Tjilpi

Déjà vu

It suddenly came back to me.  There I was sitting at the Command and Control Station in my Bunker on the Old Eastside of town, looking out at my sparkling blue swimming pool, when a Tree Martin came in from the south, banked and dived steeply to the east to do a "touch and go" on the surface of the water before repeating the trick by completing another circuit and then disappearing.

 I've never understood what they are doing. I've wondered about their being so thirsty that they will drink chlorinated swimming pool water, or whether they are picking up insects which are floating on the surface. 

I first saw the phenomenon in January 1979, through the south facing window of my ground floor single room at the Professional Officers Quarters at the Alice Springs Hospital.  The large ceiling to floor window, seen in the faded photo above, looked out on the hospital swimming pool, from what I always regarded as the best room in the house.  Then [notice there is no need to say, 'back then' as 1979 gives that game away], the birds repeated their "touch and goes" numerous times.  January in 1979 was very hot.  It's been 42°C here [now] the last couple of days, but I remember a run of 14 days all of which were over 40°C in January '79.

There must be something special about being in an air conditioned room, with a south facing window looking over a swimming pool watching Tree Martins do their tricks in the heat of January.  I'll have to think more on it.

The Urangan Jetty

I wrote this blog post in 2005.  I can't find the photo I published then and have cribbed a little with a photo of a pelican in the foreground and the Urangan Jetty mid-distance on the right. Mum was born 93 years ago today.

 

During my recent trip home to Maryborough to visit my parents, Mum and I decided to 'go down the bay'.

The bay in question is Hervey Bay - named by Captain James Cook in 1770 - when he moored the Endeavour in the shallow waters inside Fraser Island - and sent a boat ashore for fresh water. The bay was named after Cook's cabin boy - Hervey. In the old measure the Bay is about 25 miles from Maryborough.

I lived at Hervey's Bay from age two to eight. For four years we lived at Urangan n Elizabeth Street , before moving to Torquay, another part of Hervey Bay, to live in Freshwater Street.

Mum and I found a park bench, which gave us a view of the Urangan  Jetty, and which also served as our table for fish and chips. Our bench was under the casuarinas just to the left of the beginning of the Pier. The Urangan Jetty is sometimes called the Urangan Pier; but by either name it has been there a long time.

When I was a kid railway lines ran to the end of the jetty where there was a large galvanized iron shed. Sea going ships would berth there to discharge oil or take on sugar from freight trains which came down from Maryborough. Mum told me that when she was a girl she would often get on a passenger train in Maryborough which brought her directly to the Urangan Jetty. She would swim and play around the pylons where the water laps the sandy shore. The train passenger service had ceased when I was growing up, but freight trains continued to meet the ships coming in. I distinctly remember one ship in the early 1950s, which had a Japanese crew, who came onshore and played a game I had never seen before - baseball.

Mum favours whiting. It is about the only fish she will eat. At the Fish & Chip Shop I was able to pick out some fresh fillets to be crumbed and then deep fried. We also had potato chips and tartare sauce. Mum had a lemon squash and I managed a couple of light beers. We both agreed that our fish was probably the freshest and most delicate whiting that either of us had ever had from a Fish & Chip Shop. Of course, nothing compares to Mum's home cooked whiting and chips.

From our seat we were able to watch pelicans, gulls and terns fishing in a somewhat desultory manner. The best entertainment was provided by a lone gannet who performed dramatic stall-turns before plunging vertically into the sea, seeming to drown, but then reemerge after 5 or 10 seconds, alive and well.

Mum explained that, as a girl, she often came to the Urangan Jetty with the Demaine family. She was brought along as company for Joan, granddaughter of the atheistic socialist Mayor of Maryborough, William Demaine. He was universally known as Billy, and Mum told me that he would never stand while "God Save the King" was being played at the beginning of the movies. I knew that he had been part of the Paraguayan Experiment. After the 1892 Queensland shearers' strike, a socialist utopian movement called New Australia gained momentum, and some 500 members headed off for Paraguay with the intention of establishing a collective socialist settlement. New Australia, as the settlement was called, was riven by internal conflict and failed. I understand that descendents of some of the experimenters can be found in Paraguay to this day, but many settlers, including Billy Demaine, returned home. He became Mayor of a town whose thriving economy was based on timber and engineering and when he died his funeral was held at the Trades Hall.

