Having a lend

I don’t know about borrowing the Big Pineapple, Ram, Bull, Prawn, Banana, etc. But they can have the big liar and her sidekick, the big dope, for free forever.

Oh, for crying out loud!

Tourism Queensland's new $4.16 million global brand Queensland, Where Australia Shines has already recorded more than $3.7 million in publicity value for Queensland since its launch last Tuesday, Minister for Tourism Peter Lawlor said.

Okay, sounds good.

However, tonight some mob is complaining that the new advertisements aren't sun-smart.

What? Isn't that why people come to Queensland beaches?

Other people are complaining that "The Outback" isn't represented.

There's only so much they can put into an advertisement.

$70M tourist industry - is it worth it?

What about this, and this, and this?

Visit the Queensland Gold Coast which it is suggested will change for two months of the year (July & August, our peak season for southern Australian visitors). One of the locals with a ME background wants to change Cavil Avenue into a "Kasbah", but of course, he can't...

But the changes are happening already. Signs are appearing in arabic.

Why do you want to visit a foreign country on holiday which is changed to be just like where you came from?

Woot?

Dangerous Roads

Some program on Channel 7-Two.
Talking about the Ayr Highway, from Adelaide to Perth.
Crawling with venomous animals, the topography, etc.

The longest, flattest, straightest highway in the world.

Across the Newl-abbor Plain - LOL he can't pronounce it. It's called "null" as in nil, no, and arbour, as in French for trees.

Microsleeps kill people in this road. Road trains. Semi-trailers with three trailers.

I know all about falling asleep at the wheel, fortunately I've been very lucky when it's happened (only a few times), I knew I was tired and stopped and slept.

Oh, and the people they're talking about are travelling from Western Australia to the eastern states. Interesting. The car used in the mockup of the car rolling has a Queensland number plate. Maybe it was a rental they were bringing back east?

The Royal Flying Doctor features, an amazing service in Australia.

The other road they talk about is the Yungas road which passes through the Andes. The narrator keeps banging on about the terrible, dangerous climate. He's really talking about the weather.

New dinosaurs discovered in Australia

There have been some amazing paeleontological discoveries recently in Australia. These dinosaurs are the most complete skeletons found in Australia.

CANBERRA, Australia — It was a 1,100 pound meat-eating predator with three slashing claws on each of its powerful forelimbs that stalked the Outback 98 million years ago.

Scientists have now confirmed for the first time that the big, fast dinosaur lived in Australia - and they've named it like something from an Arnold Schwarzenegger movie. Meet the Australovenator.

The beast was a 1,100 pound meat-eating predator with three slashing claws on each of its powerful forelimbs that stalked the Outback 98 million years ago, researchers said in a report published Friday.

What idiot thought up that stupid, stupid name? Australovenator?

Can I just correct a something in the report?

The finders nicknamed the 16-foot long carnivore, Australovenator wintonensis, "Banjo," after the poet A.B. "Banjo" Paterson who in 1885 penned Australia's unofficial anthem "Waltzing Matilda" on a sheep ranch near Winton — a cattle town that lies closest to where the dinosaur bones were found. Banjo's Latin name means "Winton's Southern Hunter."

In Australia we don't have "ranches", they're called Stations, it's a Sheep Station. Read more here.

I've been to Winton in Qld, the ex was born there and we had a trip there in about 1994 via many other interesting towns and sights on our way to the sister in law's wedding in Townsville. We also visited the Venus Battery, a gold mine in Charters Towers. I quite liked Charters Towers.

Unfortunately we didn't get to see the site of the plane crash (QANTAS, 03 Oct 1934, near Winton, Australia, de Havilland DH-50A) near Winton, nor did we see the birthplace of QANTAS*, and we didn't get to Lark Quarry, it was a side trip we didn't have time for. Lark Quarry is where a lakeside has been fossilised and you can still see the footprints of the animals which came to drink and walked across the mud flat.

About/Where Is Winton, Queensland? Don't bother with the pictures, they're woeful after the statue and windmill.

Many years ago, as a young teenager, I visited a place called Chillagoe in North Queensland. There are caves at Chillagoe, both limestone and closeby** there are lava tubes (Undara Lava Tubes, I have never been there but I would love to look - though I have been to Hawaii in 1991). In Chillagoe the family and others were caving, mapping caves, searching for new caves, and on one trip there a few paeleontologically inclined speleologists recovered a rare fossilised crocodile skull from Fossil Cave. A stinking, hot, humid, horrible close-to-the-surface tunnel reached from a small hole in the ground. (Memory's not fantastic, I was only 13 and it was 37 years ago.)

*Queensland and Northern Territory Aerial Service (Qantas) was formed in Winton in November 1920 and its first board meeting held in the Winton Club on February 21, 1921.

** closeby in this case is within a day's drive.

Privately owned beaches in Italy, costs are soaring

From the "I can't believe this" file.

Almost all beaches in Italy are privately owned. I am just shocked!

I live in Australia. Anyone can go to the beach in Australia. It doesn't cost beachgoers - well, it does in some holiday areas, there are additional tarriffs paid by tourists, but they are collected in motels and so on and are quite small. Maintenance and cleanliness of the beach is maintained by the local council.

Australian beaches are for the most part public places. You can put your towel down pretty much anywhere on a beach for free. The only problem you might have is that if it is a patrolled beach (by lifesavers, who are volunteers), you must swim between the flags as this is the safe area with no rips* or other dangers to swimmers. If it's an unpatrolled beach you may drown, but that's another story.

So, as an Aussie with beaches free for all comers (just please swim safe and keep the beach clean!), I found this piece on ABC PM last night unbelievable.

MARK COLVIN: In Australia, even when times are tough, people can still enjoy a day at the beach, it's one of the few places left that provides free entertainment for the family.

Not so in Italy where in some regions there's no such thing as a free beach.Beaches were privatised in the 50s and putting a towel down on the sand can now cost up to $250 a day.

This summer, the economic downturn has savaged the European tourist market, nowhere more than Italy where visitor numbers are down by one million.

A nationwide advertising campaign is calling on local councils to reclaim their beaches.

Europe correspondent Emma Alberici.

Read more.

*rip 2
n.
1. A stretch of water in a river, estuary, or tidal channel made rough by waves meeting an opposing current.
2. A rip current.