Hendra - understanding the virusFruit bats and their relationship to hendra virus is the focus of the latest research to better understand the spread of the virus.
In particular, scientists want to know how the virus is retained by the mammals, why it transfers through species, and how these 'spillovers' can be predicted. Immunologists are already warning that infectious diseases are on the increase around the world. They say hendra is a part of that problem, but suggest it must be kept in perspective. The director of the Australian Animal Health Laboratory is Professor Martyn Jeggo. "We in Australia are facing right now the issue of hendra virus - but on a global basis we've seen major outbreaks of FMD, we saw SARS at the turn of the century, and we've obviously had the issues around the influenza and the risks to humans of a human pandemic." Professor Jaggo says the current work on hendra involves bringing together three distinct pieces of the puzzle, from the very basic science to the very applied science. "Those working in the wildlife, the wildlife ecologists; the wildlife environmentalists, with the traditional animal health veterinarians who work with the livestock species; and those that work with human health." "We certainly need to look at the safety of the current anti-serum that is available from Queensland, and that's one clear piece of research. "We need to do all we possibly can to get this vaccine onto the market; that there is a regulatory process to go through which can't be fast-tracked, which has to be done properly; but we can certainly do some of the studies in terms of demonstrating effectiveness and safety in the horses - I think that can be done, speeded up, so that's one area. "Thirdly, we would need a test to separate a vaccinated horse from a naturally-infected horse, a so-called diva test - differentiating vaccinated from naturally-infected horse - that needs to be developed as well. Professor Jaggo says there needs to be work done on the case of a farm dog which was infected with the virus. He says cats are also of interest. Beyond establishing the scientific facts, research will also focus on bat behaviour and environment. "We need to focus on slightly more adaptive research around bats and trying to continue to focus on why these viruses live with bats so comfortably, and what we can learn from that - is it applicable to other hosts?" "The other area of work, and in a way you can split it into two camps: the macroscopic work - the issues in the field, the epidemiology - versus the microscopic work, which is the type of thing we do here, which is looking at the virus in the host and at the cellular level. "We want to know the triggering factors", he says. "What are the factors that make bats shed more virus, that make bat populations move from A to B and is it always the black bat? There are four different species of flying fox. "There's the so called black species and there's the brown species and there's the other two. Are they all equally as prone to hendra virus and do they all shed as equally? "We've got many challenges facing us around emerging infectious diseases in general, and so where do you target your resources? "Realistically, hendra is still a rare event, hendra is still a rare disease. "It's not common, and so how much effort do we put into hendra versus whooping cough, or versus influenza? "I think those are the challenges that faced us ever since the disease first occurred in 1994, and so I think we put a reasonable amount of effort in, given the rarity of the disease and its importance." "Horses get many other diseases, and where do you prioritise?" Dr Deborah Middleton is a registered specialist in veterinary pathology and leads projects within the Transforming Animal Biosecurity research area at CSIRO's Australian Animal Health Laboratory (AAHL) in Geelong, Victoria, Australia. She concurs with Martyn Jeggo about the need to look at hendra with relation to its place within a larger picture of virology. She too adds that hendra is still a very rare event. "I mean, when you look at the numbers of flying foxes in Australia, and the number of horses in Australia, the number of 'spillover' events that we see is still very, very small; so the risk of any individual horse contracting the disease is very low. "People need to remember it's a poorly-transmissible disease, and so what that means is if you have a sick horse, and you're aware that hendra virus could be in the differential diagnosis, then you need to take appropriate hygiene precautions, and you will immediately reduce the risk of contracting the infection. "It's a disease of low incidence, but very, very high impact." Dr Linfa Wang is known colloquially as the 'bat virus man', but his studies are anything but colloquial. "We have been studying bat viruses for 15 years. "Hendra in '94 was really the trigger, and I would say hendra marks the new beginning, not only in Australia but internationally, of bat-borne viruses. "But about three years ago we made a decision. We're getting more and more bat viruses. "Some of them are highly lethal, like hendra, SARS and nipah - yet, among bats, we know they carry many more other viruses, and none of them seem to be causing disease in bat populations... so we really started research into [the] bat itself. "But if you go through the literature actually there's very little research has been done in the fundamental bat biology, bat immunology or the virus/bat interaction. "As a scientist it's exciting, because what we do is pioneer work, so that's the positive sort of side. "The negative side is if you get into research into bats, basically you have to start from ground zero. "'Why are bats resistant to virus?' is an interesting question, but I think it's going to take five to ten years, if we are lucky, to get some useful answers. "This [the CSIRO team] is what we call a multi-discipline team; we cover a lot of areas - for example we started as a virology team... and then we discovered the immunology importance, so I hired a leading immunologist... and we collaborate with Deborah Middleton, who is a veterinary pathologist, so she actually looks at the animal's side for the disease, the lesions; and also now we are starting into genomics, trying to do the bat genome sequencing. "With a genome sequence or blueprint you can do a lot of research, let's face it, that you cannot do without this kind of information. So it will be a huge breakthrough once we have that bat genome. "As a scientist working in this area , there are really two broad areas we try to look at - one is that is it possible that we have a new virus which is more transmissible and easier to spill over into other hosts... the other possibility is that, again as I said, we have a very limited understanding of the bat population, the bat dynamics - how that contributes to virus levels and spillover. "We tend to focus more on the virus, and the preliminary data suggests, first of all, that not a single virus is responsible for all this disease outbreak. "Hendra is a species, at a virus level, which is different from other viruses; but within that species, we already know for a fact there are many different strands or variations, so genetically they are 0.1 per cent different; but one thing we already knew from past data is that hendra is not a 'flu - it's genetically stable. "There are variants in the bat population, but each variant is relatively stable. "It's sort of a difficult concept in science." Published September 13, 2011 Written for ABC Rural
Doing it in the garden - French styleAnnie Smithers has been a chef for 27 years, and gladly admits she has never stopped learning.
