Bruce

I too have met lovely moslems. But this does not mean that statistics doesn't operate in a population. Those same lovely moslems could have a son who becomes a radical. And yes christians can do likewise. I reckon the chances are higher with the moslem kid because the religion is more coherent than christianity. Personally, I would use deportation much more against any immigrants who did religious violence here. That would include mutilation of their girls.

You can see coral bleach areas on satellite imagery these days. So what is more likely? 1. That one scientist has sold out and is presenting distorted stuff... 2. That a world-wide conspiracy involving hundreds of people, including satellite imagers, is presenting a false picture of the reef. I reckon a bookie would put the odds in favor of the first one by hundreds to one. Mind you, these guys can be quite convincing on account of having worked on their presentations lots. I remember Billy Graham being convincing to quite a few listeners. He was a great salesman.

I agree with Space. Promise to report the whole thing to the police, the media, the tax dept, and your local MP's. But don't hope for too much from any of them. Mind you, those brokers will have to assume that somebody in authority might present them with a please explain.

Thanks Willedoo. From my knowledge in South Australia, freehold title does NOT confer any rights over mining companies. But last year, some liberal country backbenchers defied the premier and delighted their constituents by threatening to cross the floor over mining exploration access without permission to freehold farming land. I need to research this some more.

Space, I dunno if you saw my mars-like picture taken near Narromine at Ausfly. It was about 2 weeks ago. Those poor farmers... Last time I went to a fly-in at Narromine, it rained 50mm that night! Alas history did not repeat itself. [ATTACH]50418._xfImport[/ATTACH]

In hate to say it methusala, but feudalism might be the future. Capitalism is too voracious of the earth's resources and cares nothing for the long-term future. Mind you, in the olden days when people with real grievances might want to assassinate a feudal ruler, they lacked sniper rifles.

Here's how Australia could achieve low net emissions: 1. Stop burning coal for electricity. Use solar and wind backed up with pumped and unpumped hydro and turbines run from gas. 2. Pay farmers to make charcoal for burial. ( I think that this is the cheapest way to remove carbon from the atmosphere, but please tell me if you have something cheaper) Alas these things are not going to happen. There is no profit for the rich in paying farmers to make charcoal.

Willedoo, that is news to me about pastoral leases and native title coexisting. Do you know who gets what from the rock income? I thought the native title holders got all of it, well they have to pay whitefellers to run the place, but whats left over is their profit I always thought. There are businesses in Alice Springs which are owned by the Central Lands Council, but you would never know by looking at the managers and staff. It appeared to me that the Central Lands Council doesn't really think that indigenous-looking people are up to managing medium-sized businesses.

OME, what do you say to the idea that they only be allowed back by agreeing to strict conditions, like no burqua , on islamic schooling for the kids, no association with islamist groups?

I just googled up " first indigenous doctor australia" and she was a blonde woman! I reckon we are misunderstanding each other here. There are "legal " indigenous like this doctor, and there are the real aboriginals like I knew from Alice Springs. I have to say though that Nev is right in that there are good aspects of their culture, but to be accurate, there are bad aspects too. My observation is that individuals are under no pressure to get a job. This is both good and bad at the same time.

Octave, your criticism of my position is too accurate and sharp to deny. I didn't wish to be seen as that harsh. But I do think that, far from being too dumb to drive earthmoving machinery, they were more likely just having an easy time and not working too hard. I have a daydream about a politically-correct person about to undergo surgery. The newly-appointed aboriginal surgeon thanks them for their "affirmative action" which enabled him to get this job. Would you be that person?

I'm pleased to be wrong about aborigines having real jobs. Yep I must have moved in the wrong circles, and yes I was referring to black or nearly black people. ( the correct term is "full blood "). I have relatives who could play the aboriginal card but none of them look black and they don't take my advice about using their small bit of aboriginal background for benefits. I just saw an "aboriginal spokesman" on the news and he didn't look black to me . I guess these people are part of the statistics which are against me.

I again googled " percentage of aborigines on welfare NT" and saw the 86% figure. Personally, I was surprised it wasn't higher. Then I thought about the government jobs reserved for aborigines. Aside from artists, actors and footballers, I personally don't know of any aborigine productively employed without government help. There must be a few. But I reckon the 86% errs on the side of assigning more real jobs than is the case. As an aside, this guy I know had a contract to teach aboriginal trainees how to drive earthmoving machinery at a NT mine. The guy was actually part-aborigine himself. Well he failed all the trainees and will never be asked back.

In recent years, the unions have lost the war in a big way. Younger people, "educated" by the media, regard unions as evil. Only the police and specialist doctors have effective unions these days, although they are careful to call their union an association or a college. The result of this for most of the rest is that wages are depressed and profits and executive wages are high. Young people, in particular, are having trouble with high house prices and big utility bills. They might think that food prices are high, but that is yet to come.

I was there before they got welfare. The station owners got money to feed and clothe aborigines, and the aborigines were thin and poorly clothed while the station owners drove late-model luxury cars. It was the Russian invasion of Hungary which changed things, this is another story worth looking up. Why should an aborigine have more claim on the land than I do? If his long-dead forebears were here before my long-dead ones, so what? Not many of them were here before I was , simply because of my age, but again I say so what? There may be some merit in the argument, for those who inherit land, that some aborigines have an inheritance claim on that same land too. But for those of us who did not inherit land, yet again I say so what? Maybe somewhere in Europe there would be native title for those who come from tribes who lived there before there was any concept of land ownership? I doubt it. So why should that apply here? None of this is grudging of welfare money being given to them, or anybody else. But the welfare money should come with strings attached, for their own good. This applies regardless of race.

