Gentlefolk,
This post describes some of our activities during the month of August 2022.
The contents of this post are in the following sequence:
Photos of our activities during August 2022.
Some news items which caught my eye in August 2022.
The 22nd Commonwealth Games (are they still relevant?).
International Trade.
Highlight of August
The highlight in August was our 10 day visit to Cairns in Far North Queensland (about 2,500km north of Canberra). We hadn't been there, so it was good to explore another part of Australia.
We flew Jet Star from/to Sydney as it proved to be much cheaper than from Canberra. Stayed the first two nights with Geoff and Albert and then moved to the Hotel Tropiq for 7 nights.
The weather was wonderful in Cairns at this time of the year: low humidity and between 16C and 28C every day (apparently it is hot and humid here in summer). The City was crowded with visitors escaping the cold weather in South East Australia.
Other things of note: the wide, clean streets of Cairns; lovely tropical beaches but often not safe for swimming; many more indigenous people here than in Canberra; shortage of hire cars.
Herewith photos of our activities in August 2022.
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| I went to the Australian Parliament House one afternoon to see the new Government in action. It is only a 5 minute drive from our apartment inKingston. There were 5 police with guns guarding the main entrance (see photo above) and then everyone goes through a strict security check. |
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| This photo shows the main foyer area of APH. I sat in the Senate for a while and then went to observe the House of Representatives. The new Government led by Prime Minister Anthony Albonese seems to be working well. Albo gave an address to the National Press Club on 29 August, to mark 100 days of the new Govt; he had a lot of good things to say. |
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| David Pocock (that's him, with shaved head) was elected as an independent Senator for the ACT in the May general election. I attended a book launch at which he spoke. He has an interesting background. David grew up in Zimbabwe. The family migrated to Brisbane Australia when he was 14. He was a professional rugby union player from 2006 until his retirement in 2019. He played for the Western Force, the ACT Brumbies and for the Panasonic Wild Knights in Japan. He played 78 games for the Wallabies, and was captain in 2012. Aged 34 David Pocock stood as an Independent candidate for the Senate in the 2022 General Election and was successful. It was interesting seeing him at close quarters. He seems quite hesitant, perhaps shy, but his sincerity is obvious. I think he will make a useful contribution. |
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| As part of Science Week we (Carole & Rob Hodge and me) attended a presentation at Smith's Alternative Cafe titled "Sex on the Beach". It was actually a serious presentation by a Marine Biologist about fascinating mating habits of creatures which live in the sea. It was very well done. In this photo the presenter and a member of the audience are holding a piece of cloth to demonstrate the impressive size of a sperm whale's penis! |
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| On 14 August Rob and Carole Hodge dropped us off at Sydney Airport for our flight to Cairns in Far North Queensland (about 2,500km north of Sydney). |
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| Our friends Geoff and Albert were holidaying in Cairns and we stayed with them at Trinity Park for the first two night, before moving into the Hotel Tropiq, 179 Sheridan St, Cairns. |
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| A map of the downtown area of Cairns city. We stayed in Hotel Tropiq on Sheridan St, a 20 minute walk from the wharf area. |
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| Geoff and Albert drove us up to Port Douglas; on the way we had a look at the Sheraton Mirage Hotel - very nice (it should be for $650 per night!). |
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| The Flagstaff Hill lookout at Port Douglas, with views of Trinity Bay and Four Mile Beach. For lunch we had delicious Barramundi & Chips at the Court House Hotel. The drive back to Cairns was via the Atherton Tablelands, and the picturesque towns of Mareeba and Kuranda. |
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| Deadly jellyfish called Stingers come in summer, which means that beaches are closed for swimming. |
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| Lots of signs warning visitors to beware of salt-water crocodiles (frsh water crocs found in rivers don't attack humans). |
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| The Marina at Port Douglas - boats from all over the world. |
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| The following morningwe walked around the Cattana Wetlands with Geoff & Albert. |
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| Geoff and Albert showed us The Lakes Resort where they have decided to buy an apartment. They live in Forster (about 300km north of Sydney) but find the winters quite cool - in future they will come to Cairns for winter. The weather was beautiful while we were there - minimums of about 15-18C and maximums of 26-28C every day. The minimums here are our maximums (if we are lucky) in Canberra!!! |
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| One of the attractive swimming pools in The Lakes Resort. |
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| This attractive building caught my eye. It used to be the Council Chambers, but the Council moved to larger premises and it now houses the City Library. |
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| Free exercise classes are held in this park in the evenings. Vera & I couldn't resist joining in! |
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| The Hotel Tropiq was opposite the Cairns High School. |
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| We had a farewell dinner with Geoff and Albert in "Dumpling Studio" restaurant in ST Hotel, not far from where we were staying (terrible lighting in photo!). Delicious food. Geoff and Albert left the following morning to drive back to their home in Forster NSW. |
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| There was a shortage of rental cars in Cairns, so we decided to do organised tours instead. This tour involved taking an old train from Cairns to Kuranda, and then back via the Skyrail gondola. |
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| The Kuranda Scenic Railway from Cairns to Kuranda was opened in 1891. It took 5 years to build through very rough mountainous country, and goes through 15 tunnels. An engineering feat! |
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| The scenic village of Kuranda has a large market which is popular with visitors. |
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| The ranger told us that this tree has a special bark which stops vines and creepers from attaching themselves to it. |