Recently returned from the Burgundy region in France, she is busy establishing a two-acre garden to grow produce for her eponymous bistrot in the Victorian town of Kyneton. Caleb Cluff spoke to her, and her 'bespoke gardener' Simon Rickard, on a cold, wet and windy day in central Victoria. Annie is renowned for her French provincial style of cooking, so it seemed logical to discuss her trip to the region, and the differences between Australian approaches to food and the European. She took a group of Australian cooking enthusiasts to a chateau for a week-long course in the finer points of the local Burgundian cuisine. "We go to the market first thing in the morning - we went to three different markets; buy a whole lot of produce, bring it home, I teach them how to cook; and then they [the students] have a little break before dinner; and then little sets of them would come down to the kitchen and they'd do their course and send it up to the rest of them. And the markets in France? "It's like a very good farmers' market but on a very large scale. "So if you took, say, a fifth of the Victoria Market [in Melbourne], and just set that up as a farmers' market-type thing, that's what a French market feels like. "It's large, it's quite all-encompassing with what you can buy; but the quality of the food and the set-up of it, the beautiful way that they set it all up, and because it's also in some very beautiful little market towns and market squares that have been used for centuries, it's a very special thing." Inspired by her parent's garden in outer Melbourne in her childhood (Annie's mother was an English immigrant and one of the "Dig for Victory" generation, and by the produce she has seen overseas, Annie has established a 'bespoke' produce garden at her home in Malmsbury. Simon Rickard is her gardener. "This project began with me growing produce for Annie's personal use here at home, and it became apparent after a while that it wouldn't be a great deal more extra effort for me to grow a 20m row of tomatoes as opposed to a 2m row of tomatoes. "And so this project grew, and now we're supplying most of the produce to Annie Smither's bistrot." And what produce is Simon growing? "We grow a lot of French heirloom vegetables and fruits, and these are things you don't see at market because often they don't transport well. "So for example, things like the doyenne du comice pear, which is a beautifully, highly-perfumed pear; very, very soft and juicy. "Because it's soft and juicy, of course it doesn't transport well, so it's never available at market - but it's the best culinary variety. "We grow fruits - apples, pears, quince; raspberries and blackberries, strawberries - and rhubarb, which is nominally a fruit. "We grow vegetables: in summer we grow beautiful tomatoes, melons; beans, which are Annie's favourite vegetable - she can never get enough beans. "In the cooler months we grow things like peas, broccoli, cabbage, romanesco, cavolo nero kale; and salad greens like rocket and mâche (or corn salad in English)". Published August 17, 2011 Written for ABC Rural 
From butchers to boers
Martin Saul is an increasingly rare species - a farmer whose family has held the property they run since its inception.
Martin has 550ha at Timor-Bowenvale, a small town between Maryborough and Dunolly in central Victoria. In the past 10 years of drought, his main interest has been boer goats, and some light cropping on leased land. With the good rains so far this year, and increased prices for fat lambs, he is looking to diversify. And there's a family history of diversification, as he explains. "The original owner didn't know anything about farming, and he just had a little bit of dirt, and he thought, 'What the billy-o am I gunna do?', but he was a butcher, and he said, 'Well crikey - I'm gunna grow some sheep, and cattle, and pigs, and follow my profession' - and that's what he did. "He was basically the butcher for the area: he sold his meat around the district; and that's the way he continued for up to the first 50 or 60 years." Another thing that's rare about the property is that the original butcher's shop - dating from the 1860s - is still in existence, though a little worse for wear. Everything in the shop that exists was essentially handmade on the farm - meathooks, benches, shingles, meatsafe, chopping block - and the meats and other perishables were stored in a handhewn cellar beneath the floor. The cellar still exists, though the entrance is closed up. "I had to keep the kids out somehow." A problem for Martin is that each of his immediate male forebears - all four generations - were also named Martin. It was, of course, a very common name among German immigrants - but makes family research difficult! "It wasn't until my father came on the scene - and we're talking about the 1930s here - that my father was the first person that started doing something with the farm: breeding merino sheep and corriedale sheep and sowing crops and things. "Self-learnt I expect: he was a shearer - like everything else, you self-learn. "And when I left school there was never any option about what you were going to do: it was into the farm, whether you liked it or not." Into the future, and on the back of good early autumn rains, Martin sees the chance to move back into fat lambs, but his respect for the goat's ability to prepare land is steadfast. "The goats are very instrumental in clearing rough, virgin country; and we'd bought some of that, which was, you know, you couldn't even walk through: and those animals have completely cleared it now, you can farm it with cereals or whatever and it's transformed it, it really has. Away from the farm, Martin is busy around town, too. Near the school that Martin spoke of leaving to go back onto the farm earlier (Timor-Bowenvale State School 1307, one of the more impressive state school buildings in the state) is the local war memorial, and with ANZAC Day approaching, there's been work to do. "Well it's one of those love jobs... in the last 12 months or a little more we've organised in getting the memorial cleaned down and re-lettered with gold lettering; and only recently, in the last week or two, we've got pavers and rosemary plants and done the fencing. "We've also adopted the honour rolls that were in the schools around-about: and we've got a very large wooden honour roll from the First World War, that's only a matter of a few kilometres from here, but again a small district, that was in a private woolshed for many years in disrepair, and we've done that up as well. "It's cost us quite a few thousand dollars - it's all rolly timber that's very ornate - but we thought 'here's an opportunity to do it," and we'll probably then display these in a public place like, maybe the hall or our brand new fire station. "It's never been done before that I know of." Published April 22, 2010 Written for ABC Rural
Whither - or wither - Landcare?
The National Landcare Forum got underway in Adelaide from March 23 to 25, 2010, and ABC Rural was there to cover the proceedings.