My real objection is about how the aborigines are acting without regard to money. If they do damage to the income-earning aspect of the rock, in my opinion they should get less income themselves. You can google up the percentage of NT aborigines on welfare and get the figure of about 86%. My guess is that many of the 14% have government jobs and very few indeed have real jobs. Some artists for sure, I don't know of any others who produce stuff of value. Don't think I am blaming them for this. In fact they are being set up for tragedy when the wheels come off the whitefeller gravy train they are completely dependent on these days. Yes, road trains full of food come to their settlements and they buy their food there with welfare money. What I would do is to use financial pressure to nudge them in the direction of more self-reliance. I see this climbing ban as a move in the opposite direction, and that is what I don't like about it. I do know the place quite well, some years ago I was offered the job of buildings superintendent at Docker River. That's another story.

My wife says that they moved the walk back away from the rock not long after we were there. I remember the path being real close to the base of the rock itself .

Coming down the rock, I noticed that all the people who looked white were Germans. To test this theory, to the next lot who approached, I said " guten morgan" which I think means "good morning" .Well it was embarasing when they started talking rapid-fire German to me and I didn't understand a word.

We operate with an Optus netgear white box which picks up the 4G internet signal and sends out wifi to the computers. The strange thing about this box is how the signal received varies over time and around the house. Sometimes it gets 4 bars and works ok. So I leave it there, and a few hours later, there is only 2 bars and it doesn't work. Well this laptop doesn't have any internet then, it needs 3 bars on the white box to work. Sometimes I can get 3 bars by finding another spot around the house. The sweet spot moves! Sometimes nowhere seems to work. Maybe I should be putting up an external antenna? I live in a northern suburb of Adelaide when I'm not at the farm. Are the supplier companies turning the signals up and down? Does the signal go down when the schoolkids come home and turn on their facebook stuff ? I can't say that I have noticed this. I googled up 4G antennas and you can buy all sorts of things, boxes and pipes and miniature TV type antennas, costing from $200 up. I can imagine sending off for something that doesn't work. Actually I have tried a Jaycar little indoor vertical-wire antenna ( about $ 35 ) and it didn't help. Any comments / experiences would be most welcome.

I would have a very long period before granting citizenship and use deportation much more against those who did not behave. My guess here is that behavior would quickly improve once word got around. And the number of refugees allowed in would be much less. Why is it only Pauline Hanson who sees this? Australia imported GRAIN last year, and will import more this year I reckon. Our population-carrying capacity, long term, has already been exceeded.

My MP got an email from me telling him that Labor was being handed the chance to go into the next election championing freedoms for journalists and be the goodies fighting the evil LNP. Unfortunately, the only voice I have heard on this issue is Barnaby Joyce, who has redeemed himself in my eyes by his stance. What is going on?

I wish there was a way that climate-change skeptics could put their money where their mouths were. This was my proposal : For every day where the temperature was UNDER the long-term average, I pay out $100. For every day OVER the long term average, the skeptic pays me $95. We have to agree on the location and the data collection of course. This was very generous of me. I would lose for sure if there were no global warming. Well, NOBODY has accepted this bet. They squirm out with mealy-mouthed excuses about how "the temperature goes up and down naturally " .

I stand corrected. At least I hope you are right Octave, gosh they would be crazy to move the walk away at the same time as they banned climbing. It is a bit of a culture clash, this climbing thing. I liked it. Firstly, you feel as if you have conquered the rock and secondly, the view is wonderful. As far as proving the sacredness of the rock, how could you do that? All I know is that the dreamtime stories of the rock are similar to those of any other feature around Alice Springs. Mount Gillen has more stories I think, and one day it will may be banned for climbing. As an example of the stories, women are forbidden, under tribal sacred tradition, from using Heavitree Gap, ( where the Todd river goes through Mount Gillen/ Mount John ) and this ban is enforced by powerful spirits who inhabit the gap. I personally have seen a fearful-looking group of women looking around as they walked through this gap. Hey, I've got an idea... how about we honour that ban. All women on the train will have to get off and detour about 20 miles. The women will not be permitted to climb the mountain of course, and there is a sign on the whitefeller road which goes up to the TV towers that no unauthorised person is allowed to use this road. So whitefellers have a sacred tradition too, called "fear of litigation" I think.

I think they have moved the walk around the base back well away from the rock itself. How this is justified is a mystery to me. I hope I'm wrong and that walking around the base is not being curtailed. Plus, I don't think that the rock really sacred to the indiginous except of course its pecuniary value.

I too pick up rubbish on my morning walks. Sometimes I quietly lament the lack of deposit legislation which would stop it in its tracks.Fast-food containers are the most prevalent items of rubbish. Aborigines are worse litterers than most, and yes I am aware that litter is all made by whitefellers. Why should desert aborigines have a culture of picking up rubbish? Any more than washing themselves. Both impossible in their native state. At least the NT now has deposits on glass bottles. It should be much more, and applied to more things. ( Copying SA after about 50 years of doing nothing. There must be big-money people against deposits). But around here, my small effort does make a difference. A bit of rubbish, once picked up, stays picked up.