Frank and Wendy set out from ‘Camp Rolfe’, (formerly Yuendumu) over the dunes with the Boyes Gun loaded for the odd Roo. ‘In case of accidents they always took their mum’. Mrs Baarda, (Frank’s Mum) hidden behind the Lewis Gun.
Just as a short word of introduction, another installment from Frank.
In this-un he puts a finger on Time.
Not the periodical magazine, but the thing, the horological, chronometric thing that is time itself. The stuff that goes ‘tick tock tick’ or in some other parts of the world ‘Tick Tock’. But something much bigger. And bigger from beyond.
Just as the Webb space telescope can see back to the dawn of time, and know when Uranus is in conjunction with Mars, so we see the origin of time itself after the ‘Big Bang’. AND … what a BANG that was. Aged rockers go on about the sixties, but this was BIGGER than WOODSTOCK, bigger even than WOODSIDE and paint splattered oeuvres. Something about ‘tempus fugit’, which is Latin for “the secretary has taken leave’.
We at pcbycp have had to let all our secretarial staff go as a consequence of our merger with Twitter. But we are reliably informed that they will be re- employed by Elon’s next initiative ‘Nutter’. Nutter is endorsed by Donald Trump, Boris Johnson and Scott Morrison, so it must be good. Anyway, that’s what our mate MP for self interest and croneyism Stuart Robert told us…
In thus un, Frank nails it once and for all just as Luther did with his 49 faeces. To the wall of a cathedral. We’ve tried so much but can’t get ours to stick. it’s a situation where there’s only one man we can call to make the faeces stick. The man they call “Rupert’.
Read on if you dare;
Hi all,
Another year and back to the new normal. Planes back flying and incubation vessels back cruising.
My sister is an unearther and collector of quotable quotes. This one from Olivier an Adriaan (Huizinga 1940):
Op fluwelen voeten, gaat de tijd stiekempjes voorbij.
On his trip down from ‘Camp Rolfe” (Yuendumu) Frank and Wendy encounter other ‘Grey Nomads” intent upon seeing the ‘Real Australia’
(on velvet feet, time sneakily passes by)
Thus, it has come to Wendy and I having now lived in Yuendumu half a century.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d22CiKMPpaY
Casablanca – As Time Goes By – Original Song by Sam (Dooley Wilson)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6kOUSx88wb0&t=2s
(1968- If I only had time- John Rowles)
Every now and then the ute gets bogged. Time for ‘Smoko” and a camp fire yarn.
Our contribution? So far, this festive season we have covered 4,000 Km including a week-long stay on Kangaroo Island as guests of a soulmate who spent many years at the same front these dispatches are named after.
As we sang from the same page, I learned that the reason my friend settled on Kangaroo Island was in no small part because of the time-warp that he asserts envelops the island. I knew what he meant, at no time did we feel the need to lock our car and a relaxed friendly atmosphere prevailed. I only spotted one police car, and it was parked at the rear of the Kingscote cop shop.
All the same KI is not immune from encroaching bureaucracy and the Global Economy. Its 4,500 inhabitants pay rates to a broke council, whilst its 250,000 annual visitors don’t.
Frank and Wendy sort through food discarded by the major supermarkets that will be trans-shipped to poor children starving in India and Africa. As it is officially recognised there are no such things as starving or underprivileged kiddies in Australia.
Did you know that if there are too many kangaroos on your farm on Kangaroo Island you can apply for a culling permit to cull a certain number. So far so good, except you are not allowed to eat them, nor feed your dogs with them. Beats me why. Further along our trip, I discovered that the same Kangaroo culling rules apply near the Grampians in Victoria. Rather confusing to someone who grew up being told not to waste food, and to give a thought to the hungry children in Africa and India.
The fires which burnt out more than a quarter of the Island reduced the koala population from 50,000 to 10,000 I was told. Dick Ward and his son were the only human victims. Dick Ward used to regularly land his DC3 aircraft in Yuendumu with a load of tourists who would visit the Warlukurlangu Art Centre. Small world.
So let me write about the economy-
First the Global Financial Crisis of 2007-2009, which more or less coincided with the Northern Territory Emergency Response (2007 and ongoing)
The Long Johns explain the GFC far better than I can:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z-oIMJMGd1Q (thank you FH)
Then there is the Coronavirus Pandemic (2019 and ongoing)
Kangaroo Island after the fires. Not even Scott Morrison consulting the Hawaiian Fire Gods could save its precious beauty.
Both the Emergency Response and the Pandemic have mutated and undergone name changes, but as William Shakespeare wrote in Romeo and Juliet, “A rose by any other name would smell as sweet” although I’m not sure I’m using an appropriate metaphor.
Listening to the radio I heard it said that in the first year of the pandemic, the Northern Territory lost $8 billion. It’s got me bamboozled as I didn’t notice this economic hemorrhage in Yuendumu.
Sometime ago I read Kerryn Higgs’ Collision Course: Endless Growth on a Finite Planet (MIT 2014). I see no evidence of a change of course.
Having driven past the Grampians and watched the Long Johns explain the GFC, my thoughts turned to John Clarke
Scott Morrison. Arguably Australia’s GREATEST PM. Displays in code the five fingers of Minsterial Responsibility.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LLbHihaXvyo
NT Intervention [1] – Clarke and Dawe – ABC 7:30 Report
What wouldn’t Clarke and Dawe have made of Morrison’s Multiple Ministries?
Time to do our bit for the economy. Do a few more thousand Kilometers in our hydrocarbon powered carriage.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I3xlFMTZWnM
‘Nutter” will unite like-minded people in being like- minded.
Riding along in my automobile- Chuck Berry
Chau,
Frank
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