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| The 7.5km Skyrail Rainforest Cableway, from Kuranda back to Cairns. |
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| A view from the Skytrain Gondola. Carins is growing rapidly as more people move north. |
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| Another tour, this time to Green Island, the Inner Reef. |
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| The boat took about 45 minutes from Cairns to Green Island. |
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| I decided to snorkel, while Vera opted for the Glass-bottom Boat. I was disappointed - there is little coral left around Green Island, and very few fish. Next time we will definitely go to the Outer Reef. |
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| We did a one-day trip to Cape Tribulation. Our guide (and also the owner of the bus, was Jeremy Forward. |
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| The tour included a boat ride on the Daintree River. We saw some crocodiles like this one. |
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| Road sign warning that Cassowary Birds are around. The Govt has installed several speed bumps to slow down traffic. |
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| Another sign warning of crocodiles. Curious to see "Achtung" - are there so many German visitors? |
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| Our guide Jeremy Forward on the Daintree Rainforest Walk. He was very knowlegable. |
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| The beautiful white sand beach at Cape Tribulation. |
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| On the way back we stopped at Mossman Gorge. |
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| Another tour, this time to Hartley's Crocodile Park. As part of the tour you go around a lagoon, full of crocs, on a flat-bottomed boat. There was excitement when our boat broke down, and we drifted for around 20 minutes until a mechanic came. We were never really in danger, but it was interesting to speculate on how we could have got through the crocs if, indeed, the boat couldn't be fixed??? |
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| The snake show was interesting. |
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| They put on an exciting Croc Show. |
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| Here the trainee was rushing away as the crocodile came too close. |
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| Cassowary birds are fascinating. |
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| Everyone loves loalas. |
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| Back in Cairns, we enjoyed walking along the Esplanade. The Council has done an excellent job - they have separate tracks for pedestrians and bike-riders. |
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| Another part of the Esplanade. |
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| The Council has provided a number of sporting/recreational facilities along the Esplanade, including beach volleyball, basketball, skatepark, and playgrounds. |
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| Kids enjoying a big foam gun along the Esplanade. |
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| The bay is shallow, and is mainly mud at low tide. |
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| View back along the Esplanade; not very attractive at low tide. |
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| The Council has built a huge attractive swimming 'lagoon' next to the bay - reminded us of Southbank in Brisbane. |
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| One of the many nice trees in the park along the Esplanade. |
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| A sculpture along the Esplanade. |
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| The Bay Leaf Indonesian Restaurant in the Bay Village Hotel had a good atmosphere and food. |
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| We found another Indonesian restaurant near the Esplanade, Bagus Cafe, which had tasty food at a reasonable price. |
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| On Sunday we strolled into town along the Esplanade and then caught a local bus ($6 return) to upmarket Palm Cove, about 30 minutes north of Cairns. |
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| The water temperature was a refreshing 23C, so I had a swim. There were no Stingers at this time of the year, but Vera was worried about crocodiles. I swam between the flags in the section patrolled by life savers. There were 6 lifesavers on duty, although very few people were swimming. |
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| The water was great. |
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| The long jetty at the end of Williams Esplanade, Palm Cove. |
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| Sea kayaks being launch from the beach. |
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| On Monday, the day before our departure, we visited the Cairns Botanic Gardens, formerly called the Flecker Botanic Gardens after their founder. We did a tour with a volunteer guide. The Gardens include an area for bush-tucker plants used by indigenous people. and the Gondwanan Evolutionary Garden which traces the 400 million year heritage of tropical plants. |
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| Our guide who showed us around the Botanic Gardens. Here she is explaing Tassel Ferns - see below. |
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| This tree had spikes on its trunk to deter intruders! |
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| Lush, tropical rainforest in the Botanic Gardens. |
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| Albert introduced us to this excellent Vietmanese Restaurant and we went back there for lunch. |
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| We visited the Cairns Aquarium. They close early because they have a twilight tour and dinner. |
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| One of the tanks in the Aquarium. |
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It was cold and wet in Sydney. Took the bus back to Canberra. Welcome home - it was minus 6C that night, cold! We miss Cairns already!! The next day was clear and bright in Canberra. Many trees are blossoming which was not the case when we left 10 days ago. Spring can't be far away. |
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| Played golf with Brian Edwards and Peter Rayner. Warmish day, we played in Tee Shirts. Hard to believe it was minus 6C just a couple of nights ago. |
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| The 18th hole at Capital Golf Club is a 190m Par 3. |
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| Price of petrol & diesel at Costco Canberra. |
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News items which caught my eye in August 2022.