Mum and I began to talk about what we had seen in earlier times when looking out over the calm waters of Hervey Bay which is protected by the breakwater of 90 mile long Fraser Island. At Inskip Point, which is at the lower end of Fraser Island and Hervey Bay, there is a small channel allowing access to the calm waters of Hervey Bay. Cook did not venture through that channel, but went to the north end of Fraser Island before taking the Endeavour south west into the waters of Wide Bay and then Hervey Bay to the south. The Inskip Point channel had been safely used by humpbacked whales for generations.

Mum and I agreed that some of the 'black' things we had both seen in Hervey Bay, in the past, in the distance, must have been whales. Today, the Bay is a centre for seaside tourism and whale watching. When our family lived there in the early 1950s we never talked of whales for we didn't understand that there were a few of them there. A whaling station at Byron Bay, a long way south of Hervey Bay, took care of most of the whales which had normally came into the waters of Hervey Bay to calve. Mum and I had both seen breeching whales, but we did not know what to make of the phenomenon at the time. It was only after the whaling station at Byron Bay was closed that whales became recognized once more in Hervey Bay.

Shared memories on a park bench with a fine view on a beautiful day, make some places, no matter how humble, very special.

Dog Whistle Politics

I don't think I really understand the meaning of Dog Whistle Politics, even though it is an Australian expression. However, I do have my own meaning for it. On the left is a photo of the park which lies over my back fence.  Of course it is dry and not very green compared to other parts of the world - but "red sand, green gum trees and blue skies" is my preferred view of the world.  In the foreground of the photo is a path which is a regular route which dogs and their owners take for exercise.  I managed to capture an Early Morning Walker and his two dogs on that path.  The photo quality is not all that I would like but I've put it on the right.  The connection between that path and my version of dog whistle politics will become apparent later on.

About two years ago my neighbour on the northern side told me that both of her dogs had died within weeks of each other.  I had not noticed their passing as they rarely made a noise.  She was obviously distressed but told me that she would soon acquire another pair of dogs from the pound and that, being younger, they would be "more outside" dogs.  I heard that omniously but made no comment.

About mid-2010 the new dogs were bothering me with early morning barking.  They were bothering me so much that I phoned my neighbour and said that I was being woken at dawn each morning, and often through the night by her new dogs. I mentioned that collars were available - either the ultrasonic variety, or ones that puffed out citronella - which discouraged dogs barking.  She said whe would look into it.

Little changed.

Just prior to Christmas 2010 my neighbour went away and left her dogs in the backyard to be fed and watered by a friend who would drop in.  Both dogs howled at the moon for two nights running. At my wits end, I phoned the Town Council Rangers who asked the friend to remove the dogs to another property until their owner returned.

I'll have to admit I made a diplomatic and political mistake when my neighbour returned and came to my front door, all apologetic and bottle of wine in hand.  I was in no mood to be placated and suggested that a laryngectomy would be a good idea for both dogs.  We haven't spoken since.

And the dogs continued to bark.  One problem is that the eastside fence which my neighbour has is not solid but is made of vertical metal bars spaced about 10 centimetres apart.  Her dogs can see through it to the park.  If children are playing or dogs are being walked the dogs next door decide that it is time to let the people in the park know who is boss.  I am often woken by the sounds of a dog fight early in the morning as the good burghers of Alice Springs continue to walk their dogs right where they know there will be a dog yelling match.

I contacted the Rangers several times; but the Rangers came and the Rangers went.  They visited me and snooped around. "Nothing we can do mate, we can't validate a problem." This despite my recording 15 minutes of dog barking in one half hour period, and delivering that to them on a CD.