It was a vision of the late 1980s - a model to get local communities' hands dirty by planting trees and tackling salinity. The idea of Landcare had its first success in Victoria in 1988, where the Labor Government launched two community groups. Their success proved that environmental issues can be tackled at the grass-roots level. An alliance between the National Farmers Federation and Australian Conservation Foundation pushed the idea further, with both groups agreeing that the unspoken battle between conservationists and farmers was holding back environmental work. With the help of a group of Canberra politicians from both sides of politics, a 10-year, federally-funded plan for on-the-ground, community-based projects to help the environment was launched. Landcare was born under Landcare Australia Limited and the National Landcare Program and thousands of local groups started to pop up around the country. And it grew from there. But 20 years on, the issues facing Australia's environment have changed. Climate change crept in, droughts battered the continent, and the world started to struggle to feed its growing population. Federal Agriculture minister Tony Burke told the National Landcare Forum in Adelaide this week that for Landcare to stay relevant for the next 20 years, it must focus on tackling these modern problems, which weren't around when the program began. Mr Burke says Landcare must focus on not being "just an organisational tool" but must focus on "achieving outcomes". He drew applause from the 600-strong crowd when he maintained that Landcare had a place in the future and could be apart of the solution. But the Federal Government has drawn its own criticism. Conversations throughout the Forum's crowd focused on the difficulties to get funding. Two years ago, the Federal Government ended the National Landcare Program, which had provided $1 billion in grants to community projects around the country. It was replaced with the $2 billion Caring For Our Country program. According to its website, $189 million has been set aside for landcare projects such as "soil conversation activities on private farms, in water catchments and at the regional level." But some smaller community landcare groups argue that they struggle to get money under the program. That's because Caring For Our Country is based on a competitive process that requires different groups to compete for the same money. Whoever can put in the best application and whoever the Government sees fit to carry out the project, gets the dosh. They argue that this competitive process is moving the Landcare movement away from its original community-based roots. But are those original ideals and visions for Landcare still relevant 20 years on? The National Landcare Council, chaired by former Western Australian Agriculture minister Kim Chance, is considering this question. The council will overlook a process to set up a framework for Landcare. A discussion paper was this week released which will give community groups, peak bodies, industry leaders a say on where they think the program should head. The discussion paper carefully outlines that the framework will not be a business model. Nor will it be a tell-all plan for the future. "It's a blueprint," says Kim Chance. But is there then a risk that it'll be just another review? There's always a risk, says Julian Prior from the University of New England. "That's why Landcare needs to do this in partnership with Governments." He says the former partnership between the Labor Government in the 1980s and Landcare is what made the movement so successful, and says that partnership has been lost. While Landcare has delivered so much to environmental works in this country over the past 20 years, there's no doubt that the movement is at a fork in the road. And it can't afford to go backwards. Fewer bureaucrats, more support: Cosier The Landcare model needs to be restructured. That's the overwhelming message from the National Landcare Forum in Adelaide. Peter Cosier from the Wentworth Group told the conference that the Landcare groups and bodies do not have sufficient resources and are burdened by red tape. He says fewer bureaucrats are needed in Canberra and more support is needed in country areas. Mr Cosier says too much effort is wasted on competing for funds rather than driving resources, and there are too few resources to help Natural Resource Management groups face growing environmental challenges. He also criticised the lack of research and information available to the Government and Landcare bodies. "If we don't have basic information then we've got no chance of restoring the Australian landscape," he says. "If you don't measure it, you can't manage it." Federal Government recommits to Landcare Federal Agriculture Minister Tony Burke has reiterated the Government's commitment to Landcare at its national forum in Adelaide. Although Mr Burke has told the National Landcare forum that the program's role needs to be reviewed as environmental challenges change. He says three new challenges have come about in the past 20 years: food security, climate change, and a change in nature in how people volunteer. Mr Burke drew applause from the crowd as he explained the benefits of Landcare as a tool that can help with all three challenges. But he says Landcare must be more than just an organisational tool, and says it has to focus on helping to achieve outcomes. Mr Burke says Landcare must focus on food production, climate change, and maintain its commitment to the environment as its three pillars for the next 20 years. He says Landcare has transformed the Australian landscape, but must now focus on the new set of problems and challenges to remain relevant into the next two decades. Environment Minister Peter Garrett, in a recorded message, says the Federal Government is committed to using Landcare as a tool to help with environmental challenges into the future. Former Landcare head attacks federal management The first chair of the Australian Landcare Council has accused the Federal Government of abandoning the Landcare program. Former Nationals MP Bruce Lloyd was one of several politicians who secured bipartisan support for a federally-funded national Landcare program in the early 90s. Mr Lloyd says, 20 years on, there's a lot of uncertainty about the direction of the program, and hopes that tomorrow's National Landcare Forum in Adelaide will provide answers. He says the uncertainty is due to tens of thousands of volunteers involved not knowing what its future is. Mr Lloyd says the Federal Government must recognise and financially support the program so it can return to the good work it once did. "Landcare is no longer their significant title, or the overall title, and my understanding is that the funds have dropped and there is uncertainty as to what the Government really wants from Landcare, in the sense of does it see it as the central part of our Natural Resource Management, or not," he says. Published March 24, 2010 Written for ABC Rural by Mary Goode and Caleb Cluff
Under the poop deckI was reading some of our latest rural features, and noticed the predilection of some of our reporters to get themselves into situations where they might be, well, a little uncomfortable.