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Global
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Formula 1 racing: Max Verstappen
(Red Bull) continued to dominate. He won the Hungarian F1 Grand Prix starting
from 10th on grid, and Belgium GP from 14th on grid.
Aussie Daniel Ricciardo announced that he is leaving McLaren. Women’s Soccer final: England beat
Germany 2-1; crowd 87,192 and 17.5m TV audience. USA military drone killed Al Queda
leader Al Zawahri in Kabul. To alleviate overcrowding and
flight delays, major airports such as Heathrow and Schipol limit number of
passengers per day. BP announced profit of $8.5B in
Q2, three tines the profit in same quarter last year. Shell’s profit $9B. UK
and Italy have introduced “windfall profit taxes” on energy and mining companies. New Zealand opened its borders to
fully-vaxxed visitors. Canada banned the importation of
hand guns. International Rugby Union: The
Wallabies played 2 Tests against the Pumas in Argentina. We won the first
41-26 (HT 10-19), but lost the second 48-17 (HT 10-26). Springboks beat The
All Blacks 26-10 in their first game in SA, but lost the second 23-35. The Pumas
beat All Blacks 25-18 in NZ. Israel attacked Gaza, 45+ killed and
many wounded. Extreme heat and drought in parts
of China (Sichuan, CQ, Hubei); severe drought and fires in California;
devastating floods in Pakistan (1,000+ dead). Singapore announced that it would
de-criminalise gay sex (but still maintain the ban on same-sex marriage). Daughter of Putin Advisor Alexander
Dugin was killed by car bomb. Brazil celebrated 200th
anniversary of independence from Portugal. Finnish Prime Minister, Sanna
Marin (36) tested negative for drugs after tape of wild party. Nick Kyrgios to be sued by Anna
Pallus for accusing her of drunkenness during the Wimbledon Final. Japanese PM Fumio Kishida
announced that some nuclear plants would be recommissioned. USA still has about 1,000 troops
in Eastern Syria, to fight remnants of ISIS. Hong Kong’s Peak Tram reopened
after a $100M upgrade. HK had 65M tourist visitors in 2018 but only 134,000
in 2021. Mikhail Gorbachev, died aged 91. He led the Soviet Union 1985-1991, introduced economic and political changes. Negotiated arms control treaties with Ronald Reagan. Awarded Nobel Peace Prize in 1990. He was the leader when the USSR dissolved on 25 December 1991. Cameron Smith (world #2, for reported $100+M sign-on fee) and others joined the Saudi backed LIV Golf break-away group.
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Russian invasion of Ukraine |
Six months since Russia invaded on 24 February. The Ukrainian military has done remarkably well (with strong support from West) to restrict Russian advances to about 20% of its territory, mainly in the East (Donbas region) and south. Ukraine counter offensive launched. Russia announced expansion of
its military by an additional 130K. The Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Plant (occupied
be Russian troops since March) came under attack.
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USA
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President Biden tested positive
for Covid (‘rebound’, as he had it last month). The FBI raided Trump’s residence
Mar-a-Lago for classified documents which he took when he left the White
House. Trump called it a Witch Hunt. Later a court agreed to unseal the affidavit
of the raid. Biden’s $700B Inflation Reduction
Bill passed Congress; includes $369M to combat Climate Change. Biden signed the Chips and Science
Act providing $280B to support high-tech manufacturing and research. Biden announced relief (up to $20K) of student loans for low & middle income earners. Republican Liz Chaney, a critic of
former President Trump, lost pre-selection in Wyoming. S&P Index rose 9% in July. Boston Celtics basketball legend
Bill Russell died aged 88. He won 11 NBA titles and 5 MVP. Nancy Pelosi, Speaker of the HoR,
visited Taiwan (against advice of President Biden and Defence Dept. Strong
reaction from China. A jury ordered conspiracy theorist
Alex Jones to pay $43M to families of victims of the 2012 Sandy Hook
Elementary School shootings (which he had questioned). Trump invoked the 5th
Amendment and refused to answer any questions when interviewed by NY Attorney
General in relation to his company affairs. News Corp profit $760M on revenue
of $10.4B. Novelist Salman Rushdie shot in
NYC; recovering in hospital. California announced that only new
electric vehicles will be sold from 2035.
