Lock up your farmers! Sexy, single Sydneysiders are looking for love, and they could be coming to a country town near you.
Forty flirty, single chicks hit the streets of New South Wales’ largest inland centre, Wagga Wagga, on the weekend, to meet 40 local lads. It was the third ‘Thank Goodness He’s a Country Boy’ event by Brie Peters, where city gals are bussed to a country clime for three days of pampering, personal training, love advice and match making, in the hope of finding that special someone and making a life in Australia’s heartland.
Climate change and acidifying ocean water is likely to have a highly variable impact on the world’s coral reefs in space, time and diversity, according to an international team of coral scientists.
The picture that is emerging from studies of past coral extinctions and present impacts on today’s reef systems is complex and subtle. It will demand much more sophisticated management to preserve reefs intact, the team of scientists say in a paper in the international journal 'Science.'
According to the paper, new research confirms that coral reefs…. are indeed threatened by climate change, “but that some current projections of global-scale collapse of reefs within the next few decades probably overestimate the rapidity and uniformity of the decline.”
They say that dogs are a man’s best friend, but perhaps they’ve got that wrong. You see, I’ve just heard a very convincing argument from vintage motor mechanic Bob Twyford, that the humble farm tractor is all that a man needs… and it’s likely the 2,000 tractor lovers converging on south-western New South Wales this weekend for the Great Wentworth Tractor Rally would agree.
You can now by-pass that bucket-load of blueberries if you’re after a super-dose of Vitamin C or anti-oxidants! A little green fruit growing wild across Northern Australia beats them all hands down.
The Kakadu Plum, savoured by Indigenous Arnhem Landers for thousands of years for its nutritional and healing properties, is now taking the world by storm.
Winter amongst the vines is not the most beautiful time on the fruit blocks surrounding Mildura. By this time of year, most ‘blockies’ have finished the brutal prune that will allow for new growth come spring, but as the seasons change this year, there will be greater movement afoot in the region if predictions amongst industry experts are correct…
The last season, according to Mark McKenzie from Murray Valley Winegrowers, will go down in the region’s folklore, as the vintage from which only the true survivors remained.
There’s a tourism revival unfolding in the Central Darling… and it’s sketched in charcoal, built from stone, coloured with ochre, and painted in glorious oils and water colours.
While Broken Hill is renowned as an outback art haven, little is known about the art scene in the more remote regions just a few hours to the east. But Central Darling art is making a comeback, and White Cliffs and Wilcannia are leading the charge.
You’d be forgiven for driving straight through the tiny outback New South Wales town of Wilcannia; population 600, with a tourist appeal factor almost bordering zero for many.
But these days there’s more of a reason than just a flashing fuel gauge to stop and smell the river red gums in this grandly built, yet sadly dilapidated Darling River town – great coffee, homemade cake, and 15 minutes of escapism as you dive through troves of second hand treasures at ‘Miss Barretts Bits and Bobs’ is a delight!
Miss Barretts is Wilcannia’s first new shop in more than 20 years – astounding when you picture the huge potential the majestic stone architecture and stunning water-view setting provides, but probably not surprising to those who have ever visited.
Native fish and other aquatic animal life is making a remarkable comeback in the revitalised waterways of the Murray-Darling River system, according to freshwater research scientists.
At the bottom of the system in South Australia, researchers have found inundated wetlands and floodplains in the Murray River National Park are now teeming with native fish species, including freshwater catfish, dwarf-flatheaded gudgeon, unspecked hardyhead and Murray-Darling rainbowfish.
Right down in the belly of Australia, below the Top End, the Red Centre and a little bit down and across from the opal plains, there's a bustling little place that you could easily describe as the nation's mine rush on the verge...
Roxby Downs, in outback South Australia, is a town that could explode, depending on a government decision to expand BHP Billiton's Olympic Dam mine. If it goes ahead, it will be the world’s biggest open cut mine. If it doesn't, well, it's still an incredibly valuable place, as Bessie Blore discovers...
From humble beginnings to a world leader in remote education services, the Alice Springs School of the Air (ASSOA) has blossomed in its 60 year life. Today marks the official anniversary of Australia’s very first school of the air broadcasts over HF radio from Alice Springs, in 1951, and provides a chance to look at the extraordinary changes in technology and education the last 60 years has seen.
ASSOA assistant principal Belinda Pearson has been associated with school of the air for around ten years and says the most major change has been seen in the diversity and availability of lessons. “The very first broadcasts were very scratchy, three, 30 minute lessons a week, and now we have over 70 lessons per week delivered using video conferencing, so the children have many, many opportunities each week to see their teacher and even to speak to a range of teachers.