In frustration,  I adopeted my own form of Dog Whistle Politics.  My dog whistle is a small Piezo speaker which emits an ear splitting sound. Dogs certainly don't like it even though it does not operate in the ultrasonic range which causes them pain. It hangs under cover near the north east corner of my backyard - near where the dog fights happen.  On the left is a photo of some gear I have rigged up to to fight my Dog Whistle battle.  My main aim is to get the humans to change, so that they might get their dogs to change.

While the electronic gear on the left might look a bit scrappy, to me it is a work of art!  On the left is a simple power supply. It brings electricity from the wall and puts out 12 volts DC into the circuit board in the middle of the picture. It also supplies current to the Piezo screamer via a long run of bell-wire from the lounge room to the backyard.  Just to the right of the red and black alligator clips in the middle of the photo is a small electret microphone.  When everything is turned on and powered up - just talking softly into that microphone makes the Screamer go off in the back yard.  The electronic circuitry is called a VOX switch - or voice activated switch.  When a noise is heard in the microphone the white relay box at the back of the circuit board connects the Screamer to the 12 volt supply.  The Screamer then does its thing for a seconds before turning off. However continuous noise into the microphone keeps the Screamer going.

Just to the right of the microphone is a walkie-talkie radio.  I have two of those. The second one is presently on my bedside table, waiting.  In the morning, when I hear the first dog bark of the day, I get up, if I am not already up, and turn on the VOX switch and the walkie-talkie.  I then go back to bed. And I wait.

Simply pressing the Talk button of the walkie-talkie beside my bed makes the walkie-talkie in the lounge room make a noise and the Screamer goes off.  I can repeat that trick as often as I like; but I try to do it only when I hear a bark.

My hope is that the early morning dog walkers will decide it is not worth coming near my back fence and take a different route in future. My other hope is that my neighbour will realize what is happening and do something about her dogs. I secretly hope that she thinks the whole setup is automatic and designed to go off whenever her dogs bark! I'm working on a version of that.

Believe it or not, I think my Dog Whistle Politics are working. I haven't heard a dog fight at my back fence for some weeks and my neighbours dogs rarely bark now during the day.  That might be because whenever they do bark I whisper into the microphone and they get a high pitiched whistle in return.

Resurrection

This is a photo of what I think is the first instar of one of the insects which are true bugs. Apparently, true bugs have a proboscis which is is perfectly designed to suck the juices from plants. This bug is commonly known as a Gum-leaf-tip Bug. The photo was taken sometime in early 2010 when I began growing a small herb garden.  I found these small insects cute until I realized that they, among other insects, were destroying my new crop of sage - which this one is feasting on. 

But that is not what I am here to talk about.  Today I decided to resurrect my blog "Tjilpi".

Recently I have spent an enormous amout of time at the Command and Control Centre [photo on right] writing and answering emails.  I thought it might be easier to publish a 'newspaper' and direct people to it, so as to allow them to keep up with happenings in the Old Eastside of Alice Springs. Of course I am more than happy to continue with email comings and goings, as it is unlikely that I will put much personal detail on these pages!  The photo is of my Laptop with a full sized keyboard in front of it.  That keyboard conveniently jumps up onto the keyboard of the Laptop when I begin to use my soldering iron, which is the blue box in front of the mouse. The folded bath mat under the large keyboard is a traditional surface on which to work when tinkering with electronics. Farther right is my trusty old Kenwood TS140S HF Transceiver, which is my 'Ham' Radio.  It's lights were not active when I took the photo so it looks like a dull grey rectangular box - but I have had lots of fun with it recently talking to people in faraway places such as Slovakia, Finland, Sweden, Japan, Christmas Island and East Timor.

Since I last signed up with TypePad - the people who host this blog - things have changed a little, so please forgive me for editing errors at the beginning. You can blame me for mistakes later after I get used to the new system.  Now that I am back, I hope to be able to produce many enjoyable posts - for you and for me. 

I know. I know what you are saying. "He'll spend even more time there now - writing blog posts, emails, and talking to faraway places.  Somebody should grab him by the scruff of the neck and make him go for a walk!"