plan for EH-101 helicopters, that was cancelled by an incoming new PM. But that amount pales into loose change when you consider we have signed up for a $368 BILLION deal for these subs. I don't know where that kind of money is going to come from - and if the deal is canned, we'll be paying multiple billions in penalties just to do that. We have already had the French subs fiasco, where we paid out $835M to the Naval Group in France for the French subs contract cancellation. I'm convinced some future Govt will can the AUKUS subs as unaffordable and technically obsolete.

For a while now the national conversation has all been about the rise of One Nation. That's where most of the coalition votes are going so the fate of the coalition will all depend on how ON tracks in the next two years until the election. If ON keeps growing or even stays at current polling levels, then the coalition is dead and the vacuum will be there for a new centre right party to emerge. If ON trips up or fizzles out early enough, then the coalition still has time to rebuild before the next election. For the coalition to have any chance I think ON would have to be in significant decline by the end of this year. Problem for the coalition is time is getting short. If ON stuffs right up early enough, we're back to the two party status quo; if they keep rolling on, it's a three party system coming - Labor, One Nation and whatever party emerges as the centre right replacement for the coalition.

We've certainly earned that moniker well and truly today. The wind is still screaming, and looks like keeping up for a while yet. They had a gust of 102kmh at Swanbourne, and gusts of 133kmh and 135kmh at the Capes this afternoon. Rottnest Island recorded a gust of 113kmh just before 3:00PM, but it looks like the wind knocked the recording station out, it's currently offline. This is the most intense low pressure system I've encountered for quite a while, so maybe the BOM was right about it being a 1-in-5 year storm. My SD is currently without power in Stoneville, up in the Hills.

It seems like we've got a long history of defence acquisition problems. I guess it wouldn't be an easy job trying to figure out something way into the future and finding the money for it.

I think the original deal was two used subs and one new one, now it's changed to three used subs.

Yes, electing Abbott as President of the Liberal Party is a guaranteed way to ensure the future Liberal Party will be able to hold an entire Party meeting, in a room the size of a disabled toilet.

We are only getting the used subs as a stop-gap measure until the new subs are built. But I still reckon the subs will be totally obsolete before they're even half built - leaving us with more monstrous Defence expenditure losses.

I guess that's better than the original promise - of probably no subs at all

Now under the AUKUS deal we are getting used subs instead of new ones.

IF people HAVE something, it's inevitable (almost) that they will want to Play with it. We are NOW Light years off the topic. Anyhow WE do NOT have a Bill of rights. It's been talked about often. Perhaps we should? Is Our two Party System a Con? I think under the current circumstances, the Question is Irrelevant. The UAP/ Liberal Party of R.G.Menzies is Unrecognisable in relation to Its current form which is Becoming Extinct at a great rate of Knots, before our very eyes. Making T Abbot the President, only ensures it's Fate. THAT role is Party Managerial , not Policy making. Abbot won't be able to Help Himself reaching for the Tiller. Nev

You are Nit Picking. Nev

At 90 degrees it's easy to judge. At distance you can hold your arm out and spread a couple of fingers from base to tree top and flip them sideways to see where the top will land. Or if closer use a stick. Even eyballing it is better than nothing.

I've seen Merino rams with gigantic chokos from brucellosis where they were dragging on the ground and covered in burrs. It looks painful and they were so bow legged they could hardly walk. You only see it in rough country where the sheep are hard to manage and some have virtually gone feral.