So I thought to myself, 'you need to get out more, do a story in the field perhaps. See life' And when Neville Bond, of Yarralil near Talbot, said to come down and give them a hand moving manure from the shearing shed, I thought nothing of it other than perhaps a chance to have a look at one of the older properties in the district - and one where some very forward-thinking farming practices are being introduced. But that's a story for another day. Today, as far as I was concerned, was a matter of shovelling sheep pebbles into trailers and delivering them to wherever they needed to go. I didn't give a thought as to where the manure came from, or how we'd get at it. As you can see from the pictures, where it comes from is under the boards of the shearing shed - a dark, dank, cobwebby, smelly, dusty place, full of - well, sheep shit. And dead things - rats, cats, mice; bits and pieces of sheep (you KNOW which bits) and the detritus of the years since the crawl space was last cleared. Neville's brother Kevin was under the shed when I arrived, grain shovel in hand; and despite his mask he explained very clearly how much he was enjoying the job to those of us outside raking and bagging. Nevertheless, when the invite came to have a look underneath, I grabbed the camera and pushed through the manhole to get some pictures - undeterred. Published June 3, 2009 Written for ABC Rural
Paint your wagon!
Occasionally you'll spy something in the course of your travels that cries out for closer inspection.
Travelling along the back road to Carisbrook in central Victoria to follow up on the flood that recently affected the town, I saw a plume of smoke spiralling into the air from a gravel depot high up on the cutting in the roadside. Curious as everyone is when they see a little smoke, I drove up to find what appeared for all intents and purposes to be a drover's camp. Bruce Hill is a showjumper and bricklayer whose bad back led him to find a more enjoyable life - and for Bruce that meant buying a home-made 'gypsy' wagon fron Deniliquin, a couple of Clydesdales, packing the bedroll and stove and getting on the road. He was on his way from Clunes to Echuca for the steam and vintage rally - a trip he estimated would take ten days, give or take the weather. The wagon he bought was a garish yellow. It's now what can only be described as "PMG red" - and apparently it "stands out for miles". Published June 1, 2011 Written for ABC Rural
Locusts an unwelcome seasonal gift
It's the least-appreciated gift that Nature could deliver to farmers already hard-pressed by flooding and delayed cropping - more locusts.
But that's a likely scenario for the Christmas period, says Australian Plague Locust Commission director Chris Adriaansen. Warm weather will see the current generation of locusts become more active in the next few days, and reports of egg beds and egg-laying are coming in from Victoria and out to South Australia, indicating a second generation is likely. "What we've seen at the moment... has really been some low concentrations of adullts - occasionally higher density swarm adult movement; but because the weather has remained relatively cool, and certainly with the wet weather as well, that's kept their daytime flight, particularly, down to a reasonably low level. "Once the weather warms up they become a bit more active. "We are looking at weather patterns that could potentially see us with some greater levels of migration and movement within the few days around Christmas... "Given the temperatures will be increasing across southern NSW and northern Victoria, we're actually anticipating that there might be some northward movement of that population... we could see some of those adults moving further north into western NSW and possibly into southern Queensland." [The published piece also includes information from the Department of Health regarding various counselling services available to those affected by flooding and locust plagues and is an example of copywriting in communications] Published December 24, 2010 Written for ABC Rural and a post regarding Locust plague updates in 2009
A low-cost solar ovenA very low-cost oven-type solar cooker has been developed by blending the user's needs, cooking objectives and available materials to achieve basic cooking requirements.
In countries where deforestation for firewood is a serious problem, many people cannot afford $US 20 - $50 for a so-called "cheap" solar box cooker. Although effective, such cookers cannot become universally available at this price and can cause social disruption. Therefore, a cost objective of US50 cents - $US 5 was used. As rice, sorghum, lentils and vegetables are the most common foods used, the cooker does not need to achieve temperatures above 100°C, but does need to be effective in available daylight hours. To make an affordable cooker, it has been assumed that sheet plastic, some fibrous material and 4 reasonably straight sticks are available. The oven comprises a "nest" of fibrous material- in this case shredded coconut husk- about 200mm high with a cooking cavity approximately 450mm diameter and 150mm deep. Commonly available sheet plastic was used to cover a 500mm x 500mm frame made from the sticks- like a double-glazed window, which was placed over the cavity. The cooking vessel was a 200mm-square pressed steel pan 50mm deep. A series of cooking tests were conducted on clear sunny days with maximum air temperatures of 25-32°C. A mass of water plus grain of 1kg was placed in the pan, wrapped in plastic to minimise heat transfer by evaporation and placed in the cavity at 10am local solar time. In all cases satisfactory cooking was achieved before 3pm local solar time. A dish of chicken and vegetables and a 1kg leg of lamb were also fully cooked. The tests demonstrated that by using an aperture of 0.25sqM, practical cooking temperatures and times can be achieved with sheet plastic without the need for complex reflectors to increase the effective aperture or glass to increase the heat trapping. The "nest" eliminates the need for a box, and could be made from any locally available fibrous material, such as bark, grass, straw, cloth or dried animal manure. While the performance of the oven can be improved by being deeper, blackened and by using one or two sheets of glass, these tests demonstrated that satisfactory cooking can be achieved with as little as 50cents of sheet plastic in a wide range of circumstances. The "Solar Nest"The attached photos show the "solar nest" that was used for testing the concept of a very cheap solar cooker. The nest could be made of any fibrous material, such as leaves, rags or straw. The cooking vessel should be dark metal, preferably a baking dish, and covered by a transparent material, such as glass or plastic to reduce heat loss from evaporation. The glazing material on top of the nest can be plastic or glass, about 500mm square. If plastic is used, it should be "double glazed", that is, two sheets with an air gap of about 20mm. This reduces heat loss from conduction and convection to compensate for the greater radiative heat losses than glass. Tedlar plastic is better than PV but not as good as glass; it is very tough and durable and reasonably cheap (about $3-$5 for a cooker). The cooker gets about 10°C hotter with a metal plate underneath the cooking vessel. Published May 2, 2007 Written for ABC Rural
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Australia Felix - 175 years onWhen we speak of agricultural development in south-eastern Australia and how it was enabled, one of the most important expeditions in the white history of exploration is the third expedition of the New South Wales Surveyor-General Major Thomas Livingstone Mitchell in 1836.