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Australia |
PM Albanese attended indigenous
Garma Festival in Northern Territory; made speech outlining Govt’s plans for
a referendum on a “Voice”. Indigenous singer and songwriter,
Archie Roach, died aged 66. Reserve Bank of Australia raised
official interest rates again, by 0.5% (to 1.85%). ACCC report forecast shortage of
natural gas for Households and Industry in 2023. Govt to cease “cashless debit
card” for 17,000 Indigenous welfare recipients. Under this scheme, 80% of
benefits could only be used for essential items such as food, clothing and
shelter. Australia had a trade surplus of
$17.7B in July. Judith Durham (79, The Seekers) and Olivia Newton John (73, Singer of 'Physical' and actress in 'Grease') died. Govt’s emission minimum reduction
target of 43% passed by Parliament. Basketballer Lauren Jackson 41 came
out of retirement (2016). CBA Bank announced a profit of
$9.6B in 2021-22 (up 11%). NRL player and coach Paul Green (49)
committed suicide. It was revealed that while he was
Prime Minister, Scott Morrison was secretly sworn in to 5 Ministries: Health,
Finance, Treasury, Home Affairs, and Resources. An investigation by the
Solicitor General found that his action was not illegal, but contrary to our
system of responsible government. The Report into the NSW floods 8
months ago recommended the re-location of people living in high-risk areas. Flood plains should be avoided for construction.
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China |
China’s GDP grew by 0.4% in
Q2 2022 (slow by Chinese standards). Chinese strong reaction to visit
by Nancy Pelosi to Taiwan; military ‘livefire’ exercises. China facing three major issues:
Covid-related lockdowns affecting the economy; crisis in the property market
(property prices have fallen for 11 months, and several big developers are in
financial trouble); extreme weather events in parts of the country affecting
agriculture. The People’s Bank of China
(Central Bank) cut interest rates to boost economy.
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22nd Commonwealth Games, Birmingham UK 28 July – 8 August 2022
Are they still relevant?
All 72
members of the Commonwealth sent athletes to Birmingham: eg Australia sent 427,
England 438, Canada 269, NZ 233, Cook Islands (where my brother lives) 18.
Most
Olympic sports featured as well as some others which reflect British heritage, such
as: field hockey, netball, squash and lawn
bowls.
The Games
cost an estimated 778M pounds sterling (the Gold Coast C’th Games in 2018 cost
967M p.s.)
Final Medal
Tally, top 10 countries ranked by Gold Medals
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Rank |
Country |
Gold |
Silver |
Bronze |
Total Medals |
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1 |
Australia |
67 |
57 |
54 |
178 |
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2 |
England |
57 |
66 |
53 |
176 |
|
3 |
Canada |
26 |
32 |
34 |
92 |
|
4 |
India |
22 |
16 |
23 |
61 |
|
5 |
New Zealand |
20 |
12 |
17 |
49 |
|
6 |
Scotland |
13 |
11 |
27 |
51 |
|
7 |
Nigeria |
12 |
9 |
14 |
35 |
|
8 |
Wales |
8 |
6 |
14 |
28 |
|
9 |
South Africa |
7 |
9 |
11 |
27 |
|
10 |
Malaysia |
7 |
8 |
8 |
23 |
|
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All Others |
41 |
56 |
60 |
157 |
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Total all
medals |
280 |
282 |
315 |
877 |
Source: Wikipedia accessed 30 August 2022.
The next C’th Games, in 2026, will be held in regional
Victoria.
I really wonder if the Commonwealth and its Games have
passed their “use-by date”? Must confess that it was fun seeing Aussies doing
so well (the highlight for me was Oliver Hoare winning the 1,500m in the final two steps). But these days there are many sport-specific international competitions, which
actually have much greater status.
The C’th Games are a historic hangover from the British
Empire. Most members may have had common kinship once, but hardly meaningful
these days. The medal results show that these Games reflect the wealth of rich,
white countries.
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INTERNATIONAL TRADE
My 30 year career as an Australian Trade Commissioner gave me an interest in matters related to international trade. I subscribe to Bloomberg's excellent daily newsletter "Supply Lines - tracking Covid-19's impact on trade" (former title 'Trade Matters').