It's 175 years since Mitchell and his team of 25 white explorers and convicts, and six Indigenous guides, set out from Canobolas, near Orange in NSW, to complete the survey of the Darling River he had failed to finish in 1835. Governor Bourke had advised Mitchell to complete the survey "with the least possible delay". Mitchell set out from Canobolas in NSW in March 1836, heading towards Menindee, but soon abandoned the direction he was travelling to follow the Lachlan River, while attempting all the time to move westward. Convinced by local Indigenous people that he was heading to an area of no water - "weeri kally" - Mitchell turned south to encounter the Darling, following the Lachlan to its junction with the Murrumbidgee near Waugerah Creek. The land the Mitchell was moving into, and its contrast with that over which he had just travelled, may be imagined by his words. "After thirsting so long among the muddy holes of the Lachlan, I witnessed with no slight degree of satisfaction, the jaded cattle drinking at this full and flowing stream, resembling a thing of life, in its deep and rippling waters. "Now at length, there was an end to the privations we had so often suffered from want of water." After the conflict at Mt Dispersion, where several Darling River Aborigines were killed, Mitchell soon abandoned following the Darling River and made for the junction with the Murray, which he encountered at present-day Wentworth, thus proving the explorer Charles Sturt's proposition. Mitchell moved across the Murray on June 13, losing a bullock in the flow, and proceeded to travel south and south-west through Swan Hill and Cohuna inland over Pyramid Hill and down through St Arnaud to Casterton and Portland Bay, where Mitchell discovered the Henty brothers has already established a station and were doing well, having sailed from Launceston previously. Along the way he named the Grampians and Pyrenees ranges, and various points such as Mt Arapiles, for his experiences in the Peninsular Wars with Wellington. Mitchell noted "the soil everywhere rich and black" and "fine streams". As he moved back northwards again, over the Great Dividing Range, through Lexton and Clunes and onwards to Newstead, Castlemaine and Mt Macedon. Here Mitchell began to push more quickly for home, until he reached the edge of the Nineteen Counties and the evidence of white expansion became obvious. His team, following at a distance of about two weeks, soon returned as well. Modern day commemorations There were gatherings and symposiums to mark the 175th anniversary of Mitchell's crossing during the weekend of September 25 and 26 in central Victoria. In Castlemaine, several guest speakers gatherered at a symposium to see an exhibition and give talks on the Australia Felix expedition, while at Mt Greenoch, near Dunach in the Goldfields, a hardy group gathered to climb the stony, snake-infested landmark to talk about Mitchell and how his expedition made the immediate opening up of Victoria's west possible. Present at the Mt Greenoch (or Greenock, depending upon your interpretation) were Ken Hull and Douglas Youren, two local landholders who were present at the centenary of Major Mitchell's crossing in 1936, and who shared some of their memories. Published September 23, 2011 Written for ABC Rural
Fruit of the vine, work of human hands"One half of the world's population, approximately three billion people on six continents, lives or works in buildings constructed of earth."*
Chances are many, if not most, of the world's population will never see an earthern building that is anything like the new winery built for Port Phillip Estate at Red Hill South on the Mornington Peninsula, Victoria. Constructed, for the greater extent, of rammed earth, it houses not only a winery, but a tasting room, restaurant, laboratory, proposed accommodation and other rooms, and boasts state-of-the-art water treatment systems and a storage of 180,000 litres reserved for the Country Fire Authority - essential in the fire-prone peninsula. Project manager Russell Kenery posits it may well be the tallest rammed-earth building on the planet, some walls extending nine metres into the air. Rammed earth, considered by many to be the domain of alternative lifestylers and the 'mudbrick set', has a long history of usage in colonial settlement and in rural areas of Australia - and is making a return as architects redicover the qualities of earth as a building medium. Pisé houses were a common sight well into the last century and proved remarkably durable, usually failed by inadequate roofing: poor shingles or bark slabs allowing water to penetrate the walls and weaken the structure of clay, sand and binders. From about 1910, the various state departments of agriculture put out instructional treatises on building rammed earth homes using ply-timber formwork, as these homes were suitable for areas where the tree cover was natively sparse, or had been over-cleared by settlers. For more on rammed earth building and its history, follow this link. The new winery at Red Hill South was designed by Port Melbourne architectural firm Wood/Marsh, also responsible for the ACCA building in South Melbourne and the Australian Pavillion at Expo 2010, to be held in Shanghai, China. It is built on a 10-acre former chicken farm (bought because the neighbouring vineyard, Port Phillip Estate, proved to be downwind) in the centre of the Mornington Peninsula, and is now the home to three separate labels. The earth used was a local limestone, chosen not only for its source but for its peculiar ability to seemingly absorb light, providing an array of colour over a day - grey to red to honey. The walls are the work of Mansfield (Victoria) builder Patrick Lindsay. Mixed with silicon, water and, as project manager Russel Kenery describes, "secret ingredients", the 450mm-thick walls were rammed with compressed air tools and have minimal thermal conductivity. The western-facing walls of the winery have no apertures and actually reflect heat back into the atmosphere. In addition, a fire-rating test was performed on the building wherein an external furnace applied a temperature of 960 degrees Celsius to a wall for an hour and a half. Internally, opposite the heat source, the temperature rose four degrees. The building maintains a general ambient temperature of 16 degrees Celsius. Two central concrete lift wells form 'pins' that root the building into the ground. The winery boasts a blackwater treatment plant that uses the latest membrane technology, as used on the most recent incarnation of the Queen Mary - so far in front of usage in Australia that it cannot be employed as the local council have no regulations to adequately address it. The building is thought to have cost in excess of $20 million, and is the property of Giorgio Gjergja. *Source: http://www.eartharchitecture.org/ Published February 11, 2010 Written for ABC Rural
Stranded sheep get a lift
Flash flooding across Victoria after heavy rains has led to some timely rescues, but none more so than the help extended to a mob of sheep that found themselves caught on a narrow strip of land as water rushed past at Red Lion, near Talbot in central Victoria.
The sheep had missed out on being moved to high ground as the heaviest rain in 15 years in the district set a normally placid and slow-flowing creek cascading across paddocks, dragging down fences and cutting roads. The sheep refused to be driven across deceptively deep channels and looked in danger of being swept away as forecast further rain set the creek rising again. Soft ground meant there was no possibility of bringing in the usual wheeled vehicles to drive the sheep to safety. Hidden wire from downed fences and floating timber sweeping along in the water meant doing the job on foot was prohibitively dangerous as well. Things looked grim until a piece of lateral thinking saw a local excavation operator put his tracked digger to good use. Guy Blanch brought in his ASV to drag a dead tree that was blocking the flow of water in a channel, preventing the flow from clearing and trapping the sheep on a narrow island. The rubber tracks meant the vehicle's weight was spread more evenly across the sodden ground. A few minutes of depth testing to ensure the vehicle wasn't gong to be swamped, and the channel was clear - sheep saved! You can see the digger in operation in the video below. Almost 100mm of rain fell in parts of the region on Friday night and Saturday morning, September 3 and 4. Published September 5, 2010 Written for ABC Rural
Home-grown horsemanship
It was somewhere up the country in a land of rock and scrub, That they formed an institution called the Geebung Polo Club. They were long and wiry natives of the rugged mountainside,And the horse was never saddled that the Geebungs couldn't ride; But their style of playing polo was irregular and rash - They had mighty little science, but a mighty lot of dash:And they played on mountain ponies that were muscular and strong, Though their coats were quite unpolished, and their manes and tails were long. And they used to train those ponies wheeling cattle in the scrub: They were demons, were the members of the Geebung Polo Club.
If Banjo Paterson had tried, it's unlikely he could have written a more visionary description of what it's like to attend a polocrosse match. A sport claiming origins in Australia (and it's hard to imagine otherwise, with the ferocity that it's played), polocrosse is a sweaty, brutal amalgam of polo, lacrosse, netball, tent-pegging and Australian Rules football. With horses. And not petite, manicured polo ponies either. These are quarterhorse/stockhorse/waler breeds, with plenty of stamina and size about them. And when the players (a team of six, with three on the field at any time) and their mounts get going, it's as fast and exciting as any game you'll see. It would be churlish to bog you down here with all the rules (and there aren't that many). You can follow this link to learn about those. More importantly, the Australian Polocrosse Nationals were held in Ballarat last week. Bookended by grey skies and some rain, in-between the sun shone, the riders rode, and the crowds - well, they crowded. New South Wales had the best of the competition, but not without some fierce battles; the finals included some upsets, with the NSW Senior Men taking out the national title, the West Australian Senior Women's team bringing home national honours, and a nail-biting 23-22 finish with New South Wales downing Queensland in the Senior Mixed division. Published March 31, 2010 Written for ABC Rural
Health - midwives get Medicare backingNurses and midwives have applauded changes to Medicare that help regional Australia.
The most significant Medicare change for allows nurses to offer midwifery, drug prescription and other services under the Medical Benefits Schedule and the PBS. This will enable rural and Indigenous women to use midwives under Medicare in remote areas, and will make it more attractive for nurses to move to the bush. There are some important Indigenous health measures too. There's a program to stop diseases like AIDS and TB entering Australia via the Torres Strait, and funding for extra eye and ear checks, mobile dental clinics and diabetes testing in Aboriginal communities. It would appear that the Health portfolio has escaped major cuts in this year's Budget, and there are projects designed to provide investment in rural and regional health across the country, especially in the Northern Terrritory. The Treasurer has announced that $3.2 billion is to be drawn from the Health and Hospitals Fund to modernise hospitals across Australia. The Federal Government has also allocated $134 million for a new rural Health Workforce strategy, in an attempt to draw medical practitioners to rural areas. A doctor relocating to a regional, rural or remote area may be eligible for a grant ranging from $15,000 to $120,000. Retention payments have been increased as well; the maximum now being $47,000 per year. Overseas doctors with work restrictions will have those relaxed if they choose to work in rural and remote communities. There will be $13.9 million spent on 40 rural and regional projects: including an integrated primary care facility in Cobram, Victoria; a private GP clinic in Gilgandra, NSW; medical staff accommodation in Alyangula, Groote Eylandt, NT; and a multi-purpose clinic in Broome, WA. In a first for the NT, a medical school will be built at a cost of $27 million, with additional funding of $4.4 million over three years from 2010. As part of a $121 million package for maternity services, the Medical Specialist Outreach Program will be extended, and there will be scholarships for GPs and midwives in the regions. There is $4.1 million for 30 dental student placements in rural areas, and $6.8 million over four years to continue the University Departments of Rural Health scheme. Mental health is a focus in the Budget, with $6.7 million allocated for the Mental Health Services in Rural and Remote Areas program; there is $5.2 million for mental health support for drought-affected families, and $7.5 million for mental health support for the Victorian bushfires victims. $14.8 million has been allocated for aged care providers in rural, regional and remote areas. In a boost for auxillaries across the country, the Red Cross will receive $10 million over two years. But there are some cuts. Consolidation of nursing education and recruitment will see the cessation of the Rural Nurse Initiative and Additional Practice Nurses for Rural Australia, and the Rural GP Placement Scheme has been extended from six to 12 months, forcing more savings. Published May 12, 2009 Written for ABC Rural by Caleb Cluff and Tony Allan
Communications - Rural ABCCommunications Minister Senator Stephen Conroy has increased funding for the ABC in the Federal Budget, including money to take advantage of opportunities offered by the National Broadband Network (NBN).
Initial funding for the Rural and Regional NBN Initiative is $80 million. Senator Conroy reaffirmed the importance of the ABC's broadcasting to rural and regional Australia, citing public submissions from the Government's discussion paper on the national broadcasters in 2008, and announcing $15.3 million to assist in the creation of Local Regional Broadband hubs, promoting the idea of the 'virtual town square' and aiding user-generated content. There is $13.6 million extra for upkeep of assets. There is also money to fund regional co-ordinators for the upcoming NBN initiative. These positions are designed to encourage and aid take-up of the broadband network as it is rolled out over the next eight years. Overall, there has been $185 million allocated to the ABC and SBS in the Budget. Funding has been allocated for the digital television switchover in regional Victoria, Queensland and South Australia. Published May 12, 2009 Written for ABC Rural
Back in the saddleryDianne Davies is the saddler in Carisbrook, central Victoria, and not a person to take a backward step.
But she says she has noticed other people who suffered in the flood that swamped the town in January 2011 are finding it hard to get on with their lives. On January 13-14, 2011, up to 500-600mm of water ploughed through Carisbrook, an historic town 9km form Maryborough and one that sits on the junction of two creeks. During the drought-breaking rain of the beginning of the year, water from two reservoirs, Tullaroop and Evansford, spilled into overflows and charged the creeks. Such an flow hadn't been seen in living memory, and the result was catastrophic, as tonnes of floodwaters swept through the streets, filling and in some cases demolishing homes and businesses. Dianne Davies's was a luckier case, if the term 'lucky' can be used to describe having your shop floors flooded and then coated in stinking mud. She had time and planning to get most stock off the floor and out of reach of the water, before 400mm washed through. But others were nowhere near so lucky, with mudbrick homes being undermined and piles of household goods lining the streets for days afterwards. And a good four months on, Dianne says the town is still dead, with people forced out and living in caravans or with relatives. With no pub (undergoing a refit after being gutted by water), and shops closed or changing hands, Carisbrook has a long way to travel to come back to life. Published June 3, 2011 Written for ABC Rural
Federal Budget 2009 - good things in small packagesWritten by Tony Allan, Mary Goode, Caleb Cluff
You'll see more roadworks as you drive through regional Australia in the coming months, with a big boost in infrastructure spending in the Federal Budget. The Budget also offers incentives for doctors and nurses to work in regional areas, and presents a mixed bag for farmers. In agriculture, the bad news had previously been announced - the scrapping of Land and Water Australia, $16 million less for rural research, and a delay to a new drought assistance scheme. The Government is budgeting for a halving of drought aid next year, crossing its fingers that rain will come. The wine industry will be drinking a toast, as its fears of a hike in wine taxation proved unfounded. As expected, there's more money flowing this year to fix the Murray Darling Basin. Funding to buy back water entitlements from willing sellers in the Murray Darling Basin will be brought forward, with an additional $100 million in the coming year. And the Federal Government will implement a $300 million water efficiency project for farms, which the states had failed to deliver. National Farmers Federation vice-president Charles Burke says it's "a victory for commonsense." "This will see farmers partner with government to produce more food and fibre with less water, and, in doing so, return more water back to the environment," he says. "Those on-farm and regional upgrades will create jobs in the bush and build in efficiency gains for future generations." And farmers will be pleased that the Weather Bureau will get funding to provide better and more localised forecasts. Seven-day forecasts will become available for 650 towns in Australia, helped by four new radar stations. The real Budget spending is on infrastructure, and work on the Bruce, Pacific and Hume Highways will take a good chunk of the $4.4 allocated. Several ports will also get upgrades, though there's no certainty when the Oakajee iron ore port in Western Australia will be built, even though some funding has been provided. For those lobbying to fix up rail lines in grain-growing areas, or to build a rail freight corridor between Melbourne and Brisbane, there's no joy. Capital city public transport gets the vast bulk of the rail money. While the mining industry is struggling, there's little for it in the Budget, except for programs to tackle emissions from the coal industry. The big ticket item here is the $4.5 billion Clean Energy Initiative, to develop carbon capture and storage projects. In health, the Federal Government has allocated $134 million for a new rural Health Workforce strategy, in an attempt to draw medical practitioners to rural areas. A doctor relocating to a regional, rural or remote area may get a grant of up to $120,000. Overseas doctors with work restrictions will have those relaxed if they work in rural and remote communities. The most significant Medicare change for regional Australia allows nurses to offer midwifery, drug prescription and other services under the Medical Benefits Schedule and the PBS. This will enable rural and Indigenous women to use midwives under Medicare in remote areas, and will make it more attractive for nurses to move to the bush. There are some important Indigenous health measures too. There's a program to stop diseases like AIDS and TB entering Australia via the Torres Strait, and funding for extra eye and ear checks, mobile dental clinics and diabetes testing in Aboriginal communities. The incentives have been warmly welcomed by the Australian Nursing Federation and the Rural Doctors Association. Published May 12, 2009 Written for ABC Rural
All set for a Ripon battle
The Victorian state election looms, and the seat of Ripon is looking to be developing into a crucial country bellwether.
Currently the seat is held by the state Agriculture Minister, Joe Helper, for the Labor Party. Minister Helper's margin is 4.3 per cent. There are five other candidates for the the seat: former police officer Vic Dunn for the Liberal Party; Wendy McIvor for the Nationals; Scott Watson for the Country Alliance, Steve Morse for the Greens; and Family First's Jesse Boer. Independent Steve Stoiljkovic addressed one forum as a candidate for the seat, but calls to the Victorian Electoral Commission have confirmed that Mr Stoiljkovic is not a declared candidate and will not run. ABC Rural reporter Caleb Cluff attended a series of public forums and debates in the central Victorian town of Maryborough last week, and discovered that windfarms, rates, infrastructure, employment and education are the issues that will decide the seat. Published November 16, 2010 Written for ABC Rural
Australian wine too much the same"I can sum up the challenges abroad for Australian wine exporters in three seconds," says James Lovell from the Fosters Group.
"It's pretty tough." Speaking at the ABARE 2009 conference, Mr Lovell says the industry needs to make some adjustments. Mr Lovell says some of the problems facing the Australian wine industry are that Australia's competitive advantage of consistency has actually become a negative. He says the consistency of Australian wine has become sameness. "Our competitive advantage is gone and our competitors are catching up," he says. Mr Lovell says overproduction of grapes in Australia is also becoming a huge problem. He says the quality has also been lacking recently. Mr Lovell says there are also other emerging competitors in the export market. He says there are solutions to these problems and the Australian wine brand needs to look at different ways of doing things. Mr Lovell says the Australian brand needs to get innovative and look at broadening the concept of Australian wine. He also says Australia should start promoting the great wines that the industry produces. "We had a quality competitive advantage at the start... that's now gone," Mr Lovell says. "There's going to need to be innovation on the science and marketing front. "We need to develop new markets for our products." ABARE outlooks for wine and wine grapes A strong Australian dollar in 2007 and the first half of 2008 meant that demand for Australian wine in the export markets of the US, UK and Canada was constrained. The fall in the dollar in the second half of 2008 has not yet been reflected in an increased demand for Australian wine, and wine exports are expected to remain low in the near future compared to recent years. The domestic market is also expected to contract, in the face of a smaller than expected wine harvest and increased imports. Sales are forecast to decline by 1 per cent to 423,000 litres in 2008-09. Published March 3, 2009 Written for ABC Rural
Books, Book Shows and Bush TeleRadio National's Book Show and Bush Telegraph travelled to the central Victorian town of Clunes, in the state's Goldfields region, to broadcast live from the annual "Booktown for a Day" event.
Ramona Koval and Michael Mackenzie set themselves up in the town's library to interview a series of writers, including poet Anthony Laurence, novelist Melissa Lucashenko and children's author John Marsden. A series of booksellers brought in rare and fascinating books - vintage cookbooks and children's primers amongst them. In keeping with the theme of cooking, Michael Mackenzie interviewed local quince farmers and cafe owners Jon Locke and Doug Gellatly about the best way to deal with that country staple - the quince. Jon says you can eat them raw - but only just! They're much more palatable cooked. Clunes is roughly 150 kilometres from Melbourne, and the Booktown event brings thousands of people to the town, not only to buy and sell books, but to take part in writing sessions, listen to music and even look at touring vintage cars! Jon Locke's slow poached quinces Peel and core your quinces. Put them in a baking dish and cover them with sugar and water OR cranberry juice. Add cinnamon quills and four or five star anise. Cover the dish with tinfoil and bake in a slow oven for four to five hours, until they are tender. The quinces will begin bright yellow and finish quite ruby red. Serve for breakfast or dessert, with muesli, vanilla icream, cream or marscapone. Published May 2, 2008 Written for ABC Rural
Weekday clearing sales draw the localsThe weekday clearing sale is a staple of country life - and avoids the invasion of city bargain hunters and tyre-kickers, according to some.
At a clearing sale in Red Lion near Talbot in central Victoria, almost 100 years of farming history was sold. The ongoing drought, changes in farm practices, and an ageing farming population means that the clearing sale is an all-too common feature of life these days. Until recently, the property was sown to wheat and oats for the stooking market - for feed to horses. An ever-rarer sight these days, the wheat stooks drying in the paddocks, and the gentle clacking of the reaper-binder, reminded people watching of a less-hurried life. No longer. Changes in occupational health and safety regulations mean that stooks are no longer accepted in most produce co-ops and feed stores. And the skill of stooking itself is rapidly disappearing. So it was time to get out, and local farmers headed out to have a look over what was for sale and maybe pick up a bargain. Published October 25, 2006 Written for ABC Rural
The Country Hour goes to CooktownThe ABC Country Hour celebrated its 60th anniversary with its roadshow in Cooktown, Qld, on August 24, following on from our celebrations in Rainbow, Pine Creek andOodnadatta.
More than 200 locals turned up to see the program broadcast live from the verandah of Cooktown's Powerhouse Museum. Cooktown won a competition run by the ABC's Rural Department, which invited any town in Queensland to tell them why they should play host to the Country Hour during its 60th anniversary celebrations. Cooktown's entry was chosen from 36 entries for its imagination, enthusiasm and determination - which were amply demonstrated during the Country Hour broadcast. The program spoke with a range of locals about the history, lifestyle, culture and economy of the region, as well as its beauty and its ever-present "breeze". There were local passionfruits on the table to taste, an incredible mud cake and a canine fan of the ABC - complete with hat declaring that fact for all to read. Country Hour presenters Shelley Lloyd, Jane Paterson and Robin McConchie all enjoyed the warmth and the wildness of the Cooktown area. Their preparation for the broadcast saw them walking through the local cemetry, touring a Cooktown panorama by the local "not over the hill" art group and meeting some of the local producers. It was a chance to hear firsthand the issues that matter to listeners living in this remote part of the Country Hour's broadcast area. The program broadcast wasn't the only offering for the local community - around 50 local people took part in a skills development workshop for community groups, organised as part of the event. There was also a free barbie after the event allowing ABC staff and their Cooktown audience time to mingle and learn more about their respective corners of Queensland. A free concert completed the day and ensured that the Country Hour's 60th in Cooktown will be remembered in a town reknowned for throwing a good bash. As the sun went down, the celebrations cranked up, with the concert featuring The Flood, Stringmansassy, Carinda Christie and The Roadtrippers. The concert was hosted by Richard Fidler from ABC Local Radio and Paul Petran from ABC Radio National. Published August 24, 2005 Written for ABC Rural
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